Do not merge: Doc change: highlights and SDK version notes for Android 2.3 platform.

<table>

  <tr><th>Platform Version</th><th>API Level</th></tr>

  <tr><td>Android 2.3</td><td>9</td></tr>

  <tr><td>Android 2.2</td><td>8</td></tr>

  <tr><td>Android 2.1</td><td>7</td></tr>

  <tr><td>Android 2.0.1</td><td>6</td></tr>

  <td>The application uses the device's proximity sensor.</td>

  <td></td>

</tr>

<tr>

  <td rowspan="2">SIP/VOIP</td>

  <td><code>android.hardware.sip</code></td>

  <td>The application uses SIP service on the device.

  </td>

  <td></td>

</tr>

<tr>

  <td><code>android.hardware.sip.voip</code></td>

  <td>Subfeature. The application uses SIP-based VOIP service on the device.

  </td>

  <td>If declared with the <code>"android:required="true"</code> attribute, this

subfeature implicitly declares the <code>android.hardware.sip</code>

parent feature.</td>

</tr>

<tr>

  <td rowspan="3">Telephony</td>

  <td><code>android.hardware.telephony</code></td>

  <th>Feature</th>

  <th>Attribute Value</th> 

  <th>Description</th>

  <th>Comments</th>

</tr>

<tr>

  <td>Live Wallpaper</td>

  <td><code>android.software.live_wallpaper</code></td>

      <td>The application uses or provides Live Wallpapers.

  <td>The application uses or provides Live Wallpapers.</td>

  <td></td>

</tr>

<tr>

  <td rowspan="2">SIP/VOIP</td>

  <td><code>android.software.sip</code></td>

  <td>The application uses SIP service on the device.

  </td>

  <td></td>

</tr>

<tr>

  <td><code>android.software.sip.voip</code></td>

  <td>Subfeature. The application uses SIP-based VOIP service on the device.

  </td>

  <td>If declared with the <code>"android:required="true"</code> attribute, this

subfeature implicitly declares the <code>android.software.sip</code>

parent feature.</td>

</tr>

  </table>

page.title=Android 2.3 Platform Highlights

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<p>The Android 2.3 platform introduces many new and exciting features for

users and developers. This document provides a glimpse at some of the new user features

and technologies in Android 2.3. For detailed information about the new developer APIs, see the <a

href="android-2.3.html#api">Android 2.3 version notes</a>.</p>

<ul>

  <li><a href="#UserFeatures">New User Features</a></li>

  <li><a href="#DeveloperApis">New Developer Features</a></li>

  <li><a href="#PlatformTechnologies">New Platform Technologies</a></li>

</ul>

<h2 id="UserFeatures" style="clear:right">New User Features</h2>

<div>

<img style="float:right;padding-bottom:2em;" src="images/2.3/home-menu.png" alt="" height="280" />

<img style="float:right;padding-bottom:2em;" src="images/2.3/home-plain.png" alt="" height="280" />

<h3>UI refinements for simplicity and speed</h3>

<p>The user interface is refined in many ways across the system, making it

easier to learn, faster to use, and more power-efficient. A simplified

visual theme of colors against black brings vividness and contrast to the

notification bar, menus, and other parts of the UI.  Changes in menus and

settings make it easier for the user to navigate and control the features

of the system and device. </p>

<h3>Faster, more intuitive text input</h3>

<p>The Android soft keyboard is redesigned and optimized for faster text input

and editing. The keys themselves are reshaped and repositioned for improved

targeting, making them easier to see and press accurately, even at high speeds.

The keyboard also displays the current character and dictionary suggestions in a

larger, more vivid style that is easier to read.</p>

<p>The keyboard adds the capability to correct entered words from suggestions in

the dictionary. As the user selects a word already entered, the keyboard

displays suggestions that the user can choose from, to replace the selection.

The user can also switch to voice input mode to replace the selection. Smart

suggestions let the user accept a suggestion and then return to correct it

later, if needed, from the original set of suggestions.</p>

<p>New multitouch key-chording lets the user quickly enter numbers and symbols

by pressing Shift+&lt;<em>letter</em>&gt; and ?123+&lt;<em>symbol</em>&gt;,

without needing to manually switch input modes. From certain keys, users can

also access a popup menu of accented characters, numbers, and symbols by holding

the key and sliding to select a character.</p>

</div>

<div  style="padding-top:1em;">

<div style="margin-right:1em;float:left;"><img src="images/2.3/onetouch.png" alt="" height="260" /></div>

<div style="padding-right:2em;float:left;"><img src="images/2.3/selection.png" alt="" height="160" /></div>

<h3>One-touch word selection and copy/paste</h3>

<p>When entering text or viewing a web page, the user can quickly select a word

by press-hold, then copy to the clipboard and paste. Pressing on a word enters a

free-selection mode — the user can adjust the selection area as needed by

dragging a set of bounding arrows to new positions, then copy the bounded area

by pressing anywhere in the selection area. For text entry, the user can

slide-press to enter a cursor mode, then reposition the cursor easily and

accurately by dragging the cursor arrow. With both the selection and cursor

modes, no use of a trackball is needed.</p>

</div>

<div style="clear:left">

<div style="padding-right:2em;float:right;"><img src="images/2.3/running.png" alt="" height="280" /></div>

<div style="padding-left:1em;float:right;"><img src="images/2.3/power.png" alt="" height="280" /></div>

<h3>Improved power management </h3>

<p>The Android system takes a more active role in managing apps that are keeping

the device awake for too long or that are consuming CPU while running in the

background. By managing such apps — closing them if appropriate —

the system helps ensure best possible performance and maximum battery life.</p>

<p>The system also gives the user more visibility over the power being consumed

by system components and running apps. The Application settings provides an

accurate overview of how the battery  is being used, with details of the usage

and relative power consumed  by each component or application.</p>

<h3>Control over applications</h3>

<p>A shortcut to the Manage Applications control now appears in the Options Menu

in the Home screen and Launcher, making it much easier to check and manage

application activity. Once the user enters Manage Applications, a new Running

tab displays a list of active applications and the storage and memory being used

by each. The user can read further details about each application and if

necessary stop an application or report feedback to its developer. </p>

</div>

<h3>New ways of communicating, organizing</h3>

<p>An updated set of standard applications lets the user take new approaches to

managing information and relationships. </p>

<div  style="padding-top:1em;">

<div style="padding-right:1.5em;float:left;"><img src="images/2.3/sipcall.png" alt="" height="190" align="left"/><br>

<img src="images/2.3/ffc.png" alt="" height="190" align="left" style="margin-bottom:1.5em;margin-top:.75em;"/><div></div>

</div>

<p style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Internet calling</strong></p>

<p>The user can make voice calls over the internet to other users who have SIP

accounts. The user can add an internet calling number (a SIP address) to any

Contact and can initiate a call from Quick Contact or Dialer. To use internet

calling, the user must create an account at the SIP provider of their choice

— SIP accounts are not provided as part of the internet calling feature.

Additionally, support for the platform's SIP and internet calling features on

specific devices is determined by their manufacturers and associated carriers.

</p>

<div style="padding-right:1.5em;float:right;;"><img src="images/2.3/nfc.png" alt="" height="190" /> </div>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Near-field communications</strong></p>

<p>An NFC Reader application lets the user read and interact with near-field

communication (NFC)  tags. For example, the user can “touch” or “swipe” an NFC

tag that might be embedded in a poster, sticker, or advertisement, then act on

the data read from the tag. A typical use would be to read a tag at a

restaurant, store, or event and then rate or register by jumping to a web site

whose URL is included in the tag data. NFC communication relies on wireless

technology in the device hardware, so support for the platform's NFC features on

specific devices is determined by their manufacturers.

</p>

</div>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Downloads management</strong></p>

<p>The Downloads application gives the user easy access to any file downloaded from

the browser, email, or another application. Downloads is built on an completely new

download manager facility in the system that any other applications can use, to

more easily manage and store their downloads.</p>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Camera</strong></p>

<p>The application now lets the user access multiple cameras on the device,

including a front-facing camera, if available. </p>

<h2 id="DeveloperApis" style="clear:both">New Developer Features</h2>

<p>Android 2.3 delivers a variety of features and APIs that

let developers bring new types of applications to the Android

platform.</p>

 <ul>

<li><a href="#gaming">Enhancements for gaming</a></li>

<li><a href="#communication">New forms of communication</a></li>

<li><a href="#multimedia">Rich multimedia</a></li>

</ul>

<h3 id="gaming">Enhancements for gaming</h3>

<p style="margin-top:.75em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Performance</strong></p>

<p>Android 2.3 includes a variety of improvements across the system that make

common operations faster and more efficient for all applications. Of particular

interest to game developers are:</p>

<ul>

<li>Concurrent garbage collector &mdash; The Dalivik VM introduces a new,

concurrent garbage collector that minimizes application pauses, helping to

ensure smoother animation and increased responsiveness in games and similar

applications. </li>

<li>Faster event distribution &mdash; The plaform now handles touch and keyboard

events faster and more efficiently, minimizing CPU utilization during event

distribution. The changes improve responsiveness for all applications, but

especially benefit games that use touch events in combination with 3D graphics

or other CPU-intensive operations. </li>

<li>Updated video drivers &mdash; The platform uses updated third-party video

drivers that improve the efficiency of OpenGL ES operations, for faster overall

3D graphics performance. </li>

</ul>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Native input and

sensor events</strong></p>

<p>Applications that use native code can now receive and process input and

sensor events directly in their native code, which dramatically improves

efficiency and responsiveness. </p>

<p>Native libraries exposed by the platform let applications handle the same

types of input events as those available through the framework. Applications

can receive events from all supported sensor types and can enable/disable

specific sensors and manage event delivery rate and queueing. </p>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Gyroscope and other

new sensors, for improved 3D motion processing</strong></p>

<p>Android 2.3 adds API support for several new sensor types, including

gyroscope, rotation vector, linear acceleration, gravity, and barometer sensors.

Applications can use the new sensors in combination with any other sensors

available on the device, to track three-dimensional device motion and

orientation change with high precision and accuracy. For example, a game

application could use readings from a gyroscope and accelerometer on the device

to recognize complex user gestures and motions, such as tilt, spin, thrust, and

slice.  </p>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Low-latency native

audio</strong></p>

<p>The platform provides a software implementation of <a

href="http://www.khronos.org/opensles/">Khronos OpenSL ES</a>, a standard API

that gives applications access to powerful audio controls and effects from

native code. Applications can use the API to manage audio devices and control

low-latency audio input, output and processing directly from native code</p>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Native graphics

management</strong></p>

<p>The platform provides an interface to its <a

href="http://www.khronos.org/egl/">Khronos EGL</a> library, which lets

applications manage graphics contexts and create and manage OpenGL ES textures

and surfaces from native code.</p>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Native access to

Activity lifecycle, window management</strong></p>

<p>Native applications can declare a new type of Activity class,

<code>NativeActivity</code> whose lifecycle callbacks are implemented directly

in native code. The <code>NativeActivity</code> and its underlying native code

run in the system just as do other Activities — they run in the

application's system process and execute on the application's main UI thread,

and they receive the same lifecycle callbacks as do other Activities. </p>

<p>The platform also exposes native APIs for managing windows, including the

ability to lock/unlock the pixel buffer to draw directly into it. Through the

API, applications can obtain a native window object associated with a framework

Surface object and interact with it directly in native code.</p>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Native access to

assets, storage</strong></p>

<p>Applications can now access a native Asset Manager API to retrieve

application assets directly from native code without needing to go through JNI.

If the assets are compressed, the platform does streaming decompression as the

application reads the asset data. There is no longer a limit on the size of

compressed <code>.apk</code> assets that can be read.</p>

<p>Additionally, applications can access a native Storage Manager API to work

directly with OBB files downloaded and managed by the system. Note that although

platform support for OBB is available in Android 2.3, development tools for

creating and managing OBB files will not be available until early 2011.</p>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Robust native

development environment</strong></p>

<p>The Android NDK (r5 or higher) provides a complete set of tools, toolchains,

and libraries for developing applications that use the rich native environment

offered by the Android 2.3 platform. For more information or to download the

NDK, please see the <a

href="http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/index.html">Android&nbsp;NDK</a>

page. </p>

<h3 id="communication">New forms of communication</h3>

<p style="margin-top:.75em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Internet

telephony</strong></p>

<p>Developers can now add SIP-based internet telephony features to their

applications. Android 2.3 includes a full SIP protocol stack and integrated call

management services that let applications easily set up outgoing and incoming

voice calls, without having to manage sessions, transport-level communication,

or audio record or playback directly. </p>

<p>Support for the platform's SIP and internet calling features on specific

devices is determined by their manufacturers and associated carriers.</p>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Near Field

Communications (NFC)</strong></p>

<p>The platform's support for Near Field Communications (NFC) lets developers

get started creating a whole new class of applications for Android. Developers

can create new applications that offer proximity-based information and services

to users, organizations, merchants, and advertisers. </p>

<p>Using the NFC API,

applications can respond to NFC tags “discovered” as the user “touches” an

NFC-enabled device to elements embedded in stickers, smart posters, and even

other devices. When a tag of interest is collected, applications can respond to

the tag, read messages from it, and then store the messages, prompting

the user as needed. </p>

<p>NFC communication relies on wireless technology in the device hardware, so

support for the platform's NFC features on specific devices is determined by

their manufacturers.</p>

<h3 id="multimedia">Rich multimedia</h3>

<p style="margin-top:.75em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Mixable audio

effects</strong></p>

<p>A new audio effects API lets developers easily create rich audio environments

by adding equalization, bass boost, headphone virtualization (widened

soundstage), and reverb to audio tracks and sounds. Developers can mix multiple

audio effects in a local track or apply effects globally, across multiple

tracks.</p>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Support for new media

formats</strong></p>

<p>The platform now offers built-in support for the VP8 open video compression

format and the WebM open container format. The platform also adds support for

AAC encoding and AMR wideband encoding (in software), so that applications can

capture higher quality audio than narrowband. </p>

<p style="margin-top:1.25em;margin-bottom:.75em;"><strong>Access to multiple

cameras</strong></p>

<p>The Camera API now lets developers access any cameras that are available on a

device, including a front-facing camera. Applications can query the platform for

the number of cameras on the device and their types and characteristics, then

open the camera needed. For example, a video chat application might want to access a

front-facing camera that offers lower-resolution, while a photo application

might prefer a back-facing camera that offers higher-resolution.</p>

<h2 id="PlatformTechnologies">New Platform Technologies</h2>

<h3>Media Framework</h3>

<ul>

<li>New media framework fully replaces OpenCore, maintaining all previous

codec/container support for encoding and decoding.</li>

<li>Integrated support for the VP8 open video compression format and the WebM

open container format</li>

<li>Adds AAC encoding and AMR wideband encoding</li>

</ul>

<h3>Linux Kernel </h3>

<ul>

<li>Upgraded to 2.6.35</li>

</ul>

<h3>Networking</h3>

<ul>

<li>SIP stack, configurable by device manufacturer

<li>Support for Near Field Communications (NFC), configurable by device manufacturer</li>

<li>Updated BlueZ stack</li>

</ul>

<h3>Dalvik runtime</h3>

<ul>

<li>Dalvik VM:

<ul>

<li>Concurrent Garbage Collector (target sub-3ms pauses)</li>

<li>Adds further JIT (code-generation) optimizations</li>

<li>Improved code verification</li>

<li>StrictMode debugging, for identifying performance and memory issues</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>Core libraries:

<ul>

  <li>Expanded I18N support (full worldwide encodings, more locales)

  <li>Faster Formatter and number formatting. For example, float formatting is 2.5x faster.</li>

  <li>HTTP responses are gzipped by default. XML and JSON API response sizes may be reduced by 60% or more.</li>

  <li>New collections and utilities APIs</li>

  <li>Improved network APIs</li>

  <li>Improved file read and write controls</li>

  <li>Updated JDBC</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>Updates from upstream projects:

  <ul>

  <li>OpenSSL 1.0.0a</li>

  <li>BouncyCastle 1.45</li>

  <li>ICU 4.4</li>

  <li>zlib 1.2.5</li>

  </ul>

</li>

</ul>

<p>For more information about the new developer APIs, see the <a

href="android-2.3.html#api">Android 2.3 version notes</a> and the <a

href="{@docRoot}sdk/api_diff/9/changes.html">API Differences Report</a>.</p>