Google to Apple: We are willing to work with Adobe; Froyo 2.2 released

At the Google I/O today, a great quote was made about Adobe and Adobe’s flash on Android. It was said “It was nice of Adobe to work with us on developing Flash for Android, it was much nicer for us to work with them (Adobe) than to just say no.” Google also stated “it turns out people on the internet actually use Flash.” The speaker went on to say his daughter can’t go to her favorite website on the iPad. This surely is a huge swipe at Apple’s unwillingness to work with Adobe in developing flash for the iPhone, iPod and iPad. Google seems to think that Apple has it all wrong and they are probably correct.

New features list of after the video:

Cloud-to-Device Messaging

The newest and probably coolest addition to Android Froyo 2.2 is the cloud-to-device messaging service. Making a pretty big stab at Apple, Google’s vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra noted that this API is not meant to “make up for the lack of basic features like multitasking.” Instead, this new API will allow users to send “Android intent” messages from other services like Google Maps. In the example Google showed during today’s keynote, Gundotra sent directions from Google Maps on the Web directly to the phone.

Speed

Gundotra mentioned that in this version of Android 2.2, the speed of the OS is significantly faster than current versions. All thanks to a new compiler which shows benchmarks testing that apps on Android 2.2 are up to five times faster than the same code running on Android 2.1.

Enterprise

Android 2.2 will feature Exchange capabilities like account auto discover and calendar sync. Thanks to a new device policy management API, developers will now also be able to write apps that can perform remote wipes, which is utterly sweet.

Tethering and Mobile Hotspots

Android devices will now be able to function as portable hotspots. Creating a hotspot will be as easy as turning on this feature in the Android settings.

Browser

The browser in Android 2.2 got a major performance boost thanks to the addition of the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine to Android. In today’s demo, which featured quite a few direct swipes at Apple, the Android browser clearly outperformed Safari on the iPad. According to Google, the addition of the V8 engine has resulted in an improvement by a factor of three in JavaScript performance.

Voice Input

Google also highlighted Android’s voice recognition features. As Gundotra noted, using voice recognition currently works great for long queries. In the next version of Android after 2.2, the software will also be able to understand intentions.

External Memory and Auo-Updating for Apps

Android 2.2 will automatically move applications that don’t fit into the device’s internal memory to an SD card. In addition, you can now update all your apps with one click and even tell Android to update all your apps automatically whenever the developer releases a new version.

Market in the Browser

Google will bring the Android Market to the browser to give users a more iTunes-like experience. Thanks to the new cloud-to-device messaging feature, whenever you buy an app in the new Android Market on the Web that app will now automatically begin downloading on your Android device.

Music

Probably the biggest news is that users will also be able to stream their music from their desktops to their Android devices. To enable these features, Google has quietly acquired Simplify Media.

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