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HTC Dream (Android) Video Emerges
Barence writes "A video purporting to show the new Android-based handset from HTC has surfaced online. The video claims to show the HTC Dream, with its orientation sensor in action, automatically flipping the screen as the user changes from holding it horizontally to vertically. HTC announced earlier this month that it would be ready to release an Android handset before the end of the year, with speculation that this referred to the Dream handset."
I get the message that the video in the URL is no longer available. Happens almost all the time when linked from /. :-(
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
"automatically flipping the screen as the user changes from holding it horizontally to vertically."???? It shows the user opening the phone and the oriententation changes!!!! Current HTC phones do that!!!! Where the "WOW" factor?
Did you watch the same video I did? The phone definitely has a touch screen.
I'm not seeing the orientation change when he tilts from from landscape to portrait and back. The only change I witness coincides with sliding out the keyboard; guess what, an actual switch - such as that on the HTC Wizard (I have one) - will do that much.
But even if it had a proper orientation sensor - so what. This is a blurry video of a seemingly rather ugly flimsy (saw that slide-out wiggle? yikes) device that has trouble registering taps (see beginning of video).
I know that Android is a platform, not a phone - but for the sake of the platform, I hope this device (whatever it is - I have a hard time believing it's an HTC product... even a model study) is not what is going to be associated with it.
Yes and no. I have an iPod Touch (iPhone without the phone), and I like that it's easy to get accessories, but I don't like iTunes, and I want nothing to do with Apple's online store. On the other hand, the underground jailbreak-apps community is great (though in danger of being killed off by the App store).
The potential with Android is that there could be a similar independent community of developers.
As for Apple's integration.... I tried to go to apple.com/trailers yesterday with Mobile Safari, and the page locked up on me. I couldn't even try to view a trailer.
It's also impossible to open source an application you write for the iPhone.
By what name do you wish to be mourned?
For the most part the experience is pretty slick. Coming from using the iPhone for a year now some of the navigation paradigms seemed foreign so it took a little getting used to.
For one thing, the screen rotation is not detected but dependent on whether or not the screen is slid out. When the handset is closed the screen is in a vertical orientation and when the handset is open and the keyboard is exposed the screen is in a horizontal orientation.
There is no onscreen keyboard so the only way to actually do input is with the screen open. It's kind of annoying because you might be using it with one hand in vertical mode and come to a point where you have to type in something so you have to stop, rotate the device, open the screen and then start typing.
One big feature it has over the iPhone is copy/paste. It only works on input fields but at least you've got something.
The google maps street view compass thing was pretty slick and worked just as I had seen demoed. Overall I think it will be some good healthy competition and hopefully force Apple to open up their platform a little more.
As far as development goes there's no approval process or dictator mandating unpublished UI rules. You can download the eclipse IDE, plug in the phone via USB and deploy apps right to the phone or publish a file that can be downloaded and installed.
For people who require a physical keyboard, this will be the phone to have.
I still jailbreak mine, even though the big reason was ssh. The remaining reasons that keep me doing it:
1. Customizing the interface (i.e. personalizing the graphics & such).
2. SSH daemon on the phone itself, something Apple will never allow on App Store.
3. 'Cause I can
From the Android FAQ page: http://code.google.com/android/kb/licensingandoss.html
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
1. Some types of apps will never be in the App Store, including those that do any background work, those that Apple sees as threatening the security of the device, or those that may threaten Apple's business model in any way.
2. As far as I know there's no way to put music on the un-jailbroken iPhone without using iTunes, which leaves Linux users out in the cold. (Don't bother with Wine.)
My most-used jailbreak apps include: a full-text copy of Wikipedia, a tool to sync to Google Calendar, an alternate UI for the music player, a live Last.fm scrobbler, a way to play arbitrary videos copied from my computer, a detailed wi-fi detector, and a podcast downloader/player. Most of those wouldn't be allowed on the App Store.
The one AppStore-only app that interests me is Pandora.
AFAIK Android doesn't run Java(TM) the platform by SUN(TM). The primary (only for now) development language has the same syntax as Java but none of the Java "JRE" API. The compiled bytecode is not the same and your pre-existing Java mobile application will not run nor can you recompile for it.
:)
Java, Objective C, C#, Python, whatever. It takes few hours to pick up a new language syntax but much longer to properly use a complex API. Since Android is no more Java than C++ is the STL I don't think it's giving much of a headstart to the mobile bean head out there.
I want to love this handset (not *make* love. You are a freak) but I'll reserve my opinion until there is a video where I can actually see something.
Did you notice how the guy had to punch several of the icons over and over again to get them to respond?
I have the same problem on my iphone 3G...esp any buttons close to the corner of the screen
it looks like it had an issue when he tried to flip it.
my iphone also does this every now and again. Not enough to bother me, but it does happen.
Chris
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.