I dislike nobody, now that Woodrow Wyatt is dead - James Branch Cabell
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Developers welcome Android 2.2
DEVELOPERS at the Google I/O conference have been getting all excited about Android 2.2. or Froyo as it is codenamed.
Apparently the update will feature tethering and wireless hotspot functionality, so this is pretty cool. So cool that carriers might try to disable or charge more for this functionality. Android makes it a doodle for carriers to either charge extra for, or disable entirely, tethering on the phones they sell with only small modifications to the OS.
Other things under the bonnet include tweaks to the Dalvik JIT compiler in Android 2.2 delivering a two to five times performance improvement in CPU-bound code compared to Android 2.1.
Android 2.2 has additional Exchange capabilities such as account auto-discovery and calendar sync, which should help get it into corporate systems.
There are device policy management APIs that will allow developers to write applications that can control security features of the device such as remote wipe, minimum password, lockscreen timeout, and so on.
The web browser is faster and more powerful and will include the V8 JavaScript engine. Google claims that this has resulted in a two to three times improvement in JavaScript performance versus Android 2.1.
There is also a set of new APIs and services including data backup software that enables applications to participate in data backup and restore. This will allow an application's data to be restored when installed on a new or reset device.
Applications will also be able to use Android Cloud to Device Messaging to enable mobile alert, send to phone, and two-way push sync functionality.
Developers decide if they want their application to be installed on internal memory or an SD card. They can also let the system automatically determine the install location. On the native side, a new API now gives access to Skia bitmaps.
Google is also releasing a new version of the Android SDK Tools, Revision 6, as well as the Eclipse plug-in ADT 0.9.7 and Android NDK, Revision 4. These new versions include support for library projects that will help share code and resources across several Android projects.
There is also ARMv7 instruction set support that enables the generation of machine code for the ARMv7-A chip, which should mean higher performance.
The code is being downloaded by developers at the moment. There is no news as to exactly when it will be commercially deployed. µ
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If you currently don't need tethering but you anticipate wanting it in future, it seems to be a bad idea to get your Android device from a provider that disables the tethering feature. If you,don't care then you don't care... but otherwise, I suppose you should buy an unlocked device at full price.
@Aditya
WiFi drains the battery much faster than Blutooth and the hot spot feature might often be disabled as described.
The hot spot feature though is great - I agree. It has been around for symbian for years where I have used it often :)
Still I hope, they will improve the Bluetooth support on Android, but it seems to be a really looong wait.
Android 2.2 can create a local WiFi network which is far more useful than either PAN or DUN.
I wont buy it.
Android 2.2 stillll lacks basic Bluetooth Personal Area Network(PAN) functionality, which is so wonderfully usefull on all other mobile OS's for getting online with you notebook over Bluetooth. It doesn't even have Bluetooth Dial Up Networkin(DUN) as a substitute.
Unbelievable!!! :(
I look forward to getting this on my Hero, which has seen regular updates since I got it six months ago.
( still on buggy Android 1.5, no update in sight, lots of broken promises, wishes he'd gotten an iPhone, etc )
I imagine the new JIT uses the Cortex-A Thumb2 VM support instructions, and won't be backwards compatible with the ARM11 in the Hero which only has Jazelle JVM assistance.
"Within weeks" for Nexus One users, "possibly second half of 2010" for most HTC Sense users, e.g. Desire.