What We Get With Android 2.2 Codename Froyo
Again I have to say how big today’s keynote presentation was. Even though we all kind of had an idea of what to expect with Froyo, Google still had some surprises in store for everyone. After seeing Froyo in action, it’s safe to say that it is the fastest mobile operating system today, not only that, but Google’s claim of having “the world’s fastest mobile browser,” is also very true!
Probably the biggest addition to Android will be the built-in Adobe Flash support. Now it will only come as a beta, but Flash 10.1 looks good so far. If that wasn’t enough, Froyo will also come with Adobe AIR support. Again, it wont be a final product, but instead the AIR will be a pre-release version instead. Just cause you are hearing the words “beta” and “pre-release” doesn’t mean it won’t work. It’s just the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Adobe and Android. Adobe worked real hard to optimize Flash for a mobile device and a touchscreen device at that. Those were some of the fears that developers had with a mobile version of Flash. But Adobe says that those are all misconceptions, and they have even improved battery life, which was another big misconception. Adobe claims that the Nexus One can get 3-4 hours of battery life while playing Flash based games.
Flash will come baked into newer phones that will be powered by Froyo, and phones that will be getting the jump to Android 2.2, will have to enable the Flash support. Im sure you’re wondering if your new Android phone will be getting Froyo, well fear not cause most all new 2010 HTC Android phones will be getting the Froyo upgrade.
if your phone was launched this year, we will most likely offer an upgrade for it to the Froyo version. This includes popular models like the Desire and Droid Incredible as well as hotly anticipated phones like the Evo 4G, MyTouch slide and upcoming models. We will announce a full list of phones and dates once we are closer to launching the upgrades.
That was a quote from HTC, taken from an phoned interview done by Android Central. We are yet to hear from other manufacturers, but I’m sure some all of you Motorola Droid owners out there will be ok.
Next big feature is the JIT compiler. The Dalvik just-in-time compiler is the reason for the huge performance
increase in Froyo. Google is claiming a 2x-5x boost in performance on all devices running Android 2.2. The added speed really showed when they demoed a game on a Nexus running Android 2.2 and one running Eclair 2.1. The N1 with Froyo was significantly faster, the frame never dropped below 30FPS, where on the Eclair powered N1 it started to bog down some. Google also showed the increase in web browsing, their claim to having the “world’s fastest mobile browser” was evident when they showed a Nexus One blowing away a new iPad, in a quick little browser showdown. It was clear that the N1 was a lot faster. This is thanks in part to Google using the V8 engine that is found in the Google Chrome browser. It basically gives Froyo a 2x-3x speed increase in web browsing, and the crown for fastest mobile browser.
Two features that you might of heard about in the past are apps-to-SD and WiFi tethering. Both those features have been available for while to Android devices that have been rooted. Most people that install custom ROMs look for those two feature when picking a ROM. A2SD or App-to-SD is great feature for users that have a lot of Android apps. The average Android user installs about 400 apps per device, that fill up a phone fast. With apps-to-SD, the user can install the app to your MicroSD card. I mean most users have at least an 8GB card in their device, why not put it to good use. You will now be able to either choose where you want each app to install, or you can let the system decide where each app will be installed. It’s all done on a per app basis, so if you want you can still install apps to your device’s internal memory.
The other feature we heard a lot about is tethering, and the mobile hotspot feature. Sprint and now Verizon both offer it on certain devices and we all know about AT&T’’s issue with iPhone tethering, but tethering on Android has been around since the beginning. Rooted G1 owners have had WiFi tethering for a while. Google really listened to the people and implemented both USB tethering and WiFi hotspot capabilities. Basically this allows you to share your cell phone 3G data connection with other devices either by USB cable or by turning your phone into a portable WiFi router or “hotspot”.
Google also made some big improvements to the Android Market, and how we are able to interact with it. They are finally enabling users to browse the Android Market while on their computers. If you have a Google account, you can sign-in and purchase and download apps right to your Android device remotely. Google has also improved the way we get app updates. The two new additions are a “update all” button and now when you download and install a new app, you will have the option to have the app automatically updated forever. It’s as simple as checking a box off, seriously. Something they should of done with Android 1.6.
The camera is also getting some new features, the biggest being a new zoom feature, and the ability to use LED flash for the camcorder. Another feature Google invested some time in, was the voice input. They have found that a lot of users use the the voice search feature. Google quickly reworked the voice recognition, and even gave sort of artificial intelligence. Also in the future of Froyo is a music streaming option. A lot of users have a huge iTunes library and it gets hard having to add songs all the time, but now Google is enabling the user to stream their complete music collection right to their Android device. It can all be done wirelessly not need for a USB connection.
This is the basic rundown of features that the average Android users will use on a daily basis. Google has done a lot of added some great back-end features for developers and advertisers. We will start to see new phones with Android 2.2 later on this year, some devices will get the update in the coming weeks. Probably towards the end of June is when we will see the first Android 2.2 update. Developers are encouraged to download the new Android 2.2 SDK and NDK, that had just been released today. I’m sure in the coming weeks we will get more detailed info on where and when we will get Android 2.2 Froyo. It really looks good; a revamped homescreen, a big performance boost, and plethora of new features, I hope Apple is ready for this when they release iPhone OS 4.0.