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New Android Features Appear In Donut Code

Google has made some more code available for the Android platform. The code brings with it a host of new and interesting features, including support for CDMA devices and a brand new camera user interface. It may not be Android 2.0, but "Donut" looks tasty indeed.

Google has made some more code available for the Android platform. The code brings with it a host of new and interesting features, including support for CDMA devices and a brand new camera user interface. It may not be Android 2.0, but "Donut" looks tasty indeed.Details regarding the new features for Android's Donut update have been few and far between. Over the weekend, however, Android developers were able to get their hands on some new Android code from Google, and the news is exciting.

First up, Android Donut includes support for CDMA-based devices. This means U.S. carriers Verizon Wireless and Sprint will be able to launch Android-based phones. That's a good thing, as Sprint CEO Dan Hesse recently said that Android is finally ready for primetime and he expects Sprint to launch an Android phone by the end of the year.


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Other new hotness includes integrated universal search, automatic device backups, and more text-to-speech features. There are also some new widgets being built into the user interface that will do things such as provide faster access to some of the basic controls over device functions like the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios.

According to the developer community, the Donut update may just be an incremental feature update and isn't necessarily Android 2.0. Still, there are just over five months left in 2009, and Google has said to expect three more updates to the Android platform. No word on when existing devices (HTC G1 and myTouch 3G) will have access to these new features, but it can't be too far off.


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