There have been a couple of screenshots van videos of Android, but it doesn’t happen every day that Google’s Senior Director of Mobile Platforms demoes the phone OS to reporters. Andy Rubin demonstrated a non-touchscreen version of the platform, showing a browser designed for button-based navigation and the ability to multitask. Rubin showed Google Maps while a media player and photo app were running in the background.
The reporters weren’t allowed to report on the particular phones (the handset used in the demo was surprisingly similar to the HTC TyTN II). But since Android is designed to work on any phone with at least a 200MHz processor, Google probably wouldn’t want to distract the reporters with specific phones.
They rather focus on the OS itself, which will be delivered with 20 default applications. These include YouTube, a Gmail application and Google Maps. The main screen is a desktop space, similar to a desktop computer. You can swite your finger at the sides of the screen, because the desktop is actually larger than the resolution of the phone screen.
You can run multiple applications side by side. Android freezes the applications running in the background, so they don’t drain the system resources. An exclamation mark in the corner of the screen warns when new mail or text messages arrive. Clicking on the exclamation mark will open a menu with access to the information.
More info: CNET Asia and Hardwarezone
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