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Google Drops Bluetooth API From Android 1.0

Posted by timothy on from the first-draft dept.

Ian Lamont writes "Google has dropped Bluetooth and the GTalkService instant messaging APIs from the set of tools for Android 1.0, but says that handsets using the Android OS will work with other Bluetooth devices such as headsets. According to a post on the official Android developer blog, Google dropped the Bluetooth API from the mobile OS because 'we plain ran out of time.' The GTalkService API was removed because of security concerns that included the possibility of applications revealing more details about users than they might want to let out, such as their real names and e-mail addresses."

9 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. I think I've seen this before by bigtallmofo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google: The Microsoft of cell phones.

    If they continue to follow the play book, next they'll drop several additional previously planned features and end by hiring a 90's sitcom star to convince people their product isn't as bad as they think.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:I think I've seen this before by volpe · · Score: 5, Funny

      Google: The Microsoft of cell phones.

      You think Microsoft would drop a feature due to security concerns?

    2. Re:I think I've seen this before by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 2, Funny

      But Apple didn't announce it and then drop it. So that would be different.

  2. Huh? by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google dropped the Bluetooth API from the mobile OS because 'we plain ran out of time.'

    I don't get it. Aren't they going to Beta it for a couple of years?

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    1. Re:Huh? by Piranhaa · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm actually very surprised that Google has a version "1.0" now. I was afraid they would just add revisions to their v 0.9 and start calling it 0.9.445, 0.9.334454, 0.9.12314434, etc. Just pray they don't change it to b1.0 in the actual OS ;-)

    2. Re:Huh? by Colonel+Korn · · Score: 5, Funny

      The way Apple has locked down the iPhone may look draconian, but it also protects its users from all kinds of stuff you really don't want to worry about on your phone.

      Like reliable reception?

      --
      "I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
  3. So they say by bockelboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Plain ran out of time? ... or CRAZY CONSPIRACY THEORY!?!

    1. Re:So they say by Otter · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's that mojo they lost yesterday... can't implement Bluetooth without it!

      --
      What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  4. Re:Uh, bluetooth's kinda important for cell phones by isomeme · · Score: 2, Funny

    The thing is with APIs is if you don't get them right the first time you are left with supporting broken code forever OR you break a lot of apps.

    My all-time favorite software one liner:

    "Software is like sex -- make one mistake, support it for twenty years."

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.