Android gets faster apps, better graphics, longer battery life

Mobile middleware developer Myriad has unveiled a turbo boosted version of the Dalvik virtual machine, which runs applications on the Android platform, boosting performance and battery life.

Dalvik Turbo, announced Tuesday, claims to bring a threefold performance increase to applications, richer game graphics and better battery life. The tool is a replacement for the Dalvik virtual machine, which ships as part of the Android platform, and retains full compatibility with existing software. Dalvik Turbo also supports a range of processors including those based on ARM, Intel Atom and MIPS Architectures.

Myriad was created from the merger of Esmertec and Purple Labs and develops a, er, myriad of mobile software including browsers and Java engines.

At the end of last year Benoit Schillings, who joined Nokia as CTO after its 2008 acquisition of Scandinavian mobile Linux firm Trolltech, joined Myriad in a similar capacity. At Nokia Schillings was responsible for Nokia’s cross-device technology as advisor to CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. The industry heavyweight is considered something of a technology guru, known for his design and development of the technically sound but commercially unviable Be operating system (BeOS). He also held the CTO position at OpenWave.

Schillings was the driving force behind Trolltech’s Qt cross platform application framework, which was at the heart of the acquisition by Nokia and would better allow the Finnish firm and third party developers to build web applications that work across Nokia’s device portfolio – a key part of the Ovi concept.