Ice Cream Sandwich screenshots and features leak

More leaks about Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) are beginning to appear, and typically, leaks accelerate when something is nearing release. Just a few days ago, a rumor arose indicating that Google was moving the ICS release up to October, to better compete with Apple and the iPhone 5.

Both Android Police and RootzWiki have managed to get images of some ICS screens.

RootzWiki also had information on some of the new features, although they said the build was still early and wasn't fully functional. That would be hard to believe if October was truly a targeted launch date for the next new Android version; we hope it's not rushed out as buggy as Honeycomb (Android 3.0) was.

Here are a few of the features that are believed coming:

• Blue-Themed
• Built-in panorama mode for the camera
• Google Shopper included in the ROM; requires NFC hardware support, of course, but the Nexus S already supports this and Nexus Prime will as well
• Speaking of Nexus Prime, it will be the first device to sport ICS
• Nexus S will also receive ICS
• Gmail is re-themed
• Mostly UI changes, such that even year-old devices will be able to run it
• The Google search bar is embedded on at the top of the screen as in Honeycomb
• Applications / Widgets launcher appears very similar to Honeycomb [not really a surprise as Google said ICS would unify the tablet / smartphone UI]

One strange thing is in one of Android Police's images, the ROM string IceCreamSandwich is shown. That definitely seems faux, but AP says it's because Google hasn't settled on a number (but we're still betting on 4.0).