Difference Between Android Cupcake, Donut, Eclair and Froyo

Nowadays products of cellphones with Android operating system is gaining popularity but many people are not aware with the version of Android operating system installed in their cellphones. Up to now there are many version of Android operating system which are Android Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo and Gingerbread. Each version of Android operating system is difference an usually an update to the previous version.

Maybe all you hubreaders are already acquainted to these names of Android operating system but it is better we know the specific differences in each operating system.

The Android 1.5 Cupcake operating system is an update to the previous android 1.1 operating system software which was launched in February 2009. Cupcake new specification was:

• Having the ability to record and watch the video through the camcorder.
• Upload video to Youtube and upload the pictures to Picasa
• New applications of soft-keyboard with text-prediction functionality.
• Bluetooth A2DP and AVRCP support.
• Having the ability to automatically connect to a Bluetooth device with a certain distance.
• New widget and folders can be gathered at the home screen.
• Movement screen was done automatically

Android Donut

Android released an updated version which is Android version 1.6 and Google Android called it the Donut. The version was released in 30 April 2009 with the ability to:

• have increase functionality in android market
• Having integrated camera, video recorder and display gallery
• New gallery application allowing users to choose multiple photos to be deleted
• Applications of voice search is updated to be more responsive and integrated with other applications including the ability to search contacts.
• Enhanced search application to search for bookmarks, history, contacts, and web from home screen
• Improved technology support for CDMA / EVDO.802.1x, VPNs, and text to speech engine.
• Supports resolution WVGA screen
• Speed improvement in searching and camera applications
• Improvement in speed-search application and camera applications.

Android Eclair ver 2.1 was an updated version of Android Donut with the ability of:

• Optimized hardware speed
• Supports for higher screen size and screen resolution
• Revamped User Interface
• New user interface in a browser and support for html5
• List of new contacts
• Better white-black ratio for better backgrounds
• Increasing functionality of Google Maps (3.1.2)
• Support for Microsoft Exchange
• Support for camera flash
• Addition of Digital Zoom
• Enhanced virtual keyboard on the application
• addition Bluetooth 2.1
• Live Wallpapers

Android was updated to Android Froyo operating system 2.2. having the ability to:

• Optimizing the speed and performance of Android OS
• Integration of chrome v8 JavaScript into a browser application
• Enhanced support for Microsoft Exchange
• Enhanced applications luncher with shortcuts towards phone and browser application
• USB tethering functionality and WiFi hotspots.
• Addition of an option to disable data access, mobile network
• Applications android market which has been updated with automatic update feature.
•  Quick Switching Between multiple keyboard languages and dictionaries.
• Voice dialing and various contacts via bluetooth
• Support for file uploads in the browser application
• support for Adobe Flash 10.1

One of the things that most felt when changing from Eclair to Froyo is the increased performance of mobile phones. It can also be measured through the application benchmark commonly used in Android (Quadrant).

Based on benchmarks conducted perrformance was increased to two-fold increase from the previous system (Eclair). The tests included testing of processor performance in multimedia processing, up to the graphics capability to handle 3-dimensional (3d) content.

In addition, existing free memory is greater than ever. If the user usually only get about 100MB, now can use about 250MB of 512MB total available memory.Automatically it is increasing performance despite users run many applications simultaneously.

Other notable features were :

• we could place application on the SD Card. Unlike the previous operating system that could only put applications on the main memory. Through Froyo, users can put all the installation files on an external memory.
• Record videos with HD quality. If the previous user can only record moving images at a maximum resolution of 800 X 480 pixels, not anymore. Thanks to Froyo, video capture resolution can be increased up to 1280 X 720 pixels. Equivalent to half the quality of High Definition.
• Can be used as Hotspot. After upgrading to Froyo, users will see a new icon on the existing suite of applications that is, Wi-Fi Hotspot. As the name suggests, this application allows mobile phone users used as an access point.

In addition, there's more additional applications such as Flashlight, App Sharing, and Navigation. Especially for the navigation map, only available in beta version and can not be used in several locations.