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Google Rolls Out Official Android 4.0 ICS Update
dell623 writes "Google is rolling out an OTA upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich for the Nexus S. GSM versions can already be updated manually. An early review is largely positive and comments on the significant visual and performance improvements. The Nexus S upgrade allows for a direct comparison against Gingerbread on the same hardware, and the likely improvement in current phones that will receive the upgrade."
With the death of the Android Update Alliance that promised timely updates for Android devices, it'll probably be a while before other phones even have a hope of seeing this update. This is going to be yet another major Android version out in the wild. Collectively, Android is more like a collection of related but not entirely compatible operating systems, and it's frustrating (particularly for developers) that there isn't a consistent version of the operating system on current phones.
Despite improvements, ICS isn't quite as smooth and responsive as iOS was four years ago on the first iPhone, and it's really becoming quite an annoyance that Google hasn't yet solved this. Much of the reason has to do with the technical foundations Android was based on, rooted in an time when the Blackberry was the most popular smartphone, and Android was expected to drive phones with keyboard input. In that scenario, interface responsiveness wash't as high a priority.
Android was started in 2003 development, while iOS was started in 2005, and before the iPhone came out, the Android emulator looked like this. It wasn't until Apple's little announcement in 2007 that Android suddenly needed to compete on real-time performance, including smooth, touch-based scrolling. iOS is based entirely on Core Animation, with every interface element backed by a GPU-accelerated layer. Android has been CPU-driven, adding bits and pieces of hardware acceleration but not adopting the kind of unified model iOS was based on.
I don't really know why Android's performance hasn't been brought up to par, or why it's taken four years for it to reach the point that ICS has reached. I suspect the requirement to remain generalized and adaptable across multiple hardware devices means many of the design decisions that Apple went with for iOS simply can't be utilized, at least not to the same degree.
By the way, I'm amused at how negative the review is toward previous Android releases, particularly in terms of performance and interface responsiveness, since any time someone brought these common performance criticisms up on Slashdot, they'd always immediately get modded down and their karma ruined:
"Surprisingly, Google never got Gingerbread working smoothly on the Nexus S, and running the stock version of 2.3.6 was a painful experience."
"The old assumption that even a dual core Android phone is not as smooth as a single core iPhone doesn’t apply any more. Apple users will probably still notice some missed frames in animations or small amounts of lag when things are being loaded in the background, but this is no longer a serious usability issue, more a cosmetic one."
"The OS looks much much slicker overall even on the relatively old Nexus S, compared to the cartoonish primitive look of stock Gingerbread."
"The browser gets a much needed overhaul as the stock 2.3 browser was slow and laggy. It is now much faster, smoother to use, and generally stays out of the way like a good browser should."
"To conclude, with no definite date for ICS upgrades for other phones, the Nexus S is a great buy. It is a great example of the importance of software over hardware in a phone, a lesson well learnt from Apple."