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Google Revs Android, FCC Approves First Phone
Cycon writes "Google has announced, 'We're releasing a beta SDK. You can read about the new Android 0.9 SDK beta at the Android Developers' Site, or if you want to get straight to the bits, you can visit the download page.' A new Development Roadmap has also been released to help developers understand the direction the software is taking (as this is still only a Beta release). In addition, the FCC has approved the HTC Dream, and it is believed Google and T-Mobile will launch the phone in the US on November 10, since a confidentiality request attached to the application asks the FCC to keep details secret until that date."
It's trivial to lock down. The carriers and handset makers are free to modify Android however they please, with no requirement that they release their changes, and no requirement that the open source version of Android even work on their phones.
There are plenty of phones out there that you can already replace everything on it, from cooked roms, to new dialers, new interfaces, you can even install android on some of them!
For once I like my windows mobile powered phone ;)
Are you saying that the carriers rejected the iPhone because they thought its closed nature would make it unsuccessful in the market? Or maybe they were making a moral stand for consumer openness?
Carriers rejected the iPhone because Apple wanted a monthly revenue sharing agreement.
The whole copy paste thing is so tired. It was debunked the first day someone used an iPhone... the device is perfectly usable without it
Your own usage may not require copy & paste, but many other tasks are tedious and impractical, if not impossible without it.
I have an iPod Touch and it's great for many things, but the lack of copy & paste is the #1 reason the iPhone is (still) not on my radar this time round.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
The iPhone's SDK is free to download - but you have to pay $99 if you want to actually distribute your application.
I'm not aware of any fees for Android distribution.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
In addition, Android devices are only allowed to have low-resolution QVGA (240x320) resolution displays
This is completely incorrect. The emulator has always supported QVGA and HVGA displays. The current UI is designed for a touchable HVGA display. There is nothing in the system that prevents scaling up to even higher resolution displays (which is a lot easier than scaling down to lower resolution displays).
The Dream is said to be in compliance with Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR.
Tech Public Policy stuff
It is rather doubtful that an Android phone will execute Java bytecode natively, given that Android doesn't use Java bytecode.
Android devices are only allowed to have low-resolution QVGA (240x320) resolution displays
Do you have a source for this? Searching the Android API reveals a class for keeping track of display resolution, which kind of speaks against what you're saying.
Installed the Bubblemon yet?
Android does support HVGA.
Again, US centric.
Over here in the UK I have yet to see an iPhone. I know that the girlfriend of one of my friends has one, but that's it.
Nokia is the dominant force in this market.
Your crypto logic can be implemented in C/C++ just fine, using JNI to bridge into an Android application. While it is true that full applications cannot be written solely in C/C++, that doesn't mean you cannot use C/C++ outright. Admittedly, that FAQ entry is poorly written, but a simple search of the android-developers Google Group shows a fair bit of Android/JNI activity, including posts from Android core team members indicating that JNI is possible.
I have no idea where you got that idea. Heck, the Android emulators by default launch as 480x320 and support skins with 320x480 and 240x320 resolutions. It's even been hinted in some presentations that Android might run on devices without screens — not that I'm completely certain how that would work (voice recognition only?).
In the future, you will get more efficient responses to your questions by posting them on an Android Google Group, rather than ranting about them on /.
The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development
To have a GUI scale in that way (appear same but higher resolution on higher resolution display) you really need more than abstract coordinates (not float vs integer - abstract resolution independent vs pixel based). You also need a stroke (vs pixel) based graphics library like Apple's Quartz (display PDF).
I think you are talking about the Network Applet (nm-applet ?). That is a Notification widget and as such is displayed in the Notification Bar along with similar icons like the Update notifications. You should be able to grab the handle of the notification bar (which will be to the left of the icon) and drag it as required (and lock it if necessary).
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Hmmm....GoogleDate. Actually sounds pretty plausible. Get on it guys!
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.