Android 2.3

With the massive arrival of Android based devices on the mobile market, the very hyped, yet mysterious, Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" release has many waiting by the phone for the inside news. Here it is! The big focus with the newest version of Google's mobile OS is on a heavily improved user experience. This version of Android OS was first released on 12/16/2010 on the Nexus S smartphone.

Basics

The new Android OS offers very little in the way of major feature changes or additions and the core is essentially the same from Froyo 2.2. Nonetheless, the effort has been placed on its appearance, UI experience and performance. Gingerbread shows off a slick new look in the form of an black, orange, and green interface, which may be some of the most aesthetically pleasing and coolest changes, but that of course is a matter of opinion.

Functional Changes

While there isn't much that has been changed or modified under the hood, it does contain some very impressive functionality changes, mainly in the keyboard. There is one touch word selection and, of course, the much coveted copy and paste feature has also been improved upon. Using a press and hold gesture, the user is now able to get a draggable selection for either a single word or multiple words. They all added a multitouch "key chroding" which allows users to switch to symbol mode by touching the "shift" key, letter and the symbol mode key to enter numbers or symbols without stopping to change modes. Additionally, Android has reshaped the keys and positioned them to make keyborarding exponentially faster, easier, and much less frustrating for hte end user. There is also a auto suggest feature that intuitively offers corrections from an on phone dictionary and users can simply switch to voice mode to select the proper corrections. Just an extra "badass" factor for the new OS.

Minor Changes

There have been some small under the hood changes to the Android 2.3 OS. These changes include some much needed improvements to the power management routines, which better allow for Android devices to shut down apps that consume too much power in the background. This change allows the device to shut the apps off that seem to keep the phone powered on for too long as well. These are both features that could theoretically help save on the phones battery life.

Users are also going to have a better idea of there power status and application power usage with the add-on of heavily detailed info available in the app management system. They also included a manage application command in the options menu on the home screen, as well as the launcher, which allows users to quickly access all app information. Additionally, changed in communications allow users to make calls from a contact record, quick connect, or the dialer itself.

Final Thoughts

Lastly, Google is showing enhancements that are intended for devleopers of gaming apps on the Android OS. There is now faster screen response and updated video drivers, which allow for more gaming performance coming in due time. However, with over 80k Android apps to choose for now that include many games, there is definitely no lack of fun or productivity when it comes to using any Droid device, no matter the version.

Overall the new look is sexy, sleek, and dark with dramatic color streaks against a dark background. The theme works great and is quickly becoming a sexy competitor to iOS 4.