What You Need to Know About FroYo

The talk in the Android world right now is about Android 2.2, codenamed FroYo.  FroYo will build on the improvements made in the last major release, Éclair by increasing speed and adding some great new features.  More on that in a bit.

Google has been releasing builds to Nexus One owners already, but as for the rest of us, we’re still waiting for phone manufacturers to build their versions and release the official builds for our phones.  The source code was released a few weeks ago, so we should start seeing releases by the end of the month.  There are rumors that the release for the Motorola Droid will be coming as soon as mid-July.  The Droid should be one of the first phones to receive the update as it doesn’t require any major changes to the interface.  In contrast, HTC has said that they will have FroYo released to all of their latest phones by Christmas, so you Sense users have some waiting to do. [Phandroid]

So what can you expect from FroYo? In one word: speed.  A new browser engine will increase performance on JavaScript-heavy pages. Better memory management will result in faster application switching and smoother performance. Also, they’ve added just-in-time compilation (JIT) for processor heavy applications.  This will result in a significant performance boost in many applications.

Besides speed, there are several other new features worth noting, especially for corporate users.  Android will now have better support for Microsoft Exchange, including the option to PIN or password lock your device (in addition to the existing pattern lock).  The Android Calendar now supports Exchange, and the e-mail application supports Global Address Book lookup.  Users can also add signatures to outgoing e-mails.

For you non-corporate users, there are some awesome new features as well.  My favorites are the mass-update and auto-update features of the Android Market.  Users can allow applications to automatically update when a new version is released in the Market.  If you still want to check for updates obsessively like I do, there is now an “Update All” button if you have multiple updates to install.  The Camera and Gallery apps have been updated as well.

FroYo also introduces “Cloud to Device Messaging.”  This essentially allows developers to create apps that use push notifications rather than the application having to check for information at regular intervals.  This should be a big battery saver once apps start utilizing it.  Google includes a great example of this service with their new app “Chrome to Phone.”  Chrome to Phone allows users to send links or pages directly from their browser window to their phone.  This is a great way to save links for later, or continue reading a long page on the go.

If you don’t want to wait for FroYo to come to your device, you might be able to find a leaked build online.  Especially if you have a rooted Motorola Droid, there are many ROMs available that use either FroYo leaked builds or the new source.  Obviously, if you choose to root your device or install a leaked build, you do so at your own risk, but there are some great reasons to root your device – I’ll talk more about that next week.

Source: Android Developers

What I’m Playing on my Droid: Doodle Jump by GameHouse ($3.99)