Techcitement Review: Will Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich Take the Cake?

The Ugly
You know those three virtual buttons? There’s actual a fourth, consisting of three dots atop each other. This is your “More” button, leading you to more menu options. Except sometimes they’re elsewhere on the app, like in the mail app. This is jarring, especially because the mythical elsewhere isn’t consistent, even across Google apps. Considering how tightly Google is controlling the interface here, it’s annoying that they didn’t update their own apps to better confirm.

It's here

...here.....and here. I may have missed one.

Even more annoying is the lack of real social network integration. Sure, there’s Google+ (duh), but when I tried to add my Facebook account — an option clearly visible in the default account screen — the phone never went to the next step.

"Sorry, I can't do that, Dave."

Considering that webOS’s key feature for me is their Synergy solution that lets me pull my contacts from Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and what-have-you, this is a bit of a deal breaker for me. It’s one thing to want to put your own social network at the forefront, but it’s another to psych out users expecting to be able to access other networks. The Android Facebook app is passable, but I don’t want to have to dig. There’s something deeply wrong with the world when an aspect of Microsoft’s Mobile OS is more open than one based on Linux.

Kathy Bates is on the board of Google now?

Summing it up
I actually found ICS a frustrating joy to use because it was just so close! ICS is a young system. With only one phone to run the latest OS on out of the box and updates to the unlocked version of the Nexus S trickling out, the majority of existing Android users won’t see any of these benefits for a bit. As for me, I’d like an OS that has aged a tad and one where the social network aspect hasn’t been ridiculously hobbled. I’d like a wider choice of hardware. With The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas around the corner, I suspect we’ll hearing a lot more about that aspect.

Maybe next time, Google.