With all the hoopla lately about Android 2.2 (aka Froyo, which means frozen yogurt by the way) I figured I would write a brief rundown of some of the new features you can expect from the latest and greatest version of the Android OS.
Home screen
A new tips widget will grace your homescreen. This widget will assist new users on how to configure the home screen, adding shortcuts, adding widgets and how to use multiple home screens.
Another new home screen feature, as you can see, are dedicated buttons for the Phone, Launcher and the Browser.
Exchange Support
No doubt, one of Android's most lacking features is exchange support. Well that will be changing with Android 2.2. Froyo's new and improved Exchange support will include the following features:
- Improved security – Exchange admins can enforce a password policy across devices with support for numeric or alpha numeric passwords to unlock a device
- Remote wipe – Exchange admins can remotely wipe the phone to factory defaults if the device was lost or stolen
- Exchange calendars – Will be supported in the Calendar application
- Auto-discovery – With just your username and password, you will easily be able to set up and sync an Exchange account (requires Exchange 2007+)
- Global address look-up – Will now be available from within the Email application allowing users to auto-complete recipient names from the directory
Camera and Gallery
A new and improved Gallery will allow you to peek into picture stacks using a zoom gesture.
The camera now will have on-screen buttons that will provide easy access via a new user interface for controlling the zoom, flash, white balance, focus, geo-tagging and exposure.
In addition, the camcorder now allows you to easily choose the size and quality desired for your video to make uploading to the web or sending video by MMS easier and more efficient. Shooting video at night or low-light conditions will be better now as well as the LED flash will become a light source when shooting video.
Make your phone a mobile hotspot
Apparently, not all devices will support this feature, but phones like the Nexus One will. When configured as a hotspot, your Froyo device share it's connectivity with up to 8 other devices. Also, you can use the 3G connection on your phone (via a USB connection) to provide access to the internet on your Windows or Linux laptop. (Yes you can get apps for this on Android 2.1, but it will now be supported natively)
Multiple keyboard languages
Users that speak multiple languages will love this feature. You can now add multiple languages to the keyboard and effortlessly switch between Latin-based input languages by swiping across the space bar. Not only does this effect the keys but it effects the auto-correct dictionary as well.
Improved Performance
Performance increases are coming from all over with the Android 2.2 update, here's the highlights:
- Browser – By enabling faster loading of JavaScript, the V8 engine will boost the speed of the browser
- Dalvik performance boost – in CPU-intensive duties, an increase of 2x to 5x can be seen
- Kernel memory management boost – Memory reclamation by up to 20x. Applications will switch faster on devices with less memory
Flash!
Flash game addicts rejoice! Adobe just recently released Flash 10.1 for devices running Android 2.2 (there are some beta builds of the OS out there). So not only will you now be able to play flash games on your Android 2.2 device, but any type of interactive content will now work flawlessly on your device.
There is one downside to this though, you will now see those annoying flash ads when browsing the web. But in this writers opinion, it's a small price to pay for the many other benefits of flash.
Misc Improvements
Bluetooth
- Share contacts with other phones
- Voice dialing
- Support for BT enabled car & desk docks
- Improved compatibility with car kits & headsets
2.6.32 kernel upgrade
- HIGHMEM support for RAM > 256MB
- SDIO scheduling and Bluetooth improvements
Applications
- App Error Reports – A new bug reporting feature enables developers to receive crash and freeze reports from users of their Android Market apps
- Apps can be installed on external storage (microSD card for example)
- Apps can participate in data back up and restore, allowing users to reset their device to factory defaults and not lose any personal data
Cloud to Device messaging – Android apps can use the Android Cloud to Device messaging to allow mobile alert, send to phone and 2-way push sync abilites
Camera/Camcorder
- Video FPS doubled from 10 to 20
- Camera now supports portrait orientation, zoom controls, exposure data and a thumbnail utility
- Camcorder also allows apps to determine hardware capabilities
User Interface – Users are now able to select “car mode” and “night mode” controls to configure their UI however they like.
Looks pretty good doesn't it? No official word has been said on when the Android 2.2 update will be pushed out over the air, but the word around the web speculates it to be within a month. So cross your fingers and keep checking back with TalkAndroid as we'll be sure to make a lot of noise when the official update gets rolled out.
An original article by Scott Young
i cannot open any thing on my u8100 every thing is lock
my screen is stuck
Looks like it could only use the Adobe Flash Player 10.1
Is there any way in order to use adobe flash 11 ?
Agreed the bloody bluetooth thing is hard to find
Where exactly is that Bluetooth share located in the directories. Found it once. Can’t seem to find it now.
Thank you for another magnificent post. Where else may anyone get that kind of information in such a perfect means of writing? I’ve a presentation subsequent week, and I’m on the look for such info.
Hi,
I’ve been running Android 2.2.2 for months now. What will I get next on my Dell Streak 5 ?
Also … I downloaded Iris today and some of her answers to UK centric questions are REALLY WEIRD !!!
Hi,
I’ve been running Android 2.2.2 for months now. What will I get next on my Dell Streak 5 ?
@gautam, when on your homescreen tap the Menu button>Settings>Mobile Networks and select 3G Networks and you’ll be Youtubing seamlessly. :)
Does anybody has a solution to poor steaming of videos on 2G in samsung galaxy pro running on froyo?
Pls install me yahoo messenger android
How did you get 2.2 update from 2.1 on att samsung captivate
could you pls tell me what to do so i can upgrade my samsung galaxy i9000 from the 2.1 to the 2.2 i have no idea at all thanks.
I got 2.2 Froyo Feb. 2nd., seems to fine on AT&T with the Captivate so far. The only minor issue, Checking for Software update is slow but maybe AT&T at fault.
Does AT&T have an issue with Android or Google?
Apparently everyone EXCEPT this carrier has received the 2.2 Froyo upgrade. Does anyone know how I can access the upgrade over the air another way?
I heard, the HTC Milestone XT720 can already be upgraded to Froyo. Any news on that or how well it worked? The Milestone’s battery power compared to Samsung Galaxy 7500 is quite good, but some of the apps, especially camera and gallery in 2.1 are very unstable. Could use improvement there ;-)
Great news! As for the first post by Dave, I just downloade and used a app called Screen Shot It, which has a trial..worked great. Just shake the phone to activate and shoot the screen shot.
L’m still waiting for this update for my Milestone!
When is the htc legend getting 2.2 froyo upgrade?
Oh dear… I hope that the LG GT540 will get this update…
I just received my upgrade from. 2.1 to 2.2.1 Froyo on my HTC Android T-Mobile myTouch 3g and it takes some getting used to but I’m really liking the setup.. I just want you all to know how much I love my ANDROID PHONE! Thank You HTC YOU ROCK MY LAME ASS!! Brent Kamrath (San Francisco CA.)
Further clarification: I know about use of gmail. I want to sync directly and not via gmail. I have too many contacts, and have heard too many negative issues with gmail syncing.
Its nice that it cooperates with Exchange for Company use. However, I wonder what it does with syncing with Outlook Contacts, Calendar, Notes on non-Exchange computers? Have not heard anything about this yet.
1)What about the GPS not getting fixed to any Satellite.Did they address the problem(major concern in Galaxy S)through this update?
2)In case one wishes to revert back to 2.1 ? Is there a possibility?
2.2 is great and flash works fine, online, very fast OS and faster flash, then i expected,on my nexus one. Only compliant is haven’t been able to get any of my .swf routines to work, thru on the website, no problem. Directly off the phone… nothing. Seems that the flash player is acting like a browser plug in and not actually co-operating with the android OS. I have tried load the .swf files several ways, and still the player doesn’t see them. I hope they fix this, because I have a lot of fun flash files… and would post them to share, if i could see it actually working…
You guys are just pulling our chain, I will never buy a service from you or tmobile again. Google sux the big one so does htc.
I want to check whether anybody has following issues with Milestone:
1. During talking the receiver of my talk complains of “No voice” or “Cracked voice”. Later on after changing the direction of the phone, they say it is ok. But again the same complaint and so on….
2. The instrument has poor battery life inspite of switching off unwanted programs and gets heated in few seconds. I can feel the heat over my earlobes, considerably !
3. The phone suddenly doesn’t recognise the SIM card and goes into emergency mode.
4. Maybe it rebooted once or twice while talking by itself !
I don’t think all of these are correctable through software updations and they are by default the design fault.
If you have come across any solutions to these, request you to share them please ……
All sounds GREAT!.. I would like to see “sort by Last Name” and “Mic enabled while using headphone jack” for answering calls while listening to music.
Hurry up, come on with the 2.2 update. Motorola droid owners have been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for flash player. How much longer must we wait.
Can u pl tell me, if, when and how can I upgrade from 2.1 to 2.2
will it be possible to disable/remove flash support? i dont want to see all that flash junk and, worse, have a 2 minutes batery life with phone CPU always at 100%
I agree with Ben, this sounds awesome, WHEN DOES IT COME OUT!?
It’s nice to hear and read. But when will Android 2.2 be available ?????? Need to now.
That all sounds great. Am still looking for the following:
(1) An app that allows me to take screen shots without rooting my phone or via USB and the SDK
(2) Ability to browse and log into Sharepoint sites using my DROID
Have searched high and low and can’t find solutions to those 2 issues. Can anyone help?