Android 1.6 SDK – which is perhaps better known by the codename “Donut” – has at last been made available for developers to download. Upgrades and new features are evident left and right, and if Google’s estimates are correct, not much more time will pass before Android 1.6 reaches consumers.
According to a post on the Android Developers Blog, Android 1.6 should land on devices “as early as October.” It’s about ready to go, then. So here’s an abbreviated list of all the benefits.
The post states that, “[w]ith support for CDMA and additional screen sizes, your apps can be deployed on even more mobile networks and devices. You will have access to new technologies, including framework-level support for additional screen resolutions, like QVGA and WVGA, new telephony APIs to support CDMA, gesture APIs, a text-to-speech engine, and the ability to integrate with Quick Search Box.”
A battery usage indicator and some Android Market updates are in the cards, too. Plus, Google doesn’t expect to see any compatibility issues with older apps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRFkLKRwFwAndroid 1.6 promises to make Google’s mobile operating system much more developer- and user-friendly. It should be interesting to see what sort of inroads it’s able to make against the market leaders.
