Last night I received the over the air (OTA) Update for my HTC Magic, Android 1.6.
My first check was on the new search bar, which I think is just great. The default settings let you search for your applications, contacts and websites. You can add music to it so it would also search for artists and playlist.
I also discovered the new home screen widget “energybar” (I don’t know if this is the right translation here, but the german word is “Energieleiste”), a bar that offers quick switches for GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, Sync and Display brightness. I know, there are plenty of apps who can do that, but I still hope it can turn on my wireless network much more faster than any app can do.
While sitting around in the bus on my way to work, I played with the 1.6 version and discovered the new features:
SpeechSyntheses: a text-to-speech engine … I’m not sure where this is working and how .. but I’m sure I will know by the end of the day :)
To activate the SpeechSyntheses, I had to download this app first and the new android market app popped up: I really like the new design and now apps can show 2 screenshots which is really helpful for the user.
Now let’s get to the feature that I’m really thrilled about: VPN connections
Yes, we are really getting to the business applications now, just awesome. Under “settings > wireless” you now have a VPN-Settings item where you can set up PPTP and L2TP VPNs with pre-shared keys or with certificates. I’m only missing and OpenVPN client, but I’m pretty sure that android will get to it.
So far, I’m really happy with the new update and that vodafone managed to get to it quickly. My #mobilers phone, the Samsung Galaxy, will not get any OTA Updates for Android as far as I know. I have to install the Samsung Software (which only runs on Windows *strange*) and then try to update the phone over USB. I’ll let you know when I update (or try to update) my Galaxy but one fact is already clear: This is everything else but user friendly!
Finally, the picture I took with my Samsung Galaxy of the Update-screen from my HTC Magic while updating to Android 1.6. Isn’t that paradox :) (sorry for the quality, I just woke up ;) )
Android 1.6 HTC Update
