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A week after the hurly-burly of the iPhone 4S launch and it was Samsung's turn to grab the headlines with its Galaxy Nexus smartphone running on the long-anticipated Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) Android 4.0 update from Google.
Here are the following ways:
1. Face detection for unlocking the phone
Google continues its quest to make devices easier to use by introducing facial recognition within ICS that lets handset owners unlock their device without having to input a PIN.
The system, dubbed Face Unlock, simply requires users to hold the device in front of their face to unlock it. If someone else tries to unlock the handset, they will be shown a message saying that their face is not recognised.
From demonstrations seen so far, Face Unlock looks rather swish and unlocks devices pretty much instantly and certainly represents a far higher level of security than any other method on the market.
Typing on a smartphone touch-screen can be frustrating, so enhancements to the Android keyboard that promise improved error correction and faster text input are definitely welcome.
Furthermore, Google has added a spell-checking feature that provides a series of suggestions to any mistyped words, ideal for ensuring you don't send a load of nonsense, or worse, something inappropriate when typing on the fly.
One of the key attractions of ICS is that it works on Android smartphones and tablets. This will give firms selling tablets and smartphones on the platform a much better chance of tempting buyers to get both devices as they can promise a unified experience across both form factors.
It will also be a great boon for developers who will no longer have to create a tablet and smartphone version of their apps.
A bit of fun this one, but another upgrade to the capabilities of smartphone cameras that will have digital camera firms running scared.
With ICS, users can now take panoramic pictures, allowing them to capture a stunning vista, or family gathering, in one snap, which is very impressive for a piece of hardware that is ultimately a phone.
It's all about the voice at the moment. Apple's 'personal assistant' Siri has been causing much debate over the benefits and potential of artificial intelligence technology, as well as amusement at some of its responses, and Google is clearly determined not to be outdone.
Google says that ICS contains an improved voice dictation system that lets users compose notes, emails, texts and reminders by speaking directly to the phone. For those on the go, in the car, or just not in the mood to fiddle with the touch-screen keyboard, this could prove a welcome addition.
Like the above, this isn't a huge, flashy improvement, but a nice little feature that many will find useful.
How often have you wanted to take an instant snapshot of your phone's screen to share a web page, map or contact details quickly and easily?
Now you can, as Google has added the ability to use one of the hardware buttons on the phone to snap and store a screen grab that's then saved to the device.
This nifty feature isn't exactly going to set the world alight but it shows a good appreciation of the little touches that can really make an OS dazzle.
With in-call text responses, if you can't take a call you can instead slide across a series of instant text responses that can be sent to the caller explaining why you can't answer the phone.
The best aspect, though, is that users can add their own replies via the settings menu. So, serious 'In a board meeting' replies can exist side-by-side with 'Being chased by hordes of zombies' for when you're feeling frivolous.
'Bill shock' is a 21st century phenomenon that is now so common it's only a matter of time before the term enters the Oxford English Dictionary.
Despite the best efforts of Digital Agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes to bring down roaming charges at a European level, data costs remain prohibitively high once people leave their national boundaries.
Enter Android to the rescue, sadly not to reduce roaming charges but at least help to monitor data use.
This is one of the most exciting features of ICS as it allows users to share information across devices using near-field communication (NFC), one of the first uses of the technology in smartphones for UK users.
Android users can share contacts, music, videos and web pages without having to pair phones or navigate menus by simply touching two Android 4.0 devices together and then tapping the 'beam' screen that appears.
One disappointment is that the system doesn't allow the direct sharing of apps, instead merely directing users to the apps page on the Android Store.
One of the most exciting aspects of ICS is the effect it will have on other mobile OS developers, especially Apple.
As we've seen with the release of iOS 5 and features such as the notifications drop-down menu, Android often sets the bar for mobile platforms, adding nifty features you didn't realise you wanted but are invaluable once you have them.
We're sure that, with this latest Android release, it won't be long before iPhone fans get panoramic cameras, integrated NFC for content sharing and face recognition for security.
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