Google, Samsung announce new Android 4.0 smartphone

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - Samsung Electronics Co. and Google Inc. have unveiled the Galaxy Nexus smartphone running on the new Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Android 4.0 operating system, the companies reported on Wednesday.

Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich platform can run on both tablet computers and smartphones. It will appear in the U.S., Europe and Asia next month.

The software upgrade is more intuitive and enables core programs, such as mail, calendars and multimedia to work together more fluidly, Andy Rubin, head of Android at Google, said at a press conference.

The smartphone phone has a 4.65-inch screen, a five megapixel camera, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, a redesigned interface, an improved keyboard and a new application using Near-Field Communications (NFC) that lets two Android handsets share content directly. Among the new features is face recognition that will allow users to unlock their phones simply by looking into the front camera.

The launch comes just days after Apple Inc. unveiled its new iPhone 4S. Samsung and Google introduced the high-end model at an event in Hong Kong, after rescheduling the launch last week due to the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs earlier this month.