Android 2.0 Eclair preview

Eclair heißt die neue Android 2.0 Version die voraussichtlich von Google noch vor dem großen Weihnachtsgeschäft ins Rennern geschickt wird. Ein erstes bekanntes Gerät wird das mit dieser Android Version wird das Motorola Droid sein. Bis dato bekannte neue Features und Änderungen:

* The OS now has native support for Facebook, including contact syncing
* Native Exchange support
* There’s a new unified inbox that brings all of your emails to one place – except Gmail emails. Those are still handled through the Gmail app.
* The maps application has been overhauled to support “layers”, which lets you toggle overlays such as Wikipedia entries, Latitude buddies, etc. There does appear to be multitouch support in the app, but you can not pinch to zoom.
* The browser has been kicked up a notch in the speed department, along with an overall UI polish.
* New Widgets, including an on-the-spot Youtube record/upload widget.
* We’re not sure if this is part of 2.0 or something that the handset manufacturer added, but this build includes something called “Car Home”. Car Home allows you quick voice-based access to a bunch of functionality, limited to the scope of stuff you’d need while driving. You can, for example, launch a Google Maps search for nearby coffee.
* The contacts screen has been dramatically cleaned up, removing much of the screen-to-screen clutter that has been dragging it down. Tap a name, and available contact methods pop out of a little speech bubble. Fun!

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