This one is mainly for all you new Samsung Galaxy Nexus wielding Sprint customers. By now I’m sure you are all up to your elbows in Ice Cream Sandwich, and before information overload sets in, I’d like to suggest five things you should try at least once with your Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Even if you’re a veteran user, you might want to check these out as you may have missed a thing or two.

Nyandroid Easter Egg

The Android team is known to slip some Easter Egg fun into their major releases and Android 4.0 is no exception. If you head into your Settings > About Phone > and tap on your Android version 4 to 5 times really quick, a cute little Nyandroid will pop on the screen. That in itself is awesome, but if you long press on the little guy, he’ll grow… and grow… and grow… until finally exploding into dozens of flying Ice Cream Sandwich Nyandroids. Yep, they went there.

Face Unlock

So you’re a fan of high-tech spy movies such as James Bond and Mission Impossible. Your dreams are full of hacking into the F.B.I., fooling retinal scanners and unlocking your super spy phone with your face. That’s right, I’m talking about the spygasm Face Unlock found on the Galaxy Nexus, and while it’s not the most secure method of locking your phone, it’s pretty darn cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l4D2tn_-kQ

Android Beam

Android Beam sounds like something out of a Star Trek movie, but no matter how much you beg Scotty, it’s not going to beam you up to the Starship Enterprise. What it will do, is allow you to share things such as apps, contacts, music, videos, web pages and more. All you need is another NFC enabled Android 4.0 device and you can simply “beam” the content to the other device by touching the two devices together and hitting send.

It’s neat to try out at least once but you probably won’t be using it much — well, not until more people jump on board with NFC and developers start coming up with cool uses for it.

Google Wallet

Ahhh, using your phone to pay for stuff. While contact-less payment systems have been around for a while, this one eliminates the need to carry around extra tags. You’ll probably always have your phone on you so what could be more convenient? Just use it at any participating location and tap your way out of the checkout line instantly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKuUzNnb8aQ

Google Wallet has some heavy hitters conspiring to destroy it so do your part and use it at least once. I mean, they’re giving you free cash just to try it out.

Live Effects

Okay, I could have picked a slew of better features to try at least once, but I went with this one because, well, you’ll probably only ever use it once (or maybe I’m just an old fart). Live effects pretty much gives away its function in the name. It’s live effects for your videos. Turn your video subjects into carnival freaks by distorting their faces in a variety of different ways. That, or add different backdrops to your video for that perfect “Hi Mom!” shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSFq5KF8ltI

It’s corny (told you I was old) but what the heck, you’ve got to at least try it once — right?

Of course there are many, many, many other new features to explore on your new (or old) Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0, but if you want your master’s degree from the University of Ice Cream Sandwich, you’ll need to obtain 1 credit from each of the above mentioned.
Enjoy!