An Advance Look at Android 2.0

By  |  Friday, October 16, 2009 at 2:49 pm

Android 2.0Google CEO Eric Schmidt is predicting that use of the company’s Android phone OS is about to explode. That’s exactly the sort of thing you’d expect the CEO of Google to predict, but in this case the self-serving prediction looks like it might be the accurate one, too. We’re only just now starting to see Android-based phones arrive in significant quantities, and while none of the ones we know about so far seems to be a landmark device, they add up to a platform that’s likely to be the iPhone’s most formidable rival for the time being.

So far, I respect Android but don’t love it–as an OS, it gets the job done, but it doesn’t match the innovation, efficiency, elegance, or ingenuity of Apple’s iPhone OS or, as seen in the Pre, Palm’s WebOS. So I’m looking forward to Android 2.0–aka “Eclair”–and am intrigued by The Boy Genius Report’s gallery of screenshots. They don’t reveal anything awe-inspiring, but there look to be lots of little refinements, plus a faster browser, Exchange support, a unified inbox (although one which, oddly enough, supposedly doesn’t support Gmail), and built-in Facebook integration.

It’s impossible to judge an operating system from screen images alone, and many Android phones will sport customized interfaces and functionality. But if Android’s going to be everywhere–and I bet it is–it’ll be nice if it’s fully competitive with the most polished and functional mobile OSes in existence. Eclair looks like a step in the right direction, at least…

 
1 Comment


Read more: ,

1 Comments For This Post

  1. Marcomike Says:
    June 9th, 2010 at 2:33 pm

    while reading advance android 2.0 and the differences between the version, I saw something thatcaught my eye. That was the Android 2.0 had exchange mail intergrated but not gmail? As I recently joined the many Android users, I thought this was BS, the phone which I had just purchased ran ver.1.5 but had Gmail fully integrated along with Imap / exchange mail setting. I am begining to believe that the whole fragmentation issuse is being started by the Apple camp , because they know their days are numbered. So can someone write a truthful article or tweet instead of the nonsense they are spilling. Any O/S has growing pains and it up to Google to make sure reverse compatiablity exist.