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Google Announces "Open Phone" Coalition, No gPhone [Updated]
Ponca City, We Love You writes "USA Today has an advance story on Google's plans to announce a new operating system, geared specifically for cellphones with partners that include Sprint, Motorola, Samsung and Japanese wireless giant NTT DoCoMo. Although details won't be released until later today the new G-system will be based on Linux overlaid with Java and Google hopes to have a branded device ready for worldwide shipment by spring. Mobile Web browsing is notoriously slow and Google plans to change that by providing easy access to the Internet at PC-type speeds. Google plans to basically give away the software developer tools, used by programmers to write new applications. "If you're a developer, you'll be able to develop (applications) for the new Google Phone very quickly," said Morgan Gillis of the LiMo Foundation. AT&T and Verizon Wireless are noticeably absent from the coalition not wanting to support a device that favors Google over other providers. Sprint, the No. 3 carrier, supports the coalition, but it hasn't formally agreed to make the Google Phone available to its 54 million subscribers." Update 1727 GMT by SM: It's official, Google is releasing the mobile "Android" OS in place of the Google branded mobile phone that many expected.
IMHO JavaME is a joke. it doesnt have anything useful that anyone would want. the spec most likely has changed since i last looked at it but when i was heavily into small device platforms i found a couple things wrong with it
1. it didnt use AWT. instead they create yet another windowing toolkit specifically for micro devices. i dont understand why it was essentially a copy of awt.
2. it didnt allow use of floats/doubles.
Finally a company that actually has a clue. We can rely on Google to produce what I know everyone really wants - a phone that only makes voice calls not fancy-nancy "interweb" rubbish.
"Don't belong. Never join. Think for yourself. Peace." V.Stone, Microsoft Corporation
This is dead long before it even starts. It's retarded. Why in the world would would a cellphone manufacture stick a third-party OS on their phones, tossing whatever work they've already done, with no support whatsoever? I guess Google assumes that manufacturers will build around it, but what's the incentive? This is a Linux hack, and there are already Linux hacks with a longer track record.