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Do you hear the music Desire owners? The tinkling melody of “Greensleeves” playing in the distance? That’s the HTC ice cream truck dropping off a fresh batch of Froyo.
That’s right folks, today’s the day. The Android 2.2 update for Telstra-branded HTC Desire handsets is finally available to download via HTC’s Australian website. The file, which weighs in at 173MB in size, will update a user’s Desire handset to the latest version of Android, plus add a range of HTC-developed usability enhancements.
We spoke to HTC this morning and they gave us the following list of changes that users can expect after installing the firmware, though they stressed this was not an exhaustive list:
Flash 10.1 support
- One of the most awaited add-ons — full Flash 10.1 support is on board the Android 2.2 Froyo update
Performance
- New web browser V8 JavaScript engine allows faster loading of JavaScript-heavy pages
- Two to five times performance improvement for CPU-heavy apps thanks to the Dalvik JIT Compiler
- Improved memory management allowing faster app switching and smoother performance on memory-constrained devices
Extended Exchange support
- Password unlocking, remote wipe, exchange calendars, auto-discovery
- Enhanced camera capabilities
Camera
- On-screen camera keys that let you control zoom, flash, white balance, geotagging, focus and exposure
- Camcorder can now make use of LED flash as video light
- Camera now supports portrait orientation
Apps management
- You can install applications on the shared external storage (SD card, for instance)
- The cloud-based Backup and Restore service can now backup some of the third-party app data for future restores
- New bug reporting feature for Android Market apps send developers crash and freeze reports
Misc enhancements
- You can use the smartphone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to eight devices
- Voice dialling over Bluetooth
- Contact sharing over Bluetooth
HTC additions
- App sharing — share a link to your favourite apps
- Flashlight — turns your photo light into a torch
- FM Radio widget
- 720p video recording
- Wi-Fi router widget switch
We’ve just finished installing the new ROM and so far so good. We’ve run a few of our standard Android benchmarks and seen results almost twice as high as previously. Also, if you followed our How to root your Desire user guide you’ll be happy to know that the update works completely as expected, though it will unroot your phone and overwrite the custom Recovery Mod.
