Google is rolling out Android 2.2, codenamed Froyo, to Nexus One handsets. The new version of the operating system brings an extremely noticeable performance boost, a handful of impressive new features, some minor user interface enhancements, and useful new APIs for developers. The additions in Froyo fill some of the gaps in the platform and augment its competitiveness relative to rivals.

Froyo was unveiled at at the Google I/O developer conference in May during a keynote presentation by Google VP of engineering Vic Gundotra. Stabilizing the platform for an official Nexus One release took Google a little bit longer than expected, but the software is now being made available to users through an over-the-air update. We took it for a test drive to see how it compares to the previous version.

Batch application updates

Android 2.2 introduces several long-overdue features that substantially improve application management and make software updates less painful. Google's Android Market, a program that allows users to find and install third-party Android software, gained an "Update all" button that will initiate a batch update process for all applications installed on the device that have new versions available. This addition will spare users from having to update each application manually, a tedious process that requires several taps for each program.

The Android Market's new "Update all" button

The batch updates only require user intervention in cases where the application's permissions have changed. If the new version of the application requires access to additional device functionality, the user must give it permission before the update can commence. This is a security feature that is intended to prevent applications from silently escalating their privileges without consent.

Left: Apps with permission changes are marked "manual", Right: The batch update process skips apps that must be updated manually

When the feature was announced at Google I/O, I stopped updating applications on my Nexus One and decided to wait for Froyo's batch update feature. By the time I got Froyo this week, I had 22 applications in need of updates. This gave me a good opportunity to exercise the feature. It downloads and installs the updates in parallel, displaying progress bars in the notification slider that allow the user to monitor the progress of individual applications.

Left: A batch update displayed in the Android notification slider, Right: Multiple apps downloading simultaneously during a batch update

Two of the applications failed to download (22 at once was a bit too much for my 3G connection) and two of them had to be updated manually due to permission changes. To update the two that failed, I just had to hit the "Update all" button again after the first batch update was finished. For the two that required manual updates, I had to go through the normal application update process.