Anyone up for some dessert? Google is offering a little “cupcake” for Android developers with version 1.5 of the mobile operating system’s System Development Kit. Clearly, the SDK is for Android developers, but it offers a glimpse of features and functions you can expect to see as the Android platform matures. What sort of features and functions? Glad you asked! Here’s a partial list I pulled together when I caught the news from AndroidGuys:
- System-wide Accelerometer-based application rotations
- Faster Camera startup and image capture
- Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS)
- Smoother page scrolling in Browser
- On-screen soft keyboard (works in both portrait and landscape orientation)
- Bundled home screen widgets include: analog clock, calendar, music player, picture frame, and search
- Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles)
- Browser updated with latest Webkit browser & Squirrelfish Javascript engines
- Copy ‘n paste in browser
- Search within a page in browser
- Shows user picture for Favorites in Contacts
- View Google Talk friends’ status in Contacts, SMS, MMS, GMail, and Email applications
- Text prediction engine
That’s just the icing on the cupcake, so check the full run-down on the Android Developers site. With as much as I use and live in the Google world, an update like this could lure me over to T-Mobile. I saw plenty of promise in the G1 when I first looked at it, but it still felt rough around the edges to me. There’s definitely some smoother corners coming to Android soon, thanks to these new features.
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