Apps can use Android Cloud to Device Messaging to enable mobile alert, send to phone, and two-way push sync functionality. A new bug reporting feature for Android Market enables developers to receive crash and freeze reports from their users. The reports will be available when the developers log into their publisher account. Applications also now can request installation on shared external storage, such as an SD card.

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The media framework provides new APIs for audio focus, routing audio to SCO, and auto-scan of files to the media database. It also provides APIs to let applications detect the completion of sound loading and auto-pause and then auto-resume audio playback. A new preview API doubles the camera and camcorder rate from about 10 fps to 20 fps. The camera now supports portrait orientation, zoom controls, access to exposure data, and a thumbnail utility. A new camcorder profile enables apps to determine device hardware capabilities.

As for graphics, new APIs for OpenGL ES 2.0, working with the YUV image format, and ETC1 for texture compression are included. Meanwhile, apps can participate in data backup and restore to ensure that users maintain their data after performing a factory reset when switching devices. A new device policy management API lets developers write “device administrator” applications that can control security features based on the device.

Android SDK Tool, Revision 6, and Eclipse plug-in 0.9.7 will include support for library projects that will help developers share code and resources across several Android projects. Android NDK, Revision 4, includes workflow improvements from compilation to debugging. Starting with 2.2, the NDK also enables debugging of native code on production devices. Further, Revision 4 includes ARMv7 instruction set support and ARM Advanced SIMD instruction support. Android 2.2 SDK and Android NDK, Revision 4, are available for download at developer.android.com/sdk/index.html.

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