android-15-ui

Google Android 1.5 is getting some nice user interface changes as well as other features.  I have not seen a release date yet for version 1.5 but I have a feeling it will help Android to stay competitive and coincide with the releases of both the Palm Pre and the iPhone 3.0.

User interface refinements

  • System-wide:
    • Refinement of all core UI elements
    • Animated window transitions (off by default)
    • Accelerometer-based application rotations
  • UI polish for:
    • In-call experience
    • Contacts, Call log, and Favorites
    • SMS & MMS
    • Browser
    • Gmail
    • Calendar
    • Email
    • Camera & Gallery
    • Application management

Performance improvements

  • Faster Camera start-up and image capture
  • Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS)
  • Smoother page scrolling in Browser
  • Speedier GMail conversation list scrolling

New features

  • On-screen soft keyboard
    • Works in both portrait and landscape orientation
    • Support for user installation of 3rd party keyboards
    • User dictionary for custom words
  • Home screen
    • Widgets
      • Bundled home screen widgets include: analog clock, calendar, music player, picture frame, and search
    • Live folders
  • Camera & Gallery
    • Video recording
    • Video playback (MPEG-4 & 3GP formats)
  • Bluetooth
    • Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles)
    • Auto-pairing
    • Improved handsfree experience
  • Browser
    • Updated with latest Webkit browser & Squirrelfish Javascript engines
    • Copy ‘n paste in browser
    • Search within a page
    • User-selectable text-encoding
    • UI changes include:
      • Unified Go and Search box
      • Tabbed bookmarks/history/most-visited screen
  • Contacts
    • Shows user picture for Favorites
    • Specific date/time stamp for events in call log
    • One-touch access to a contact card from call log event
  • System
    • New Linux kernel (version 2.6.27)
    • SD card filesystem auto-checking and repair
    • SIM Application Toolkit 1.0
  • Google applications
    • View Google Talk friends’ status in Contacts, SMS, MMS, GMail, and Email applications
    • Batch actions such as archive, delete, and label on Gmail messages
    • Upload videos to Youtube
    • Upload photos on Picasa

New APIs and developer tools

  • UI framework
    • Framework for easier background/UI thread interaction
    • New SlidingDrawer widget
    • Horizontal ScrollView widget
  • Home Screen framework
    • APIs for creating secure home screen widgets
    • APIs for populating live folders with custom content
  • Media framework
    • Raw audio recording and playback APIs
    • Interactive MIDI playback engine
    • Video recording APIs for developers (3GP format)
    • Video and photo sharing Intents
    • Media search Intent
  • Input Method framework
    • Text prediction engine
    • Ability to provide downloadable IMEs to users
  • Speech recognition framework
    • Support for using speech recognition libraries via Intent
  • Misc API additions
    • LocationManager – Applications can get location change updates via Intent
    • WebView – Touch start/end/move/cancel DOM event support
    • SensorManager – redesigned sensor APIs
    • GLSurfaceView – convenience framework for creating OpenGL applications
    • Broadcast Intent for app update install succeeded – for smoother app upgrade experience
  • Developer tools
    • Support for multiple versions of Android in a single SDK installation
    • Improved JUnit support in ADT
    • Easier application performance profiling

Check It Out> Android Developers via Talk Android, Download the SDK Preview