Android 2.2:
Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering at the Mountain View online giant, takes the stage:
Says daily activations has now passed 100,000 a day.
This quarter, we are now second in smart phone sales, second only to RIM.
Passed a billion miles navigated with Android's turn-by-turn directions.
Crossed 50,000 applications on the Android platform.
As expected, Gundotra announces Android 2.2.
"We have big dreams for Android," he says.
Froyo, the name of the new version of the operating system, is much faster and includes 20 new features designed to help the enterprise, including support for Microsoft Exchange.
It also includes better data back up.
A new cloud-to-device messaging API allows a user looking up directions on a desktop browser to automatically send those results to their Android phone.
As rumored -- and widely hoped -- the Android will now be able to be used as a wireless modem.
"You should be able at the platform level to enable tethering," he said.
The future of Froyo:
A demo shows Android 2.2 runs faster than Eclair, the previous version, and the iPad.
"We think ... Froyo has the fastest mobile browser .. an accomplishment we are extremely proud of."
Promises to provide a sneak peak of something beyond Froyo, a taste of where they're going next. Shows a map that tilts with movement of the phone and, after an initial failure, an application that can use the phone's camera within the Web browser.
Shows off improved voice search capabilities, including "pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset."
"What's coming next is the ability to understand human intentions," Gundotra says.
Shows off Android's ability to do real time voice translation.
Announces, again as expected, Android support for Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 public beta.
"It turns out, on the Internet people use Flash," he says, an obvious dig at Steve Job's refusal to include Flash on Apple's iPad and iPhone.
Working with other companies "is much nicer than just saying no," he adds.
Starting with Froyo, the user can enable automatic updating, so that the latest versions of applications load automatically.
Promises a sneak peak of things coming to the Android marketplace.
Shows off the ability of applications and music downloaded from the Android marketplace to automatically load on the phone, without tethering to a computer.
"We discovered something really cool," he says. "It's called the Internet."
Says acquisition of Simplify Media will make all the music on your computer -- at least those songs not locked down by digital rights management -- available as a stream on the phone.
Shows off AdSense for Mobile Apps, including text and banner ads at the top of the smart phone screen, an expandable ad format that slides down the screen when clicked, a click-to-call ad, and an ad that automatically opens to a map with directions.
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techch...9#ixzz0oXsd6GsU
My first criticism would be the fact that Android is barely a year old, has only 20 handsets and it's OS updates are already buggy and face long delays depending on your device. It'll be fun to see what happens when there are hundreds of different handsets each with different capabilities and proprietary software built on top. Should be fun to see the delays and bugs when your model phone isn't top of the line anymore. You're right, you're at the mercy of each manufacturer to get the updates customized and available in a timely manner. They aren't doing so well now, what makes you think it'll get better as they saturate the market with hundreds different phones? This is exactly why Apple doesn't want Flash (or anyone else) to be middleware in iPhone app development. You've just proved me correct in two different debates, Cardy.
I fully expect you to swoop in to the rescue the next time one of your cronies decide to 
an Apple thread, Maelstrom.
I fully expect you to swoop in to the rescue the next time one of your cronies decide to 
an Apple thread, Maelstrom.
an Apple thread, Maelstrom.
