Features Endowed by Android 2.3 For Application Developers

Android 2.3 has now many APIs and features that allow Android app developers have new kinds of applications to their Android platform. With Android 2.3 number of improvements has been made across the systems that can allow operations to be much more efficient and faster. For the game developers delight, the introduction of concurrent garbage collector by the Dalivik VM has been a boon. This garbage collector reduces application pauses and helps in the smooth animation process and increase in responsiveness in games and similar other kinds of applications. The platform can also increases feasibility for touch and keyboard events much smoother, faster and efficient reducing utilization of CPU time during event distribution. These changes can initiate great improvements in response to all applications which can be of great beneficial to games that makes use of touch events in combination with 3D graphics and other CPU operations. Also added to the same are video drivers which can increase the efficiency of OpenGLES operations for much faster and effective 3D graphics performance. Also applications which utilize native codes can also process input and sensor events straight in their native code. This directly helps in improving the functioning and increase in efficiency to a greater degree. Also native libraries espoused by the platforms can also allow applications to handle similar kinds of input events as the ones available through the framework. Applications can have events from all kinds of sensor types and can also allow and disable particular sensors and manage event delivery rates and queuing. Android 2.3 also can provide adequate API support for the different kinds of sensor types which has gyroscope, rotation vector, linear acceleration, barometer sensors as well as gravity. Apps can also use new sensors in conjunction with other kinds of sensors which are available on the device, to give greater 3 D effects with great accuracy and precision. As for instance a game application can utilize readings from a gyroscope and accelerometer on the device to identify complexity in motions and gestures, like slicing, spinning and tilting. To provide greater audio control and effect straight from native code the platform gives a software implementation of Khronos OpenSLES which is a standardized API. This API can be used to manage audio devices and control audio inputs and outputs. In fact local applications can also have a new kind of Activity class, also known as NativeActivity whose life cycle is implemented straight in native code. They function in the application’s system process and perform execution on the applications main UI thread and get the same lifecycle call backs. The platform also produces native API’s manage windows, including the capacity to unlock/lock the pixel buffer. With this process applications can attain a native window object which is linked with a framework surface object and directly connect with native code. Through the API, applications can obtain a native window object associated with a framework Surface object and interact with it directly in native code. In the same way there are many more functionaries by Android 2.3 which is of highest value for the Android app developers to provide rich performances of apps.