An Android demonstration took center stage that week at the Google I/O event in San Francisco attended by 2,900 developers. The latest version of the mobile platform was introduced amid nearly 100 in-depth technical sessions about Google’s developer products and general Web application development.

“The demo was very impressive in terms of showing off yet again a completely new user interface than what we’ve seen previously,” said Avi Greengart, a wireless analyst at Current Analysis. “There are some nice innovations, such as a bar at the top which could be expanded to give you control by the notifications. You can touch the notification bar and jump to whatever you were being notified about.”

Speeding Up Smartphone Innovation

The Open Handset Alliance promises Android will deliver a complete set of software for mobile devices: an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications. The alliance’s 34 companies first released an Android software development kit last November.

The

alliance is betting Android will better position developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost. The end conclusion, the group pledged, will be a mobile platform that makes way for wireless operators and manufacturers to give their customers better, more personal and more flexible mobile experiences.

One of the platform innovations that could live up to that promise is a new way to unlock phones by drawing a specific shape on the touchscreen. That would do away with the need to enter a password. Android plus makes room for bookmarks for favorite Web sites on the device’s home page. And a compass tool automatically roams with the phone’s user.

“For all practical plans they showed a live view of the mapping engine tied to what direction you are actually standing in, and that was really cool,” Greengart said….

Original post by Top Tech News