[Maras]

Google have released version 1.6 (codenamed 'Donut') of their Android Plaform.

The new release of the Operating System includes a number of new features including CDMA support, support for higher resolution screens, device wide search functionality, updated camera, camcorder and gallery applications, VPN support, a battery usage monitor allowing you to analyse power use by application, text-to-speech functionality, new developer APIs, an accessibility framework and an updated 2.6.29 kernel module. Phew!

The Android Market gets a makeover for 1.6 too. Users can now quickly access 'Apps', 'Games' and 'Downloads' categories and sort by paid, free and popular within those categories. Screenshots finally come to the Market too, providing a much improved end user experience.

Windows, Mac or Linux developers can download the new SDK today (for free, of course) and fire up Donut in the emulator. In addition to the new OS features, the new SDK includes updated developer tools, fixing a few little bugs... including the ability for the ADB tools to work with the Samsung i7500 device, which I can now confirm works properly! Hurrah!

Devices featuring the 1.6 release are expected to come to market very rapidly - as early as October. It is not known at this stage which existing devices will be upgradeable to Donut.

What's new in Android 1.6 provides a more complete overview of this platform update.

YouTube - Android 1.6 Official Video

downloadsquad.com
android-developers.blogspot.com

[jologs16]

thnx for sharing the program link, will definitely put it to test ^^

[tiamat21]

I got so confused then; as to whether it was a phone or app.
But either way, its pritty damn cool.
Makes me want an Iphone even more, or maybe a google phone.
x

[Maras]

Google's gone ahead and uncorked the bubbly to celebrate the launch of Android 2.0 "Eclair" today ahead of Verizon's big reveal tomorrow, bundling its announcements into two very important sections: SDK support, meaning devs can go ahead and start targeting the new bits, and a comprehensive list of changes in the latest version. Here are the major changes us lay folk are going to care about:

Support for multiple Google and Exchange accounts
Third-party "sync adapters" allow apps to tie in to the phone's sync services
Quick contact menus for fast access to specific key pieces of contact information
Unified email inbox (yes!)
SMS and MMS search
Text message auto-delete after a user-defined thread size is reached
Significantly improved camera controls with white balance, macro, effects, and more
Improved keyboard layout, dictionary, and algorithm based on multi-touch support
Double-tap zoom in browser, support for HTML5
Bluetooth 2.1 support with addition of OPP and PBAP profiles
"Better" graphics hardware acceleration

Needless to say, we're extremely excited about the changes Google's made here -- and on top of the Droid, we can only hope this action is coming to legacy devices on the double. We'll find out soon enough (hopefully). Check a video of 2.0 in action after the break!

[Via MobileTechWorld]

Read - SDK support announcement
Read - Android 2.0 changes

Android 2.0 Official Video



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