San Francisco –
The next generation of Google’s Android OS will operate faster, turn Android
smartphones into mobile WiFi hot spots, support Adobe Flash within the browser,
and add new camera/camcorder features, the company announced here during its
developers’ conference here.
The
, codenamed Froyo (for frozen yogurt), also supports voice dialing
over Bluetooth, supports Microsoft Exchange for enterprise users, and lets users
make room for more apps by storing them on memory cards.
The OS is already
available to app developers, and over-the-air updates to existing Android
owners will be available in a few weeks, a spokesman said.
Besides turning
the handset into a Wi-Fi hot spot that can be shared with up to eight devices,
Android 2.2 phones could also be used as a wireless modem when connected to a
Windows or Linux laptop via USB cable to share a wireless data connection, the
company said.
New Bluetooth
features include voice dialing over Bluetooth, contact sharing with other
phones, and support for Bluetooth-enable car and desk docks.
Improved
camera/camcorder features include portrait orientation, access to exposure
data, and onscreen buttons to control zoom, flash, white balance, geo-tagging,
focus and exposure.
A new picture gallery
feature will create stacks of pictures. Users will use a zoom gesture to view
individual pictures in the stacks.
Android-phone camcorders
will now benefit from using an LED flash to take videos in low light or at
night. Android 2.2 will also provide an easier way to set video quality for
sharing via MMS or YouTube.
Performance-enhancing
additions include faster loading of JavaScript-heavy Web pages and improved
memory management to provide faster app switching and smoother performance on
devices with constrained memory.
In other changes,
a tips widget on the home screen helps new users configure home screens with
shortcuts and widgets. The OS will also provide dedicated shortcuts on each of
five home-screen panels for phone functions, Web browsing and app launching.
For enterprises,
Microsoft Exchange support includes Exchange calendars, Global Address List
look-up in the email application, numeric pin and alpha-numeric password
options to unlock devices, and remote wipe so Exchange administrators can
remotely reset a device to factory defaults to secure data if the device is
lost or stolen. Autodiscovery is said to make it easier to set up and sync an
Exchange account with just a user name and password.
