By this point I’ve had Froyo on my device for longer than Eclair, so it’s easy to forget the various upgrades Froyo provided. One of them that I’ve certainly noticed, but to which I haven’t paid particular attention, is in the Market. There are plenty of excellent new features in the 2.2 Android Market, included tabbed information on apps, bulk updates, and automatic updates. It’s easy to take these for granted once you’re on Froyo for a bit, but there are plenty of users who have yet to realize these convenient features. Thanks to a silent update, a number of users running older versions of Android are getting an updated version of the Market. The three features listed above — tabbed browsing, bulk updates, and automatic updates — are the major additions. The update also adds the Market widget, though I’m not sure if that’s even a big deal. It left my fifth home screen a few seconds after I added it. News of this update first appeared on Android Central. At the time it appeared that users with a Milestone, Vibrant, and Fascinate running Android 2.1 were getting the update, but since then it appears to have expanded. Later, via Phandroid, we learned that some users running 1.6 were getting the update. It does sound like this is going to select users, so there’s a chance that some running 1.6 have the update, while others running 2.1 do not. I’m not sure exactly how Google determines who gets what. In any case, you’ll get no prompt that your Market has updated. You’ll just notice it when you click in. While it’s not Froyo, it’s certainly a nice perk for those running devices with older Android versions.
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