The Android Bait And Switch - How Google Could Save The Cellphone

Posted by Eric at 16:48 | Filed In Uncategorized | Add a Comment

What are the two things we know about Android? Scratch that - if you’re anything like me, you already know a lot more than two things about it. So let me rephrase: what are the two things that your average casual but somewhat informed Digg or Slashdot reader knows about Android?

1) Android is open.

2) Android is business-friendly.

Google has assured us that both of these will come to pass, the first because “Hey, we’re Google!”, and the second because they’ve chosen a permissive Apache license. The pitch to businesses has been along the lines of “You know, if you guys want to lock down this platform, you’re free to do so - see, that’s why we didn’t GPL it, we’re looking out for you!”

But it’s easy to wonder how these two goals can possibly coexist - at least in the US, cellphone providers love having their platforms on lockdown, because it’s a very good arrangement for them, what with licensing fees, quality control and all that good stuff that businesses thrive on.

So the big question on everyone’s mind right now is, “What is Google doing to make sure that Android phones remain open?” And the answer is far more subtle and devious than it appears at first…
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Nov

12

Android SDK technical specs

Posted by Will at 14:16 | Filed In Uncategorized | Add a Comment

From our forum discussion, here is a quick and dirty rundown of the technical specs of Google’s Android SDK release:

Core SDK features

Linux 2.6 kernel
BSD-based libc
Dalvik VM - mobile optimized
WebKit-based browser
2D graphics lib - SGL (custom library)
3D OpenGL ES 1.0
FreeType bitmap/vector font
SQLite
Media formats (based on PacketVideo’s OpenCORE): MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF

Supported hardware (mostly not implemented in API yet):

Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, WiFi
Camera, GPS, compass, accelerometer
GSM telephony

12

Google releases the Android SDK!

Posted by Will at 11:06 | Filed In Uncategorized | Add a Comment

As expected, the Android SDK is out! And it looks like a pretty substantial release! Google has put up an official Android developer blog, and a developer discussion group. There is also a mirror of the codebase up at Google Code. We’ll all be playing around with the SDK as much as possible throughout the day. More to come soon..

Nov

10

Welcome, Android developers!

Posted by Brian at 22:07 | Filed In Uncategorized | Add a Comment

Phone Controller Welcome to OHAdev — the best resource for information, tools, and help with Android development.

The Android SDK releases on November 12th — this Monday. There will be SDK discussion and dissection on our Android developer boards at that time, and an end of day wrapup will be posted here and on the forum (www.ohadev.com/forum/) with commentary and resources. We’ll be speaking with cellphone industry professionals, independent developers and prolific end-users to get general first impressions of the platform.

In addition, the SDK code will be available for download and browsing at our SDK page. From there, we will be developing tutorials and information on Android development.

Since this is a community site, your comments and suggestions are always welcome. Email our webmaster, lloyd [at] ohadev with your ideas!

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Nov

13