Android 2.2 Froyo Coming Soon–and it’s FAST

By AIC Staff on May 21st, 2010 5

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Google has announced some details about it’s upcoming update to the Android OS. Codenamed Froyo, Android OS 2.2 will focus on speed. The Google team posted the following details about Android 2.2 on its blog:

Performance & speed: The new Dalvik JIT compiler in Android 2.2 delivers between a 2-5X performance improvement in CPU-bound code vs. Android 2.1 according to various benchmarks.

New enterprise capabilities: We’ve added Exchange capabilities such as account auto-discovery and calendar sync. Device policy management APIs allow developers to write applications that can control security features of the device such as the remote wipe, minimum password, lockscreen timeout etc.

Faster, more powerful browser: We have brought the V8 JavaScript engine to the Android browser as part of 2.2. This has resulted in a 2-3X improvement in JavaScript performance vs. 2.1.

Rich set of new APIs and services: New data backup APIs enable apps to participate in data backup and restore, allowing an application’s last data to be restored when installed on a new or a reset device. Apps can utilize Android Cloud to Device Messaging to enable mobile alert, send to phone, and two-way push sync functionality. Developers can now declare whether their app should be installed on internal memory or an SD card. They can also let the system automatically determine the install location. On the native side, a new API now gives access to Skia bitmaps.

Additions to Android Market: Android Market provides Android Application Error Reports, a new bug reporting feature, giving developers access to crash and freeze reports from users. Developers will be able to access these reports via their account on the Android Market publisher website.

The Froyo 2.2 update should be available in the next few weeks for the Google Nexus One and some of the latest HTC devices. As for other devices such as the G1, you’re out of luck according to Gizmodo. The issue lies with hardware capabilities.

Either way, the speed of Froyo is very impressive from the demos at Google’s I/O Conference. Are you excited for Froyo?

[Android Blog]