Today, in Google I/O’s second day, the search engine giant announced the Android 2.2 platform, also known as Froyo. This is the seventh platform release since the launch of Android 1.0 back in September 2008. Here’s the presentation video of the OS, that gets detailed extensively after the break:
Android 2.2 comes with 20 new Enterprise features, including better Exchange support and remote wipe, plus Adobe Flash 10.1 support, device backup functionality (also backing up data from third party apps) and quick search enhancements. The latter feature allows users to search for apps on the device using the homescreen search box widget.
Developers will also be able to extend apps into quick search boxes, thus search will be supported from within applications. Froyo also brings “just-in-time compilation”, a 2, up to 5 times speed boost for software, as well as cloud-to-device messaging API, allowing messages to be sent from the cloud to Android devices.
As we knew from a bunch of leaks, tethering and a WiFi hotspot feature are also present on the new platform, while novelties include 2-3x Javascript performance (using the same Javascript engine as the one from Chrome). App Storage is now supported on the SD card, which was a major lack from previous Android versions, while app updating is done thanks to an “Update All” button in the Android Market.
Aside from Android 2.2, Google announced Android SDK Tools, Revision 6, Eclipse plug-in 0.9.7 and Android NDK, Revision 4. The new versions include support for library projects that will aid the users in sharing code and resources on various Android projects. Extra information for developers is provided here and more Froyo features are detailed over here.
[via mobilecrunch]
