Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich OS Release Date: Confirmed Specs
Samsung and Google unveiled their latest smartphone and OS, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich at the "Samsung Mobile Unpacked: Google Episode" media event on Oct. 19 in Hong Kong, China.
A number of rumors circled for weeks prior to the unveiling and many of them have turned out to be accurate.
Here's a list of now confirmed specs for the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich OS.
Name
The Galaxy Nexus went by a number of pseudonyms prior to its unveiling, including Samsung Nexus Prime, the Google Nexus Prime, the Samsung Droid Prime and the Google Nexus 3.
The smartphone was most commonly referred to as either Galaxy Nexus or Nexus Prime.
Commentators suggested that Nexus Prime was a codename developers used in order to conceal Galaxy Nexus as its true name.
The phone’s name was confirmed as Galaxy Nexus at the conference.
Carrier and Release Date
Multiple inventory leaks revealed Verizon as the exclusive U.S. carrier of the Galaxy Nexus.
The leaks revealed that advertising the period for the Galaxy Nexus is Nov. 10, 2011 to June 10, 2012, which led sources to determine that the smartphone would be released sometime after Nov. 10.
It was conformed at the conference that the Galaxy Nexus would be released in November, but a specific date has not yet been given.
Basic Specs
Several specifications for the Galaxy Nexus have been suggested through leaks.
However, the correct specs were also revealed before the unveiling, which include a 1.2 GHz Dual Core Processor, a 4.65" 1280X720 HD Super AMOLED display, 1GB(RAM) and 16GB/ 32GB Internal memory, LTE and HSPA + networks, Bluetooth connectivity, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi and NFC as well as Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich OS.
Lockscreen
Several specs of Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich were leaked after an e-Bay shopper purchased a Nexus S smartphone that was powered by the OS.
The shopper took video and photos of the OS and leaked the specs onto the Internet via tech website Engagdet.
Developers then picked apart the video in order to decipher the main features of the Ice Cream Sandwich OS and discovered that among the many files in the OS toolbox, was one called FaceLock.apk.
This led them to determine that Ice Cream Sandwich would feature a Facial Recognition Lockscreen, which is now confirmed as "Face Unlock."
Photo Editor
Just days prior to "Samsung Mobile Unpacked," tech website Android Police received a tip in the form of several images of the various tools that were proposed to be in the Ice Cream Sandwich photo editor.
It was revealed at the conference that Ice Cream Sandwich's Gallery app does in fact feature a photo editor that allows users to alter photos taken by the 5 MP camera on the Galaxy Nexus.
