Android 2.2 Froyo

As I said before Google released Android 2.2 Froyo. This brings an enormous amount of features. One of the most request features is tethering. Yes, tethering. The long time yearned for feature is now coming to Froyo. It will be available through USB cable or through a portable hotspot. That means you cut the stupidity of a $100+ plus a $30 bill. Get an android and you only get 1.


 If you're switching from an iPhone or have an iTunes library listen up. You're not gonna want to abandon all your songs. Froyo allows you to stream all of your non  DRM music. That means you can still keep your music even if you cant fit it all onto your android device.


Another much request feature is Flash. It includes Flash 10.1. Flash 10.1 is critical because it is optimized for mobile devices. This proves once again that Flash can and wants to do well. Just, Apple has ridiculously high standards. This means that you won't see any blue cube icons. Instead, you'll see a full flash app. Yep, free movies on Hulu. (Currently I'm stuck with an iPhone but I'll never make that mistake again.)


There are also some under-the-hood improvements. Froyo is incredibly faster than its previous version Eclair. It has a JIT compiler. A Just In Time compiler. This means games will be much smoother and faster. At the I/O conference they ran a test with two exactly the same phones running the exact same game. (Modified for the purpose of the test to be more graphically intense.) The only difference one had Froyo with the JIT compiler and one didn't. Each Time the screen dropped below 30 frames per seconds the screen would flash red. After a couple seconds Eclair didn't even flash anymore it just kept red.

Photo courtesy of Gizmodo