Google announces Android 4.0.3 ICS, includes bug fixes and other improvements.

The Galaxy Nexus is the only handset running Google’s latest operating software, Android 4.0, right now, but Google have already announced Android 4.0.3, which is an advanced release of Ice Cream Sandwich. Through the Android-Developers blog, Google said that the new release contains a range of optimizations as well as bug fixes for Android-based tablets and smartphones. Apart from these optimizations, there's a small amount of new API’s for developers.

Google has listed some of the new APIs in Ice Cream Sandwich, which include a social stream API in contacts provider, calendar provider enhancements, new camera capabilities and accessibility refinements. Elaborating on the social stream API in contacts provider, Google says that those applications that use social stream data like status updates and check-ins can now sync the data with each of the user’s contacts, thereby providing items in a stream along with photos for each. This new API lets apps show users what the people they know are doing or saying along with their photos and contact information.

The new camera capabilities include the ability for apps to check and manage video stabilization as well as use QVGA resolution profiles when required. Apart from this there are also improvements in graphics, database, spell-checking and others. The post goes on to state that in the weeks to come, they will be focusing their partners on Android 4.0.3 as the base version of Ice Cream Sandwich with the new version being rolled out to smartphones and tablets.

To know more on Android 4.0.3, click here and to get started developing or testing on the new platform, developers can download it into their SDK using the Android SDK Manager.