14 DAY TRIAL // A few weeks ago, Google announced a new version of their Android mobile operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, and the company has been releasing updated developer tools ever since with the new Android NDK r7 being the latest in the series.
The updated version of the Android NDK is meant to provide application developers who are using native code with the possibility to start using the new native APIs available in Android 4.0.
The official NDK APIs for Android 4.0 (API level 14) has been included into the mix, with the features necessary to offer support for the new Ice Cream Sandwich OS version.
It also brings along some new, experimental features, such as the possibility to build the NDK source files on Windows without Cygwin, through using the ndk-build.cmd script from the command line from the project.
The new Android NDK r7 has been packed with various build system improvements, as well as with a series of bug fixes, and with access to two new sets of APIs.
In a recent post on the Android Developers blog, Google explains the following on these APIs:
- Low-level streaming multimedia: A new API based on Khronos OpenMAX AL 1.0.1 provides a direct, efficient path for low-level streaming multimedia. The new path is ideal for applications that need to maintain complete control over media data before passing it to the platform for presentation. For example, media applications can now retrieve data from any source, apply proprietary encryption/decryption, and then send the data to the platform for display.
- Audio decoding into PCM: Extensions to the existing native audio API based on Khronos OpenSL ES let native apps decode compressed audio assets to PCM format.
A wide array of other enhancements was also packed with the new release, and all of the necessary details on the matter can be found on the Android Developers website here.
The new Android NDK r7 is available for download from Softpedia as well, for Windows and Mac, here and here, respectively.