Google Android Donut Release Won't Bring Multitouch To Smartphones After All

Google has released a major update to its Android platform, nicknamed Donut, and destined for the developing community and a precursor of a full fledged 2.0 update.

Contrary to rumours, Donut isn't either Android 2.0 not does it comes with Multitouch functionality, the single most important distinction between Android and Apple's iPhone platform.

Donut is a development branch which AndroidGuys describes as "a chunk of newly developed test code, patches and other tweaks". This branch can be converted into version 2.0 at any time, depending on Google's plans.

Android framework engineer, Romain Guy, had to intervene succinctly to squash any rumours after some people suggested that HTC Hero had multi touch capabilities (at least according to Orange's specs page).

But Donut will bring a slew of much lauded features; CDMA support, universal search (like the iPhone's or Google Desktop Search), text to speech, WPA enterprise Wifi encryption, a redesigned camera app, support for VPN and automated backups plus gesture support.

Most recent smartphones like the Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic or the TG01 already have multi touch functionality built in natively which means that any platform could in theory take advantage of the smartphone's hardware.