I just loaded the latest
ROM from Eugene373 onto my HTC Magic 32B (from Vodafone NZ) sandpit phone. There is a LOT of new stuff in this version of Android. I won't type much, I'll let the screenshots from my phone speak for themselves.
As usual, click on any of the images to see the full size.
The biggest surprise for me was Google Navigation is included and actually works for New Zealand. I tried a route from where I am to the centre of Auckland and it provided turn-by-turn instructions in text....and a voice told me to turn in 800 metres at Roberts Road. I nearly fell off my chair!
There is a new multimedia dock included from Motorola Droid.
There is also a "Phone Portal" app that lets you drive some things on the phone from your PC via USB or wifi.
The "Dockrunner" is one place to access a number of multimedia apps on the phone. It's only in landscape mode, clearly designed for the Motorola Droid and similar large-screen phones.
There is also an updated version of the Facebook app for Android. Here is one screenshot of it. It looks pretty good.
The ROM also includes MySpace and support for Microsoft Exchange mail and directories. There is a new media gallery. The browser is clearly the Eclair browser as seen in the Eclair emulator.
I'll just throw a few more screenshots up here. It will be messy, but that's what happens sometimes. :-)
It's not all sweetness and light.
The camera is completely non-functional in this ROM.
Text in the browser and elsewhere tends to be very small at first, perhaps because it is intended for devices with larger screens.....4 inches isn't THAT much bigger than 3.2 inches. The web browser isn't enable for multi-touch (on my phone, anyway), while the browser version included in Cyanogen Mod 4.2.5 does support multi-touch.
Performance is fine. It's actually pretty snappy overall. Probably faster than the Android 1.6 that comes as standard with the HTC Magic as sold.
There is now also a task manager built in located in the Settings. Glad to see this as a multitasking phone needs to give the user some way of controlling what is running at any given time.
I'm looking forward to the 'genuine' Android 2.0. This ROM has certainly whetted my appetite for all the goodies to come. Though I suspect I'll need to stay with a rooted ROM in order to keep all the OTHER stuff that isn't in any standard load from the telcos.
