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Android 2.2 “Froyo” Overview

June 2, 2010 in Android 101, Featured, Video, Wireless 101

Android 2.2 “Froyo”
Added User Features:
New Tips Widget – Basically a little Android that helps new users learn how to use their new Android device.
New Launcher Buttons - There are now 3 dedicated buttons that float at the bottom of the home screen. In addition to just the launcher button, there are also a phone button to bring up the dialer, and a browser button to open the browser. Making it easy to access these three things regardless of what homescreen you are on.
New Exchange Features – Remote Wipe, Exchange server auto setup (no need to know your server settings anymore), and exchange calendar support have all been added to 2.2
Camera Upgrades - New zoom into picture stacks in the Gallery, new onscreen buttons for the camera app itself for things like zoom, geotagging, etc., and led support for videos (allowing you to take videos in low light situations now).
WiFi Tethering Built In – This is a tricky feature though. It allows you to turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot for your laptop or other devices to connect to. BUT this will only be available on certain devices (like the Nexus One) as some carrier’s won’t be allowing it.
Multi-Language Support – By swiping across the space bar when typing you can switch the keyboards language and have the auto correction and suggestions follow suite.
Speed Improvements – The browser has been sped up with a V8 javascript engine.
The CPU is able to move up to 5x faster on CPU heavy applications using the Dalvik JIT integrated.
The RAM has been improved by adding a Kernel Memory Management Boost which reclaims up to 20x more RAM than previous Android versions.
Apps Have More Abilities – Apps can now send information to the Google server and have it send the info to the phone, wake it up and even load up whatever info they want (check the video for how they do this with Google Maps).
Apps can also backup their settings for users so when a user switches phones or uninstalls and then reinstalls an app, all of its data can be restored back automatically as well.
Flash Support – The browser can now utilize plugins like Flash for instance. Flash 10.1 will be released at the same time as Android 2.2 and allow users to access Flash content on the internet on their phone.
Android Market Improvements – The Market will now have an Update All button, and feature Auto-Update. Auto-Update will be able to be enabled per application and allow that app to automatically update itself whenever there is a new version to save you the time.
For the Developers, a new reporting service will let the developers know of any crashes their app encounters.
Other Improvements – 1. Call history compresses the same phone numbers dialed and received.
2. Tapping the thumbnail of the previous picture taken in the camera app opens the Gallery app to view the picture instead of opening the picture within the camera app.
3. Search widget has the option to select search everything, Google, Apps, or Contacts.
4. Messaging App has a much cleaner look (white and greyed background instead of black).
5. Calendar has a line for the time of day to show you where you currently are in your appointments.
6. When you hit back when entering the messaging app, it brings you back to the list of all conversations instead of exiting the app forcing you to open it again to get to all conversations.
7. Multi tasking now saves the last 8 apps instead of just 6.
8. Apps can be saved to SD IF THE DEVELOPER ENABLES IT (but since no developer has done so, you can’t use this feature yet).
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  • Beerme

    I thought I read somewhere that some apps will be able to be moved to and from SD card? (provided developer enables it)

    • http://www.theunlockr.com TheUnlockr

      Beerme,

      I added it to the bottom of the list on that page. The issue with it that no developers have enabled it yet and I have a feeling it will be a while before they do…

  • Yasser

    When we will get the update OTA i don’t want the leak one. because i am waiting for the fully Arabic support

  • Harsha S

    Anyone ported this onto hero

  • Matty

    google probably forgot to mention when your phone (n1 or moto droid) is in car dock mode it will flip the screen to horizontal (if you tilt the dock horizontally) instead of staying in vertical mode, which was nice touch, this wasn’t in any of the previous updates before 2.2.

    • http://www.theunlockr.com TheUnlockr

      Matty,

      Nice addition, I don’t have a car dock so never noticed that one.

  • Patrick

    Will the wifi hotspot work for the motorola droid using the froyo 2.2

    • http://www.theunlockr.com TheUnlockr

      Patrick,

      Chances are no. It’ll be up to Verizon so they will need to find a way to monitor it (and charge you if you go over 5GBs) or they’ll just block it.
      Even the leaked Froyo ROM for the Droid has it missing from the settings (you can tether via USB though). Which means to me that Verizon is blocking it and forcing you to use USB which would be easier for them to monitor (thanks to their VZW tethering program for your PC which I’m sure they’ll force you to connect through).

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  • tgcleader

    I dont get what froyo 2.2 does i just got a droid phone yesterday and rooted my phone and im using froyo 2.2 but when i start up my phone everything still looks the same and the only thing i see different is there is a superuser permissions app but have no clue what this does. sorry im a newbie at this. I was assuming that it was like how the iphone was and it installs something like cydia or something to install third party apps and mods. Can someone please tell me what this actually does?

  • http://www.facebook.com/ryan.bibbings Ryan Bibbings

    Just update to 2.2 Froyo on Friday. T-Mobile sent the update OTA! Love it too”!

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