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Ice Cream Sandwich face unlock demo (video)

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When Matias Duarte tried to unlock his Nexus Galaxy on-stage at today's Samsung event things didn't go so well. Some combination of his makeup and the lighting conspired to keep him from getting into his device, but after spending a little time with one ourselves we can confirm that it does indeed work -- and quickly. To program the feature, go into the settings and it'll train itself to recognize your mug. As it locks in a ring of circles frames your face and, hey presto, it's ready. After that you set up a backup form of identification and you're good to go.

Once it's ready we found it takes only a second or two to recognize and unlock the phone, meaning this should be even faster than swiping or punching in an unlock code. But, you still will need to do that from time to time, either when the lighting conditions are less than optimal or, apparently, when you weren't born with it and were relying a little too much on the Maybelline.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/19/ice-cream-sandwich-face-unlock-demo-video/
 
The "quick responses" feature when you can't answer a call looks really awesome, so simple, surprised it hadn't been done before.

My Samsung Vibrant has had that feature for a few months. It isn't new to Android.

Face unlock is fairly revolutionary. If Apple had thought it up, then there would probably be 3 dozen threads about how innovative it is.

Face it, boys.... Apple is falling behind lately
 
Uh, Android caught and passed iOS a little over a year ago.

Please notice how the core features of iOS 5 (new notifications and voice recognition) have been in android for over a year already.

iOS still doesn't have as many features as Android. It probably never will due to the closed ecosystem that Apple prefers.

Funny how people only see what they want to see. Did you even watch the event? I'm not saying that either is better than the other, but I wouldn't say it's surpassed iOS. They touted new features in ICS, that are in iOS now, and have been. Like:

  • Grouping of icons [Folders] by dragging/dropping on top of each other.
  • Sliding your finger across the screen in Calendar to go to the next/previous day.
  • Creating a graphic preview of sites/pages, that you can spin through.

Like someone else said on another board, regarding features. iOS/Apple has made a conscious decision to give users a device with some stock features, and use the App Store to fill the void. Android includes all of it. No one is better than the other, depending on your use/needs...
 
As opposed to "the fewer features you have the better the OS"? Should not we all prefer dumb phones then?

Wow...all or nothing, huh? I think he what meant was not to base that solely when buying a phone. Again, people can twist these things anyway they want to support their argument. If you say the iPhone is cool, it has Siri. That's a feature right? So isn't that good? If you think it's a bad app, or solution, then you immediately dismiss it, say it's not practical, or X has had this for a while. Both camps can do this all day long...

In the end, who cares? Don't like it, don't buy it.
 
Like someone else said on another board, regarding features. iOS/Apple has made a conscious decision to give users a device with some stock features, and use the App Store to fill the void. Android includes all of it. No one is better than the other, depending on your use/needs...

The only problem with that statement is that Apple controls everything that goes on the App Store so you can't "fill the void" the way you'd like...only the way that Apple allows you to (unless you JB of course). You can't remove/hide any of the apps that come pre-loaded on the iPhone either (again, unless you JB).
 
I didn't watch the keynote, have never used a Droid phone and have no interest in the line whatsoever, however....who the HECK calls an OS "Ice Cream Sandwich"!??!?!?! :eek: This name sounds like something a child's toy phone would have installed, not a huge, multi-billion dollar company's product! Just another reason *for me* to avoid Android....does not sound professional or serious at all. :rolleyes:
 
I didn't watch the keynote, have never used a Droid phone and have no interest in the line whatsoever, however....who the HECK calls an OS "Ice Cream Sandwich"!??!?!?! :eek: This name sounds like something a child's toy phone would have installed, not a huge, multi-billion dollar company's product! Just another reason *for me* to avoid Android....does not sound professional or serious at all. :rolleyes:

Yea, much better to name your OS after jungle animals.

TIGER
LEOPARD
LION

RAWR!!! I'M MORE SOPHISTICATED BECAUSE I HAVE PAWS!!!!!!!!!
 
I didn't watch the keynote, have never used a Droid phone and have no interest in the line whatsoever, however....who the HECK calls an OS "Ice Cream Sandwich"!??!?!?! :eek: This name sounds like something a child's toy phone would have installed, not a huge, multi-billion dollar company's product! Just another reason *for me* to avoid Android....does not sound professional or serious at all. :rolleyes:

It's just a codename for the version. Android 4.0 is Ice Cream Sandwich. Doesn't have to sound professional. But using that as an excuse to avoid Android is stupid.
 
Funny how people only see what they want to see. Did you even watch the event? I'm not saying that either is better than the other, but I wouldn't say it's surpassed iOS. They touted new features in ICS, that are in iOS now, and have been. Like:

  • Grouping of icons [Folders] by dragging/dropping on top of each other.

  • The action for how to do this has been changed in ICS, not the folders themselves. Apple didn't invent this method?... desktop computers have done it this way for a while.
    [*]Sliding your finger across the screen in Calendar to go to the next/previous day.
    Are you seriously sitting there and telling me with a straight face that side-scrolling was stolen/borrowed from iOS? Android's image gallery (and countless other apps) already utilized side scrolling for navigation. The intent (as the presenter said in the video) was to make the experience and interaction uniform across all of Android's core apps. Seems like a stretch to claim that side scrolling to advance to the next day/month/etc is something they saw elsewhere and copied when their other apps already used the same gesture/implementation.

    [*]Creating a graphic preview of sites/pages, that you can spin through.
    My Samsung Vibrant (FroYo) has been doing this (web page thumbs) for almost a year. What is new is the vertical tiling of the web tabs and the side-swiping to close them. They *did* steal the side-swipes, but they stole that from WebOS.

    Like someone else said on another board, regarding features. iOS/Apple has made a conscious decision to give users a device with some stock features, and use the App Store to fill the void. Android includes all of it. No one is better than the other, depending on your use/needs...
    Although the question of whether one OS gives a better experience than the other is subjective.... features, functions and capabilities are hard facts.

    I'm not knocking iOS for what it does, but the fact is that it has been a lesser OS in terms of features for more than a year.

    You left a few things out among hee items you mentioned. The new camera app with 'hipster' settings is *definitely* a page taken out of iOS's book. But then there is also face unlock, NFC data transfer, data management and resizable widgets. Those are all new, core pieces to ICS that aren't borrowed from other mobile OS's.

    Too bad apple can't say the same about IOS 5
 
The action for how to do this has been changed in ICS, not the folders themselves. Apple didn't invent this method?... desktop computers have done it this way for a while.
..........

etc....

It's pointless to argue that one company's stealing from the other when it comes to OS features. They ALL steal from one another. Hence, no one can win the argument.
 
It's pointless to argue that one company's stealing from the other when it comes to OS features. They ALL steal from one another. Hence, no one can win the argument.

Who did google steal Gmail, translate, face unlock, google voice, widgets, animated backgrouds and cloud sync from?
 
My take on android

ice cream sandwich-I like to eat them
donkey'ed up os
different flavor for each phone company
the phones android is on are toy like

:apple:
 
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