Engadgetannounced that both Android 2.3 Gingerbread and the Samsung Nexus S were officially announced to release. The OS that was said to be released brought the updates to the SDK and the NDK as well as SDK tools and the Eclipse ADT plugin. Shortly after Engadget’spost, which has now been deleted, Google’s Reto Meier recently sent out a tweet refuting any OTA rumors and putting the Gingerbread update timeline as “in a few weeks”:

Although we won’t be seeing Android 2.3 today, the list of features and enhancements is quite extensive. Check out what to expect below:

New Features/Enhancements:

OS/SDK/NDK:

The new OS features and enhancements include:

• enhancements for game development, including a new concurrent garbage collector, more native APIs, faster event distribution, updated video drivers, and new sensors (gyroscope) – this is amazing for developers; expect gaming to get a lot more responsive and versatile
• lots and lots of attention in the above bullet point has been given to the NDK – the Native Development Kit. This is simply excellent. Look in the 2.3 highlights for more details
• NFC (Near Field Communications) support
• UI updates for speed and simplicity
• better, faster, more intuitive text input, selection, and copy/pasting
• support for WebM, VP8, AAC, and AMR-wideband encodings
• new native audio effects, such as reverb, equalization, headphones visualization, and bass boost
• front-facing camera and SIP/VOIP support
• improved power management
• better control over applications
• downloads managementvia a new Downloads app
• 2.6.35 Linux kernel
• improvements to core libraries:
  • HTTP responses are gzipped by default. XML and JSON API response sizes may be reduced by 60% or more
  • faster Formatter and number formatting. For example, float formatting is 2.5x faster
  • and more

Eclipse ADT/SDK Tools:

As an Android developer, I’m also just as excited about the Eclipse ADT/SDK tools side of things. We have:

• simplified debug builds – no more switching between debug and release versions? Yes, please!
• integrated ProGuard support
• HierarchyViewer enhancements – this is a very useful tool for the app layout analysis
• an early release of the new UI Builder (the old one is pretty bad)

Gingerbread Intro Video:

You can check out the quick overview of Android 2.3 Gingerbread in the official Google video embedded below:

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[Source: Engadget; Android Developers]

Authors: _GadgetNews

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