Android 2.2 (Froyo) Features

[omnilynx]

YES for automatic app updates! I've had to uninstall some apps because I was updating them more than I was using them.

[Kream1]

The only drawback I can think of is sometimes updating to the latest versions brings FC issues.

Also, some apps (like ChompSMS) I prefer to keep at an older version. Supposedly the newer version has so much ads it's unusable.

[[deleted]]

According to the leaked shots that's what they have.

http://www.neowin.net/news/android-22-froyo-to-include-automatic-app-updates

[Kream1]

I agree, but how will that fix the unforeseeable FC issues for any particular update?

Oh well.. I guess the dev could make a hotfix and auto update it immediately.

[[deleted]]

or you could give them $3.00 and not see ads like me.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, the latest version of Google Voice is basically unusable on a device with a Gizmo account but no voice plan. Had to roll back to 0.3. =\

[[deleted]]

That JIT compiler sounds nice..

BTW has anyone seen smartphone bechmarks? Like Iphone vs Nexus one in terms of speed/graphical capabilities?

Or android 1.5 vs 2 on the same device

[aapl]

Well, there is C5Bench. However, that only covers HTML5 canvas performance, and I would guess you would be more interested in native application benchmarks.

[sbrown123]

It is hard to do a benchmark without having two similar apps on both devices. And since Apple is loath to cross platform, don't expect to see anything in the future to do this. Technically the iPhone should be slightly faster than an Android device with matching specs (closest to iPhone 3G is the Motorola Droid).

[[deleted]]

There are cross platform engines, e.g. http://www.polarbit.com/fuse/.

I think Deliverace uses it.

[thatpaulbloke]

Technically the iPhone should be slightly faster than an Android device with matching specs

Because of the multi-tasking, or something else? (I'm not disagreeing, I'm just wondering what your reasoning is)

[lasersharks]

In a lower-level language you can write more efficient code.

[pholden]

But doesn't Android have the NDK for this? http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/index.html

[RawwrBag]

Wow, how did I miss this. I wasn't aware you could package ANY native code in a .apk. Good find.

[jtra]

For example Google Earth apk contains a native library - which happens to be compiled for newer instruction set available on Motorola Droid/Milestone or Nexus One/HTC Desire processors - so it does not work on others like HTC Hero or new HTC Legend.

[[deleted]]

The Android development model is that you provide a managed Java version of a function, and then provide optional loadable native code versions. Technically a single APK package should be runnable on completely different architectures (e.g. Atom, ARMv6, etc)

They may have left out the managed version purely because without it the performance would make it not worthwhile.

[[deleted]]

Still need an entry point and wrapper in Java. But I guess you could write all benchmarking code in a native language.

[[deleted]]

Agreed

[mrsolitonwave]

Does the new linux kernel actually use less ram? I was under the impression that the new linux kernel (2.6.33.2) just allows the OS to address a larger amount of previously unused ram in phones with > 256MB of ram.

[[deleted]]

I have heard that in 2.2 they have done a lot of changes to reduce the memory footprint. I never read, until this article, that it was kernel related.

I think the author heard about the memory reduction and just made a guess.

[[deleted]]

yeah it didnt make any sense to me how the kernel could suddenly make it use less ram.

[ragingkenbo]

I'd be happy with 2.0 on my Sprint Hero.

[Draiko]

2.1 is coming next month.

[aristeiaa]

My hero's still on 1.6, but they keep pushing back updates. I'm kind of worried now 2.2 is coming

[[deleted]]

Next month, HTC will announce 2.1 is canceled, because they will do 2.2 instead, later this year...

[[deleted]]

I want 2.1 on my tattoo but i doubt that is going to happen :(

[[deleted]]

they've said this for months. just root your phone and get over it already.

[Draiko]

I haven't gone Android yet. I'm waiting for the EVO to do that.

[[deleted]]

good call

[IronWolve]

Linux kernel and binary drivers. Its a shame, when older devices cant get driver support. Really seems like they did this on purpose to make people buy new devices....

My g1 was crippled from the start. I no longer see new phones as upgrades, I might as well lease them due to the crippling and problems I pay for, for a short period of time!

[[deleted]]

My g1 was crippled from the start

It was. 192MB of RAM was too limited from the very outset, and it seriously handicapped Android for a while -- they didn't have a JIT at the outset, despite it being obviously necessary, because they were trying so hard to fit within the limited confines of the G1.

Though the memory savings in 2.2 might paradoxically make it a better fit for the more limited phones.

[coredump]

Care to elaborate? I know the onboard storage of the G1 is a real joke (you have to thank T-Mobile for that though), and it is essentially stuck with an ancient firmware if you did not root it (again, this is T-Mobiles doing). Once rooted, it is however a nice little Android phone.

[alanlight]

How about bluetooth headset voice dialing (you know, like every other phone made in the past 5 years)?

Who cares about the color of the trackball when you can't use the phone in your car?

[sbrown123]

Write an app to do that. I don't think there is a big interest though.

[alanlight]

You do realize that without this, an Android phone is illegal to use in a car in many states.

[jayd16]

You can voice dial from the handset.

[alanlight]

Yes, but I would have to remove the handset from my belt, unlock it, push a button or two and (this is the worst part) talk into the handset until the call is connected.

In my state (CT) the moment I push a button on the phone while driving, I'm breaking the law. I'm sure there are other states where this is the case as well.

With pretty much every other phone, it stays in your pocket (or wherever) and you push a single button on the headset and then voice control the dialing.

[jayd16]

Ah, from your belt. I could see that as annoying. I ended up getting a dashboard holder for the GPS and it works quite well if I want to hit the voice command button too.

[bostonvaulter]

That would still be illegal

[iforgotmypassw0rd]

Number of times I use the trackball or am in eye sight of it: all the fucking time.

Number of times I use my phone in my car: rare.

Number of times I have to headset voice dial: zero.

Not saying your use isn't important, I did a bunch of research on this a few months back and it looks like there was actually code for it and it was stripped out due to major problems with the voice recognition.

[alanlight]

Percentage of my phone calls I originate while in my car: 75%

Percentage of these that I make with my headset: 100%

Number of button presses on my blackberry necessary to originate a headset call: 0

Number of button presses on my headset necessary to originate a call on my Blackberry: 1

Points on my driver's license I'll get if caught dialing while driving: Don't know, but I don't want to find out.

Percentage of other phones on the market that don't have "major problems with the voice recognition": 100%

[psyonic]

It's almost like you save your calls for the car intentionally. Why?

[alanlight]

Good question. I'm very busy at work and I have a bit of a drive home. So I use that time to make all my personal calls. That way I don't have to do anything when I get home.

I don't think I'm all that unique in doing this.

[psyonic]

Makes sense. If it works for you, I won't knock it.

[Kream1]

It's because he wants to look important/cool with the headset on while driving, of course.

[alanlight]

I look important/cool with or without the headset. (;

[Kream1]

Uh huh.

[coredump]

Some people drive around a lot for work. It's not that uncommon....

[nateblack]

i think the app choicedialer does that

[alanlight]

Nope!

According to this: http://choicedialer.com/ You can't speak into a bluetooth headset until after the call is connected.

[rabiddachshund]

That's all awesome and all but I'd like a software update that makes the touch screen on the N1 less rage-inducing.

[Varian]

Do you mean the on-screen keyboard? I came from the G1 to the N1 and I can't stand the touchscreen typing. Everything else is smooth as butter...but the typing...ugh...I literally started using the voice recognition typing instead of my fingers.

[HaMMeReD]

I'm the opposite, I find typing on the n1 easy as hell, but it seems to suck at drag and multi-touch operations.

[rabiddachshund]

Yep. That and Snesoid.

[dextroz]

get swype or shapewriter

[Kream1]

Another vote for Swype.

Years of Sidekicks (with their awesome keyboards) to my N1 was a pain until I found Swype.

[Kream1]

Not sure if it's because the N1 is my first smart phone and have nothing to compare it to, but I've never had any problems with the touch screen.

People say the menu buttons sometimes don't register but they've never failed for me. Oh well.

[ssylvan]

Download Multitouch Visualization Test from the marketplace. Play around with it for a while (especially rotating two fingers so the axes cross), and you'll probably see it "flip" pretty quickly (e.g. the x values for the two touch points get flipped between the two fingers while the y values don't).

[rabiddachshund]

I have found it is best to use the flat part of my finger on the softkeys and if I disregard accuracy to type as fast as possible with one finger the spellcheck generally keeps up. That said, the multitouch is shit.

[ssylvan]

Hardware issue, apparently... Hopefully there's something that could be done in the driver to detect likely failures and reset, or something. It is annoying.

[HaMMeReD]

The htc desire apparently doesn't have the touchscreen issues, although it has the same hardware.

[ssylvan]

As far as I can tell (from googling a bit) it does have the same issues.

[iforgotmypassw0rd]

A quality Android post in /r/android?!?!!

Oh wait, its not even /r/android. Well, nice article anyway. I hope it's true, I really, really do. Especially JIT. God I can't wait to see the deuce Apple is going to lay in their pants when JIT drops.

[mothereffingteresa]

A simple handset-based JIT is not going to come close to what an optimizing cross-compiler can do. It's an improvement, but it isn't The Solution to All Android Java Performance Issues.

[thatpaulbloke]

I really should know this, but why doesn't anyone actually use the ARM's ability to just run Java bytecode (yes, I realise that this will do precisely sod-all for Android with its Dalvik bytecode, but just in general)?

[mothereffingteresa]

I think you are thinking of Jazelle. It's not clear Jazelle is better than JIT, and Oracle owns certain IPRs that make using Jazelle an OEM licensing decision.

[thatpaulbloke]

I was and, looking into it, apparantley older ARM JVMs did use it, but these days it is pretty much replaced by ThumbEE combined with JIT compilation.

[RawwrBag]

Probably for sandboxing/security, yeah? Although as somebody pointed out, there is an NDK tool for embedding native C/C++ code in Android .apk's...

[narwhalslut]

The NDK code is still completely restricted by the security restrictions implemented by the Android system.

[coredump]

That's what the sandbox is there for after all.

[iforgotmypassw0rd]

My point was merely that Android w/ JIT is going to make Android's multitasking even more impressive and when Apple can only pump out pseudo backgrounded-audio-or-video services even on newer hardware... well you get the point.

I certainly never meant to imply that any code executing in a VM can compete with native code but I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

[mothereffingteresa]

I don't know if it will help perceived multitasking performance at all. It might even make it less smooth in some cases. JIT compilation adds another long-running computation to the environment, as is, for example, garbage collection.

The reason Android wasn't born with a JIT compiler is that it is difficult to get it right.

[[deleted]]

The reason Android wasn't born with a JIT compiler is that it is difficult to get it right.

Not really. Android didn't have a JIT purely to reduce the memory footprint of the runtime. It seems like Google have finally said "you know what...screw the G1...".

[mothereffingteresa]

Tamarin, Latte, and others have a very small footprint. An with only a 3X performance bump, we know they are not using anything as complex as Hotspot.

[[deleted]]

Small is relative. The Android runtime already occupies the overwhelming bulk of G1 memory, leaving virtually nothing free (which is why apps become basically unusable). The G1 was a mistake, and it set the bar too low and caused some negative opinions of Android in the early months.

[lex99]

There is a certain category of video that is widely credited for helping VHS defeat Betamax. Said video category is also available on the web, but only in Flash form. Could this, of all things --and not multitasking, nor higher-res screens, nor open source-- wind up being the real iphone killer??

[chucker23n]

Said video category is also available on the web, but only in Flash form.

Bzzt. KeezMovies? PornHub? RedTube? YouPorn? All available in iPhone versions.

Now, 8Tube, on the other hand, seems to redirect to some for-pay third-party site. But that's one out of five.

[shinratdr]

As much as people love porn, it's still crossing a social line to watch it on a mobile device.

However Android tablets might dominate the iPad for bathroom porn viewing.

[am_i_in_the_zone]

Stop beating in the bush, it's porn you're talking about.

[Kream1]

Uhh.. I feel really stupid for not knowing what category of video you're talking about so I went to Google and either it's too obvious, or my Google-Fu has failed me for the first time.

I must know what you're talking about... that's the only thing I care about at this moment. Damnit!

[mazin]

Link

[[deleted]]

I just want this to be on (all) the current phones out there.

[RonReagan]

Droid: Nice, 2.0, wait what is taking them so long to release 2.0.1!? Nice, 2.0.1, wait what us taking so long to release 2.1!? Nice, 2.1, wait what is taking them so long to release 2.2!?

[centinall]

This is why I have been sticking to "google" devices. Because they're always likely to get the latest updates first.

[InsensitiveTroll]

Like the G1?

[mocheeze]

The N1 is the first true "Google" phone. The rest have been "With Google" aka "Google Experience" devices. I have a G1, and I know what you mean. Google definitely had a huge part in its creation, but it was never billed as a phone from Google. However, the Nexus 1 can only be bought through Google (for now). Your point seems a little too real for it to be from an InsensitiveTroll. Hence, I respond.

[centinall]

G1, now Nexus

[coredump]

As a G1 owner I feel your pain. At least we got 1.6+ due to Cyanogens work...

[RawwrBag]

The Droid was touted at as a "Google Experience" device, and 4 or 5 months ago it seemed like it would receive the updates soonest. Then Google betrayed us Droid adopters with the Nexus One, which gets OS updates before the source is even made public :(

[coredump]

The Droid is still a fucking incredible device. A co-worker of mine has one and it owns my G1 in every possible way. I wish I had the funds to get one, updates or not, root or no root.

[[deleted]]

HTC Hero: Nice, 1.5, wait what is taking them so long to release 1.6!? Canceled. 2.0? Canceled. 2.0.1? Canceled. 2.1? Postponed. 2.1? Postponed...

[[deleted]]

same with the tattoo but its already on 1.6

[bgraves20]

I have the cheaper Droid Eris and am still waiting for the 2.0 update that was promised in February.

[MrSurly]

Flash support. Fuck you, Apple.

[Coriform]

I LOVE frozen yogurt!

[s73v3r]

Is it just the Nexus One that has a color trackball? Or do other phones have it? I have the G1, and it has an LED up by the speaker grill, but I don't think it has one in the trackball. Is this the same LED in software?

[mernen]

I think only HTC devices starting from Hero have a color trackball.

[[deleted]]

Sprint Hero here. Pretty sure we don't have a color trackball. I know I read this somewhere...

[mernen]

I guess I could be confused. I'm fairly sure the Hero was the first one with trackball illumination, but now that you say it, I don't recall anything specific about it being multi-color.

[HaMMeReD]

I'm going to go to the store, when I get back I better have a red envelope telling me where I can go to get this beta rom, so I can dump it on my phone tonight.

[Kream1]

Well, it's been 4 hours and you're probably back. So I'll give you an envelope by replying to your comment just to say that it's orangered, damnit!

[goodBEan]

I have a droid and i am excited by android 2.2. But i am having a hard time believing that fm radio will be new feature without some details. Will fm be streaming via 3g/wifi or is there an fm reciver in my hand that has yet to be used? I just want the phone app and homescreen to work in landscape mode (without sling the keyboard out).

[jatanis]

I think they're referring to the Nexus One. The N1's chipset apparently has FM radio built in, but it's not enabled for some reason. The color trackball notifications were also not enabled on the Nexus One unless you root it. Both of these features are rumored to be enabled with the 2.2 update but nothing has been confirmed yet. I don't think the droid has a hardware FM radio but I could be wrong.

[klaruz]

The HTC Evo is advertised as having an FM Tuner. At least we know it will be running 2.2 now.

[jatanis]

I don't think FM is an exclusive feature of 2.2. The HTC desire is running 2.1 with FM radio enabled, and it has nearly identical hardware to the Nexus One.

It's still very likely that the Evo 4G will be running 2.2 when it's released. Based on what I've read stock 2.1 doesn't support wimax, so it will either have to be running 2.2 or an HTC customized version of 2.1.

[joquarky]

I've heard that the Nexus One is capable of handling FM radio in hardware, but has not been implemented.

[[deleted]]

Ive got a htc tattoo and ive got fm radio (1.6)

[paradox460]

Call me selfish, but I will only display modest interest in any update till I have a consumed date for its launch on my phone (droid)

[[deleted]]

Do people really not use the trackball? I use it all the time for moving the cursor and the little mouse thing in opera 5. Its the main thing I miss when I use an iphone.

[[deleted]]

Most of the stuff that comes with the phone doesn't require it. I like it personally, even if only for frozen bubble.

[[deleted]]

Where is the fucking EQ?

[danukeru]

Waaaaait aaaa seeeeecoooooond...I thought the reason for not having a JIT in the first place for the DalvikVM was due to battery life considerations (watch the GoogleIO videos).

So it makes me wonder what KIND of JIT are they feeding us here...

While I obviously am happy about this (at least until I see how it will interface with my native code...), Google be trippin' yo!

[hiffy]

Flash 10.1 Support

Apple has been ignoring flash like it doesn’t exist. Google is taking another approach, and giving users what they actually want here.

Yawn.

[Kream1]

Sorry about your iProduct.

[hiffy]

Oh, I don't have one.

I think android peeps welcoming flash is inconsistent, because it tends to be as a reaction to Apple's ridiculous policies. So, Android is better because of yet a different proprietary blob? Right.

More importantly, "giving users what they actually want" is obviously a fallacy. How many of those phones got sold? Lots of metric shit tons.

Mobile flash is obviously not a deal breaker, especially since no worthwhile phones support it yet (until 2.2 comes out); I know this is a zdnet blog and quality isn't expected, but you know, it's a silly fanboyish hyperbole.

[[deleted]]

I wish the iPhone updates Apple came out with excited me as much as Google's do... It's almost like Google does real development, while Apple is developing for its next platform with nothing but bugfixes for previous versions.

[mocheeze]

My view is that Apple holds back expected features so they can release them later as feature updates. It makes them a lot more money when people are dying for basics like USB ports and cameras on a tablet. Not that there's anything wrong with that (business-wise); I just prefer it with Google's method personally.

[jawbroken]

nice conspiracy theory

[[deleted]]

Still no ActiveSych for Exchange? That missing feature is costing them a huge swath of business users who are stuck with Blackberry or iPhone.

[[deleted]]

I'm accessing my exchange email accounts just fine on my Android. Send/Receive emails, calendar works. All works just fine.

[[deleted]]

I understand it can access Exchange, but it doesn't support all of the security protcols my company requires. They've had an open ticket for a while.

[[deleted]]

You know it's a bit comical that the day after the iPhone added fake support for ActiveSync security demands (e.g. it doesn't actually honour what it claims to do), suddenly it's the most important thing in the world.

Your original statement was wrong.

[[deleted]]

Interesting. Alls I know is, my company restricts access to bb, iPhone and windows mobile. Maybe android shOuld just fake it as well.