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Google dishes out giant Froyo parfait (video)
Google takes Android product codenames literally -- that's why you'll find a giant Eclair, Donut and Cupcake chilling on the GooglePlex lawn. This week, they were joined by the object tastefully pictured above. Frozen yogurt, anyone? You might not care to eat this one, as it's probably made of foam, but Engadget will likely bring you a spoonful next week when we attend Google I/O. Video after the break. Update: And just like that the video has been set to private. Not like video of a stationary object really adds much value anyway. Nevertheless, it already arrived at the GooglePlex where it's currently hanging out -- under wraps -- with its foam siblings.
Android 2.1 gets real on the wings of the Nexus One
We already knew the Nexus One would come baked to a crispy golden brown with a new cut of Android, and we've now heard several mentions of it on-stage at Google's official reveal: Android 2.1 is the real deal. HTC chief Peter Chou has specifically mentioned its 3D capabilities -- something we've seen in the new Gallery app -- but we're looking forward to seeing if El Goog's got any extra tricks up its sleeve here. For what it's worth, dev documentation for 2.1 isn't yet online, but we're keeping an eye out. Update: Notably, they're saying 2.1 is an extension of Eclair -- no Flan here, as far as we can tell. They've gone through the new integrated weather and news apps, live wallpapers, a 3D framework accessible by devs (thank goodness), and speech-to-text input.
Sprint's HTC Hero and Samsung Moment on track to get Android 2.1, not 2.0
So Sprint's backtracking on its promise to deliver Android 2.0 to its Hero and Moment in the first half of next year, but it's backtracking in an awesome way for a change of pace -- they'll actually be getting 2.1. That makes tons of sense considering that the leaked Hero builds have all been on 2.1 and 2.0 will be all but obsolete by the time HTC gets around to releasing anything -- so yeah, we probably could've predicted this anyway, but now it's official. Unfortunately that 1H 2010 window hasn't been reigned in at all, but here's hoping this is a case where they under-promise and over-deliver.
Android 2.1 moves down food chain, ROM now ported to G1 (update: hoax)
Future, meet your past. The fine lads at xda-developers forums have ported the Android 2.1 ROM -- you know, the updated OS from Nexus One that everyone's been talking about lately -- all the way to the original G1. Right now it's being dubbed version 0.9999 since it's still lacking A2SD, CompCache, and SWAP... and if you're feeling confused by the terminology, it might be best to not try this at home just yet. Creator Teh Dust has also removed a few things for the sake of making it more lightweight, including Car Home, Live Boot, and high resolution wallpapers / apps that don't jive with the G1 anyway. Willing, curious, and wanting to impress your Droid-carrying friends? File's hiding in plain sight, waiting for you. Update: Quoth the raven, 'twas a hoax and nothing more. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Android 2.1 ported to Droid, no one feigns surprise
You had to know this was coming. That Android 2.1 OS that's been circulating inside the Google's ultra-exclusive Nexus One has hit the internet, and thanks to some clever hackery, you can now theoretically put the update on your Droid handset. We say theoretically, of course, because it's not quite a perfect rip. DIY instructions were briefly posted on Sholes.info but have since been replaced with a curt advisory to wait for a ROM that properly preserves file system permissions, else risking some serious breaking. The original image file is still available, but don't say we didn't warn you. Separately and perhaps unrelated, a video has surfaced of the Nexus One's boot animation running on Droid -- feel free to enjoy that instead, after the break.%Gallery-80327% [Thanks, Seth and Kyle]
Android 2.1's boot animation for the Nexus One reminds us of... something
Red, green, blue, yellow. They aren't just four of the bestest shades in Roy G. Biv -- to anyone with a computer and a soul, that particular color combo is permanently etched in the brain as the unchanging constituents of the Windows logo in its many, many forms over the years; Google's logo happens to use them, true, but so far, Android's been green to the bone. Anyhow, you may have already noticed that some of the shots of the Nexus One clearly show a boot screen with a cross pattern colored thusly, and it turns out there's an Android 2.1 dump floating around that's got the animation on board. Of course, dumped ROMs have a tendency to get pulled apart like a turkey at Thanksgiving dinner in a matter of mere hours, and the animation's already found its way onto YouTube. Just because it's in a hacked Flan ROM doesn't mean you should expect to see it on every Android phone under the sun next year -- the animation portrays a nexus, of sorts, which would fit in nicely with a phone of the same name. Seriously though, check out the wait cursor in Windows Mobile 6.5 for comparison after the break (along with a video of the Nexus One's lovely boot sequence in action).
Giant Android eclair delivered to Google by even bigger nerds (video)
By now you should be familiar with Google's confectionary codenames for its Google Android OS: version 1.5 (Cupcake), 1.6 (Donut), 2.0 (Eclair) and version x.x (Flan). What you probably didn't know is that Google honors each release by dropping a steaming hot foam facsimile onto its front lawn. Historically, the arrival of the giant Donut at the GooglePlex was followed by the 1.6 developer release of Android just a few days later. Don't get too excited though, last we heard Eclair wouldn't arrive until Q2 of 2010 for consumers. Video and another view of the nerds "gone wild" just after the break.[Via TechCrunch]
Rubin: Android getting more social features; Donut, Eclair, and Flan all in the oven
You don't have to look far past Palm's Synergy tech for webOS and smaller-scale operations like INQ to understand that social internetworking -- an intelligent aggregation of every corner of your life -- is the wave of the mobile future, and Google's going on record saying that it understands. At a T-Mobile- and Google-sponsored event in San Francisco earlier today, Andy Rubin (you know, the Android dude) discussed upcoming releases in Android's pipeline starting with Donut, which we've already heard mentioned, but then progressing to "Eclair" and "Flan" without mentioning specific timelines. He didn't bust out any comprehensive roadmaps, but he waxed poetic about some of the social-centric possibilities -- for example, being kept abreast of a contact's Facebook photo and latest update every time they call -- and mentioned that developers will soon have additional options for charging for apps (presently, Google Checkout is the only way to handle it, but carrier billing is coming soon).He also reiterated that the hardware pipeline for Android is staggeringly massive, with 15 to 20 phones coming this year alone. One manufacturer actually had the stones to show him eighteen Android-powered devices in a recent meeting -- sounds like a very Samsung-esque thing to do, but whether it's Samsung, HTC, or someone else, we're happy to hear once again that the Magic, Hero, Dream, and Galaxy won't be the only games in town for long.[Via Phone Scoop]
