After upgrading my Galaxy S II to Android 4.0.3, I’ve found a fair amount of changes to the look of Android as well as the structure of the UI. For the most part its pretty intuitive, but we thought we’d give you a heads up.
1. Menu Button
The old menu button used to being up a 6 button grid with icons on the home screen, and 3-2 button grids on others.
In Android 4.0, the menu button now brings up a list of options sans icons. I personally found this a bit confusing as the icons were helpful in locating what you need, but this helps maintain a cleaner look. You will also notice icons have disappeared from various locations around the UI such as the dialer.
2. Input Method Notification Icon
This one of the most apparent changes because as soon as you start typing, a small keyboard icon will appear in your notification bar indicating you are using your input method.
By opening the notification bar, you can select this icon to select a different input method and quickly access their settings as well. This was a nice addition because it takes out one step when trying to reach your keyboard settings.
3. Restart Option
It always puzzled me why there was no restart option in the power menu.
Now I wonder no longer–at the bottom of the menu you can find a restart option.
4. Lock Screen
The default lockscreen is now simpler and more intuitive, with a shorter throw:
In addition, you can turn off the lock screen, or use Android 4.0′s face recognition feature to unlock your phone:
5. Sideloading and Installation from Unknown Sources
The sideloading option has now been appropriately moved from the applications menu to theSecurity section of your phone’s settings:
6. New Settings Menu/Categories
Our familiar list of settings options are now categorized into Wireless and Network, Device, Personal and System.
7. USB Debugging moved to Developer Options
The familiar method of toggling USB debugging has now men moved to the Developer Options category:
8. Auto Rotate Moved to Accessibility
Auto rotate is no longer part of the revamped display menu, but rather the Accessibility menu:
9. Favorite Contacts Thumbnails
You favorite contacts section will now look different from your normal contacts:
10. New Screen Capture Key Combination
For quite sometime the good ol’ screen cap combo was quarter-cricle forward punch er–I mean it was power+home. Now screen capture much more convenient to actuate with one hand thanks to the combination of the volume and power down buttons:
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