Tag: Google Android

Android is coming along smoothly

Today is the last day of The Mobile World Congress which takes place in Barcelona.  Makers of everything mobile (as in phones, not as in real estates opposite) are showing off their stuff at this event.  Also, there are many announcements, news, and releases tied to the dates of the congress.

It seems like a good time to revisit the Android story.  Is it moving it all?  What’s happening there?  Will we see any of it any time soon?

It appears that the Android is moving along as planned.  There were a few pre-production prototypes at The Mobile World Congress, and people were pretty much impressed with them.

The biggest surprise of the demos was how well Android runs on slow devices.

In other news, Google released a new version of Android SDK.  This new version brought a few major changes and improvements, fixed many things that developers complained about.

The upgrade also takes to heart developer complaints about the software and includes several major but less visible upgrades: in addition to easier development of layouts, any app can now translate addresses to map coordinates and back. Audio formats such as MIDI and OGG are now also built-in, according to Google.

The same source suggests that we will indeed see some phones in the second half of 2008, as it was planned and announced last year.

Android’s upgrade brings the Linux-based platform much closer to production quality for its expected release, which should start with handsets in the second half of the year from companies such as HTC, Motorola, LG, and Samsung. Most of these devices are understood to focus heavily on Internet access and are expected to include some models with GPS and touchscreens.

On predictive text

Here is a funny quote from the comment on predictive text (think: T9) in the discussion about Android and mobile devices on Slashdot:

Predictive text helps a bit but sometimes it gets things so ducking wrong that I am sure the people who program it are a deliberately unhelpful bunch of ducking aunts.

Maybe I should adopt some sort of predictive text plugin for WordPress for those times when I feel like swearing…

What Did You Change Your Mind About in 2007?

Slashdot runs an excellent discussion on the topic of “What Did You Change Your Mind About in 2007?“.  If you want to learn more about what people on the Web had changed their minds in 2007, try this Google search – plenty more there.

What did I change my mind about in 2007?  Short answer: Google.  Continue reading for the long version.

Continue reading What Did You Change Your Mind About in 2007?

What does Sun think about Google’s Java on Android?

Well, nobody knows for sure yet, but Slashdot (yes, again Slashdot) links to this article which has a few quotes from Sun officials.  Interestingly enough, it’s hard to say if Sun will support the open source platform

Jonathan Schwartz, president and CEO of Sun, wrote a blog post congratulating Google on the day of Android’s launch.

or if it will insist on keeping mobile market defragmented

Sun also shared statements that Rich Green, executive vice president of software at Sun, made during Oracle Open World this week about Android. “We’re reaching out to Google and are anticipating they will be reaching out to us to ensure the software and APIs will be compatible–so deployment on a wide variety of platforms will be possible,” he said.

Green also said that Sun wants to work with Google to prevent creating a fractured mobile development environment.

Java chapter in Android story

Blogosphere keeps providing more and more insights into the Google Android story.  As I mentioned in my previous post, Android platform has a lot to do with Java.  In fact, many people consider the level to which Java is integrated into the platform to be the “big news”, unique and all.  Here is a quote from Simon Brocklehurst’s post titled “Putting The Android SDK In Perspective” (read the whole piece, it’s very good):

Android has integrated the Java platform deeply into the phone. In other words, it’s a native application platform for Android phones. No-one has done this before, and it will allow new types of application to be developed (Google has set aside $10M to give away to developers to stimulate development of such software – I hope young entrepreneurs use this opportunity, some great little companies could be started by following this path). It should be noted that Sun’s forthcoming mobile OS platform, JavaFX Mobile, is based around almost exactly the same concept.

After I read the last sentence, I realized that the story is even deeper than I thought.  Google is jumping into competition with Sun, using Sun’s own Java technology.  How is that possible?  Sun was never known for its generosity.  Did it suddenly change?  And what about Microsoft, who invest heavily into both Java and mobile industry?  How did they let this happen?  And what about all those licenses, alliances, and competition?

Google Blogoscoped has an insightful post titled “How Google Android Routes Around Java Restrictions” which explains a few things.  Here are a few quotes to get you started:

Sun released their “free java” source code under the GPLv2 to both win the free software crowd and capture peripheral innovation and bug fixing from the community. For the java standard edition (aka “the cat is out of the bag”) there is an exception to the GPLv2 that makes it “reciprocal” only for the Java platform code itself but not for the user code running on it (or most people wouldn’t even dare touching it with a pole).
But such exception to the GPLv2 is not there for the mobile edition (aka “where the money is”).
This brilliant move allows Sun to play “free software paladin” on one hand and still enjoy complete control of the licensing and income creation for the Java ME platform on mobile and embedded devices on the other

Dalvik is a virtual machine, just like Java’s or .NET’s.. but it’s Google’s own and they’re making it open source without having to ask permission to anyone

Android uses the syntax of the Java platform (the Java “language”, if you wish, which is enough to make java programmers feel at home and IDEs to support the editing smoothly) and the java SE class library but not the Java bytecode or the Java virtual machine to execute it on the phone (and, note, Android’s implementation of the Java SE class library is, indeed, Apache Harmony’s!)

So, here we are: Apple makes the iPhone, incredibly sweet, slick and game-changing and yet incredibly locked. Google makes Android and not only unlocks development abilities on the mobile phone but also unlocks millions of potential Java mobile programmers from Sun’s grip on it.

This is fascinating stuff.  Even if a bit technical for non-IT audience, still fun to read through…