Folks looking for a new keyboard for their Android device need not to look any further: the critically acclaimed keyboard from Android’s latest release – 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – has been unofficially released in the form an APK. We’ll be discussing its performance and give away the download link at the end. Check it out after the jump!

If you’ve been following the latest news, you’ll know that the Galaxy Nexus – the first ever Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich-based smartphone – was released in select markets a few days ago. The phone has received critical acclaim, mostly due to ICS being a significant improvement for Android. ICS’ stock keyboard, especially, has been noted for being unbelievably good for text input – finally rivaling keyboards offered by WP7 and iOS.

We’ve tested the keyboard on a Samsung Galaxy S II on Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread and can confirm that works as claimed. It is simply a joy to type on. The keyboard itself is a little smaller than what came with my GSII but is much, much more accurate with text input. It comes with efficient auto-correction and the other usual features such as auto-capitalization are also here. I’ve been using it all day and besides this one small bug which causes it to force close (double-tapping Caps Lock), it is the best keyboard this writer have ever used and the fact that it is free sweetens the deal. Hopefully this bug will be squashed soon.

If you’re interested, Ice Cream Sandwich Keyboard can be download from the link embedded below. To install the APK, be sure to have Unknown sources enabled from Settings > Applications.

To set it up, go to Settings > Language and keyboard. Enable Ice Cream Sandwich keyboard from the bottom and then choose Ice Cream Sandwich keyboard from Select input method.

Let us know what you think of it in the comments section over on our Facebook page.

Download Ice Cream Sandwich Keyboard:

ICS keyboard is also available from Android Market. We’ve tested the MediaFire link APK only, but Market version is the same, according to reports, so you can get that as well.

Note: For the security conscious, rest assured that the APK is safe as it doesn’t require any unnecessary permissions to the device.

(via Reddit)

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