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Well we all know today that Gingerbread is officially released.

But I will cut to the chase and bring you a mesh of what are the big differences between Froyo and Gingerbread.

DroidDog Demo:

Unlockr:

Better Game Development
So unless your a developer, this basically means that Google has improved things like touch control responsiveness and CPU usage and given game developers tools to better integrate their high end games into Android and give the user a better overall experience. Also, Gyroscope support has been added as well.

Audio Improvements
Again, a technical improvement that the average user won’t see. But you may just hear it. Google is adding support for new open audio formats and adding audio effects like reverb, headphone virtualization, and bass boost that developers can use within their apps etc.

Camera Enhancements
Developers now have access to multiple cameras, so the back one for better resolution and the front for video chat, etc.

Built In VoIP
Android now natively supports voice over IP

NFC
Near Field Communication – Allows developers to recognize devices (like tags for example) and use them to launch apps or events.

UI Changes for “Simplicity and Speed”
Google has made some minor changes to the UI to make things faster, easier to understand, and use less power.

Keyboard Enhancements
Keyboard has been redesigned for easier typing and faster input. Multitouch input added (i.e. so you can hold shift/alt and tap a letter instead of having to switch between modes).

Text Selection
You can now use your fingers to select lines of text easily. Dragging two markers allows you to select as much text as you need.

Better Battery Management
The system can now monitor and close apps that are consuming a lot of power (when they aren’t being used) to increase battery life.

Application Control Shortcut
The homescreen options menu now gives access to the Manage Applications option to make it easier to control your apps (running or otherwise).

New Download Manager
Allows access to files downloaded on the phone.

Android Central:

New base Linux kernel version

Starting at the bottom of the Gingerbread pyramid, the Linux kernel has been updated to 2.6.35.  This is the kernel version that third-party ROM developers have been using for a while, and it provides more stability and speed.  Look for the new stock kernel to show some of the improvements we’re used to from custom kernels in use today.

New media framework

OpenCore (the current Froyo media framework) has been completely replaced.  All the previous codec support has been maintained, and support for new technology like VP8 video compression, and WebM video containers has been implemented.  Gingerbread is set up and ready to keep pace with the newest audio and video files as they are produced.

Networking

Besides the new SIP calling stack, and Near Field Communication support we’re all talking about, there’s a new BlueZ stack in Gingerbread.  Bluetooth 2.1 support means better Bluetooth performance across a wide array of BT devices.  That’s something we all will love to see.

The Dalvik runtimes

There has been quite a few improvements to the Dalvik virtual machine (that’s what was improved with a just-in-time compiler (JIT) in Froyo and makes things fast).  For the end user, all we really need to know is that it should run a little faster, especially while rendering web pages.  Here’s the full list of changes for the hardcore Android geeks:

Dalvik VM:

  • Concurrent garbage collector (target sub-3ms pauses)
  • Adds further JIT (code-generation) optimizations
  • Improved code verification
  • StrictMode debugging, for identifying performance and memory issues

Core libraries:

  • Expanded I18N support (full worldwide encodings, more locales)
  • Faster Formatter and number formatting. For example, float formatting is 2.5x faster.
  • HTTP responses are gzipped by default. XML and JSON API response sizes may be reduced by 60% or more.
  • New collections and utilities APIs
  • Improved network APIs
  • Improved file read and write controls
  • Updated JDBC

Updates from upstream projects:

  • OpenSSL 1.0.0a
  • BouncyCastle 1.45
  • ICU 4.4
  • zlib 1.2.5

iOS-like text selector and easy settings access

I thought this is great, especially the text selector. One of the things I missed about the iOS is the ease at which you can select how long the text you want to copy or cut.

Android finally incorporate this.

More features still being discovered

This is the tip of the iceberg. Tune in to Productive Organizer for more Gingerbread goodness.