Yesterday, Google released the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) SDK. This marks the official release of the latest version of Android, which will be launched baked into the Nexus S.
While Android 2.3 does bring a few welcomed improvements to the platform, it isn’t doing any major overhauling; looks like we’ll have to wait for Android 3.0 for that.
For users, Android 2.3 has a newly tweaked notification bar which looks to have some refined icons. I still think they look rather ugly compared to the iOS status bar icons, but at least they’re evolving. There is also a slightly changed keyboard which Google says is faster and more accurate than the one found on previous versions of Android. Google is Finally adding a way to effectively select text for copy/paste actions which will function (not surprisingly) similarly to the iPhone’s implementation of the feature. Copied or not, I can’t wait to finally not be frustrated when selecting text on Android phones (besides a few phones that have custom tweaks for this issue).
Additionally built-in VoIP/SIP support for internet telephony has been included (something the Maemo devices [such as the N900] have been doing well for a long time), presumably supporting video chatting for devices being released with front-facing cameras.
YouTube has also been enhanced for in-page viewing (a la iPad) and a personalized homepage similar to what you find with the web desktop version of YouTube.
Android 2.3 feels like more of an update for developers than users. This will be good in the long run because while you might not see lots of enhancements right out of the box, but it adds tools for developers to be able to create great new features. If you’re a tech head (and I have to imagine that most of you are, if you like Android), here’s a video from Google showing off some of the improved controls and tools that they’ve added to Android 2.3 for developers:
Pethetic. Android will remain crap it seems, and iOS is even worse. Microsoft had the longest tenure of any consumer-popular name in embedded OS development, but even Windows Mobile seems to have fallen into a pile of human waste. It’s truly scary that consumers are blindly eager to dive into the mobile space in a time when we have pretty good hardware and absolutely terrible software. The ridiculous thing is that better choices are already out there, but they’re not being embraced because of that eternal catch-22: not used because not popular, no popular because not used. WebOS, QNX, MeeGo, and the myriad of lightweight Linux distributions are all right there for the taking. Supporing nonsense like Android with your hard earned cash does little more than tell the world that you’re an idiot and ruin technology opportunities for the rest of us.
And because Android is such a fantastic operating system, everybody with an Android device gets to upgrade to the latest versions because it’s just software which just runs on hardware. Yea right, morons.
It seems that your criteria of what’s good is simply what’s POSIX compliant.
As a LONG OSS software users (yes, I remember when QNX was started), I can sincerely say this: you’ve lost all credibility.
Why no HSPA+ on Nexus S…
“Supporing nonsense like Android with your hard earned cash does little more than tell the world that you’re an idiot”
Well thanks for that…
I have android for my galaxy tab, it’s quite a nice OS in general and allthough there is fragmentation (as you all put it) that’s pretty normal for humans you know (the freedom in android reflects humannity perfectly if u ask me).
My phone is Maemo PR1.3 (soon to be meego), now if i could have that on this hardware i would much rather it, but for now android is at least something that is on the market. not much choice for us others that like to play with Maemo/Meego in the UK as of yet is there?
Now get off you high horse, and insult people less. I have an android, but i would much rather Meego ftw! :p