The release of Android 4.0 code-named “Ice Cream Sandwich” has been a tremendous leap for the Google mobile platform tying up the tablet and smart phone OSes into one system. Here are a few tips to get the best out of this amazing platform.
1. Simple way of Taking a Screenshot
In Android below 2.3 you have to use other third-party apps to be able to take a snapshot of your screen. But in ICS it can be done by simply pressing the Volume Down and Power Button together. The screenshot is directly saved to your gallery.
2. Uninstalling Apps from the App Drawer
Ice Cream Sandwich lets you remove apps from your system directly from the app drawer. Simply press and hold the app icon and move it to the uninstall tab which is at the top of your screen.
3. Simply Swipe the Screen to Call and Text
On the text message thread or contacts or logs and groups you can now simply swipe your finger over a contact towards the left to send a text or to the right to call that particular contact.
4. Facial Recognition and Phone Unlock
Android 4.0 platform provides the Facial recognition technology which can now be used for unlocking your phone.
5. Getting Locked Out
In case you use the pattern lock feature on the Android, it’s easy to get locked out of your phone due to consecutive pattern error. And chances are that you forget this pattern. If your forget your pattern code and try a wrong pattern for more than five times, you phone will get locked. A button – “forget pattern” will then appear on the screen, and pressing that will let you enter your Google login information to get back into your phone. So be sure to assign you Google login info to your phone.
6. Removing Shortcuts to Apps on Home screen
A lot of the users find the Android Market feature of putting an app shortcut on the home screen after it’s downloaded very annoying. To turn it off open the Market Application and go to settings and uncheck the option for Auto-add shortcuts.
7. Close Apps by Swiping Across the Screen
In Ice Cream Sandwich is the ability to close apps that are still running in the background directly. Pressing the multi task button on your phone shows you the currently running apps in the form of a list. You can close them by suing the “x” on the screen, but in case you didn’t know you can also do it literally throwing out the app from the screen by swiping over it. You can also do this with notifications; just swipe away once you’ve read a notification, and it’s gone from the screen.
8. Put your Wi-Fi on Auto and Save Battery
Android 4.0 comes with a handy feature for turning these battery eater off whenever the phone is sleeping and lets you save battery when you’re not using your phone. Enable this feature from Settings > WiFi > Advanced.
9. Quickly Access History and Bookmarks on Browser
While browsing the internet on the default Android browser, simply holding the back button lets you see the history and bookmarks you’ve saved.
10. Zooming in and out of Maps
Double tapping on the map with one finger lets you zoom into a map and a two finger single tap lets you zoom out of it.
Let us know in the comments below; if you are aware of any other new and useful Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich feature.
