RSSAndroid 'Donut' SDK released: What's new inside
By Tim Conneally | Published September 15, 2009, 7:33 PM
Google's Android development team has made the latest Android SDK available, providing a complete view of all the new features that "Donut" (Android 1.6) will provide.
While most of the features included in this incremental update are no secret, this is the first time they have been presented to the public in a single package.
New Features
New Android Market- This update completely redesigns the Android Market, adds screenshots to app descriptions, adds more granularity to searches, and improves the overall shopping experience.
Gesture Support- A new tool in the SDK called GestureBuilder lets app developers generate entire libraries of new app-specific gestures.
Support for CDMA networks- The CDMA telephony stack is now supported, in addition to the previous support for GSM.
Text-to-speech API- A multi-lingual speech engine called Pico made by SVOX is included in Donut. This was one of the earliest features shown off for Donut at Google I/O this year.
Quick Search Box- Also shown off at I/O, Quick Search (then called "Android Search") is like the iPhone's "Spotlight" search. Quick Search Box framework lets users search through the phone as well as the Web, pulling up browser history, bookmarks, music, contacts and other data along with results drawn from the Internet.
New Camera Interface- From a single interface, the user can switch between still and video camera modes or look through the gallery. Additionally, the Android Team says camera launches 39% faster, and there is 28% less lag between shots.
Battery "fuel gauge"- This new feature lists the battery consumption of each running application and service, letting the user fully streamline his battery consumption. 
Virtual Private Network support- Now, users can configure and connect to L2TP/IPSEC pre-shared key-based or certificate-based VPNs, L2TP only VPN, or PPTP only VPN.
The Linux Kernel has been updated from 2.6.27 to 2.6.29, the OpenCore 2 media engine is now supported, as are a greater number of screen resolutions such as QVGA and WVGA, and new accessibility plugins such as tactile or aural feedback.
Google's Xavier Ducrohet today said, "You can expect to see devices running Android 1.6 as early as October. As with previous platform updates, applications written for older versions of Android will continue to run on devices with Android 1.6. Please test your existing apps on the Android 1.6 SDK to make sure they run as expected."
Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRFkLKRwFw
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|Nice new features. I will still keep my iPhone as it is better, but Android is really coming along. The Java based development environment is very slick and simple to use. I made a prototype app a few weeks back and it was beyond trivial to do.
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|Can current devices upgrade to this new version?
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|Come March 2010, I'm going to be up for renewal of my iPhone contract. And I can't be bothered waiting for the next iPhone v4. So my instinct is to go for an iPod Nano and a different phone. I need a good browser on the phone and a half-decent camera. As much as I really want Palm to get their crap together and have a good phone, they're still to release anything in the UK so that's a no-go. I strongly suspect that I'll be looking at the choice of Android phones available next year and I see the above news as being a very positive step for me as a customer indeed.
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|Same here. I'm an alltel user who's getting absorbed into verizon mid october but my wife's contract doesn't end til June 2010. For now i got myself an alltel blackberry pearl smartphone second-hand so i don't have to renew my contract (not totally happy with it honestly). Unless verizon's got something good by June android-wise we'll likely jump ship to T-Mobile since they have good service and great coverage out here and there's already some nice android phones.
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|The iPhone is a brilliant device but I believe strongly that Android will eventually overtake it simply because of its open architecture and he number of hardware vendors supporting it. While Apple is a terrific company and truly revolutionized this platform, they also rule with an iron fist. Being locked into AT&T strangles the competitive field for them. Many people I know are tired of being locked into Apple decisions and a single source for everything.
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|good article, and i like android's design
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