DROID Gets Updated to Android 2.1 What New Apps to Expect
by Antonio Wells
Mar 18, 2010 12:05 PM –
Have a DROID and noticed your phone is available for the latest and greatest version of Google’s Android software? Please do install it… if it hasn’t automatically installed already as we’ve outlined the apps and goodies you’re in store for.
Speech to Text
Speech to Text
Inspired by innovation as the Nexus One does not have a physical keyboard, Google introduced Voice to Text capability for every text field you encounter. It replaces the “comma” character on the virtual keyboard and is very useful for writing long SMS text messages or emails. It works by recording you and sending the audio to Google for speech analysis.
It is still experimental and not 100% accurate but pretty good. In a field test with an iPhone using Nuance’s Dragon Dictation app and Nexus One native Voice to Text; Dragon Dictation was triumphant with 100% accuracy every time while Google’s servers were about 97-99% accurate.
Cool 3D Photo Gallery
Android Photo Gallery Albums
Developed by Cooliris, the new Photo Gallery makes any other Android gallery look amateurish. The gallery is interactive and makes viewing and showing off photos and videos on the device enjoyable! Swap & fling albums and photos around. Double tap plus Pinch Zoom in and out of photos. Invoke the camera or camcorder conveniently from the app.
Live Wallpapers
Google introduced Live Wallpapers which make your phone more lively and interactive. Note: they don’t work with home screen replacement apps. The stock Live Wallpapers are cool with plenty of 3rd party live wallpaper apps in the Market. Check out this preview video from AndroidandMe experimenting with some.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9phlk78qcro
Native Pinch-Zoom in Apps
Due to Apple/Google corporate school yard spat, Pinch-Zoom like on iPhone was incorporated into native apps like the browser, Photo Gallery and Google Maps.
News and Weather Widget
Weather from Widget
The News and Weather widget automatically delivers accurate temperatures based on your location. Tap the weather to get more details like 7 day forecast and single day weather details; powered by The Weather Channel.
The news portion of the widget features topics like Top Stories, U.S., Sports, Entertainment, Science and Tech news. However you can add your own topic which pulls from Google’s News aggregator.
Tell us what you think of the new improvements to your DROID in the Comments below!