Android 2.3.3 Arrives with Improved NFC Capabilities

Following the launch of Android 2.3 Gingerbread back in December, Google has announced the addition of new features to its mobile operating system, along with the release of a new version of the platform, namely Android 2.3.3.

The new OS iteration comes with new forms of communication for developers and users, including better Near Field Communications (NFC) capabilities, so that developers can start delivering contactless, proximity-based applications.

Google notes that NFC would be able to offer new ways of using mobile devices, and that ticketing, advertising, ratings, and even data exchange with other NFC-enabled devices would be only a few examples in this direction.

Ever since Android 2.3 arrived with NFC on board, the interest towards the technology increased, and the new update to the mobile platform is meant to offer NFC capabilities to developers, so that they would include these with their applications.

Some of the new features would include:

- A comprehensive NFC reader/writer API that lets apps read and write to almost any standard NFC tag in use today.
- Advanced Intent dispatching that gives apps more control over how/when they are launched when an NFC tag comes into range.
- Some limited support for peer-to-peer connection with other NFC devices.

The new Android 2.3.3 platform release arrives with a new API level, namely 10, Google explains while encouraging developers to give it a try and come up with applications that would support the new features.

All of the mobile phones that were brought to the market with the Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform on board should get upgraded to the new Android 2.3.3 OS, or even to future platform versions.

There is a new Android 2.3.3 SDK platform available for developers, and they can download and install it through the Android SDK Manager.

Those who would like to have a closer look at the new API changes announced for Android 2.3.3 should read the release notes, available here.

The Android SDK can be downloaded for Windows computers from here.
The Android SDK can be downloaded for Mac from here
The Android SDK can be downloaded for Linux computers from here.