Android 2.1 Preview

There is only ONE phone currently shipping with Android 2.0 (now 2.0.1), and already version 2.1 is making an appearance. Android 2.1 is the build on the device Google gave out to a bunch of it’s employees (the Nexus One). After a system dump from that phone showed up on the net, hackers have been working hard getting it running on other Android phones. I’ve been playing with it on my Motorola Droid for the better half of the day, and here’s what you have to look forward to.

The notification area and shade are unchanged. The app launcher is completely new. It no longer slides up from the bottom. Hitting the grid button on the bottom launches the launcher which has a new 3d effect. Instead of disappearing off the top/bottom of the screen, icons now roll off and fade into the background as you scroll. There is also a new “snap back” effect when you hit the top or bottom of the app grid. These features are kind of neat, but but don’t offer any new functionality.

The dashboard now has 5 home screens. These are represented as dots on the lower left and right side of the screen. The dots let you know which screen you are on, and clicking the them will fast scroll to the next screen–an alternative to swiping. Long pressing one of the dots brings up the new “card” view, which is similar to the like-named Palm pre feature. You can see a mini representation of each home screen, and tapping on one will take you to it.

You will notice there is a new widget–News and Weather. This shows you the current temp and weather indicator, and scrolls through the latest news headlines. Clicking the widget launches the new, you guessed it, News and Weather app. The weather tab gives you your basic 7 day forecast, while clicking the temp gives you an awesome temperature graph for the day. You can drag your finger along the graph to see the temperature for a specific time. Weather data is provided by The Weather Chanel.

The rest of the tabs break down the latest news by category. The default categories are Top Stories, U.S., Entertainment, etc. You can select which categories you want. My favorite feature is that you can create a custom topic. I created an “Android” topic. This adds a tab in the app, which gives you relevant news stories. You can’t specify sources, but it still gives decent results–my custom Android topic pulled stories from Phandroid, PC World, Wired, ZDNet, etc.

The next major change is the gallery app, which got a MAJOR overhaul. The app is now full of gorgeous screen transition and 3d effects. I normally hate these types of bells and whistles because they can cause slowdowns and lag… but this app is LIGHTNING fast. It’s an amazing tech demo. You really need to see it in motion. You can now crop and rotate photos. Long pressing a photo or group brings up a selection mode to let you select multiple items to do batch jobs (rotate and delete).

You can switch between a grid view, and a date view which groups your photos by date taken. If you have geotagged photos, the date view will list tagged locations in that set. Clicking on the geotag will show you photos tagged at that location. In the grid view, photos are also sorted by date. There is a scrub bar on the bottom to quickly find your way through a large group of photos. When the scrub bar is in use, a date is shown in the center of the screen so you quickly jump to what/when you are looking. I can swipe through a page of 140 photos view ZERO lag or delay. And finally, when you are actually viewing a photo you can swipe left or right to go to the next or previous photo.

The camera software is unchanged, although photos are now geotagged with city, state, and zip code. I don’t see an option in the camera settings to turn this off.

The “night-stand mode” has been revamped–this is the alternate home screen mode that is activated by putting your Droid in the multimedia dock. This can now be launched (without 3rd party software/hacks) by simply launching the Clock. It has both landscape and portrait modes. The dimmer button in this mode seems to make the screen considerably darker then before, which was a common complaint. The Alarm has also been given a little makeover.

Not much else has changed in Android 2.1. Whats most impressive is that despite all the added bells and whistles, Android 2.1 actually seems FASTER than 2.0.1. The News and Weather app + widget is a very welcome addition, as well as the MUCH improved gallery app. We’ve got a lot of great stuff to look forward to. And if you are daring enough, you can try 2.1 on your Motorola Droid today.

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