Android 2.2 powered Droid 2 is gearing up for its much awaited release. However the OS is now said to have a strange defect, its kind of tone deaf. TechCrunch states that the Android 2.2 fails to offer pristine sound quality for streaming music services which was earlier possible in the 2.1 version. 
Music from services like Pandora, MOG, TuneWiki, Slacker and Rhapsody sounds very muddy, tinny and is no longer pleasant. The music appears to sound like ‘a pair of tin cans’. Users can make out the lyrics and the notes but the quality seems to be awful.
A Google spokesperson informed TechCrunch that “We have fixed the bug, and are working with our partners to update the affected Android devices as quickly as possible.”
This defect was first noticed in the month of June when one Nexus user reported a problem in the sound quality after which several other Android 2.2 powered handset owners have complained. This appeared in the bug report on Google Code. Comments on the report stated that it was because Google shifted from OpenCore media framework to Stagefright.
Android 2.2’s underlying audio decoder renders support to HTTP progressive streaming. However, Stagefright is unable to handle the AAC+ and eAAC+ media codecs. These codecs are those on which some of the most popular services function.
Google has announced that the bug fix has been completed and plans to ship it as soon as possible. In this case the sooner the better, as a number of other devices featuring the OS are already in the process of being shipped and not many would want to pick them up unless the streaming audio quality is not fixed.
0 comments