Google releases updated Android to devs

Android gives the developers a Donut
Android gives the developers a Donut

Google has released the latest iteration of its Android OS (codenamed Donut) to the developer world and comes complete with multi-touch compatibility.

However, it appears the new code might have the ability to support multi-touch, but won't be making a big song and dance about it; sources from Google have commented over on the Android Developers Google Group and stated multi-touch won't be a part of the next release.

The chaps over on the XDA forum have picked up the new code for all the world to see, and show it also comes with text to speech recognition and other goodies to improve Android to its next level status.

Gestures are also baked right into the Donut tin, so you can easily move your finger around and make interesting things happen on the phone (we don't know what exactly, so we're just guessing here).

Widget wonderland

The camera application has been redesigned to make it more feature friendly, as well as a selection of widgets for the home screen to give easier access to things like Wi-Fi and the aforementioned gesture recognition.

It's still very much in the experimental build at the moment, so could quite feasibly change over the next few weeks / months before it's released to the public.

The good news is that the new build can be ported to the Magic and G1 too, so older Android users won't miss out on the new build.

Android has always had multi-touch support, as shown in previous videos, but until now Google hasn't made it as widely available in a new update.

Now, all we have to do is wait for the next update - anyone up for an éclair?

Via XDA Developers forum

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.