I haven't seen a single article online that has mentioned everything new in Android 2.2 yet(they all leave out various things) so I'm going to try and do it. I'm also going to share my experiences with it so far.
Features of Android 2.2:
1. JIT Compiler (2x-5x speed increase) in many applications
2. Web browser performance increase
3. Dedicated phone and browser buttons on the home screens next to the application browser button
4. USB Tethering and Wifi Hotspot with open or WPA2 security options. Works extremely well requiring absolutely zero configuration on Windows Vista and 7 computers. You just plug it in and the computer is on the internet, you don't have to enable anything in network options on the PC.
5. Flash 10.1 capable (when downloaded from the marketplace)
6. Marketplace allows comments to be ranked as “helpful, unhelpful, spam”
7. Marketplace app pages are a bit more streamlined, now with a product page and then a button for a comments page
8. Full featured copy and paste in Gmail
9. Applications can be installed to SD card. Note that this feature requires the developer to update their app to support this functionality.
10. Applications can be set to automatically update. There is also an update all button if you didn't set everything to auto update and have multiple applications that need to be updated.
11. Bluetooth Voice Dialing
12. New security options for locking the phone: Numeric keypad, alphanumeric password
13. Phone no longer beeps when plugged into USB cable(I found the beep annoying so this is welcome)
14. Camera functions are much better and more accessible now, can keep the flash on for taking video at night
15. The Gallery application has much higher performance now
16. Calendar has a new color scheme with a sharper appearance now
17. Car Home is much more user friendly with very large buttons and simplified UI
18. Application manager now lets you see installed applications, running applications(different from running processes), applications on SD card
19. Devices with over 256MB of RAM can now use all of their RAM
20. Contacts list scrolls much smoother than before
21. USB mounting is made more intuitive: When you plug in a usb cable, a screen pops up telling you the USB cable is plugged in and has the button to mount right on there. The android symbol changes color when in mount mode to help remind you to unmount when you're finished
22. Switching between home screens is much smoother
23. The all applications browser menu is even more 3D ish but it does run a little slower
24. Google Maps runs noticeably smoother
25. Power control widget now lets you select auto brightness as an option
26. AM and PM symbols next to the clock are smaller
27. Gmail shows the account you are logged in as in the top right corner
28. There's a new more powerful google search widget
29. Home screen tips widget
30. Full fledged Exchange support
31. Does not delete or change or get rid of any settings or applications when updating from 2.1 to 2.2.
32. Official Twitter app is included with the install. Can not be uninstalled.
33. New Google Maps Live Wallpaper. Displays a satellite image of your current location.
34. The "alt tab" menu(long press home key) now shows 8 applications instead of 6. The menu transitions smoothly onto the screen instead of popping onto the screen.
35. Application specific data can now be backed up and restored when moving to a new phone or performing a factory reset.
36. Wireless N standard support for Nexus One
37. Messaging application uses a white color scheme instead of black
38. Multi-touch preview of gallery folder contents
Overall, the entire OS just seems much more polished. Think Windows Vista -> Windows 7. Everything is smoother, everything runs quicker, many things look nicer, and the new features are very welcome. I think everyone will be very pleased.
Flash has been more or less what I expected. You can watch flash videos now, but not Hulu yet; they have it blocked for some reason. Most flash games are very difficult to play on the phone, but some of them run very well. Flash ads on web pages slow the browsing experience down. My verdict: Glad it's an option so I can watch non-youtube videos but it is not something I want on all the time. Games will probably work a lot better when developers design flash games for smartphones. I would very much like a very easy to access toggle button to turn flash on when needed and turn it off otherwise.
Google has confirmed that the version of Android 2.2 floating around the web that a few of us are using is not the final OTA version. I imagine that the OTA release version will only have bug fixes and not any new features that are not in this build.
Feel free to add anything I may have omitted.
Features of Android 2.2:
1. JIT Compiler (2x-5x speed increase) in many applications
2. Web browser performance increase
3. Dedicated phone and browser buttons on the home screens next to the application browser button
4. USB Tethering and Wifi Hotspot with open or WPA2 security options. Works extremely well requiring absolutely zero configuration on Windows Vista and 7 computers. You just plug it in and the computer is on the internet, you don't have to enable anything in network options on the PC.
5. Flash 10.1 capable (when downloaded from the marketplace)
6. Marketplace allows comments to be ranked as “helpful, unhelpful, spam”
7. Marketplace app pages are a bit more streamlined, now with a product page and then a button for a comments page
8. Full featured copy and paste in Gmail
9. Applications can be installed to SD card. Note that this feature requires the developer to update their app to support this functionality.
10. Applications can be set to automatically update. There is also an update all button if you didn't set everything to auto update and have multiple applications that need to be updated.
11. Bluetooth Voice Dialing
12. New security options for locking the phone: Numeric keypad, alphanumeric password
13. Phone no longer beeps when plugged into USB cable(I found the beep annoying so this is welcome)
14. Camera functions are much better and more accessible now, can keep the flash on for taking video at night
15. The Gallery application has much higher performance now
16. Calendar has a new color scheme with a sharper appearance now
17. Car Home is much more user friendly with very large buttons and simplified UI
18. Application manager now lets you see installed applications, running applications(different from running processes), applications on SD card
19. Devices with over 256MB of RAM can now use all of their RAM
20. Contacts list scrolls much smoother than before
21. USB mounting is made more intuitive: When you plug in a usb cable, a screen pops up telling you the USB cable is plugged in and has the button to mount right on there. The android symbol changes color when in mount mode to help remind you to unmount when you're finished
22. Switching between home screens is much smoother
23. The all applications browser menu is even more 3D ish but it does run a little slower
24. Google Maps runs noticeably smoother
25. Power control widget now lets you select auto brightness as an option
26. AM and PM symbols next to the clock are smaller
27. Gmail shows the account you are logged in as in the top right corner
28. There's a new more powerful google search widget
29. Home screen tips widget
30. Full fledged Exchange support
31. Does not delete or change or get rid of any settings or applications when updating from 2.1 to 2.2.
32. Official Twitter app is included with the install. Can not be uninstalled.
33. New Google Maps Live Wallpaper. Displays a satellite image of your current location.
34. The "alt tab" menu(long press home key) now shows 8 applications instead of 6. The menu transitions smoothly onto the screen instead of popping onto the screen.
35. Application specific data can now be backed up and restored when moving to a new phone or performing a factory reset.
36. Wireless N standard support for Nexus One
37. Messaging application uses a white color scheme instead of black
38. Multi-touch preview of gallery folder contents
Overall, the entire OS just seems much more polished. Think Windows Vista -> Windows 7. Everything is smoother, everything runs quicker, many things look nicer, and the new features are very welcome. I think everyone will be very pleased.
Flash has been more or less what I expected. You can watch flash videos now, but not Hulu yet; they have it blocked for some reason. Most flash games are very difficult to play on the phone, but some of them run very well. Flash ads on web pages slow the browsing experience down. My verdict: Glad it's an option so I can watch non-youtube videos but it is not something I want on all the time. Games will probably work a lot better when developers design flash games for smartphones. I would very much like a very easy to access toggle button to turn flash on when needed and turn it off otherwise.
Google has confirmed that the version of Android 2.2 floating around the web that a few of us are using is not the final OTA version. I imagine that the OTA release version will only have bug fixes and not any new features that are not in this build.
Feel free to add anything I may have omitted.
Last edited:
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