Android 2.2

SMARTPHONE ENTHUSIAST Google is pushing its open source Android operating system into new territory with the latest update as the firm tries to maintain momentum against Apple's Iphone.

The web search giant, which has managed to build a reputation for keeping its products in beta, is working hard to show it isn't merely a hobbyist coding club by making continuing updates to its Android OS. The latest 2.2 update, codenamed Froyo, brings a number of features but a couple stand head and shoulders above the rest.

After the very public falling out between Apple and Adobe, it's not altogether surprising that Adobe decided to run off and find a new friend to play ball with. Given that relations between Apple and Google have also cooled since 2007, culminating in Apple suing Nexus One manufacturer HTC over alleged patent infringements, it was no great surprise that Adobe decided to hook up with Google to get its Flash software supported on the Android operating system.

If the claims made by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs regarding stability, resource usage and just about anything else he could think of, held water then it would be shocking that Google, a company that's sensitive about matters pertaining to security and efficient resource usage, would touch Adobe's software with a barge pole. It's an indictment of Jobs' dubious claims that, as Google rolled out Android 2.2 at its recent Google I/O event, Adobe uploaded a beta version of Flash Player 10.1 to the Android Market.

With regards to web browsing, Flash capability primarily brings forth garish adverts, though on the Nexus One this does not cause page render times to be negatively affected, if Internet connectivity isn't an issue.

Being able to display adverts, however, wasn't what made the prospect of Flash on Android 2.2 so attractive. The ability to play Flash encoded video represents the biggest bonus, and as we've found, while all Flash videos are equal, some are more equal than others.

Clips such as our video review of the Blackberry Pearl 3G played without fault, either embedded within The INQUIRER web page or full screen. Similarly, news clips embedded in BBC articles played back without trouble or perceptible slow down. In fact we were able to swap between two browsing 'tabs' with video playing on both smoothly.

All this is impressive stuff on the part of both the operating system and the Flash player, but things deteriorate somewhat when you try to watch something a little more substantial like BBC's Iplayer. The player not only takes an inordinate amount of time to load but, once playback does begin, it can, most kindly, be described as jittery with audio artefacts. After visiting a number of other web sites with embedded videos, we found that only BBC's Iplayer exhibited the problem. At press time Adobe had not gotten back to us regarding whether or not this is a problem with its Flash player or the BBC's Iplayer.

Aside from Flash support, Android 2.2 has built in support for USB tethering and the ability to create ad-hoc wireless networks with the Nexus One acting as the wireless access point. Both features are likely to be blocked by operators, either by software modification, something that is not particularly hard thanks to Android being open source, or by imposing even more exorbitant data tariffs.

The ability to use your phone as a wireless modem is immensely valuable and thankfully setup is trivial. Perhaps as a gesture to Apple, USB tethering works on Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Linux but not on Mac OS X. Users have to choose between mounting the device as a USB drive or what Windows recognises as a "remote NDIS based Internet sharing device".

As for ad-hoc wireless network creation, support is universal, though at present only one security policy, WPA2 PSK, is supported. As either option will use the wireless connectivity provided by the mobile operator, speeds vary greatly and battery utilisation increases, though in our tests, not much more than if you were to simply use WiFi without sharing.

Google has made a number of less evident changes from Android 2.1 including support for 802.11n, Bluetooth dialling and minor alterations to the user interface. A number of benchmarks surfaced that support Google's claim that Android 2.2 is significantly faster than its predecessor. However in general use it's hard to see any real difference, a point that says more about Android 2.1 than the update. Given that Android 2.1 was never accused of being slow, any optimisation on Google's part, while welcome, is merely icing on the Eclair.

Usability aspects such as 3G connectivity and battery life hadn't changed in our tests and depend far more on the operator than the handset in most cases.

Android 2.2 will always be known as the operating system that brought Flash support to mobile devices. Google and Adobe have done well incorporating the cumbersome media viewer and while this is only a beta release, it already works well with the Nexus One hardware. It's true that playing back rich content such as Flash videos will have a detrimental effect on battery life due to more than just the player's ability to consume the processor. But watching video on the web is popular, as Google's bandwidth bill for Youtube would attest, so for many Android 2.2 will be a great enabler.

This latest update underscores the sorry state of affairs that, as The INQUIRER predicted three months ago, the best way to guarantee having the latest version of Android is to purchase a Nexus One. At this point, the timeline for updates across the ever growing range of Android handsets is simply nonexistent, which is an inconvenience that Apple manages to avoid, one way or another.

While a six month upgrade cycle might work for some Linux distributions, it isn't the way to go when considering that Android users are at the mercy of mobile handset manufacturers whose main goal is to find ways of flogging handsets that have fewer new features. The fragmentation in features offered between Android handsets is becoming larger and as the number of devices grow, Google might have to put stricter controls on when handset manufacturers must produce updates to the latest release of Android.

For Google, Android 2.2 represents a golden opportunity to undermine Apple's claims against Flash and show that it can overcome any problems as detailed by Jobs. For Adobe, this could be the last chance it has to build a foundation for future relevance in web software before HTML5 consumes its proprietary, closed source software.

So far our tests show that even at a beta stage, Jobs' claims about Adobe's technology are not entirely accurate. The real winner of this tussle isn't Adobe or Google, but rather the user who now can have a realistic representation of the web on their smartphone. Adobe Flash isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it is widely used and finally Android devices can use it.

Google, with help from Adobe, has made Android 2.2 the must have mobile operating system. Iphone OS 4 might be round the corner but the latest version of Android is more than enough to match Apple's efforts.

If you own a Nexus One, either wait for the over-the-air update that will be rolled out soon or search around, even the manual update is a fairly simple affair. All that's left to do is for Google to lean on the handset manufacturers to issue updates as soon as possible.

In Short
The latest Android operating system doesn't just match the Iphone but for the first time truly surpasses it. With an already high standard of Flash playback performance and the ability to tether via USB or WiFi, an Android 2.2 smartphone is turning into the digital Swiss Army knife. µ

The Good
Adobe Flash support, USB and WiFi tethering, speed enhancements.

The Bad
No rollout plan for Android devices.

The Ugly
None

Bartender's Score
9/10