Android SDK 2.1 Available Now

By Android 1 on January 12, 2010 in Android

Google has released Android SDK 2.1 for developers to begin making those great animated wallpapers that have made the Nexus One such a big hit at parties. Of course, this has come almost a week after the introduction of Nexus One, the first device to be running Android OS 2.1. Google isn’t making a big to do about the release either:

Android 2.1 is a small feature release that includes new developer APIs and documentation. For information about what’s included in the platform, read the Android 2.1 version notes.

I was hoping for a little more fireworks and party poppers. But, this will do.

It almost seems like the author of the documentation was having a case of the Mondays:

Platform Highlights

Android 2.1 does not add significant user features, see the Android 2.0 Platform Highlights document for the latest user features.

At least the API Changes have a nice list, including animated wallpapers:

API changes summary

The following is a summary of some notable changes to the framework APIs.

Live Wallpapers

The following additions provide APIs for you to develop animated wallpapers:

New android.service.wallpaper package.

New WallpaperInfo class.

Updated WallpaperManager.

Telephony

New SignalStrength class provides information about the device’s current network signal. This can be acquired from the new onSignalStrengthsChanged(SignalStrength) callback.

New onDataConnectionStateChanged(int, int) callback.

Views

New View methods isOpaque() and onDrawScrollBars(Canvas).

New RemoteViews methods addView(int, RemoteViews) and removeAllViews(int).

New ViewGroup methods isChildrenDrawingOrderEnabled() and setChildrenDrawingOrderEnabled(boolean).

WebKit

New WebStorage methods to manipulate web storage databases.

New GeolocationPermissions methods to get Geolocation permissions from, and set them on the WebView.

New WebSettings methods to manage settings for app cache, web storage, and zooming based on screen density.

New WebChromeClient methods for handling video, browsing history, custom Views, app cache limits, and more.