And next is Gingerbread... but only for the next gen of smartphones

[rockymtnhigh]

Droid-Life has reported a story about Gingerbread, aka Android 3.0, slated to be released in mid-October, but only for devices with 3.5" screens or larger AND 1GHz processors.

Here are some specs per Kellex:

Android 3.0 Gingerbread will be released in mid- October (around 15 -16th), 2010. First handsets shipping in November/December – for the Holiday Season.
Minimum hardware requirements for Android 3.0 devices are: 1GHZ CPU, 512MB or RAM, displays from 3.5” and higher. (We all, of course, heard that Android handsets with 2GHz CPU’s are coming)

New 1280×760 resolution available for the devices with displays of 4” and higher. (Anyone thinking about Android tablets now? )

Completely revamped user interface. If you want to get a feeling of what Android 3.0 Gingerbread UX is like, check out the Gallery App on Nexus One. The same overall feel, light animated transitions,etc. Natively, through all the UI.
Android’s split into 2 branches becomes official. 3.0 for top of the line/high end devices. Cheap, low-end mass market handsets will keep Android 2.1/2.2

Source: Gingerbread aka Android 3.0 Details Released, Bad News for DROID 1? - Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog


I am not going to call this the iPhone killer, since nothing can kill that thing, except maybe people with sweaty hands, but 1280x760 resolution, running on devices between 1 and 2Ghz means some pretty sweet devices, with a slick interface, flash and more.

Look's like my wife will be getting my Droid 1 come November when my annual upgrade is up.

 

[Ronnie-]

That is a rumor from what I read earlier. I can not see why some of the lower android sets cant run 3.0. Droid in particular.

It is coming eventually though, this update or the next.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

That is a rumor from what I read earlier. I can not see why some of the lower android sets cant run 3.0. Droid in particular.

It is coming eventually though, this update or the next.

Every rumor has some grain of truth, maybe.... and this one makes sense; certainly the Droid is capable of running it; since we can succesfully OC it; but I suspect it makes sense to have a dividing line.

 

[JamesJ]

yeah but thats a pretty big jump, thats the one thing I hate about this game we play with the companies, they leave quite a few people in the dust to upgrade their os! oh well dont take me as complaining though as you know I will have a new phone by then

 

[diogen]

Sticking to the rumor department, it looks very similar to what the HD3 is going to be
http://www.satelliteguys.us/phone-zone/214018-htc-hd3.html

It sounded like science fiction in April, is WOW today and will be business as usual by the end of the year...

Diogen.

 

[TheForce]

When you get a new OS version like this major upgrade, what does that do to existing apps?

I would imagine the graphics display mode would be at least one issue needing upgraded for the new OS.

This has been one area I have always dreaded with any new computer or cell phone. Having to upgrade the applications or discovering that there are no applications in the new OS that do a function I once used.

This happened when I went to the new TP2. My biggest loss was a very expensive TomTom navigation application that wasn't supported on the new phone. I had to replace with something less robust. I also needed to spend about a hundred $$ on upgrades to existing apps to support the new phone's requirements. And, that was even staying within the Win Mobile OS.

To me, there is a lot more to making an upgrade than just a new brick or latest version of the OS.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Nice to know my Nexus One will be able to handle the upgrade, although I hope they optimize it enough so that it doesn't run like crap on the minimum hardware requirements. It would look pretty embarrassing if Google's flagship phone was made obsolete in the same year it was released..

 

[mike123abc]

I would not be surprised if they stopped supporting earlier generations of phones. With the smartphone industry you can pretty rely on all the outdated handsets being replaced every few years. Apple has obviously been doing this with the earlier versions of the phones not supporting new features.

No need to hold back the features for new phones by supporting old ones.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

The Android marketplace certainly is capable of hiding items that are incompatible with a OS or device, so that would definitely continue. I suspect most of the apps I use would work fine on a higher resolution phone. I don't use many games at all.

While the next OS is always exciting, I am quite happy with the power of froyo right now.