Google talked up the benefits to developers of its new Ice Cream Sandwich release of Android, alongside the release of new developer tools to support this. The company said that “for developers, Android 4.0 introduces many new capabilities and APIs.”

The headline feature of the platform is that it offers a unified user interface toolkit, including components, styles and capabilities, for smartphones, tablets, and “other devices” powered by the platform. Previously, Google has targeted different versions of Android at smartphones and tablets – Gingerbread (2.3) and Honeycomb (3.0), respectively.

It also introduces a number of new communication and sharing tools. This includes new social and calendar APIs; Android Beam for NFC-based instant sharing; Wi-Fi Direct integration; and support for the Bluetooth Health Device Profile.

The company is promising “deep interactivity and customisation,” with improved notifications, lockscreen with camera and music controls, and improved app management in the launcher. It also offers new graphics, camera and media capabilities, including imaging and video effects, precise camera metering and face detection, new media codecs and containers.

Other updates include interface and input enhancements, such as hardware-accelerated 2D drawing, a new grid-based layout, improved keyboard, spell-checker API, stylus input support and better mouse support; and new accessibility APIs and text-to-speech APIs for writing new engines.

Also on the roster are enhancements for enterprises, including keychain and VPN APIs for managing credentials and connections, and a new administrator policy for disabling the camera.

To support the release of the new platform, Google is offering new versions of the SDK Tools (r14) and the ADT Plugin (14) for Eclipse. These are said to deliver improved build performance and updated layout and XML editors.

Ice Cream Sandwich will make its debut in the Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus, which is due to reach the market imminently.