Android 2.2 Release - Official 2010 OTA (Over-The-Air) Update!

will I need to have 2.1 installed before getting 2.2?  I have not yet received 2.1 and understand there were issues/problems with the update.  What is the status?

gesmith48 send me a PM and said he was going to swing by Version.  He will let us know how it goes.

Ah, we can only pray!

- One of the best things about Google’s new Android 2.2 Froyo operating system, is that it comes with support for tethering and wireless hotspot abilities.  We have a report for you to read now, which hints that free tethering may be available for some handsets.

As reported from Phandroid, we have now learned that the support of tethering within Android 2.2 handsets will be down to the carrier.  They will be in charge in terms of fees, although Phandroid states that the Nexus One and Motorola Droid could get free tethering support since they are directly tied to Google Experience.

A particularly worrying fact for consumers though, is that carriers have the ability to disable tethering on 2.2 if they so wish to do so.

While tethering is obviously a great addition, you should expect it to come at high costs per month.

Give yourself a cookie please.

Hearing Google say that Android 2.2 would be filtering out to the Nexus One in short order was no huge shock -- after all, it's Google's first smartphone. But for those who purchased Motorola's first heavy-hitter since the RAZR, it looks as if they'll be close behind in enjoying the spoils. According to a Motorola spokesperson quoted at Slashgear (full statement is past the break), the company is expecting the original Droid to get Android 2.2 "in the near future," though he / she wouldn't go so far as to provide specifics beyond that. Better still, the same person stated that Motorola is excited about Froyo in general, and it's "looking forward to integrating it on [the firm's] Android-based devices as [the software] is made available." We hate to read too deeply into anything, but "devices" sure gets our digits tingling.

[Thanks, Alex]

    "We're excited to see Google's news of the next version of the Android operating system and look forward to integrating it on our Android-based devices as it's made available to the open source community."

    While I can't comment on specifics, we do expect DROID by Motorola users will receive Android 2.2 as a software upgrade in the near future."

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/24/motorola-expects-android-2-2-update-to-hit-droid-in-the-near-fu/

New User Features

New Home screen tips widget assists new users on how to configure the home screen with shortcuts and widgets and how to make use of multiple home screens.

The Phone, applications Launcher, and Browser now have dedicated shortcuts on the Home screen, making it easy to access them from any of the 5 home screen panels.

Exchange Support

Improved security with the addition of numeric pin or alpha-numeric password options to unlock device. Exchange administrators can enforce password policy across devices.

Remote wipe: Exchange administrators can remotely reset the device to factory defaults to secure data in case device is lost or stolen.

Exchange Calendars are now supported in the Calendar application.

Auto-discovery: you just need to know your user-name and password to easily set up and sync an Exchange account (available for Exchange 2007 and higher).

Global Address Lists look-up is now available in the Email application, enabling users to auto-complete recipient names from the directory.

Camera and Gallery

Gallery allows you to peek into picture stacks  using a zoom gesture.

Camera onscreen buttons provide easy access to a new UI for controling zoom, flash, white balance, geo-tagging, focus and exposure. Camcorder also provides an easy way to set video size/quality for MMS and YouTube.

With the LED flash now enabled for the Camcorder, videos can be shot at night or in low light settings.

Portable Hotspot

Certain devices like the Nexus One can be turned into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that can be shared with up to 8 devices.

You can use your Android-powered phone as a 3G connection for a Windows or Linux laptop by connecting their phone to the computer with a USB cable. The connection is then shared between the two devices.

Multiple Keyboard Languages

Multi-lingual users can add multiple languages to the keyboard and switch between multiple Latin-based input languages by swiping across the space bar. This changes the keys as well as the auto-suggest dictionary.

Improved Performance

Performance of the browser has been enhanced using the V8 engine, which enables faster loading of JavaScript-heavy pages.

Dalvik Performance Boost: 2x-5x performance speedup for CPU-heavy code over Android 2.1 with Dalvik JIT.

The graph to the right shows the performance speedup from Android 2.1 to Android 2.2 using various benchmark tests. For example, LinPack is now more than 5 times faster.

Kernel Memory Management Boost: Improved memory reclaim by up to 20x, which results in faster app switching and smoother performance on memory-constrained devices.