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Ice Cream Sandwich on the Galaxy Nexus

Beaming a video with a single tap or unlocking a device with only a smile sounds like science fiction. Now, you can actually do these things (and more) with a phone that fits in the palm of your hand.

Wednesday morning in Hong Kong—together with Samsung—we unveiled Galaxy Nexus, the first phone designed for the latest release of Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich.

With a super slim profile, Galaxy Nexus features a 4.65” Contour Display with true high definition (720p) resolution and a lightning-fast dual core 1.2ghz processor combined with 4G LTE or HSPA+ technology. Galaxy Nexus also features the latest in software: Ice Cream Sandwich makes Android simple and beautiful, and takes the smartphone to beyond smart.

Beauty and simplicity
With Ice Cream Sandwich, our mission was to build a mobile OS that works on both phones and tablets, and to make the power of Android enticing and intuitive. We created a new font that’s optimized for HD displays and eliminated all hardware buttons in favor of adaptable software buttons. We also dramatically improved the keyboard, made notifications more interactive and created resizable widgets.

The desktop-class browser is significantly faster, featuring a refined tab manager and the ability to sync your bookmarks with Google Chrome. Ice Cream Sandwich also features the best mobile Gmail experience to date, with a new design that lets you quickly swipe through your inbox and search messages even when you’re offline. Calendar boasts a clean new look and you can zoom into your schedule with a pinch.

Connect and share
People are at the heart of Ice Cream Sandwich. We rethought how you browse your contacts with the new People app, which combines high-resolution photos and updates from Google+ and other social services. It’s also easier to capture and share your life with family and friends. Galaxy Nexus sports a high-end camera with zero shutter lag, automatic focus, top notch low-light performance and a simple way to capture panoramic pictures. Shoot amazing photos or 1080p video, and then edit and share them directly from your phone.

Beyond smart
Galaxy Nexus isn’t just a smartphone—it’s beyond smart. Ice Cream Sandwich gives you complete control over the amount of mobile data you use by helping you better understand and manage it. We’re also introducing Android Beam, which uses near field communication (NFC) to instantly share webpages, YouTube videos, maps, directions and apps by simply tapping two phones together. Face Unlock uses state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to unlock your phone with nothing more than a smile.

This weekend marks the third birthday of the G1, the first-ever Android phone. Nine releases later, more than 550,000 Android devices are activated daily.

Starting in November, Galaxy Nexus will be available in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. Check out the Nexus website for a product tour and more info.

Garmine stories

Chicago 2007 was my first marathon, and my first with a Forerunner so that, at a glance, I would know exactly how I was doing throughout the race. Tomorrow will be my first with a GTU tracking unit so that, at a glance, my friends and family will know exactly how I’m doing throughout the race. And while I haven’t trained as much as I’d planned heading into New York next month, it’s not that I’m wearing GTU out of fear that something bad will happen (though that’s a logical use as well). Rather, I want people who can’t attend the marathon to be able to enjoy the experience along with me simply by glancing down at their smartphone or laptop. So I’m drawing geofences – virtual boundaries – around key milestones and mile markers so that as I pass through, text and email alerts will be sent to my friends who requested them. For real-time updates, they can log into my my.Garmin account and check the location at any time. It’s not quite the same as hearing them cheer me on along the streets, but I know they’ll be supporting me from afar – even if it is just a glorified training run as a final preparation for New York.

And that’s the beauty – and versatility – of GTU 10. You can use it to track your young children before and after school. You can use it to track your pets in case they hop the fence and leave the yard. You can use it to track your teen driver for a little more peace of mind. You can even use it to track your boat, bike or sportscar to make sure they’re not on the move when they’re not supposed to be. So with all of those uses – and ones that we haven’t even thought of – we’re wondering: How do you GTU? Obviously it has to be legal, so you have to have ownership, guardianship or the consent of whatever or whomever you’re tracking. With that in mind, head over to Facebook or Twitter and tell us how GTU would make your life easier, safer and more secure.