Samsung Galaxy Nexus Release Date: Smartphone Features 'Android Beam' Sharing Mechanism
Samsung and Google's latest smartphone and OS, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich were unveiled at the "Samsung Mobile Unpacked: Google Episode" media event on Oct. 19 in Hong Kong, China.
Both the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich OS have brought innovative new features to the world of smartphones and high tech operating systems.
But one of the most extraordinary features on the Ice Cream Sandwich powered Galaxy Nexus is Android Beam, a mechanism that allows Galaxy Nexus users to share content by simply touching their phones together.
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The mechanism, powered through NFC, near field communication technology allows users to share any information that can be brought up on their smartphone.
"You can use it to share contact information, share webpages -- feels like the touch functionality in webOS for the TouchPad and the Pre 3," Google's mobile production management director, Hugo Barra said at "Samsung Mobile Unpacked."
A demonstration of Android Beam at the conference showed two Galaxy Nexus smartphones being touched together to share webpages, maps and even a video game.
"We're seeing Minecraft played on one phone. Touch the phones together and, bam, it brings it right up in Android Market," Barra said.
Barra noted that one thing Android Beam cannot yet do is share the APK file with other phones and save it on the bandwidth usage.
"Maybe in 5.0?" he suggested.
The Ice Cream Sandwich powered Galaxy Nexus will release in November on Japan's NTT DoCoMo network.
Its U.S. carrier is Verizon.
It is currently unknown whether Ice Cream Sandwich will be available as a free download, however developers are able to download SDK in order to begin developing apps for the new OS.
