The Google Nexus One doesn’t just have the best touchscreen and tech specs of any Android phone yet: it’s got the most advanced version of Android itself onboard, Android 2.1. Unless you’ve snagged some facetime with a Motorola Milestone, this may be the first time you’ve ever had a go with Google’s biggest update to its mobile OS so far (Android Mark II). Want to know what’s new and how to turn it to your advantage in your daily life? Read on and we’ll show you how in our tutorial…

Add more than one email account
Your iPhone or average BlackBerry or will happily let you add more than one email account, but until now, you’ve been chained to one Google account only per Android phone. Android 2.x changes that, letting you add not only multiple email accounts (Including Exchange emails, which is good news if you want your work messages on your mobile), but multiple Google accounts which can all sync simultaneously.

To turn it on, look for the Accounts option in Gmail on your Google Nexus One, and to tweak syncing options, open up Settings, then delve into Accounts & Sync settings.

Quick contact your mates
Your contacts book gets a whole lot smarter in Android 2.0 and 2.1, with the introduction of a new Quick Contact bar. Once you’ve loaded your SIM, Google and Facebook contacts into your Google Nexus One, just touch and hold a name or face in Contacts, and you’ll see a small window with a row of icons pop up, showing all the ways you can contact a person, whether by phone, SMS, email or instant message. You can also pull it up in other Android apps, such as Messaging and Calendar, which is handy if you’re running late to a meeting.

Smarter inboxes
Along with multiple email accounts, Android 2.x brings the option to show them all in one merged inbox, just like a BlackBerry, which is a serious timesaver for anyone with work and personal accounts full to the brim at all times. Searching also gets a brain boost, with the Motorola Milestone and Google Nexus One letting you search through the text in all your text message conversations.

Keyboard
We’re still waiting for the Android phone with a killer QWERTY keyboard to beat a BlackBerry or Nokia E Series, but in the meantime, touchscreen-only Android blowers such as the Google Nexus One get a smarter software keypad for swifter typing. A new layout makes hitting the right key in portrait mode that little bit less difficult, while the onboard dictionary now learns words from you using them, and will come up with contact names as suggestions.

Camera options galore
Android Mark II lets you make better use of your phone’s camera, with software support for several new shooting option and filters. There’s a digital zoom, new scene options and the ability to adjust colour and white balance should you feel like getting arty with the five megapixel camera on the Google Nexus One.

A better browser
Google’s ironed out the few kinks in the Android internet app and come back with a truly first-class mobile browser. You can search straight from the address bar, just like in Google’s Chrome browser on the desktop, but the big new feature will only come into its own over time: HTML5 standard compatibility.

HTML5 is the next big thing online, allowing for websites with rich design that look like apps (without the need for downloading anything) and even streaming video without the need for Flash (the software that powers everything from YouTube to BBC iPlayer), which has still to be properly cracked on phones. Look for web-based apps using it to become much more powerful over the coming months

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