Dave Burrows – Tech / iPhone Blog – Technical Evangelist

Android 2.0 (Eclair) is due to be released soon, amongst a number of new features Eclair will boost support for multiple email accounts running on the same device and offer full multiple Exchange account support. This comes after the Palm Pre added multiple exchange support on a single device. In the current connected world, most of the busy users of smartphones now have multiple email accounts and it’s becoming more popular to have multiple exchange email accounts, e.g. one for work and one for personal. The beauty of Exchange is the push email where emails get pushed to your device, so you don’t lose a single email or miss an email for 3 hours because it’s always there. No mindless send/receive button to press, the device pings back to the server regularly and email gets pushed out to the device when new mail arrives which creates almost a seamless connection.

A number of other enhancements for Android 2.0 are

• Multiple email accounts running on one Android phone. You can now finally sync personal and business Gmail credentials in one program. Synergy FTW! Email, contacts, and Exchange can run smoothly on one phone.
• Quick Contact widget adds a shortcut to getting to SMS, email, or phone directly from the contact list. Email, Messaging, and Calendar apps can also launch the Quick Contact widget
• Microsoft Exchange support built into the OS so users no longer need third-party apps
  Search SMS and MMS messages and auto-delete oldest message in conversation when a defined limit is reach
• Camera tweaks Built-in flash support for capable phones, digital zoom, scene mode, white balance, color effect, and macro focus (up close photos)
• Improved virtual keyboard designed for improved speed, more accuracy, multi-touch support for rapid typing, and smarter dictionary that includes contact names
• New UI for Browser app with instant searches, bookmarks with web page thumbnails, double-tap zoom, and HTML5 support
• Calendar changes that include more scrolling in Agenda view and invitee attendance status
• Bluetooth 2.1 and new Object Push Profile and Phone book Access Profile. Bluetooth that allows people to send and receive data. Proximity-based interaction allows for your phone to communicate with another via Bluetooth.

Here’s a video with more information from Google on what Android 2.0 is capable of…

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