As if we needed anymore confirmation about the name of the next version of Android, here you go. Ice Cream Sandwich was name dropped in the Android Open Source Project’s Issues section, practically confirming all previous “confirmations”. While nothing is confirmed until it’s officially announced, there’s little debate as to what Google’s next flavor of its mobile operating system will be.
We first got word that the next version of the OS would be Ice Cream Sandwich in early January, where Andy Rubin himself confirmed this to TechCrunch. Apparently some people need more confirmation coming from someone other than Rubin, who’d be considered the “Father of Android”. Nonetheless, if there was any doubt about the naming of the next version of Android, these doubts should begin to wane.
But who cares about the name? What’s interesting is what Ice Cream Sandwich will bring to the table, and apparently, it’ll be quite the update. Rumored to bridge Android 2.3 Gingerbread, 3.0 Honeycomb, and possibly even Google TV, this update could help rid Google of what’s likely one of the biggest issues with Android, and that’s fragmentation. That said, handsets would need to first be updated to this version of the OS that’s to save them, and that hasn’t been the smoothest ride so far.
The search giant likely has some interesting ways to stave off some existing issues with its OS, and hopefully with little sacrifice. Whether this means merging everything into one branch for consistency, or bringing some sort of standardization to the platform, we can only hope Ice Cream Sandwich will deliver where previous versions haven’t.
We’ll stop all speculation here, as we’re playing a game that could easily be dismissed next week, where Google is expected to announce the much-anticipated update. We’ll be at the Google I/O live to show you all the goods brought to the table.
[Via: Phandroid, GoogleCode]