Google Announces Android 2.2 “Froyo” – Faster and with Flash Support!

Android Froyo Screenshot

Another announcement from the Google I/O conference this past week was the unveiling and release of the newest version of Google’s Android mobile operating system, 2.2 or “Froyo.” This in itself wouldn’t be a huge announcement except for the fact that Froyo is expected to be remarkably faster on the same hardware that Android phones already run on, and that it’s supposed to fully support Adobe Flash.

Google has already stepped back a bit from Flash and talked up the benefits of HTML5, but their mantra has always been that their thrust is to be inclusive and support as many technologies as possible as opposed to the ones they prefer, so 2.2 will (and does, as some people have managed to get it running on the Google Nexus One) support full Flash 10.1 video and site navigation.

Additionally, the new OS is supposed to support the ability to update all of your apps simultaneously, be installed over the air so you don’t have to download anything onto a computer to upgrade your phone, improve syncing of music and video from your computer to your device, and even include built-in tethering and WiFi sharing, so your Android phone can become a wireless hotspot for other devices and tether to your laptop for remote internet access.

There’s no firm release date for Froyo yet, but over at the Lifehacker link below you can see some screenshots and links to more information about the upcoming OS, and read a bit more about some of its best features.

[ Lifehacker :: Google Announces Android 2.2 with Flash, Google TV at I/O Conference ]

3 thoughts on “Google Announces Android 2.2 “Froyo” – Faster and with Flash Support!

  1. Deinera

    Oh, this is interesting. One of the first SmartPhone OS’ to have Flash run on it (effectively, at least).

    Crazy interesting. Infinitely more tempting, and will likely give the the iPhone a run for it’s money.

  2. Alan Henry Post author

    True, and definitely – especially now that news is out that Android mobile phones are outselling iPhones for the first time.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/7711113/Android-phones-outsell-iPhone.html

    That’s not as huge a story as a lot of tech publications have made it out to be since there’s only one iPhone on one carrier and there are several Android phones on just about every carrier.

    Even so, I’ve been using the Skyfire browser on my Android phone, and found a pretty serious dearth of Flash-enabled sites to browse. Leo Laporte mentioned on Twitter as such too: he was running 2.2 on his Nexus One, and went looking for Flash sites and only found them by switching to “desktop mode” and fooling a bunch of sites to think that he’s using a desktop OS!

  3. Pingback: TechTV Forever // » Blog Archive » This Week at Gears and Widgets…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *