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Once you've built your app, how do you market it on the Google app store? Do you need a license or registration to upload it? How do you upload it? Does it have to be signed or otherwise processed after it's an executing binary? How do you get paid? How do you include a GPL or other license, and the source code if required/desired?

Those details of "development" are going to be the greatest incentive, or inhibitor, to developers. Especially like me.

You generate a key and sign your binary. Applicable links would be : http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/app-signing.html and: http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/publishing.html

I recently developed an app for Android. It took a moderate amount of Java programming knowledge and a week or two to crank out a working application (working in my spare time). I figure that's a pretty resounding endorsement of the SDK.

Once you've built your app, how do you market it on the Google app store? Do you need a license or registration to upload it? How do you upload it? Does it have to be signed or otherwise processed after it's an executing binary? How do you get paid? How do you include a GPL or other license, and the source code if required/desired?

Those details of "development" are going to be the greatest incentive, or inhibitor, to developers. Especially like me.

You generate a key and sign your binary. Applicable links would be : http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/app-signing.html and: http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/publishing.html

I recently developed an app for Android. It took a moderate amount of Java programming knowledge and a week or two to crank out a working application (working in my spare time). I figure that's a pretty resounding endorsement of the SDK.

cyanogenmod + enochx = much more visually appealing, many features added to your phone.

Rooting is not as complicated as it used to be - meanwhile, there are lots of sites out there on programming an android phone with great info, even google's.

Shouldn't Palm at least be checking to see if the apps are malware?

'cause Apple's application inspection regime has worked well to prevent malware, right?

If your platform security relies on code inspection to catch malware, you're setting yourself up for epic fail.

Is that functionality malware? From post #29585841,

I was curious if this was possible on other devices. Seems like all the big ones have some API functionality to retrieve similar information:

- http://docs.blackberry.com/en/developers/deliverables/8540/Retrieve_phone_number_BB_device_565546_11.jsp Blackberry

- http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2004/11/28/271110.aspx Windows Mobile

- http://www.forum.nokia.com/infocenter/index.jsp?topic=/S60_5th_Edition_Cpp_Developers_Library/GUID-3EB7E846-A29F-4546-B04D-A90B009903EF.html [nokia.com] Symbian (while on casual inspection there appears to be no function to retrieve the phone number, you can retrieve the IMEI, and be notified on events such as phone calls, at which point you can retrieve the caller ID as well as the dialed number)

- http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/TelephonyManager.html Android (requires permissions be granted to the app)

So it's malware on the iPhone, when it's a supported API on a number of other platforms, except Symbian.

OTOH, this is good for Palm - we'll soon be inundated with Norton Antivirus for WebOS, McAfee Antivirus for WebOS, etc. Just like Symbian and I believe WinMo have. After all, we can't have another Liberty virus that afflicted PalmOS devices. (This was named after the Liberty Game Boy Emulator for PalmOS).

And I suppose, good for developers of fart apps, flashlight apps, and other spam apps. Last one was particularly interesting. Helps the Pre's app numbers, though.

http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/1.5_r1/index.html#overview

My bad - you still need to tie apps in with the VM - you can just opt to code huge chunks in C/C++ if that's what floats your boat.

You are correct.

I was curious if this was possible on other devices. Seems like all the big ones have some API functionality to retrieve similar information:

- http://docs.blackberry.com/en/developers/deliverables/8540/Retrieve_phone_number_BB_device_565546_11.jsp Blackberry

- http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2004/11/28/271110.aspx Windows Mobile

- http://www.forum.nokia.com/infocenter/index.jsp?topic=/S60_5th_Edition_Cpp_Developers_Library/GUID-3EB7E846-A29F-4546-B04D-A90B009903EF.html Symbian (while on casual inspection there appears to be no function to retrieve the phone number, you can retrieve the IMEI, and be notified on events such as phone calls, at which point you can retrieve the caller ID as well as the dialed number)

- http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/TelephonyManager.html Android (requires permissions be granted to the app)

There's no hate, just a matter of time. From http://source.android.com/projects/bluetooth-faq: "Q. When will Java Bluetooth API's be released in an SDK? A. We are not ready to announce a release target for Bluetooth API's. We do understand there is demand for a Bluetooth API, and it is a top priority for the Android Bluetooth team."

But at the same time, why bother with Dalvik

They are not all targeting the same chips or even CPU.

Android now runs on or is in the process of running on X86 and MIPS. Additionally, alternate ARM-variants (non-Qualcomm CPUs) are also in use for Android phones and devices. With the release of the Android Native Development Kit, you can officially target specific CPUs with native code but it creates additional work and headaches for developers. Not to mention, when the market is upgraded to become NDK aware, applications which use the NDK will only show for those CPUs which are supported. That in turn requires per-CPU releases rather than a single package for all variants. That of course has both its pros and cons.

Ultimately, the NDK is still limited in what it supports. Of course, developers are free to jump the NDK-fence, but that means almost certain application breakage as new Android releases are made available to users. Of course, to some small degree that's true for Dalvik code too - contrary to what Google officially states.

Runs the Linux Kernel but really not much else.

Let's see what's included in the core distro...

aes, apache-http, bison, bluez, bsdiff, bzip2, clearsilver, dbus, dhcpcd, dosfstools, dropbear, e2fsprogs, elfcopy, elfutils, embunit, emma, esd, expat, fdlibm, freetype, gdata, genext2fs, giflib, grub, icu4c, iptables, jdiff, jhead, jpeg, libffi, libpcap, libpng, libxml2, netcat, netperf, neven, opencore, openssl, oprofile, ping, ppp, protobuf, qemu, safe-iop, skia, sonivox, sqlite, srec, strace, tagsoup, tcpdump, tinyxml, tremor, webkit, wpa_supplicant, xdelta3, yaffs2, zlib

Hmm, that's "not much" else?

The rest is a branded browser-based pushing platform for Google Web Services and a mostly proprietary touch-screen UI.

Funny, I looked through the source for this "proprietary" UI, and I couldn't find it - everything is covered by the GPLv2.

Just because it's not X11, doesn't mean it's proprietary.

For the iPhone, you can develop in assembly if you want to. You can certainly use C or C++. You aren't tied to the horrible monstrosity that is Java

You can also code in C or C++ on Android. But I wouldn't have expected you to check on that before spreading this misinfomration.

I have been developing for Android non-stop for most of this year. I found the SDK very easy to use (having done J2ME and Blackberry before). The API is stable, and not buggy. I found all the documentation and examples I needed on one website http://developer.android.com/index.html and found the UI classes very flexible. I was able to clone the look and feel of an iPhone app quite easily just by using the xml styling, a couple of animations and one custom layout component. The API is the best I have used, and in my opinion much better than objective-c (we develop for iPhone too), which is a bit of a cludge on top of C. Expect Android to start turning up on a lot of embedded devices, not just phones (HP photo-copiers for example, cameras). In the B2B market (selling bespoke apps to companies, handset manufacturers and network operators) there is a lot of buzz around Android. We develop for both iPhone and Android, and see more potential for Android at the moment (as we mainly are B2B, and are not too interested in writing apps that may or may not make money in the Shop/Market). We are also looking for more experienced Android developers at the moment.

Err, have you checked the android app store lately? Does you iphone have turn-by-turn directions?

Umm, yeah.

Can you i-phone be used as a metal-detector?

Thank god no.

Did you iphone come with copy-and-paste enabled?

Yeah...

Can your iphone use google voice?

Don't know, don't care. I don't use it.

How much do your iphone apps add to the total cost of your phone?

I've spent ~ $10 on 3rd-party apps. Most of them were free, the rest I have no problems shelling out a couple bucks to support development of useful apps (in case I wasn't clear, I wouldn't put a metal detector under this category).

I've yet to have to pay for an andriod app, but did dump some money toward andnav2. Is there anything even close to Enkin for iPhone?

No clue, don't know what that is. Apparently I'm living fine without it though, however amazing it may be.

There is nothing wrong with the hardware; pictures / advertisements of the Android don't do it any justice. The functionality that the keyboard and trackball on the G1 provides crush any hardware extras the iPhone may have.

I'm glad you like it. I haven't been able to use one personally because I've never even seen one. The majority of opinions I've seen from the few people who have actually held one, however, is that the G1 is bulky. If that's true, it would be worth it to me to shell out some more dough to have a phone that doesn't bulge in my pocket. My own opinion of course.

At $97 the Android is more than competitively priced. How much did all your iPhone apps end up costing you?

We've been over this: ~ $10. And I do have plenty of them which I use regularly. Hasn't exactly broken the bank.

Every app I've downloaded for android has been free (most in both senses). Most of all, why would i want to buy a phone that requires me to void my warranty if I ever wanted to develop my own personal apps for it?

I don't know, but you seem to be under the delusion that voiding the warranty of an iPhone is required to put your own apps on it. If you had any credibility left at this point, it completely evaporated. Pay a measly $99 bucks and load your apps on your own phone to your heart's content. Unlike developing apps on Android, you'll be happy to know the iPhone SDK documentation is very good, so you'll have your apps written and loaded in no time.

Err, have you checked the android app store lately? Does you iphone have turn-by-turn directions?

Yes. I don't use them but Tom-Tom and smaller (cheaper) options are available. xGPS is also available for jailbroken iPhones.

Can you i-phone be used as a metal-detector?

Yes. The latest 3GS has an internal compass, and apps exist to use it as a metal detector

Did you iphone come with copy-and-paste enabled?

Yes - as of mid-June this year.

Can your iphone use google voice?

Finally, the first no (officially, anyway)

How much do your iphone apps add to the total cost of your phone?

Downloaded almost 200 apps, including games, traffic cameras, weather charts, fitness, stargazing, etc. Most are full and not demo/lite versions.

Total cost: $2.

(Apps like Pandora's Box and AppMiner are a godsend for tracking apps that are on sale)

I've yet to have to pay for an andriod app, but did dump some money toward andnav2. Is there anything even close to Enkin for iPhone?

Not personally aware of one yet but there was a /. article about London Tube system app working on that same principle.

There is nothing wrong with the hardware; pictures / advertisements of the Android don't do it any justice. The functionality that the keyboard and trackball on the G1 provides crush any hardware extras the iPhone may have.

What would do it justice then? Consider that the iPhone has no virtually no surface features, so its ads are all based on what's shown on the screen.

At $97 the Android is more than competitively priced. How much did all your iPhone apps end up costing you? Every app I've downloaded for android has been free (most in both senses).

Again, of my 200 apps, I've only paid $2.

The Android NDK may be what you're looking for:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/1.5_r1/index.html

It allows you to run native code on the phone.

The Dalvik VM for Android is like a Java VM from 10 years ago, so I don't think adequate performance is going to show up in the managed code for a long time.

Why should it? It doesn't have an amazing app store (like the iPhone). It doesn't have sexy hardware (like the iPhone or many imitators). It doesn't have an amazingly cheap price. There is nothing to stand out about it other than running "google OS". And since Android doesn't have a reputation yet, that doesn't sell phones.

Great apps would help, but people won't build those until the thing is more popular. Better hardware would help a little so it doesn't look so blocky (the G2 should help here).....

Of course, I wouldn't want to fight against a $99 iPhone....

Err, have you checked the android app store lately? Does you iphone have turn-by-turn directions? Can you i-phone be used as a metal-detector? Did you iphone come with copy-and-paste enabled? Can your iphone use google voice? How much do your iphone apps add to the total cost of your phone? I've yet to have to pay for an andriod app, but did dump some money toward andnav2. Is there anything even close to Enkin for iPhone?

There is nothing wrong with the hardware; pictures / advertisements of the Android don't do it any justice. The functionality that the keyboard and trackball on the G1 provides crush any hardware extras the iPhone may have.

At $97 the Android is more than competitively priced. How much did all your iPhone apps end up costing you? Every app I've downloaded for android has been free (most in both senses). Most of all, why would i want to buy a phone that requires me to void my warranty if I ever wanted to develop my own personal apps for it?

android did add some c/c++ support in their NDK.

http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/1.5_r1/index.html#overview

You can get a developer Android phone for $399: http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html

It will work on most networks.

although Android isn't as open as Google likes you to think it is

cough how much more open do you want it? To an iphone fanboy^W owner, I have to ask where is the iphone source code.

You can buy an Android Dev Phone outright for $425 USD or hack an ordinary G1/Dream into an ADP with little effort.

HTC handsets will not let you get 30 hours of music out of your device like the iPhone does.

Fair enough, this is HTC's M.O.. That being said the 3G transmitter is far superior to the iphone's transmitter and it can switch between 2G and 3G on both calls and data without dropping out. Also if battery life is important you can buy a larger battery. By all reports the iphone's battery lasts only slightly longer then the HTC Dream.

The iPhone has accelerometers,

So does the HTC Dream/Magic

great auto dimming features

Strange, most phones with LED screens seem capable of this. Have you even used a HTC Dream?

What actually happens is the accelerometers sense your other hand move slightly BEFORE

Wrong. What it actually detects is the electrical field surrounding your hand (this is how a capacitive touch screen works and why a stylus will not work on them).

HTC (also used on Windows Mobiles devices like my XV6700)

So, you're trying to tell me everything you know about the HTC Dream/Magic is based on an older WinMo device. The HTC dream differs a great deal from their previous WinMo offerings, all WinMo phones are limited due to the lack of driver support, including capacitive touch screens (which the Dream/Magic has).

Sounds like a natural for http://www.android.com/

1. 1) Follow the Eclipse install guide from the Android dev site.
2. 2) Complete the various Hello World, Hello Views, and Notepad tutorials from the Android dev site. They are kept updated and are well written.
3. 3) Then read through this book. It really is a good one.

-Rod

1. 1) Follow the Eclipse install guide from the Android dev site.
2. 2) Complete the various Hello World, Hello Views, and Notepad tutorials from the Android dev site. They are kept updated and are well written.
3. 3) Then read through this book. It really is a good one.

-Rod

It's Java + Eclipse, which is notoriously slow when compared to XCode and the iPhone Simulator

Eclipse isn't required for development, though it is extremely useful. And you don't like Java, there's a Native SDK now: http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/1.5_r1/index.html

UI design is done in very verbose XML, as opposed to Apple's Interface Builder, which lets you easily drag things where you want them

The GUI is described in XML, but you don't have to use a text editor to build or edit it. There are in fact tools in Eclipse to drag and drop components into the GUI. Heck, there's even an applet I've seen that will do some point and clicky GUI creation and spit out XML.
Would you rather that there was only a closed source proprietary IDE that spit out binary data to build your GUI for Android?

Since Android is a platform and not tied to a single device, you have to design in "device independent pixels" which is much different than the iPhones set-in-stone 320x480 resolution

You say that like it's a bad thing. So if apple decided to put out an in-dash car PC using the iphone OS, you'd like the fact that the existing iphone apps look like shit in it? Or would you want the in-dash screen to run at an obscenely low resolution?
How about programming GUIs in way that allows them to play nicely in multiple screen resolutions?

Core Animation... 'nuff said

No, not enough. Please elaborate on why that makes iphone such a great platform to develop on.

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day... teach a man to fish ...well, you know ...

Download the Android SDK, go to the Dev Guide for tutorials and samples, and you can also go here to RTFM.

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day... teach a man to fish ...well, you know ...

Download the Android SDK, go to the Dev Guide for tutorials and samples, and you can also go here to RTFM.

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day... teach a man to fish ...well, you know ...

Download the Android SDK, go to the Dev Guide for tutorials and samples, and you can also go here to RTFM.

You seem to imply that Android is closed source? It's not.

The hardest part of the search technology, the processing of massive amounts of data and the indexing of that was open sourced as well.

I think it's fair to say that Microsoft is anti-open source and Google pro-open source. Actions speak louder than words, especially words coming from Microsoft I might add.

Yes, this is funny. But seriously, this kind of stuff is already out there. Jobs is a bit late this time. Take a look, google sky map on android is probably the most practical application demonstrating this function.

Well considering that Android is built on the Linux kernel... http://www.android.com/about/ ..... I don't think Linux has more than Android

It hasn't really changed a lot since launch. The 1.5 update brought a few visual changes, it's a little snappier (less lag on the menus, etc), it has an on-screen keyboard, and can capture video.

The previous update brought some cool features like being able to see where your friends are on the maps program.

All-in-all, the new features are never mind-blowing, but then... It isn't a whole version upgrade.

http://source.android.com/release-features should be what you're looking for.

If Canonical do see Android as a beneficial software stack, perhaps they'll focus a bit more energy on the Java-related developer tools too.

Specifically Eclipse. Android's developer plugin requires Eclipse 3.3 or higher, whereas Ubuntu comes with 3.2. I don't know the technical details of why packaging eclipse in .deb archives should be so difficult (Fedora manage to do it for rpm)but this bug entry has been open for almost 2 years! :-( Shuttleworth commented on it 15 months ago, yet still no progress.

Sure, one can download it manually but it kinda defeats the purpose of having a package manager for such scenarios.

Um, you already can.

I got one last week. The Android Dev Phone 1 (ADP1) has the same hardware as HTC Dream, with the only difference in that it won't run DRM-damaged applications.

It'll cost you about 4600 SEK all in all, not bad at all. Also, you get the cool dev phone pattern on the back ;)

http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html

Next, he will be coming after those of us who have taken advantage of the Google Android branding rights.

Yeah-- I've developed several games for it. http://www.evilmushroomempire.com/ the last one Google featured on their Android site: http://www.android.com/market/paid.html#app=thesplatting I love developing on it. I look forward to the platform gaining more momentum as it gains more users, and more hardware.

Care to point to docs?

The previous SDK had only interpreted Java: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/design/performance.html

I believe you can get the G1 unlocked directly from google.

OPENMOKO

Google PageRank: 7

Google BackLinks: 526

Live Search BackLinks: 6

Technorati Links: 1,230

Compare that to http://code.google.com/android

Google PageRank: 8

Google BackLinks: 1,880

Live Search BackLinks: 164

Technorati Links: 7,980

And... the google site has been replaced by http://developer.android.com/, which will soon capture the original's statistics, and then some.

If you sign up as a developer with Google ($25), you can get a SIM and bootloader unlocked G1 phone for $399. So for $415 plus free shipping (whoa, thanks Google) you can get your GPhone that you can do anythign with, flash, install any unsigned app. WHY are we still messing around with the IPhone. Lets pull together and make the G1 a success. As a side note I heard the G1 is a little slow, but HTC is coming out with newer hardware this June for the next revision of the Google Phone. Not sure if they will offer this newer hardware as part of the developer program though... Check it out here: http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html

Google sells the G1 directly without a contract, fully unlocked, and with a root password.

It is aimed as a developed device, but do what with you you want.

http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html

Buy an unlocked dev phone and you are good to go. Sure it's only edge data but it's really not that bad. Plus you have root on your phone and could play with some of the dev builds. :)

http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html#dev-phone-1

Would you please be so kind to stop modding posts you disagree with as troll?

I mean, everything in my post is factually correct:

1. Backup and restore of Android phones: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=459830
2. Android source code is available: http://source.android.com/

I suppose that you live in USA. If that's true then you can buy a developer version of G1 from here which points you to here for 399$ + 25$ for Android's developer registration. It's not locked to T-Mobile and you can use it with any mobile provider you prefer.

p.s. Apologies if it has been mentioned before in this thread.

Sounds great! When do you want to start?

Some more details have emerged...

The HTC Magic is based on the Qualcomm MSM7201a chipset running at 528MHz. It has quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dualband HSPA/WCDMA (900/2100MHz) for up to 7.2Mbps downlink and 2Mbps uplink speeds, network depending. In addition there's WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and HTC's own ExtUSB port which incorporates both a USB 2.0 connection and an audio jack (with an included adapter to use standard 3.5mm headsets).

Other specs include GPS - which works with Android's Google Maps and Street View - and a compass, plus a trackball with an enter button. All the usual Android apps are onboard, with the Magic having 512MB ROM and 192MB RAM. The smartphone measures 113 x 55 13.65mm and weighs 118.5g.

As for availability, the Vodafone HTC Magic will initially be available in Germany, Spain and the UK, as well as non-exclusively in Italy, and with the SFR network in France. No known pricing as yet, but given the nature of the European cellphone market we won't be surprised to see it free with a new contract.

Even with the new Android touch screen keyboard, the lack of physical buttons kinda sucks, IMO. Must make the phone cheaper tho.

Scanning a bar code and looking up info and prices on the internet is such a a cool idea. In fact, it's such a super-cool idea that it won a prize. Last year. On Android. See:
http://code.google.com/android/adc_gallery/
and
http://www.android.com/market/#app=compareeverywhere

The only thing I've seen which has a hope of being an iPhone killer are running Android. Right now, the G1 is about the only offering but about a half dozen others, by different carriers, will be coming out in the very near future. Additionally, the G1 already has superior hardware when compared to the iPhone 3G. Heck, even Garmin is getting into the phone business with an Android offering.

Android is already proving to be a competitor with the iPhone. The only thing holding it back is software. The next major Android release should finally place the G1 (and other Android phones) ahead of or on par with Apple's iPhone in capabilities, performance, and ease of use; which frankly really isn't that bad today. The fact that current hardware already exceeds the iPhone and applications can do thing on Android which are simply no allowed or impossible on the iPhone should give Android phones a boost for market share.

If you want to look at pros and cons, I previously posted about it.

Considering Android and the limited carriers (T-Mobile), the G1 already has a pretty descent size market. Once it's available from multiple carriers with a richer selection of applications and capabilities (provided via SDK and TOS), the iPhone will finally have real competition.

It means you can get the source....

You did miss a link, not on code.google.com, but at android.com -

http://source.android.com/download

What it means is that the OS is open, the java based framebuffer "desktop" and some of the applications (dialer, SMS, web browser (though not google gears, that comes as a binary) and a variety of other bits.

Yep. Of course you will probably have to write new device drivers for a different phone. And judging by this comment it seems that the not all of the source for the G1 is available.

Your comments were correct until today, when the entire stack (not just the SDK) was released in source form as Google has always promised. http://source.android.com/posts/opensource

BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!111oneoneone!!1one

The instructions on getting the source don't include how to do it under windows.