By Leo Stiles
Ireland might be about to get a dose of Apple fever with the release of the iPhone 4, but for those of you who resist the hype and plump for an Android phone instead during the coming weeks, your fortitude will be rewarded by Google in the shape of some delicious Frozen Yogurt.
No, we haven’t gone mad and neither has Google, but there is no escaping that Frozen Yogurt is the most exciting thing to happen to Android phones, well, ever. To help you get your head around this we have prepared some frequently asked questions that will have you FroYo savvy in minutes.
What’s all this Frozen Yogurt stuff and why is it in my phone?
Frozen Yogurt is the code name given to the latest version of the Android OS. Google, in a typical fit of playfulness, decided to name each substantial update to their mobile operating system after a different sweet snack with Frozen Yogurt or FroYo being Android 2.2. Earlier releases have been given monikers such as Donut (1.6) and Eclair (2.1).
As for why it’s in your phone, well you really should read on because FroYo is bringing a host of features to your Android phone that other smartphones can only dream of.
What sort of things can I expect?
For starters, FroYo heralds the addition of Flash Player 10.1, the fully featured version of Flash that will run on mobile devices. Up until now, Android phones had to make do with Flash Player Lite, a stripped down version of the video player that has a number of performance and compatibility issues. However, this update will open up the internet on your phone and get rid of all those annoying blue cubes that can litter a web page without Flash installed. Flash Player 10.1 will even be able to access the RTE Player on your phone, so you need never miss another episode of Fair City again. Ahem.
It’s a sad fact that not all Android phones are made equal, with some handsets sporting massive memory and some just making do with smaller memory cards. This has led to phones with meagre memory being choked with downloaded apps. FroYo will address this in two ways:
- You can now store applications on memory cards which given how cheap they have become is a more attractive option than it first seems.
- Better yet is the second option. FroYo will allow you to transfer all downloaded content to your PC without the need for wires. Simply run the software on your laptop and hit sync and your phone will update both itself and your PC, allowing you to store some of your content that you aren’t using. iPhone users have been asking for this for years but it seems only Google has been paying attention
The last big feature in the FroYo release is the inclusion of tethering. Tethering allows your phone to share its internet connection with a PC, giving you mobile broadband without having to buy one of those ugly dongles.
Tethering isn’t exactly new but Google have implemented it in a way that makes you wonder why it hasn’t been done before. Traditional tethering was a case of connecting your phone with a data cable and using it as a modem. FroYo allows you to do just this, but rather than a cable between two devices, your phone can be turned into a Wi-Fi hotspot allowing access to the internet via any device that is Wi-Fi equipped.
The fly in this particular ointment is the fact that mobile operators in Ireland are not supporting tethering in any meaningful way beyond the business customer. Part of this has to do with bandwidth concerns and part of it because of the rapid pace of development in smartphone technology.
The introduction of the iPhone 4 and iPad in Ireland should bring with it a fresh approach from networks that should have positive consequences for all smartphone users. We will be closely monitoring this, so watch this space.
Is that it?
The above are just the biggest features, but FroYo has some other additions worth shouting about including:
- Speed. FroYo runs five times faster than previous versions of Android and Google claims that it has the fastest mobile web browser in version 2.2.
- Apps can now be updated in the background, leaving you free to use your phone instead of waiting for the update to finish.
- You can now stream you non-DRM music to your phone from your PC using your home wireless network. Add in a docking device with a speaker and you have a jukebox for you home in every room.
- FroYo will enable speech recognition which can then be sent to Google for speech to speech translation.
I want it. When can I get it?
Again, not all Android phones are created equal and some manufacturers like to modify Android releases to better suit their own handsets. A good example of this is HTC, who run a modified version of Android on their phones called HTC Sense and while FroYo might be released by Google, the HTC update can often be months behind.
So far, no manufacturer has officially rolled out the update or announced when FroYo will available for their phones and the most that HTC will divulge is that the update will be released for all of their compatible handsets by the end of the year.
This is probably not what you wanted to hear but you can believe us when we tell you that the wait will be worth it
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