Well, it looks like our tip was right on the money, as a member of the Open Handset Alliance confirmed that the next version of Android will be 2.3 and that Gingerbread will be hitting the Nexus One in a few days.
“Prepare your Nexus One (Developer version) for Android OTA update 2.3 (Gingerbread) for the next few days :-D,” tweeted OHA team member Alvaro Fuentes Vasquez (translated).
This is lining up well with the rumors we heard that Google will drop Android Gingerbread to developers this Thursday. The clarification about which version number this is should also give us some idea of what types of updates to expect.
Gingerbread will be Android 2.3 and that should mean that it won’t be a radical departure from the previous version, Froyo. I’d expect some user interface improvements, as promised, but I still think that the major overhaul will be coming with Android 3.0, or Honeycomb. That 3.0 version may be the one that’s fully optimized for tablets.
The 2.3 version may offer some features Google showed off earlier this year, as we’re all still waiting for over-the-air app installations and the ability to stream your home music to your device. The app installation alone seems like an excellent feature and the Market is in desperate need of an online version that can be interacted with on a desktop.
As for other features of 2.3 Gingerbread, we’ve heard that the search giant wants to deeply integrate video chatting and it already has the basis for this with Google Talk on the desktop. With devices like the EVO 4G and the myTouch 4G making video calling a big feature, it could be nice for the platform to have one de facto standard.
I’d also expect the Voice Actions app to be put in the core of the platform, as well as some other features. What are you most looking forward to with Gingerbread?
[Via Android Police]
