Android 2.1 has been widely praised by both Nexus One and Motorola Milestone owners whilst other Android handset owners could only look on in envy.  Finally it looks like looks like all those months of teasing are finally going to be over as the the awesome android 2.1 update looks like its finally making its way onto Android 1st Gen handsets in March.

Handsets so far mentioned include:

• HTC hero
• Samsung galaxy
• Motorola DEXT ( or CLIQ as they call it out west- Boy Genius Report story here)

Sadly no mention of the T-Mobile G1 as yet

Its interesting to see that all the handsets above with Manufacturer customized flavours of Android are all rolling outstanding the same time around March.

For me the ones to watch will be HTC to what new tricks it can add their mature  and visually appealing HTC Sense code base and Motorola, with their radically and social focused Motoblur which is showing a lot of promise.

I think it is one of the great strengths of android that the updates keep rolling in and that users will be able to partake in the benefits.  It also gives a great win to developers having the bolstered Android Market App on the handset to improve sales.  The best part will be that developers no longer will have to sit on their hands and can use all the latest tools that android 2.1 offers to roll out their epic applications.

Here is some of the features you can get in Android 2.0

Contacts and accounts

• Multiple accounts can be added to a device for email and contact synchronization, including Exchange accounts. (Handset manufacturers can choose whether to include Exchange support in their devices.)
• Developers can create sync adapters that provide synchronization with additional data sources.
• Quick Contact for Android provides instant access to a contact’s information and communication modes. For example, a user can tap a contact photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person. Other applications such as Email, Messaging, and Calendar can also reveal the Quick Contact widget when you touch a contact photo or status icon.

Email

• Exchange support.
• Combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page.

Messaging

• Search functionality for all saved SMS and MMS messages.
• Auto delete the oldest messages in a conversation when a defined limit is reached.

Camera

• Built-in flash support
• Digital zoom
• Scene mode
• White balance
• Color effect
• Macro focus

Android virtual keyboard

• An improved keyboard layout to makes it easier to hit the correct characters and improve typing speed.
• The framework’s multi-touch support ensures that key presses aren’t missed while typing rapidly with two fingers.
• A smarter dictionary learns from word usage and automatically includes contact names as suggestions.

Browser

• Refreshed UI with actionable browser URL bar enables users to directly tap the address bar for instant searches and navigation.
• Bookmarks with web page thumbnails.
• Support for double-tap zoom.
• Support for HTML5:
  • Database API support, for client-side databases using SQL.
  • Application cache support, for offline applications.
  • Geolocation API support, to provide location information about the device.
  • <video> tag support in fullscreen mode.

Calendar

• Agenda view provides infinite scrolling.
• Events indicate the attending status for each invitee.
• Invite new guests to events.

Roll on March!!

Related posts:

1. HTC goes for number 1 in their new range of handsets
2. Sony brings 3 NXT handsets to the party