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API Level: 9

For developers, the Android 2.3 platform is available as a
downloadable component for the Android SDK. The downloadable platform includes
an Android library and system image, as well as a set of emulator
skins and more. The downloadable platform
includes no external libraries.

To get started developing or testing against Android
2.3, use the Android SDK Manager to
download the platform into your SDK. For more information,
see Adding SDK
Components. If you are new to Android, download the SDK Starter Package
first.

For a high-level introduction to Android 2.3, see the Platform Highlights.

Revisions

The sections below provide notes about successive releases of
the Android 2.3 platform component for the Android SDK, as denoted by
revision number. To determine what revision(s) of the Android
2.3 platforms are installed in your SDK environment, refer to
the “Installed Packages” listing in the Android SDK and AVD Manager.

//
Android 2.3, Revision 1 (December 2010)

API Overview

The sections below provide a technical overview of what’s new for developers
in 2.3, including new features and changes in the framework
API since the previous version.

SIP-based VOIP

The platform now includes a SIP protocol stack and framework API that lets
developers build internet telephony applications. Using the API, applications can offer
voice calling features without having to manage sessions, transport-level
communication, or audio — these are handled
transparently by the platform’s SIP API and services.

The SIP API is available in the android.net.sip
package. The key class is SipManager, which applications
use to set up and manage SIP profiles, then initiate audio calls and receive
audio calls. Once an audio call is established, applications can mute calls,
turn on speaker mode, send DTMF tones, and more. Applications can also use the
SipManager to create generic SIP connections.

The platform’s underlying SIP stack and services are available on devices at
the discretion of the manufacturer and associated carrier. For this reason,
applications should use the isApiSupported() method to check whether SIP support is available, before
exposing calling functionality to users.

To use the SIP API, applications must request permission from the user by
declaring <uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"> and <uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.USE_SIP"> in their manifest files.

Additionally, developers can request filtering on Android Market, such that
their applications are not discoverable to users whose devices do not include
the platform’s SIP stack and services. To request filtering, add <uses-feature
android:name="android.software.sip"
android:required="true"> and <uses-feature
android:name="android.software.sip.voip"> to the application manifest.

To look at a sample application that uses the SIP API, see SIP Demo.

Near Field Communications (NFC)

Android 2.3 includes an NFC stack and framework API that lets developers
read NDEF tags that are discovered as a user touches an NFC-enabled device
to tag elements embedded in stickers, smart posters, and even other devices.

The platform provides the underlying NFC services that work with the device
hardware to discover tags when they come into range. On discovering a tag, the
platform notifies applications by broadcasting an Intent, appending the tag’s
NDEF messages to the Intent as extras. Applications can create Intent filters to
recognize and handle targeted tags and messages. For example, after receiving a
tag by Intent, applications extract the NDEF messages, store them, alert the
user, or handle them in other ways.

The NFC API is available in the android.nfc package. The key classes are:

• NfcAdapter, which represents the NFC hardware on the device.
• NdefMessage, which represents an NDEF data message,
  the standard format in which “records” carrying data are transmitted between
  devices and tags. Applications can receive these messages from ACTION_TAG_DISCOVERED Intents.
• NdefRecord, delivered in an
  NdefMessage, which describes the type of data being shared and
  carries the data itself.

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. To determine the NFC support on the current device,
applications can call isEnabled() to
query the NfcAdapter. The NFC API is always present,
however, regardless of underlying hardware support.

To use the NFC API, applications must request permission from the user by
declaring <uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.NFC"> in their manifest files.

Additionally, developers can request filtering on Android Market, such that
their applications are not discoverable to users whose devices do not support
NFC. To request filtering, add
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.nfc"
android:required="true"> to the application’s manifest.

To look at a sample application that uses the NFC API, see
NFCDemo.

Gyroscope and other sensors

Android 2.3 adds platform and API support for several new sensor reading
types — gyroscope, rotation vector, linear acceleration, gravity, and barometer.
Developers can use the new sensor readings to create applications that respond
quickly and smoothly to precise changes in device position and motion. The
Sensor API reports gyroscope and other sensor changes to interested
applications, whether they are running on the application framework or in native
code.

Note that the specific set of hardware sensors available on any given device
varies at the discretion of the device manufacturer.

Developers can request filtering in Android Market, such that their
applications are not discoverable to users whose devices do not offer a
gyroscope sensor. To do so, add <uses-feature
android:name="android.hardware.sensor.gyroscope"
android:required="true"> to the application manifest.

For API details, see Sensor.

Multiple cameras support

Applications can now make use of any cameras that are available on a device,
for either photo or video capture. The Camera lets
applications query for the number of cameras available and the unique
characteristics of each.

• New Camera.CameraInfo class stores a camera’s
  positional characteristics (orientation, front-facing or back-facing).
• New getNumberOfCameras(), getCameraInfo(), and
  getNumberOfCameras() methods in the Camera class let applications query for the cameras available
  and open the camera that they need.
• New get() method lets
  applications retrieve a CamcorderProfile for a specific camera.
• New getJpegEncodingQualityParameter() lets applications obtain the still-image
  capture quality level for a specific camera.

To look at sample code for accessing a front-facing camera, see CameraPreview.java
in the ApiDemos sample application.

The Camera API also adds:

• New parameters for cameras, including focus distance, focus mode, and
  preview fps maximum/minimum. New getFocusDistances(), getPreviewFpsRange(), and getSupportedPreviewFpsRange() for getting camera parameters, as well as setPreviewFpsRange() for setting preview framerate.

Mixable audio effects

The platform’s media framework adds support for new per-track or global audio effects,
including bass boost, headphone virtualization, equalization, and reverb.

• New android.media.audiofx package provides the
  API to access audio effects.
• New AudioEffect is the base class
  for controlling audio effects provided by the Android audio framework.
• New audio session ID that lets an application associate a set of audio
  effects with an instance of AudioTrack or MediaPlayer.
• New AudioTrack class constructor that lets you create an AudioTrack with a specific session ID. New attachAuxEffect(), getAudioSessionId(), and setAuxEffectSendLevel()
  methods.
• New attachAuxEffect(), getAudioSessionId(), setAudioSessionId(int), and setAuxEffectSendLevel()
  methods and supporting types.

To look at sample code for audio effects, see
AudioFxDemo.java
in the ApiDemos sample application.

The media framework also adds:

• New support for altitude tag in EXIF metadata for JPEG files. New method
  getAltitude() method to
  retrieve the value of the EXIF altitude tag.
• New setOrientationHint() method lets an application tell MediaRecorder of the orientation during video capture.

Download manager

The platform includes a new DownloadManager system service
that handles long-running HTTP downloads. Applications can request that a URI be
downloaded to a particular destination file. The DownloadManager
will conduct the download in the background, taking care of HTTP interactions
and retrying downloads after failures or across connectivity changes and system
reboots.

• Applications can obtain an instance of the DownloadManager
  class by calling getSystemService(String) and passing
  DOWNLOAD_SERVICE. Applications that request
  downloads through this API should register a broadcast receiver for ACTION_NOTIFICATION_CLICKED, to appropriately
  handle when the user clicks on a running download in a notification or from the
  Downloads UI.
• The DownloadManager.Request class lets an
  application provide all the information necessary to request a new download,
  such as request URI and download destination. A request URI is the only required
  parameter. Note that the default download destination is a shared volume where
  the system can delete your file if it needs to reclaim space for system use. For
  persistent storage of a download, specify a download destination on external
  storage (see setDestinationUri(Uri)).
• The DownloadManager.Query class provides methods that let
  an application query for and filter active downloads.

StrictMode

To help developers monitor and improve the performance of their applications,
the platform offers a new system facility called StrictMode.
When implemented in an application, StrictMode catches and notifies the
developer of accidental disk or network activity that could degrade application
performance, such as activity taking place on the application’s main thread
(where UI operations are received and animations are also taking place).
Developers can evaluate the network and disk usages issues raised in StrictMode
and correct them if needed, keeping the main thread more responsive and
preventing ANR dialogs from being shown to users.

• StrictMode is the core class and is the main integration
  point with the system and VM. The class provides convenience methods for
  managing the thread and VM policies that apply to the instance.
• StrictMode.ThreadPolicy and StrictMode.VmPolicy hold the policies that you define and apply to
  thread and VM instances.

For more information about how to use StrictMode to optimize your
application, see the class documentation and sample code at android.os.StrictMode.

UI Framework

• Support for overscroll
  • New support for overscroll in Views and Widgets. In Views, applications can
    enable/disable overscroll for a given view, set the overscoll mode, control the
    overscroll distance, and handle the results of overscrolling.
  • In Widgets, applications can control overscroll characteristics such as
    animation, springback, and overscroll distance. For more information, see android.view.View and android.widget.OverScroller.
  • ViewConfiguration also provides methods getScaledOverflingDistance() and getScaledOverscrollDistance().
  • New overScrollMode, overScrollFooter, and
    overScrollHeader attributes for <ListView> elements,
    for controlling overscroll behavior.
• Support for touch filtering
  • New support for touch filtering, which lets an application improve the
    security of Views that provide access to sensitive functionality. For example,
    touch filtering is appropriate to ensure the security of user actions such as
    granting a permission request, making a purchase, or clicking on an
    advertisement. For details, see the View class
    documentation.
  • New filterTouchesWhenObscured attribute for view elements,
    which declares whether to filter touches when the view’s window is obscured by
    another visible window. When set to "true", the view will not
    receive touches whenever a toast, dialog or other window appears above the
    view’s window. Refer to View security
    documentation for details.

  To look at sample code for touch filtering, see
  SecureView.java
  in the ApiDemos sample application.

• Improved event management
  • New base class for input events, InputEvent. The class
    provides methods that let applications determine the meaning of the event, such
    as by querying for the InputDevice from which the event orginated. The KeyEvent and MotionEvent are subclasses of
    InputEvent.
  • New base class for input devices, InputDevice. The
    class stores information about the capabilities of a particular input device and
    provides methods that let applications determine how to interpret events from an
    input device.
• Improved motion events
  • The MotionEvent API is extended to include “pointer ID”
    information, which lets applications to keep track of individual fingers as they
    move up and down. The class adds a variety of methods that let an application
    work efficiently with motion events.
  • The input system now has logic to generate motion events with the new
    pointer ID information, synthesizing identifiers as new pointers are down. The
    system tracks multiple pointer IDs separately during a motion event, and
    ensures proper continuity of pointers by evaluating at the distance
    between the last and next set of pointers.
• Text selection controls
  • A new setComposingRegion method lets an application mark a
    region of text as composing text, maintaining the current styling. A
    getSelectedText method returns the selected text to the
    application. The methods are available in BaseInputConnection, InputConnection, and InputConnectionWrapper.
  • New textSelectHandle, textSelectHandleLeft,
    textSelectHandleRight, and textSelectHandleWindowStyle
    attributes for <TextView>, for referencing drawables that will be
    used to display text-selection anchors and the style for the containing
    window.
• Activity controls
  • ActivityInfo adds new constants for managing
    Activity orientation:
    SCREEN_ORIENTATION_FULL_SENSOR,
    SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_LANDSCAPE,
    SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_PORTRAIT,
    SCREEN_ORIENTATION_SENSOR_LANDSCAPE,
    and
    SCREEN_ORIENTATION_SENSOR_PORTRAIT.
  • New constant IMPORTANCE_PERCEPTIBLE for
    the importance field
    in ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo. The value
    indicates that a specific process is running something that is considered to be
    actively perceptible to the user. An example would be an application performing
    background music playback.
  • The setPersistent(boolean) method to mark an
    Activity as persistent is now deprecated and the implementation is a no-op.
• Notification text and icon styles
  • New TextAppearance.StatusBar.EventContent,
    TextAppearance.StatusBar.EventContent.Title,
    TextAppearance.StatusBar.Icon, and
    TextAppearance.StatusBar.Title for managing
    notification style.
• WebView
  • New setUseWebViewBackgroundForOverscrollBackground() method lets a WebView specify whether to use its own background for the
    overscroll background.

Extra Large Screens

The platform now supports extra large screen sizes, such as those that might
be found on tablet devices. Developers can indicate that their applications are
designed to support extra large screen sizes by adding a <supports
screens ... android:xlargeScreens="true"> element to their manifest
files. Applications can use a new resource qualifier, xlarge, to
tag resources that are specific to extra large screens. For
details on how to support extra large and other screen sizes, see Supporting Multiple
Screens.

Graphics

• Adds remaining OpenGL ES 2.0 methods glDrawElements() and
  glVertexAttribPointer() in the android.opengl.GLES20 class.
• Adds support for YV12 pixel format, a
  planar 4:2:0 YCrCb format.

Content Providers

• New AlarmClock provider class for setting an alarm
  or handling an alarm. The provider contains a ACTION_SET_ALARM Intent
  action and extras that can be used to start an Activity to set a new alarm in an
  alarm clock application. Applications that wish to receive the
  SET_ALARM Intent should create an activity that requires the
  the SET_ALARM permission. Applications that wish to create a new
  alarm should use Context.startActivity(), so that the user has the option of choosing
  which alarm clock application to use.
• MediaStore supports a new Intent action, PLAY_FROM_SEARCH, that lets an application search for music media and
  automatically play content from the result when possible. For example, an
  application could fire this Intent as the result of a voice recognition command
  to listen to music.
• MediaStore also adds a new MEDIA_IGNORE_FILENAME flag that tells the media
  scanner to ignore media in the containing directory and its subdirectories.
  Developers can use this to avoid having graphics appear in the Gallery and
  likewise prevent application sounds and music from showing up in the Music
  app.
• The Settings provider adds the new Activity actions
  APPLICATION_DETAILS_SETTINGS and MANAGE_ALL_APPLICATIONS_SETTINGS, which let an application show the details
  screen for a specific application or show the Manage Applications screen.
• The ContactsContract provider adds the ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.SipAddress data kind, for
  storing a contact’s SIP (Internet telephony) address.

Location

• The LocationManager now tracks application
  requests that result in wake locks or wifi locks according to
  WorkSource, a system-managed class that identifies the
  application.

  The LocationManager keeps track
  of all clients requesting periodic updates, and tells its providers
  about them as a WorkSource parameter, when setting their minimum
  update times.
  The network location provider uses WorkSource to track the
  wake and wifi locks initiated by an application and adds it to the application’s
  battery usage reported in Manage Applications.

• The LocationManager adds several new methods that
  let an Activity register to receive periodic or one-time location updates based
  on specified criteria (see below).
• A new Criteria class lets an application specify a
  set of criteria for selecting a location provider. For example, providers may be
  ordered according to accuracy, power usage, ability to report altitude, speed,
  and bearing, and monetary cost.

Storage

• Android 2.3 adds a new StorageManager that
  supports OBB (Opaque Binary Blob) files. Although platform support for OBB is
  available in Android 2.3, development tools for creating and managing OBB files
  will not be availble until early 2011.
• The Android 2.3 platform adds official support for devices that do not
  include SD cards (although it provides virtual SD Card partition, when no
  physical SD card is available). A convenience method, isExternalStorageRemovable(), lets applications
  determine whether a physical SD card is present.

Package Manager

• New constants for declaring hardware and software features. See the list in
  the New Feature Constants section, below.
• PackageInfo adds new firstInstallTime and lastUpdateTime fields that store the time of the
  package installation and last update.
• New getProviderInfo() method for retrieving all of the information known about
  a particular content provider class.

Telephony

• The TelephonyManager adds the constant NETWORK_TYPE_EVDO_B for specifying the CDMA
  EVDO Rev B network type.
• New getPsc() method returns
  the primary scrambling code of the serving cell on a UMTS network.

Native access to Activity lifecycle, windows

Android 2.3 exposes a broad set of APIs to applications that use native
code. Framework classes of interest to such applications include:

• NativeActivity is a new type of Activity class, whose
  lifecycle callbacks are implemented directly in native code. A
  NativeActivity and its underlying native code run in the system
  just as do other Activities — specifically they run in the Android
  application’s system process and execute on the application’s main UI thread,
  and they receive the same lifecycle callbacks as do other Activities.
• New InputQueue class and callback interface lets native
  code manage event queueing.
• New SurfaceHolder.Callback2 interface lets native code
  manage a SurfaceHolder.
• New takeInputQueue and takeSurface() methods in Window let native code manage
  events and surfaces.

For full information on working with native code or to download the NDK,
see the Android NDK page.

Dalvik Runtime

• dalvik.system
  removes several classes that were previously deprecated.
• Dalvik core libraries:
  • New collections: ArrayDeque, NavigableMap,
    ConcurrentSkipListMap,
    LinkedBlockingDeque
  • New Arrays utilities: binarySearch(),
    copyOf(), copyOfRange(), and others.
  • CookieManager for HttpURLConnection.
  • More complete network APIs: InterfaceAddress,
    NetworkInterface and IDN
  • File read and write controls
  • String.isEmpty()
  • Normalizer and Normalizer.Form
  • Improved javax.net.ssl server sockets.

New manifest elements and attributes

• New xlargeScreens attribute for <supports-screens>
  element, to indicate whether the application supports
  extra large screen form-factors. For details, see Supporting Multiple
  Screens.
• New values for android:screenOrientation attribute of
  <activity> element:
  • "reverseLandscape" — The Activity would like to have the
    screen in landscape orientation, turned in the opposite direction from normal
    landscape.
  • "reversePortait" — The Activity would like to have the
    screen in portrait orientation, turned in the opposite direction from normal
    portrait.
  • "sensorLandscape" — The Activity would like to have the
    screen in landscape orientation, but can use the sensor to change which
    direction the screen is facing.
  • "sensorPortrait" — The Activity would like to have the
    screen in portrait orientation, but can use the sensor to change which direction
    the screen is facing.
  • "fullSensor" — Orientation is determined by a physical
    orientation sensor: the display will rotate based on how the user moves the
    device. This allows any of the 4 possible rotations, regardless of what the
    device will normally do (for example some devices won’t normally use 180 degree
    rotation).

New Permissions

• com.android.permission.SET_ALARM — Allows an application
  to broadcast an Intent to set an alarm for the user. An Activity that handles
  the SET_ALARM Intent action
  should require this permission.
• android.permission.USE_SIP — Allows an application to use
  the SIP API to make or receive internet calls.
• android.permission.NFC — Allows an application to use the
  NFC API to make or receive internet calls.

New Feature Constants

The platform adds several new hardware features that developers can declare
in their application manifests as being required by their applications. This
lets developers control how their application is filtered, when published on
Android Market.

• android.hardware.audio.low_latency — The application uses a low-latency
  audio pipeline on the device and is sensitive to delays or lag in sound input or
  output.
• android.hardware.camera.front — The application uses a front-facing
  camera on the device.
• android.hardware.nfc
  — The application uses NFC radio features in the device.
• android.hardware.sensor.barometer — The application uses the device’s
  barometer.
• android.hardware.sensor.gyroscope — The application uses the device’s
  gyroscope sensor.
• android.software.sip
  — The application uses the SIP API on the device.
• android.software.sip.voip — The application uses a SIP-based VOIP
  service on the device.
• android.hardware.touchscreen.multitouch.jazzhand — The application uses
  advanced multipoint multitouch capabilities on the device screen, for tracking
  up to five points fully independently.

For full information about how to declare features and use them for
filtering, see the documentation for <uses-feature>.

API differences report

For a detailed view of all API changes in Android 2.3 (API
Level 9), see the API
Differences Report.

API Level

The Android 2.3 platform delivers an updated version of
the framework API. The Android 2.3 API
is assigned an integer identifier —
9 — that is
stored in the system itself. This identifier, called the “API Level”, allows the
system to correctly determine whether an application is compatible with
the system, prior to installing the application.

To use APIs introduced in Android 2.3 in your application,
you need compile the application against the Android library that is provided in
the Android 2.3 SDK platform. Depending on your needs, you might
also need to add an android:minSdkVersion="9"
attribute to the <uses-sdk> element in the application’s
manifest. If your application is designed to run only on Android 2.3 and higher,
declaring the attribute prevents the application from being installed on earlier
versions of the platform.

For more information about how to use API Level, see the API Levels document.

Built-in Applications

The system image included in the downloadable platform provides these
built-in applications:

Locales

The system image included in the downloadable SDK platform provides a variety of
built-in locales. In some cases, region-specific strings are available for the
locales. In other cases, a default version of the language is used. The
languages that are available in the Android 2.3 system
image are listed below (with language_country/region locale
descriptor).

Note: The Android platform may support more
locales than are included in the SDK system image. All of the supported locales
are available in the Android Open Source
Project.

Emulator Skins

The downloadable platform includes a set of emulator skins that you can use
for modeling your application in different screen sizes and resolutions. The
emulator skins are:

• QVGA (240×320, low density, small screen)
• WQVGA400 (240×400, low density, normal screen)
• WQVGA432 (240×432, low density, normal screen)
• HVGA (320×480, medium density, normal screen)
• WVGA800 (480×800, high density, normal screen)
• WVGA854 (480×854 high density, normal screen)

For more information about how to develop an application that displays
and functions properly on all Android-powered devices, see Supporting Multiple
Screens.

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API Level: 8

Android 2.2 is a minor platform release including user
features, developer features, API changes, and bug
fixes. For information on developer features and API changes, see the
Framework API section.

For developers, the Android 2.2 platform is available as a
downloadable component for the Android SDK. The downloadable platform includes a
fully compliant Android library and system image, as well as a set of emulator
skins, sample applications, and more. The downloadable platform
includes no external libraries.

To get started developing or testing against the Android
2.2 platform, use the Android SDK and AVD Manager tool to
download the platform into your SDK. For more information,
see Adding SDK
Components. If you are new to Android, download the SDK Starter Package

first.

Platform Highlights

For a list of new user features and platform highlights, see the Android
2.2 Platform Highlights document.

Revisions

The sections below provide notes about successive releases of
the Android 2.2 platform component for the Android SDK, as denoted by
revision number. To determine what revision(s) of the Android
2.2 platforms are installed in your SDK environment, refer to
the “Installed Packages” listing in the Android SDK and AVD Manager.

//

Android 2.2, Revision 1 (May 2010)

Dependencies:

Requires SDK Tools r6 or higher.

Tools:

Adds support for building with Android library projects. See SDK Tools, r6 for information.

API Level

The Android 2.2 platform delivers an updated version of
the framework API. The Android 2.2 API
is assigned an integer identifier —
8 — that is
stored in the system itself. This identifier, called the “API Level”, allows the
system to correctly determine whether an application is compatible with
the system, prior to installing the application.

To use APIs introduced in Android 2.2 in your
application, you need to set the proper value, “8″, in the

android:minSdkVersion attributes of the <uses-sdk>
element in your application’s manifest.

For more information about how to use API Level, see the API Levels document.

Framework API Changes

The sections below provide information about changes made to the application
framework API provided by the Android 2.2 platform.

App installation on external storage media

The Android platform now allows applications to request installation onto the
device’s external storage media (such as the SD card), as an alternative to
installation onto the device’s internal memory.

Application developers can express the preferred installation location for
their applications by means of a new attribute of <manifest>
in the manifest file,
android:installLocation. The attribute supports three values:

"internalOnly", "preferExternal", and
"auto". At install time, the system checks the value of
android:installLocation and installs the application
.apk according to the preferred location, if possible. If the
application has requested external installation, the system installs it into a
private, encrypted partition in the external media. Once an application .apk is
installed externally, the system lets the user change the storage location of
the .apk and move it onto the device’s internal memory if needed (and vice
versa), through Manage Applications in the user settings.

By default, the system installs all applications onto the device’s internal
memory, except for those that explicitly request external installation. This
means that the system will always install legacy applications onto internal
memory, since they do not have access to the
android:installLocation attribute. However, it is possible to
configure and compile a legacy application such that it is installed internally
on older versions of the platform and externally on Android 2.2 and later
platforms, if necessary.

Note that requesting installation onto the device’s external media is not
suitable for all applications, particularly because the external media may be
removable and unmounting/remounting may disrupt the user experience and system
settings.

For more information about setting a preferred install location for your
application, including a discussion of what types of applications should and
should not request external installation, please read the App Install Location
document.

Data backup

The platform now provides a generalized backup service that
applications can use to backup and restore user data, to ensure that users can
maintain their data when switching devices or reinstalling the application. The
Backup Manager handles the work of transporting the application data to and from
the backup storage area in the cloud. The Backup Manager can store any type of
data, from arbitrary data to files, and manages backup and restore operations
in an atomic manner. For more information, see Data Backup.

Graphics

• New OpenGL ES 2.0 APIs in android.opengl.GLES20.
• New ETC1, ETC1Util, and ETC1Util.ETC1Texture classes and utility methods for using ETC1 for texture compression.
• New ImageFormat class.
• New YUV image format API to enable compression from YUV to JPEG and manipulation of YUV data.

Media

• New APIs in android.media.AudioManager for managing audio focus, transport control, transient loss of audio focus, ducking.
• New broadcast intent for routing audio to SCO — ACTION_SCO_AUDIO_STATE_CHANGED with extras indicating new state.
• New APIs in SoundPool to detect completion of sound-loading.
• New APIs in SoundPool for auto pause and resume.
• New APIs in MediaRecorder for specifying audio settings for number of channels, encoding and sampling rates, sampling rate.
• New APIs for adding files to the media database, so that they are automatically scanned. See MediaScannerConnection.scanFile and MediaScannerConnection.OnScanCompletedListener.

Speech recognition and third-party recognition engines

• The platform provides new speech-recognition APIs that allow applications to have a richer interaction with the available voice recognizer. For example, the APIs are sufficient to integrate voice recognition deeply into an IME.
• The platform also provides a RecognitionService base class that lets third-party developers create plug-in recognition engines.
• New RecognitionListener interface to receive callbacks.
• New RecognizerIntent extras that let a requester app specify details as preferred language, minimum length in milliseconds, and so on.

Camera and camcorder

• Changes to camera preview API to improve efficieny of preview pipeline.
• New display orientation for camera (it can now work in portrait orientation).
• New APIs in android.hardware.Camera for managing zoom level.
• New APIs android.hardware.Camera.Parameters for querying and setting device camera settings such as focal length, exposure, zoom level, view angle, and others.
• New thumbnail utility for video and image thumbnails.
• New CamcorderProfile and CamcorderProfile classes enable apps to determine device hardware camera capablities.
• New support in android.media.ExifInterface for retrieving GPS and focal length.

Device policy manager

New device policy management APIs allow developers to write “device
administrator” applications that can control security features of the device,
such as the minimum password strength, data wipe, and so on. Users can select
the administrators that are enabled on their devices. For more information, see
the android.app.admin classees or the example
application code in DeviceAdminSample.java.

UI Framework

• New UI modes “car mode” and “night mode” and UiModeManager let applications adjust their application UI for specific user modes.
• New ScaleGestureDetector that lets Views detect and handle transformation gestures that involve more than one pointer (multitouch) using the supplied MotionEvents.
• Improvements in the way that multitouch events are reported in MotionEvent objects.
• The layout attribute fill_parent is renamed to match_parent. This affects both XML and Java code (see ViewGroup.LayoutParams). Note that the platform will continue to honor uses of fill_parent in legacy applications.
• New layout attributes tabStripEnabled, tabStripRight, and tabStripLeft let developers customize the bottom strip of TabWidgets.
• Better support for managed dialogs in Activity.

Accounts and sync

• New method AddPeriodicSync() lets you schedule a periodic sync with a specific account, authority, and extras at the given frequency.

New manifest elements and attributes

• For specifying the application’s preferred install location (see App Installation on External Storage Media, above):
  • New android:installLocation attribute of the <manifest> element. Specifies the default install location defined by an application.
• For managing user data backup (see Backup manager, above, for more information):
  • New android:backupAgent attribute of the
    <application> element. Specifies the component name of the
    BackupAgent subclass provided by the application to handle backup/restore
    operations, if any.
  • New android:restoreAnyVersion attribute of the
    <application> element. Boolean value that indicates whether
    the application is prepared to attempt a restore of any backed-up dataset, even
    if the backup is apparently from a newer version of the application than is
    currently installed on the device.
• For managing the platform’s JIT compiler:
  • New android:vmSafeMode attribute of the <application> element. Boolean value that specifies whether to disable JIT compiler optimizations when running the application.

Permissions

• android.permission.BIND_DEVICE_ADMIN — Any device administration broadcast receiver must require this permission, to ensure that only the system can interact with it.
• android.permission.KILL_BACKGROUND_PROCESSES — Allows an application to call killBackgroundProcesses(String).
• android.permission.BIND_WALLPAPER — Any WallpaperService must require this permission, to ensure that only the system can interact with it.
• android.permission.SET_TIME — Allows an application to set the system time.

API differences report

For a detailed view of all API changes in Android 2.2 (API
Level 8), see the API
Differences Report.

Built-in Applications

The system image included in the downloadable platform provides these
built-in applications:

Locales

The system image included in the downloadable platform provides a variety of
built-in locales. In some cases, region-specific strings are available for the
locales. In other cases, a default version of the language is used. The
languages that are available in the Android 2.2 system
image are listed below (with language_country/region locale
descriptor).

Localized UI strings match the locales that are accessible
through Settings.

Emulator Skins

The downloadable platform includes a set of emulator skins that you can use
for modeling your application in different screen sizes and resolutions. The
emulator skins are:

• QVGA (240×320, low density, small screen)
• WQVGA (240×400, low density, normal screen)
• FWQVGA (240×432, low density, normal screen)
• HVGA (320×480, medium density, normal screen)
• WVGA800 (480×800, high density, normal screen)
• WVGA854 (480×854 high density, normal screen)

For more information about how to develop an application that displays
and functions properly on all Android-powered devices, see Supporting Multiple
Screens.

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