Android 2.2 Stars In Samsung's Galaxy S

Samsung Galaxy S

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Samsung Galaxy S

The Samsung Galaxy S is the latest smartphone to get upgraded to Android 2.2, or Froyo, Samsung Electronics Co. said.

Users will be able to download the software via Samsung’s in-house software upgrade program, called Kies. Customers can get Kies at Samsung’s mobile website.

Froyo will provide access to voice-controlled GPS through Google Maps with navigation and JIT (just-in-time) compiler to speed up performance. A search in-browser, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and other customization options are other functionalities that come with the OS upgrade, Samsung said. Improvements have been made to the speed, the default keyboard, new Android Market with auto updating, better Exchange support, a new search widget and new Gmail app.

Including Adobe Flash Player 10.1 will enable the browser to use the whole web experience. The upgrade will also provide a setup wizard so users can customize the Galaxy S and access networks, pinch-zoom preview and edit of the home screen/menu, as well as access Google, Translate, Wikipedia and dictionary through the search-in browser.

The Android 2.2 upgrade will begin around the middle of this month in the Nordic region first and then will be “gradually rolled out to other European markets,” Southeast Asia, the Middle East Asia, North America, Africa and other regions, Samsung said.

Earlier this week, T-Mobile began a mandatory upgrade of the HTC MyTouch 3G. The Motorola Droid X also received an upgrade to Froyo, but the new software created some issues.

Released last June, the Galaxy S has a Super AMOLED 4-inch capacitive touch screen, 480 x 800 pixels, and measures 122.4 x 64.2 x 9.9 mm. The Galaxy S also comes with 8GB/16G storage, 512-MB RAM, 2-GB ROM, microSD, up to 32GB, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n. Other features include a 5-megapixel camera, 2,592 x 1,944 pixels, autofocus, Bluetooth and talk time of up 13 hours and 30 minutes. Also included are Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection.