Froyo'd: Thoughts on Android 2.2

This morning, I was treated to this Engadget post, about Froyo being released officially by Google. Finally. [What is Froyo? you ask? Click here then :). In short, Android 2.2]

I waited till the evening for an over-the-air update on my Nexus One, but then, decided to take the plunge during my train ride home in the evening. Using the instructions from this comment, I downloaded the latest update from Google's servers, started the update process, and waited.

and waited.

and waited.

After the update, the phone rebooted to its pretty boot animation, but nothing else was going on. After waiting for a bit, I pulled the battery out, put it back in, and rebooted it with crossed fingers.

And it worked!

So I now have Android 2.2 running on my phone, and have also installed Flash 10.1 on it :). [Take that iPhone folks!]

First impressions:
So, is Froyo all that is was hyped to be? Well, here are some initial thoughts (after 30 minutes of playing around)
- Give it some time to sync etc. after upgrade. The speed is sluggish at that time.
- The home screen is snappier. I like the minor bounce it gives when settling on a screen.
- The move to SD card option for apps [accessible under settings->applications->manage applications] is great! I can finally install new puzzle apps :).
- The ability to switch between gmail accounts from right within the compose window is also very useful. Makes sense when you click "share" from the image gallery, and want to use your office gmail account. Now only if it gave me the option to send mail "from" another account, like it does from within Gmail.
- The overall feel is definitely faster. Which is nice :).
- Flash installed. Have not used it yet. But saw a setting for "plugins" in the browser, which I set to "on demand". So I hope it will not auto-show me flash ads from all sorts of pages [I am looking at you, ToI!]. It is also interesting to see that a lot of flash game websites are now targeting android as their platform, so that should lead to an explosion in the number of 'apps'. [update: confirmed that in this manner, Flash in browser gives me the ability to enable only certain animations. Win!]

So, those were my first impressions. More to come as I play with it. I have changed my voice recognition settings to "English (India)". Let's see if it leads to any improvements :).
[Update: The phrase "This is a test" was not recognized properly under "English(India)" settings. When I changed it back to "English(Generic)" it worked. I guess I do have a random/generic English accent now :P]

Some other reviews can be read here: PC World, Engadget.

[mobilePic] Fullmoon Dance and Sian Mai at Num.

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[mobilePic] Saw this family move a car onto a boat on the Seine this evening.

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The Cake is Back!

[Edit: This post has videos. Those of you reading it on Facebook or Buzz are requested to go to the original post on my blog to see them.]

First, the teaser [direct link]


Then, the hands-on demo [direct link]


Yup. Portal 2 is coming! Am so happy :).

And lastly, where we left off last time. [direct link]


[and for those who don't understand what this post is about, some background]

[mobilePic] Wonderful (Bangla)deshi meal chez Riyadh and Rini

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Captions, on Varun's request, from left to right, top to bottom: Chicken cutlets, shrimp with capsicum - chinese style, Chicken curry, salad, "koi" fish curry [with entire fishes], egg korma, pulao, and chicken with veggies. And there was amazing cake-topped custard later, not pictured :)

Eight years on, still alive.

It has been eight years now since that car accident in 2002. Time surely flies fast.

So happy re-birthday to (Ashish) Chandra, Akshay, Rahul and Me!! :)

-A
P.S. Met Chandra in London last month. Good times. :)
--
sent from my Google Nexus One

[mobilePic] A.R.Rahman is coming to Paris. Jai Ho!

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[mobilePic] Mom, Dad, Big Bro and me at Neha and Piyush's Wedding

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