Frozen Yoghurt

Finally found the time to update my Nexus One (thanks again, Google Fairy, if you're reading this) to Android 2.2 or Froyo. First impression? The thing rocks. It's so much faster than on 2.1 (and that's something compared to the older Hero) not just in the benchmarks as they say, but everywhere, gallery, menu navigation, everything.



The addition of the phone and web icons to the base tab on every screen makes sense and frees up (two icons) of screen real-estate. It has built in tethering and WiFi Hotspot capabilities (as if the 5-hour battery life wasn't short enough) and is just generally more well rounded.

Email menus now have forwards / backwards buttons and with minor aesthetic changes here and there.

The on-screen keyboard (one of the weaknesses of the N1 compared to its HTC half-brother) has had quite a few improvements with easier to access commonly used punctuation the moment you press space. Small improvements here and there that make the user experience much better.

What else? A google maps active wallpaper. A power widget in which you can set the backlight back to auto without having to go through all the menus.

Oh, almost forgot. Flash. Real Adobe Flash. That means I can watch streaming flash video via tv.truelife.com or view flash heavy websites. Seems pretty slick and fast too, unlike Nokia's implementation.

It now has a dedicated data off button for when roaming or if you are (urgh) still not on an unlimited data plan. Also makes sense on networks (such as 3) that simplify configuration by working with any APN (so the old change the apn trick to disable data does not work).

Oh, and either Thai came pre-installed on the Modaco ROM I used or it didn't wipe the old Thai fonts. Must check that out.

Camera control is much less clumsy with everything accessible from the shooting screen rather than the slow slide-out panel and it now has manual exposure compensation.

Now, back to exploring the NexusOne god phone. See you later, all your Eclair and Donut eaters.