Android-lovers, get excited. Google has officially confirmed (or shall we say reconfirmed) that Android-powered phones will be out the door before the end of ‘08. Not particularly anything new here, but certainly a reassuring quip for all of us anxious to get our hands on the HTC Drea… er… the new Android phone, whatever it may be.
The source for the video below is unknown, but that doesn’t keep the rumor mill from grinding away at full speed on this one. Android has been shown displaying Google Maps data and allegedly making a phone call. Of course, this all could just be smoke and mirrors, but assuming it isn’t, this shows the power of Android even on older tech like the N95. Just for reference, the HTC Dream - purportedly Android’s debut handset - has about 3 times the power of the N95 as far as processing is concerned. Check out the video after the break.
Every now and then, we’ll address some of the questions popping up in the AndroidBoards inbox (admin@androidboards.com) . These can range from silly to serious to satirical - send them in and we’ll get to them… eventually.
Q: When do you expect to see the first mainstream adoption of Android in the consumer market? And what carrier will be the main proponent?
-ohadev
A: As far as the carrier, it’s fairly certain that T-Mobile will be one of the main proponents. Unfortunately, this means that the “Top Three” carriers in the U.S. will be tagging along behind, which could result in a slower consumer adoption of Android handsets.
Rich Miner, Google’s head of the mobile-platform division, reveals a few details about Google’s larger plans for Android.
Q: Why get into the phone business?
A: I wouldn’t say we’re getting into the phone business. Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it accessible. In many parts of the world, people are never going to have computers. They’re going to have mobile phones. We’re just using phones as a way to deliver on our mission.Q: Aren’t there other open-source phones out there?
A: There’s open-source, and there’s what the industry refers to as open. There are other Linux-based initiatives but all of the other things you need to build a phone, like media codecs [software decoders], Web browsers, phone dialers, databases, security models—all that stuff is built on top of Linux in ways that aren’t necessarily open. Linux ends up being a very small portion. Everything a developer needs to build a phone, we’re releasing open-source.Q: Have you seen any particularly impressive or original applications?
A: Somebody wrote an application that would notify him when the bus was turning down his street so he wouldn’t have to stand out in the rain.Q: Will an Android application have a sort of security seal of approval to let users know that they’re not junky or vulnerable to hackers?
A: The Android platform protects the user from buggy applications. Software can’t read your address book or dial your phone without your knowing about it, for example. But we don’t want to put big hurdles in front of a developer to have to go pay and get something certified and stamped for every single handset they want to be on. We think that’s one of the things that limits innovation.Q: Do you use an Android phone now?
A: Yes, and I have been for a year. It’s called dog-fooding—in our industry, to “eat your own dog food” is the phrase.
Yesterday brought the second release of the historic Apple iPhone. Steve Jobs dropped the highly-anticipated iPhone 3G bomb at WWDC 2008 in San Francisco to the joy of Apple fans worldwide. But after watching Jobs’ keynote, several features seem to hint toward an early release to combat the buzz surrounding Android.
The Google I/O Conference ended with the developers taking the stage and answering questions from the audience. Fifty were answered in total, and they can all be found at ZDNet. Here are the highlights:
Q. What if my app uses location api, and service provider shuts that off, can they?
A. They can do that… it’s not a perfect world. Rather than having us dictate what carriers and OEMs support, we let developers develop killer apps that will require it.Q. Java is more than a language. Google implemented its own VM. Could we use the Sun JVM? Explain the reasoning behind having your own.
A. We can have a more efficient interpreter and less memory pressure (by having Dalvik). You have to consider the holistic system performance. We had no choice but to run multiple VMs and processes. Share read-only memory across processes was important. Dalvik does that.Q. Does Android have USB support? External keyboard, etc.?
A. The hardware should support it but it’s not enabled in the software. Maybe in a point release.Q. If a small device manufufacturer wants to run Android, can they just download it and go?
A. Once it’s open source, anyone can download and port Android without joining OHA. Android will be open source before the end of the year.Q. What is Android’s business model?
A. Somebody could rip out the Google stuff and put in Yahoo stuff. That’s ok. Our job is to continue to create killer apps that people will want to use. Google search, GMail, maps, etc.. If we ever fail to delight users our core business will go away. That’s why we felt comfortable using the Apache license.Q. Any details on next round of the Android developer’s challenge?
A. For part 2… we don’t have a lot of details. It will be the other half of the $10 million, and will be after devices are on the market. Probably early next year.
Here’s the first part of a new multi-part series we’ll be doing on applications that didn’t quite make the final list, but sure deserved it. The first application is handyCalc, and you can check out a couple features in the video below as well as the interview with the developer after the break
We forgot one little tidbit about the Developer Challenge update the other day: Each recipient gets $25k to finance the further production of their application(s). Not a small chunk of change for most of these guys who are typically one or two individuals collaborating on a single project.
Google has released a list of finalists and a detailed PDF containing all 46 of the recipients who consented to share their information with the public. One great apps listed include “AndroidScan”, which allows you to scan the barcode on many different products and find price comparison data in real time. Check the link for more, and get excited to seem some great new applications for Android. The judge names and companies which they represent were released also, check the link after the jump to see both the PDF and judges.
UPDATE: The Revamp is almost complete, just need to drop in my logos and it should be good to go. Let me know if anything is missing. Also, there is no integration of user accounts between the blog and the forums.
In the next couple of days, expect some serious downtime for the site. We’re preparing for a large release of Android on a solid platform, which means heavy traffic. Up until now, AndroidBoards was kind of a side project, but with the new traffic and interest I’ve seen in the site, I think I’m going to take this off the back burner and give it it’s own personal server.
I could always use some help with submissions!
For those of you who care, the new version of AndroidBoards will be running on Wordpress with a PhpBB forum back-end. I am going to export the current phpBB database, rebuild a new version and drop Wordpress on top of it all with user integration (hopefully!). This could take a bit more time than I expected, so if you see the site down for several days, I’ll probably be glad to accept some help getting it back up.
-Danny
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