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Google Drops Bluetooth API From Android 1.0
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."
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.
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
Plain ran out of time? ... or CRAZY CONSPIRACY THEORY!?!
If you read the article, you'd see the API was for third party applications to extend bluetooth. Android phones will be able to connect to headsets just fine, and a software update will add further support.
- oZ
// i am here.
You should read the post link first.
"The 1.0 version of Android and the first devices will include support for Bluetooth; for instance, Android will support Bluetooth headsets."
So headset and I hope A2DP will be supported. I will also bet that some other other functionality like file transfers will be supported.
What will not be supported is direct access to the Bluetooth API to applications. So it will probably be impossible to write things like a bluetooth remote control for it :(. At least in the first release.
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.
See Windows for an example.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Running out of time... doesn't seem very Google like to me. There certainly is something that Google is trying hard to bury here, possibly a leak. I think they'll rewrite it from scratch and include it in the next version.
RutSum.com
Android 1.0 phones *will* still have working Bluetooth and IM. This announcement is specifically referencing developer APIs that would allow hackers like us to do awesome stuff. Bluetooth headsets, etc and normal IM will work on Android just like we've always expected.
Exposing the Bluetooth API is. The phone supports things like bluetooth headsets.
You can still have an IM with this phone. What they did was take out an IM API! The idea was that other applications could use GTalk as a communication channel. If you read the blog you will see they have some pretty good privacy reasons to pull that API I am sorry to say.
Nothing would stop you form writing a jabber client for the phone.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
There's a reason companies don't just put up polls for decisions about how to develop products.
Customers don't know what they want, and most of the responders will not be people who have any intention of buying the product anyway.
Does the iPhone have a Bluetooth API? Nope. Whats the big deal?
Read the summary. It's going to be on the handsets, but not accessible via the API. In other words, you can't develop a program that specifically uses bluetooth.
This doesn't mean you won't be able to have something like Skype, and use a bluetooth headset - that's simply the audio input/output that the device will use.
Bluetooth isn't really that big of a deal in this instance. I'd be interested in seeing what applications people would make that need to communicate via bluetooth, though - maybe some interesting games or computer-sync apps...
This isn't some CowboyNeal nonsense, this is about getting a product out in time for the Christmas buying frenzy. They have to get things done on time or there won't be any sales. A few missing features can always be added later, but if they don't sell any of those phones, they're done.
EagerEyes.org: Visualization and Visual Communication
Verizon has consistently limited Bluetooth capability in all of their devices up to date. They do not want you to send messages and transfer files to/from their devices without charging you every step of the way. It's that simple. Oh, Verizon also happens to be a major backer of Android and is in cahoots with Google. Does anyone think there's a chance that there are external influences to this decision?
That'll probably come built into the Contacts app or whatever - the basic apps that come with the phone. It's only third party app developers who are affected by this.
Headsets are a tiny fraction of what makes Bluetooth useful. Actually, it's a fraction I don't care about at all. OBEX is essential, because it's how you give people your phone number (send them your personal vCard via Bluetooth OBEX) - it's about three button presses on any recent phone. File Transfer is not essential, but is nice since it lets you browse the phone from a computer and copy files on and off it easily (photos, music, a copy of a map for somewhere you're going).
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
How many stupid "smart" people there are on here. Reading skills ftl. The API's have nothing to do with the base functionality, as has already been stated a dozen times.
But they're competing against mobile OS's like WinMob, Symbian, and Palm that have been around for about 10-14 years now. They've been doing Bluetooth for about 6-7 years. It's no longer a special, cutting edge feature...it's just expected by companies looking to port their applications. If it's not there, companies don't port their applications and don't support the phone. Customers of said company get marketed into buying the phone, find out that the app they need for their job doesn't work, they return the phone and are upset about it. I've seen this before years ago with the Motorola Q, when a company I worked for did not want to port their app to a non-touch screen device. They're going to have to deliver that Bluetooth API pretty quick if they don't want to tank their OS right out of the gate...some of the largest penetration of non-Apple smartphones are into vertical industries where the application provider really makes or breaks the success of a platform.
IM and bluetooth are not minor things for a smartphone.
You missed the point - the title of the article is completely misleading. Android will have IM AND Bluetooth, just not IM-over-BLUETOOTH-using-dedicated-api. Assuming there is another way of getting a functional IP stack to the world - is a really a minor thing and will not affect anything.
And also, please don't compare iPhone to a smartphone. iPhone is "a pretty but significantly mentally chalenged" phone.
-Em
RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
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.
When they dropped exposing XMPP service, they basically said that GTalkService was going to be better anyway. What now? IM as a transport is very important to 3d party apps.
>Which of these other OSes (WinMob, Symbian, and Palm) has a bluetooth API? None, I think.
Actually, they all do.
Windows Mobile Bluetooth API
Symbian Bluetooth API
Palm Bluetooth API