Looks like the HTC Hero’s heroic moment was very short-lived! While users around the world were busy gushing about the HTC Hero, Google has just released the early development build for Android OS 2.0 Donut. This OS is a follow-up to the OS 1.5 Cupcake which debuted alongside the HTC Magic. This OS delivered some innovative features like multitouch support, CMDA and homescreen control widgets similar to those found in HTC Sense. The OS 2.0 Donut has much improved speed and performance, automated backups and gesture support. It also supports full universal search across all applications, together with WPA Enterprise encryption and VPN support.

We may not yet get to see the official release for commercial devices but the frontline developer community has already started tweaking the Donut to run on existing handsets. A new project has already seen a release, with a build of the new version for the original G1; however this is very unstable and early, with core functionality such as network support missing. Developers are also trying to integrate the Donuts functionalities in new builds of Android OS 1.5 Cupcake to include features like multitouch, CDMA, etc.

[Slashgear]