With the Ice Cream Sandwich likely just weeks away, Google is getting Android developers ready for the impending update with some tips on how to optimize applications for phones and tablets alike for the next version of the mobile operating system.
Google introduced the Fragment API in Honeycomb and we’ve been expecting them to be implemented into handsets at some point in the future. The latest post on the Android Developers blog shows how a developer can optimize a Honeycomb application to run on a phone and how fragments are treated differently between the two. The post also shows how one can keep their application for tablets only.
While Honeycomb is strictly for tablets only, Ice Cream Sandwich will support just about everything, with a reassuring, “This is the way Android will stay from now on: the same version runs on all screen sizes.”
While Android has grown up a lot in its short life, the introduction of Ice Cream Sandwich will prove to be the update the operating system truly needs to provide users an experience that’s seamless across phone and tablet devices. Of course, custom Android skins may prove to be a problem but if the rumor (speculation, really, but this would solve many issues) that Google is working on a built-in theme engine, updates could come so much easier to devices.
With more and more Nexus Prime/Galaxy Nexus and Droid Prime news trickling down, the October announcement sounds more than right and we could see the introduction of the first Ice Cream Sandwich devices in early November, which would be a great birthday present for yours truly.
[Via: AndroidDevelopers]