So, I have this nifty touchpad. Barely used it when it had WebOS (too much basic stuff missing--no spell check in document editing?! really?), used it more why XROMified CM7 came along and now that I've shoved CM9 Alpha 0 on it, holy hell I'm looking for every excuse to use it.
Let me be clear: it is not perfect. Wifi dies on occasion and I have to restart the connection. Titanium causes a complete reboot of the device. Some apps and games just don't work yet. Front facing camera is borked.
But do not mistake this for reasons why ICS is bad. Quite the opposite, ICS is easily the most important update I've ever seen on android (and I've seen and experienced each and every one of the version updates), and its flat out incredible. In a single sentence, its figured out how to make everything feel connected, cohesive and consistent.
Everything is smooth, silky and delicious (and theres no Hardware Acceleration yet!). This, despite what we've become used to, is really a huge step for android, and don't post here about how your Galaxy S 2 is perfectly smooth and all that noise. Its got nothing on how this looks and feels. I've used several GS2s, including OC'd ones. They come close, but not quite. My G2X feels straight up laggy compared to this. More importantly, and stupidly enough, the animations also help tremendously. They aren't insane, very subtle and nice, but I adore them. It sounds weird, but even though jumping from google voice to the home screen is no different than it is on my phone (and I think its actually slightly faster on my phone, but I could be imagining that), it just...feels so much nicer.
Its much easier to use, too. Multitasking is much more intuitive and visually appealing. Its not some bizarre popup window anymore that feels alien to the OS, its now a permanent fixture of the OS, smooth and lovely to use.
Basically, android's nailed the polish and personally, I think the user interface as well. The only real complaint I can leverage against ICS is getting to the settings menu now takes 3 presses. Why? No idea, but I hate it. Other than that...well, Android has entered a mature adulthood, after middling around during the 1.x and 2.x days. Once the finalized builds start rolling out, I honestly think android has met and exceeded the standard iOS has set.
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