The next version of Google’s mobile OS – version 2.2 or “FroYo” – will include some pretty impressive new features and tweaks… if you believe the latest round of news and pseudo news.  Let’s take a look:

Internet Sharing: TechCrunch has provided pretty solid confirmation of v2.2’s built-in tethering and Wi-Fi Hotspot capabilities. Complete with screenshots, the post says we’ll not only be able to connect FroYo-powered handsets to our computers for over-USB-tethering, but that those same handsets will also use their Wi-Fi chips to create portable wireless networks à la MiFi.

Speed Improvements: According to the site AndroidPolice, FroYo scores significantly higher in LINPACK speed benchmark tests than Eclair (v2.1) on the same hardware.  In fact, according to the test, FroYo’s speed – or the number of operations it can perform per second – on the Nexus One is 37 MFLOPS, while Eclair’s speed test was 7 MFLOPS; that’s about a 5x speed increase.

Benchmark results are notoriously unreliable for indications of real-world performance, but with such a significant change in scores on the same test, there is certainly cause for cautious optimism that FroYo has some significant optimizations under the hood.

Flash Support: We’ve known for a couple of weeks that Flash support is included in Android 2.2, and if the AndroidPolice tests turn out to be accurate, speed optimizations may have been the key to making this possible.

Install Apps to Memory Card: Officially listed as “coming soon,” the ability to install applications to a memory card rather than to the internal memory alone is widely considered to be included in Android v2.2.