Ice Cream Sandwich allows you to hide apps - but so does the Motorola RAZR
There's a new feature in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich that has quite a few people having a heard attack with glee – the ability to "hide" applications that you'd otherwise not be able to get rid of. These apps are generally calls bloatware because they're added to the basic build of the device and cannot be deleted by the user (unless of course they hack the device.) What this new function will bring is the ability to shut these apps out of your device ALMOST entirely – save for the amount of space they take up in a very rudimentary sense. What you might not know is that both the Motorola DROID RAZR and the DROID BIONIC both have this ability already – no Ice Cream Sandwich required!
Before we continue, I must disclose that I've not had an extended time with the DROID BIONIC – if you'll take a look at the reviews here and over at the other site I've reviewed for in the past, Android Community, you'll see that it was Vincent Nguyen and Cory Gunther who took that review on when the device dropped. You'll imagine my surprise then when a Motorola representative at the DROID RAZR event informed me that there was a function on the device that allowed you to hide applications – and my double-down surprise when I was later informed by Cory that the BIONIC had this ability too!
Have a look at how this function works on the DROID RAZR here:
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Now the hiding of apps works, from what we can tell, exactly the same on these Motorola devices as it will in the basic build of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, so we can look forward to being able to do something like what you see above on all Android phones in the future! Or so we can hope. There's always the possibility that manufacturers and/or carriers will want to disable this ability on devices under their care – hopefully not. The right to have no more apps than the game Shadowgun is a right I feel I'm right to demand!
Be sure to check out our Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Complete Guide for all the information you could possibly want on the upcoming mobile OS, and head to our Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich hands-on post for a real live close-up look! The video from that post can also be seen below if you like:
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