Thursday, February 10, 2011

Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread gives full NFC capabilties

While Android 2.3 Gingerbread had NFC among its main features, it only had the read functionality but Google recently pushed out a “small feature release” that enhances the NFC capabilities. Based on the search giant’s developer blog, Android 2.3.3 now includes: - A comprehensive NFC reader/writer API that lets apps read to any kind of standard NFC tag usedtoday. - Advanced Intent dispatching that provides apps more control over how/whenthey're launched when an NFC tag comes into range. - Some limited support for peer-to-peer experience of other NFC devices. The company said that it expects all Gingerbread phones that enter the market to perform Android 2.3.3. Right now, we only know that the Xperia Arc will land with Android Gingerbread but let’s hope a plethora of devices hit the market using the latest version on thelittle, green roboto. Android 2.3.3. Gingerbread is currently intended for developers and you’ll be capable of check it out with theSDK manager. It also provides a new API level for developers to make richer apps. So, when will Google android 2.3.3 Gingerbread hit the Nexus S and other devices? I wouldthink that the Samsung Google-blessed phone will getit in just a few weeks but I wouldn’t hold my breath for other phones. I realize many Google nexus one owners are still awaiting 2.3 hitting their Google experience device too and you haveto wonder why this is taking so long. If you’re using an Epic 4G, you’re still waiting for Froyo – Cliq XT owners won’t feel sorry for you, as they may be forever stuck on 1.5. So, this shouldlead to some cool NFC apps in the future but what’s the pointif it’s only available to Nexus S users? The Xperia Arc won’thave evenan NFC chip in it, so we still have to wait for a mass-market device that maytake advantage of the features in Google android 2.3.3.