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SDK Shoot Out, Android Vs. IPhone

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the take-the-pepsi-challenge dept.

snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister delves into the Android and iPhone SDKs to help sort out which will be the best bet for developers now that technical details of the first Android smartphone have been announced. Whereas the iPhone requires an Intel-based Mac running OS X 10.5.4 or later, ADC membership, and familiarity with proprietary Mac OS X dev tools, the standard IDE for Android is Eclipse. And because most tasks can be performed with command-line tools, you can expert third parties to develop Android SDK plug-ins for other IDEs. Objective-C, used almost nowhere outside Apple, is required for iPhone UI development, while app-level Android programming is done in Java. 'By just about any measure, Google's Android is more open and developer-friendly than the iPhone,' McAllister writes, noting Apple's gag order restrictions on documentation, proprietary software requirements to view training videos, and right to reject your finished app from the sole distribution channel for iPhone. This openness is, of course, essential to Android's prospects. 'Based on raw market share alone, the iPhone seems likely to remain the smartphone developer's platform of choice — especially when ISVs can translate that market share into application sales,' McAllister writes. 'Sound familiar? In this race, Apple is taking a page from Microsoft's book, while Google looks suspiciously like Linux.'"

15 of 413 comments (clear)

  1. Biased much? by pez · · Score: 5, Funny

    Whereas the iPhone requires an Intel-based Mac running OS X 10.5.4 or later, ADC membership, and familiarity with proprietary Mac OS X dev tools, the standard IDE for Android is Eclipse.

    So I can run any CPU from any vendor, with any OS, and no familiarity with anything, to develop for Android? Cool!

    1. Re:Biased much? by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wow, what a treat we have today:

      It's a Slashdot user with a 2 digit user ID, they're very rare.

      OK, take some photos, but be very quiet in case you startle it. Don't point your flash directly at its eyes since it's probably unaccustomed to bright light and you might blind it.

      When you're done, I'll be over there with the rest of the tour group.

      --
      Summation 2
    2. Re:Biased much? by Tink2000 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Gmail is still in beta.
      So, you can complain about having lost email, but then again, you're using a beta product.

      No, I don't care that it's in a state of permanent beta. As has been pointed out before:
      1. do something better than your competitors
      2. call it "beta" forever so you don't have to support anything other than reading bug reports
      3. profit!

      --
      Why do I M2 everything negatively?
    3. Re:Biased much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Fuck those toys anyway. They're for sissy boys. You wanna be a sissy bed-wetting limpwrist like a Mac user with no freedom to do what you want? Then get a damn iPhone.

      Yeah! Who wants a phone with fucking features on it? Why, a REAL MAN'S phone doesn't even make phone calls! And is covered in barbed wire! And is made of granite, like REAL MEN'S phones should be! REAL MEN should carry around a utility belt full of devices made redundant by phones like these! Fuck that shit, you goddamn SISSIES! Put on your big boy pants and stop the progression of technology already! Fuckers! All of you!

    4. Re:Biased much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's a Slashdot user with a 2 digit user ID, they're very rare.

      You might say there's less than a hundred of them left in the world today!

  2. The short version: Open != !Open. by tpz · · Score: 2, Funny

    No need for a message when the subject line says it all.

  3. The only thing that matters... by LibertineR · · Score: 4, Funny
    is which of these damn phones is going to make its owner a better human being? I mean, that IS why we buy these things, right?

    We buy MACs as conversation starters, PCs because we are depressed and dont like ourselves, and are gluttons for punishment.

    Which of these phones is going to make me more attractive? Which phone will increase the size of my- er, um, bank account?

    I dont just want a fuckin phone, I want a phone to provide solutions to Global Warming, AIDS and Fat People. THAT is the phone I want, dammit!

    1. Re:The only thing that matters... by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Funny

      I want a phone to provide solutions to Global Warming, AIDS and Fat People.

      You just gave me a great idea for an iPhone app. Look for it soon on the App store!

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:The only thing that matters... by ArhcAngel · · Score: 1, Funny

      We buy MACs as conversation starters, PCs because we are depressed and dont like ourselves, and are gluttons for punishment.

      Not even close.
      MAC owners want to be seen as trendy and superior to "the masses" while PC owners want to own a MAC but their logic circuit won't let them pay that much for the privilege.

      --
      "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
    3. Re:The only thing that matters... by Capt+James+McCarthy · · Score: 2, Funny

      I want a phone to provide solutions to Global Warming, AIDS and Fat People. THAT is the phone I want, dammit!

      It must be me here, but I see a "two birds with one stone" statement in there.

      --
      There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
  4. Cycle of Oppression by hashax · · Score: 4, Funny

    We have seen it for thousands of generations, the oppressed/rebel kid/cool dude becomes the oppressor. Apple is the new Microsoft. Pretty soon Google will be the new Microsoft, who knows what next.

    What I do know is eventually it'll lead to by the law of natural selection the most oppressive organisation in the form of Skynet and mankind's only hope will be an Austrian Terminator (no no Summer Glau of Sarah Connor Chronicles is NOT a fighter type more like a japanese maid robot)

    p.s. we do have to melt the terminator in the end just to be on the safe side

  5. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Yes, yes. Down with Kodos! Long live Kang!

  6. Play in your sandboxes and your web browsers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "Apple is taking a page from Microsoft's book, while Google looks suspiciously like Linux"

    Which is to say, will fail in the marketplace just "like Linux". iPhone/Android pale in comparsion to REAL SDK power; they are toys compared to WinMob !! Play in your sandboxes and your web browsers - we who like REAL POWER are out of the first grade a long, long time ago.

  7. Re:Open for WHO? by Racy2 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Any such apps will, at any rate, be sandboxed into the JAVA tarpit where performance isn't an option.

    It's not the 90s anymore. In the 21th century Java is actually fast.

  8. Re:Open for WHO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Typo error detected. I guess you were saying
    "It's not the 90s anymore. In the 21th century Java is actually fat."