GOOGLE'S NEXT GEN ANDROID OS IS ICE CREAM

A Google executive on Wednesday shared preliminary details surrounding the company’s next version of its Android operating system. In an interview with Phone Scoop at Mobile World Congress, Google’s Android Engineering Director Dave Burke reiterated that Google’s “I” build of Android will merge features of Honeycomb and Gingerbread in an effort to unify the tablet and smartphone versions of the Android OS. Burke also said this future Android build will likely bring Honeycomb’s “action bar,” which adds customizable functions to individual apps, to smartphones. He noted that the “system bar” at the bottom of the Honeycomb UI would likely not make it to smartphones, though Honeycomb’s overall look and feel with be translated to handsets in some fashion. The next major build of Google’s Android OS is thought to be named “Ice Cream,” but a launch time frame is not currently available. [BGR]