Google and Samsung are holding an event in Hong Kong on October 19th to introduce the next major update to the Android operating system, as well as at least one of the first phones that will run it. Since Hong Kong is all the way on the other side of the world, the event will actually take place at 10:00 at night on October 18th if you’re on the east coast of the US.
The two companies had originally scheduled a kick-off event for for this week. But the launch event for Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and a new Samsung Nexus smartphone was pushed back.
In the meantime, as if the invitation didn’t already provide enough evidence that Ice Cream Sandwich will be available soon, Google has added a new desert-themed statue to its lawn.
Ice Cream Sandwich will be the first version of Android designed to run on both smartphones and tablets. It will bring many of the features that had only been available for tablets running Android 3.0 and up to phones for the first time — and provide tools that make it easier for developers to write apps once and make sure they’re equally at home on a pocketable device or a 10 inch tablet.
