The latest version of Android, 1.6 SDK codenamed Donut, is available for download, says Google. Android 1.6 will be available in phones by October, according to the Android blog. Google will be naming the upgraded versions of Android after pastries. Donut’s predecessor Cup Cake was released in May. Donut comes with many new features.
The features in Donut include a Quick Search Box which helps users search multiple sources from the home screen. The camera feature on Android has been upgraded to toggle between the still camera and the camcorder. The camera is also 39% faster and the time between one shot and the next has also been improved by 28%. Users can connect to select Virtual Private Networks. A Battery Indicator will display how much battery each app will consume. Users can also download accessibility services
Android Market has also been updated to make it easier for the users to get apps and games. New Platform Technologies have been introduced such as better search framework, which lets third party applications surface content from their applications in Quick Search Box. The text to speech engine Pico, speaks the written text in accents which match the language. Pico supports French, Italian, German, and Spanish, apart from American and British English. The Gestures framework lets users upload gestures and associate them with actions.
The Donut supports CDMA, and has the updated OpenCore 2 media engine. It also uses Linux 2.6.29 kernel.