MobileTechReview Forum, News and Reviews: Phone News: Google Takes The Wraps Off Android 1.5

For those of you who are capable of ungluing yourselves from the iPhone 3 preview for a moment, Google has provided their own preview of the forthcoming Android 1.5, a major update to their mobile phone OS, which is used on products such as the T-Mobile G1.

Here are some of the highlights:

User interface refinements

Refinement of all core UI elements
Animated window transitions (off by default)
Accelerometer-based application rotations
UI polish for: In-call experience, Contacts, Call log, Favorites, SMS and MMS
UI enhancements for the web browser, Gmail, Calendar, E-mail, camera, and application management

Performance improvements

Faster Camera start-up and image capture
Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS)
Smoother page scrolling in Browser
Speedier GMail conversation list scrolling

New features

On-screen soft keyboard (works in both portrait and landscape orientation)
Support for user installation of 3rd party keyboards
User dictionary for custom words
Home screen with widgets
Video recording
Video playback (MPEG-4 & 3GP formats)
Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles)
Copy and paste in browser
Search within a page
New Linux kernel (version 2.6.27)
SD card filesystem auto-checking and repair
View Google Talk friends' status in Contacts, SMS, MMS, GMail, and Email applications
Batch actions such as archive, delete, and label on Gmail messages
Upload videos to Youtube
Upload photos on Picasa

New APIs and developer tools

No release date has been announced for Android 1.5.

To see the complete list of new features, please visit the official site... or just head back over to the iPhone preview with me.

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To read our latest iPhone 3G articles please visit:

iPhone 3G In-depth Review
iPhone 3G First Look
iPhone 2.0: Untold Story
Cruising the Apple App Store
iPhone 3G Videos

More News. . .

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