Version 4.0 of Android comes packed with new features like a brand new design with a custom font, the ability to “beam” content from one phone to another, a new camera app, a revamped lock screen as well as integration of many of Honeycomb’s elements into a new unified experience that also works on phones and much more:

• Option to use virtual buttons in the UI, instead of taking up capacitive touch buttons
• Widgets are in a new tab, listed in a similar list to apps
• Folders are much easier to create, with a drag-and-drop style similar to iOS
• A customizable launcher
• New phone app with visual voicemail functionality that lets you speed up or slow down voicemail messages
• Pinch-to-zoom functionality in the calendar
• Gmail has offline search, a two-line preview, and new action bar at the bottom
• Swipe left or right to switch between Gmail conversations
• Integrated screenshot capture by holding power and volume down buttons
• Improved error correction on the keyboard
• Ability to access apps directly from lock screen (similar to HTC Sense 3.x)
• Improved copy and paste
• Better voice integration
• Face Unlock, a facial recognition service
• New tabbed web browser, allowing up to 16 tabs
• Browser now automatically syncs your Chrome bookmarks
• Modern “Roboto” font
• Data Usage section in settings lets you set warnings when you reach a certain amount of use and disabling data when you go over your limit
• Ability to kill off apps that are using data in the background
• Camera app: zero shutter lag, time lapse settings, zoom while recording
• Built-in photo editor
• New gallery layout, organized by location and person
• Refreshed people app with social network integration, status updates and hi-res images
• Android Beam, a NFC feature that lets you exchange websites, contact info, directions, YouTube, etc.
• Don’t like some of those preloaded carrier apps? Disable ‘em. Android Engineer Dan Morrill mentions that, among other new features, any app can be disabled, and while it will still take up space in ROM, it won’t be snatching any of your precious resources or clock cycles again if you don’t want it to.

Google has also posted a new page on the Android Developers site outlining in detail what is new in Ice Cream Sandwich:

The lock screens now let users do more without unlocking. From the slide lock screen, users can jump directly to the camera for a picture or pull down the notifications window to check for messages. When listening to music, users can even manage music tracks and see album art. When an incoming call arrives, users can now quickly respond by text message, without needing to pick up the call or unlock the device. On the incoming call screen, users simply slide a control to see a list of text responses and then tap to send and end the call. Users can add their own responses and manage the list from the Settings app. Android 4.0 makes managing notifications, recent apps, and browoser tabs even easier. Users can now dismiss individual notifications, apps from the Recent Apps list, and browser tabs lists with a simple swipe of a finger.

The soft keyboard in Android 4.0 makes text input even faster and more accurate. Error correction and word suggestion are improved through a new set of default dictionaries and more accurate heuristics for handling cases such as double-typed characters, skipped letters, and omitted spaces. Word suggestion is also improved and the suggestion strip is simplified to show only three words at a time. To fix misspelled words more easily, Android 4.0 adds a spell-checker that locates and underlines errors and suggests replacement words. With one tap, users can choose from multiple spelling suggestions, delete a word, or add it to the dictionary. Users can even tap to see replacement suggestions for words that are spelled correctly. For specialized features or additional languages, users can now download and install third-party dictionaries, spell-checkers, and other text services.

When taking pictures, continuous focus, zero shutter lag exposure, and decreased shot-to-shot speed help capture clear, precise images. Stabilized image zoom lets users compose photos and video in the way they want, including while video is recording. For new flexibility and convenience while shooting video, users can now take snapshots at full video resolution just by tapping the screen as video continues to record. To make it easier to take great pictures of people, built-in face detection locates faces in the frame and automatically sets focus. For more control, users can tap to focus anywhere in the preview image. For capturing larger scenes, the Camera introduces a single-motion panorama mode. In this mode, the user starts an exposure and then slowly turns the Camera to encompass as wide a perspective as needed. The Camera assembles the full range of continuous imagery into a single panoramic photo.

The Gallery app now makes it easier to manage, show, and share photos and videos. For managing collections, a redesigned album layout shows many more albums and offers larger thumbnails. There are many ways to sort albums, including by time, location, people, and tags. To help pictures look their best, the Gallery now includes a powerful photo editor. Users can crop and rotate pictures, set levels, remove red eyes, add effects, and much more. After retouching, users can select one or multiple pictures or videos to share instantly over email, text messaging, bluetooth, social networks, or other apps.

The Android Browser offers an experience that’s as rich and convenient as a desktop browser. It lets users instantly and manage sync Google Chrome bookmarks from all of their accounts, jump to their favorite content faster, and even save it for reading later in case there’s no network available. To get the most out of web content, users can now request full desktop versions of web sites, rather than their mobile versions. Users can set their preference for web sites separately for each browser tab. For longer content, users can save a copy for offline reading. To find and open saved pages, users can browse a visual list that’s included with browser bookmarks and history. For better readability and accessibility, users can increase the browser’s zoom levels and override the system default text sizes.

Android Beam is an innovative, convenient feature for sharing across two NFC-enabled devices, It lets people instantly exchange favorite apps, contacts, music, videos — almost anything. It’s incredibly simple and convenient to use — there’s no menu to open, application to launch, or pairing needed. Just touch one Android-powered phone to another, then tap to send. For sharing apps, Android Beam pushes a link to the app’s details page in Android Market. On the other device, the Market app launches and loads the details page, for easy downloading of the app. Individual apps can build on Android Beam to add other types of interactions, such as passing game scores, initiating a multiplayer game or chat, and more.

Android 4.0 introduces a completely new approach to securing a device, making it even more personal — Face Unlock is a new screen-lock option that lets users unlock their devices with their faces. It takes advantage of state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to register a face and to recognize it later when unlocking the device. Users just hold their devices in front of their faces to unlock, or use a backup PIN or pattern.

Support for Wi-Fi Direct lets users connect directly to nearby peer devices over Wi-Fi, for more reliable, higher-speed communication. No internet connection or tethering is needed. Through third-party apps, users can connect to compatible devices to take advantage of new features such as instant sharing of files, photos, or other media; streaming video or audio from another device; or connecting to compatible printers or other devices.

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Version 4.0 of Android comes packed with new features like a brand new design with a custom font, the ability to "beam" content from one phone to another, a new camera app, a revamped lock screen as well as integration of many of Honeycomb's elements into a new unified experience that also works on ...