Google Android 2.3 GingerBread – Whats new?

Android 2.3 Gingerbread Review

Finally,Google has unveiled its much-awaited version Android 2.3 aka Gingerbread along with Samsung Nexus S.So the big question is what actually google offers in this new version? Is it really worth the hype??.We took a brief look about Gingerbread and today we review some of the exciting new features that come with Android 2.3

New Features of android 2.3:

• New refreshed User Interface
• Improved keyboard
• Improved Text Selection and copy-paste
• Near Field Communication Support (NFC)
• VOIP Calling
• New Download Manager integrated to browser,email and other apps.
• Better Power Management
• Faster Processing Speed
• Improved Game Development

Taking about Game Development,David Turner Technical Lead of Android NDK  says that “Android Gingerbread will take gaming to a new level and Google has introduced Concurrent Garbage Collector which will minimize application pauses that leads to smoother animations and increased responsiveness” . He also says that input handling is much improved for touch and key events that it will result in lower CPU usage and faster dispatch speed. David also says that developers have now access to a more robust native environment that gives direct access to Audio,Input and sensor events,Assets and Open GL ES and also a new framework been introduced for lifecycle and window management
Dave Sparks Technical Lead of Android Media framework says that developers can now use VP8 and WebM which are open video Standards.Support has also been included for AAC and AMR wideband encoding,new audio effects like bass boost,headphone virtualization etc.

User interface:

The new interface is more polished now with tweaking of menu buttons,icons etc.The notifications pop-ups are also improved with the Android 2.3.

Improved Keyboard:

With the new keyboard additional spacing between keys and larger font sizes are provided to give precise touch control.Now cut-copy-paste can be done  by selecting the starting and ending point without using the cursor.

VOIP Calling:
VOIP functionality can now be accessed through your contacts.Google says that users need to have a SIP account with their service provider to use VOIP calling and asl the support for SIP is taken by the manufacturers.

Power Management:

With the new power management feature you can now see how much battery is being used up by your Android phone on various applications and manage them according to your needs
Near Field Communication Support (NFC):
The NFC technology is not grown in the US much but its very popular in Japan already.Users can swipe items on restaurants,movie posters,stickers etc to learn more about them.There is already a rumor that Apple got its own plans for this technology according to the popular website Cult of Mac


Multitasking:

The multitasking has improved and feels much faster .You can now hold home button to see the running apps and switch between them.

Voice Actions:

With new voice action you can send messages without actually typing it.For example you can say  ”Send to Bill to meet at Park avenue” and android 2.3 automatically recognizes and types it for you .These voice actions are not limited to Messages but also you can use for Google search,Google navigation etc.