What Can The Latest Android Version Do?
Tech Sunday, August 15th, 2010The latest version of Android is 2.2 and is named Froyo, after its frozen yogurt namesake. It is definitely a step up in performance, but there are also a few hidden things you may not know about. Take a minute and discover the details about this popular operating system from Google.
Google tells us they are sending out 200,000 copies of their Android operating system every twenty four hours. Pretty impressive. If you are using it, more than likely you have the 2.1 system. This was released back in January. Now some chosen devices are getting the update to version 2.2. What can the new version do that the old one can not ? One thing is that the newer version has been tested to run 450 percent faster than the old one. A Nexus One was used for that test. Of course, if you get this update your device will also get a speed boost.
The latest Flash files will also run in the browser included with Android Froyo. The latest Flash version is 10.1. It was released just for mobile devices in spite of the Apple company. One of the most popular games in the world, Farmville, can be played on an Android Froyo powered device. This is possible because Farmville uses the Flash system interface. You may need a processor of 1000 megahertz or more to play smoothly.
If you are a frequent visitor to the Android market you will find that the experience is a bit easier. The developers cleaned up the content in this version. Comments are located in their own tab and do not muck up the the market. This includes the option to automatically update an app you have downloaded. If you have fifty apps running on your smartphone, you can see how convenient this will be.
You can now rotate your screen more using an accelerometer. If your smartphone has one of the accelerometers Android Froyo can allow the screen to do more acrobatics. You can put the screen in landscape mode on both sides of your smartphone. This comes in handy for most people. No more having to remember which side of the screen to use. Most running applications will be supported, but the home screen is still unsupported.
A big new feature is the ability to copy and paste if you use gmail. All you do is go the menus in gmail and choose the “more” section. From there you will see the feature to select text. Go ahead and do so, press and hold to put it on the clipboard. Voilà, now you can put it in other places. Not only is it easier to copy and paste it is easier to switch between gmail accounts if you have more than one. Just tap on the top of the page and the gmail will show the accounts. Tap on the account you want and you are in.
Some of the extraneous new things the Froyo system can do is show more programs and more fonts. In the past, under Android version 2.1 you could select the “home” icon and get six applications to choose from. Under Froyo you now get eight. Two more for the road. If you use the Hebrew language, the font for this language was added to the Froyo update.
The Froyo update is already started in Europe and in places in the United States. Motorola has 2.2 Froyo slated for the Droid X when it gets here. Look for this update to make your life a bit easier.
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