Google Android: NVIDIA Tegra and More Improvements
It seems that the new NVIDIA Tegra might be the hardware of choice for the next Android smart phones. It has already been revealed that NVIDIA technology is being used in the Android tablet that was shown off at the Web 2.0 Expo. This is why it would not be surprising to know that the tablet was already packed with the Tegra.
The Tegra is more than just a CPU; it is an all in one system (or as NVIDIA calls it, a system on a chip). This hardware combines an ARM architecture CPU with a GPU, Southbridge, a memory controller and Northbridge.
This places the next generation Android smart phones with a technological advantage over many other handsets. With the competition between Google and Apple reaching new heights, it is not surprising that the Android developer has been heavily focusing on not only improving its mobile platform (with the recent new improvements to search, inclusion of Flash and more), but they are now also working on improving the hardware use in Android devices.
Speaking of Android add-ons, the Google Goggles augmented reality application has been improved recently to include the ability to scan foreign languages and translate the text into English content. This is very useful especially for reading languages that are written in special characters that cannot be written manually with a standard keyboard.
It has also been confirmed that the next Android OS, version 2.2 Froyo, will have native support for Flash. As recently announced, Google and Adobe have been teaming up after Apple forced developers to stop using the Adobe Flash Professional CS5 software for developing iPhone apps.
Back to the tablet at the Web 2.0 Expo, the device pretty much shows off what makes the Android the amazing OS that it is now and also, a preview into the new features that will be included –namely the NVIDIA hardware and the implementation of Flash support.
