Ten Features To Love About Android 1.5

An anonymous reader writes "Last month, Google officially announced the Android 1.5 update, dubbed 'cupcake.' The new software is apparently ready to roll out to Android-powered devices beginning tomorrow. Make no mistake, Android 1.5 is a major upgrade — they could have called it 2.0. The software brings a host of new capabilities, some of which can't be found on rival mobile platforms, including video recording and sharing."

Comments

Cupcake

[Culture20]

And people think admitting that installing "Jaunty Jackalope" is embarrasing. Cupcake.

Re:Cupcake

[Anonymous Coward]

I installed Ubuntu 9.04, whats Jaunty Jackalope?

Re:Cupcake

[skine]

It's not about the name, it's about the content.

Think of it like the Princess Bride.

Re:Cupcake

[meuhlavache]

SUDO buy me some cupcakes...

Re:Cupcake

[oreaq]

Yeah but what doesn't?

and a million things to hate about it

[Anonymous Coward]

I've tried numerous times to program for this platform but I hate it so much.

Re:and a million things to hate about it

[HeronBlademaster]

I find it difficult to program for the Android platform, but only because it's a *very* different programming paradigm. Rather than a single entry point, as with a standard computer program, there are half a dozen entry points. This isn't really a bad thing - having a single entry point would just mean you'd have to figure out which task needs to be done at the beginning of the program.

In other words, the OS does the hard part for you.

You might hate that style of programming, but it doesn't make it bad - and it certainly doesn't mean there are a million things to hate about the Android platform.

(There may, in fact, actually be a million things to hate about Android. I don't have an Android-based device, so I wouldn't know; I've only fiddled with the emulator in the SDK. My point is simply that the programming paradigm needed to write software for the Android platform isn't one of the things you should be hating.)

Re:and a million things to hate about it

[moon3]

There is no native code (C/C++) SDK for it last time I've checked, that was about a half year ago. That is a show stopper for lot of people.

Re:and a million things to hate about it

[Zigurd]

Not only is the application structure and lifecycle unique and structured around a unique UI flow, Android has unique UI classes in an otherwise mostly standard Java runtime, it uses binder for inter-process communication, it has a unique graphics stack relative to most other Linux systems, and it makes it difficult to put programs other than those written to the Android programming model on the screen, among other differences relative to most Linux-based systems.

But it has already overtaken the Nokia 8xx Web pads, which use Hildon, in user acceptance. Google gambled on establishing an entirely different application layer in the userland for Android and appears to have succeeded.

Android answers the question: "What if Linux had a userland based on a managed language runtime and every application used the same UI classes (and what if a company with sufficient resourced to do it right did it)?"

If Android perplexes you, try this:
http://www.amazon.com/Android-Application-Development-Programming-Google/dp/0596521472

Re:and a million things to hate about it

[HeronBlademaster]

That is correct, all application development is done in Java. Yes, that is a show-stopper for some people, but that doesn't make Android a "bad" thing.

Re:and a million things to hate about it

[binarylarry]

Actually, nothing prevents you from writing applications with native code.

In fact, parts of the SDK explicitly allow this.

However, it's generally bad idea because Android runs on a variety of hardware platforms, making native code "fun" to deal with in the future. I just hope they add proper JIT at some point, so Android's performance isn't fucking atrocious like it is now.

Re:and a million things to hate about it

[moon3]

Do not forget that Google's own applications run native, that means your applications is penalized by using inferior interface.

In other words your application will always be a second rate application, serious developers avoids such a scenario. I've never seen a platform that would run smooth without native environment tweaking.

Give me a native support (C/C++) and there is not a problem to port the code to ARM or Atom.

Java was never really cross platform, there were quirks and problems that unlike (C++) you were not able to fix. That might have changed, but still, it is a single paradigm language, and that is a major pain, god forbid this becomes a standard of sorts.

Re:and a million things to hate about it

[moon3]

iPhone is 'doable', it supports C/C++, you do not need to throw all you code out of window and switch to pretty inferior Java or Objective-C, at least it is not mandatory.

Re:and a million things to hate about it

[GooberToo]

I'm sure it compiles for ARM and x86. Last I heard an MIPs port was possible. Android is slated for phones and netbooks.

Besides, saying platforms can mean, non-HTC dream hardware.

Re:and a million things to hate about it

[HeronBlademaster]

I would say there are some significant differences between your standard Windows event-driven program and your standard Android program. You see, the Windows program has exactly one entry point (WinMain or main); the event handlers are called by library functions or signals or whatever, but the program is already running at that point.

With Android, your program may actually be loaded at any of the entry points (at least, that's my understanding of it). They may both be event-driven, but there are some fundamental differences that make programming for the Android platform a significantly different task than programming a single-entry-point event-driven program.

Welcome to Japan circa 2001

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Wow! Video recording?!

What's next? Broadcast TV? True SMTP email? Intuitive UIs?

Re:Welcome to Japan circa 2001

[Achromatic1978]

I love how "other mobile platforms" has become a synonym for "what the iPhone has/has not". My Nokia N95 has recorded video since the day it came out, 2 years ago. It allows 1 click publishing to Youtube. Hell, FOUR YEARS AGO, the N90 had a 270 degree swivel screen, and a separately 270 degree swivel lens capable of recording video. For that matter, the screen res was 352x416, the highest at the time, and still higher than most cells...

Just because something has a feature the Jesusphone doesn't, doesn't mean it is mindblowing and revolutionary...

Re:Welcome to Japan circa 2001

[10Ghz]

There's a difference between "having a feature" and "having a feature that's actually usable".

My Nokia E71 has loads of features. And most of them are so crummy and hard to use, that they might as well not exist. It has GPS. Which is so cumbersome to use that I never use it. It has web-browser. But browsing with it is so frustrating and clumsy that I only use it when I desperately need to check something online.

The thing is that when the iPhone was released, people compared it to other phones (like Nokias) and said "my phone has had those features for a long time already, how exactly is the iPhone "revolutioary?". But they fail to understand that it's not about list of checkboxes called "features", it's about features that people can actually use.

Like I said, my E71 has a web-browser. It also has WiFI. But for some reason I never use it for web-browsing at home through my Wifi, I use my iPod touch for that.

You can't compare phones (or any other devices for that matter) by staring at a piece of paper that lists their specs. You need to actually USE the devices to make that judgement. And the thing is that iPhone might not have every single bell and whistle some other phone has, but the bells and whistles it has. are so usable that people actually use them. Nokia has been piling features to their phones for years, but since they are implemented in such a crappy way, they go mostly unused.

If your phone has a feature that no-one uses, is it really a feature?

Re:Welcome to Japan circa 2001

[bytesex]

If your phone has a feature that no-one uses, is it really a feature?

Eh yes. Because sometimes, the use of a feature is also a function of the user's intelligence, training, awareness or needs. My mother might use my PC, but I'm pretty sure /she/ wouldn't touch the gcc installed on it. Yet my PC continues to 'feature' gcc.

Re:Welcome to Japan circa 2001

[mdwh2]

Ah yes, it's the grumpy featurism claim.

Well my Motorola V980 phone is better than the Iphone. No, it doesn't do touchscreen or wifi, but that's just a "list of checkboxes", right? (It also does video recording simply by pointing and clicking - it Just Works.)

but since they are implemented in such a crappy way

* Installing an application from any site on my phone Just Works, it doesn't need the phone to be hacked.
* Tethering on my phone Just Works, it doesn't need the phone to be hacked.
* Copy and paste on my phone Just Works, I don't have to retype the material.

I've given you three objective examples of implementation. So let's hear your examples - I want evidence, not "crappy way". What sort of debate is that? I might as well say "My Amiga 500 is also better than any PC out there - who cares about feature lists, it's just better, it just is, honest, because I say so, anything else is just crappy." I like to think I can come to Slashdot for some intelligent debate, not "Who cares about features, it's just crappy".

Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[Anonymous Coward]

The IPhone has a lot of limitations, but the amount of apps for it makes it the killer device. The iphone has more quality apps than all other platforms have total apps combined. and the new hardware/software combo coming out in the next 2 months will make it even better.

until Android, winmo and BB get more and better apps and the ability to install over 10-20 apps on the device i'll probably buy a new iphone come july to complement my wife's iphone. even with all it's limitations.

this is almost exactly like the story with Windows in the 1990's. it was far from the best OS, but the amount of apps for it clinched it's success.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[Nerdfest]

There were (and still are) plenty of apps for the Palm devices, but ultimately its limitations did it in. In many ways it had fewer limitations that the current iPhone does as well. The iPhone has better marketing though.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[ornil]

You must be joking. There's lots of apps for Android. Probably fewer than for iPhone, but not dramatically so. I was able to find an app for any task I needed.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[salesgeek]

Insightful? LOL. There was a time when there were more applications for Macintosh. From 1986 until 1990, Windows was irrelevant. Mac was the future.... Then Windows 3.x happened. History is repeating itself in front of our very eyes.

Flash forward to now. Apple has met it's match. And unlike with windows where Apple faced an cheaper, inferior product that was just barely good enough (Windows 3.x), Apple is facing a product that is it's equal in Android (yes, it's that good). As Samsung, Motorola, HTC, and others bring more Android hardware to market and Verizon, Sprint and other carriers offer Android to theri customers, the tide will turn quickly on software development as well.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[alen]

I looked at the android market website since I have an open mind until the new iPhone comes out next month. App store beats it. My wife's iphone has kids games on it along with flash cards for our son to play with. And come this summer you will be able to USe the iPhone to measure blood pressure and cholesterol.
I like listening to slacker and reading a book at the same time on my bb curve, but for a new personal cell I'll probably take the iPhone. New version will have nice 3d graphics almost as good as a console. Games suck on all the other phones

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[cduffy]

New version will have nice 3d graphics almost as good as a console. Games suck on all the other phones

Funny you mention that -- Android includes an embedded OpenGL implementation.

I upgraded from a first-gen iPhone to an Android dev unit, and am generally quite pleased. It's unfortunate that support for the Bluetooth RFCOMM profile isn't exposed to application level yet -- but one of the things about Android is that it's reasonably straightforward to build a custom version of the firmware with the "hidden" flag turned off for those classes; on the iPhone, I'd just be waiting for 3.0, and then hoping they wouldn't require any device I want to make a serial connection to from my phone to be licensed as an iPhone accessory.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[salesgeek]

I call BS. That's because At&t doesn't sock it to you for data, they get you on the special voice plans for iPhone. On iPhone you will pay a premium for voice service, where with a G-1 device you pay regular rates for voice service. The iPhone generally costs $600 over two years more than devices priced at standard At&t voice rates. That $200 iPhone is actually $800.

Also, the G-1 sells for $99 at Wal-Mart, so it is $100 less out of the box.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[lostmongoose]

You do realize you're not limited to just the apps on the android market right?

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[ScrewMaster]

Except the iPhone is the same price or cheaper than other similar phones. Every carrier charges the same for data

Really? I paid $179.00 for my G1, and my unlimited data plan is $24.95. So I don't know where you're getting your pricing information.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[cyn1c77]

Apple has met it's match... As Samsung, Motorola, HTC, and others bring more Android hardware to market and Verizon, Sprint and other carriers offer Android to their customers, the tide will turn quickly on software development as well.

People have been saying this since before the G1 came out, but the market numbers just aren't meeting these predictions yet. When are all these amazing phones going to arrive at my carrier (Verizon)? And how open is this Android thing really going to be? Google has already demonstrated that it is willing to pull certain apps that T-mobile doesn't like.

Verizon is one of the big players in the industry and last I heard, it was backing away from Android. But think of the carnage Verizon would wreak on an open-source platform. (We both know they would lock it down so hard you couldn't do anything useful with it anyway.)

AT&T is the other big player and they have a conflict of interest with their iPhone, for now at least.

Currently, Android seems a lot like Linux. It's theoretically open source, but it has limited industry support and is only available on (extremely) limited hardware. But the key difference is that the cell phone industry is dominated by the carriers, who don't seem fully sold on it yet and it's not like we can just go ahead and replace our phone's OS without voiding all sorts of warranties and support.

I do hope this changes with time though. And for what it's worth, I have emailed Verizon and urged them to adopt the OS, but I am not holding my breath.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[Buelldozer]

"The iphone has more quality apps than all other platforms have total apps combined."

No. Not even close. In your utterance of that hyperbole you've given away your fanboi status.

The numbers on this are a bit difficult to track down but it's very clear that the IPhone is nowhere near WinMo and you can absolutely forget about it if you combine Palm and Symbian application numbers.

Here's a quick rundown.

In late July of LAST year WinMo _alone_ had 18K applications.

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/07/windows_mobile_7.html

Some estimates put Palm at 80,000 back in ***2005***.

http://www.pocketprof.org/running_palm_os_software.htm

Symbian numbers are very difficult to come up with but a low ballpark would be 10,000 of them.

The IPhone currently has about 15,000 applications listed in the app store ( http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/so-many-iphone-apps-so-little-time/ ).

It's clear that your statement isn't anywhere near true.

Please leave some of Mr. Jobs AHEM for his wife, sir.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[salesgeek]

We'll see in the next eight weeks as Samsung and Motorola roll out their products. Android is not what a lot of people think, so far as openness - it can be as open or closed as any other phone. The value prop on Android is more to hardware manufacturers who no longer want to manager their own OS or pay tons of royalties to for an OS.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[shmlco]

I don't think that spending $99 is going to force someone to produce a paid application instead of a free one.

And actually, I suspect instead that the real motivation is the somewhat heretical idea (stay with me here) that you can make MONEY writing applications for the iPhone. Get enough people to give you a buck an app, and in some cases you can make a LOT of money doing so.

Writing iPhone applications is a difficult, skilled process that can take a lot of time. Supporting and improving said application can also burn the hours. So if someone wants a buck or two in compensation, I, for one, am not going to cry over it. Especially if it means a steady supply of cheap and useful applications, games, and utilities.

But if YOU want to spend a week or month or more writing an iPhone application and then give it away for free, more power to you.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[s73v3r]

Developers can make free (beer/speech) apps. Developers can also choose to make an app where they ask marketing questions. Many people decide to make an app, give it away for free, and support development with ads. Is it so bad that someone wants to make money?

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[cduffy]

I agree with you that the lack of RFCOMM (and bluetooth in general) support for applications is too bad, and pretty wierd actually. [...]
All I can do is wait and hope they add this to Android 2.0. The fact that I can rebuild the OS to fix that doesn't really help me.

It does help me, as it means I can build the rest of my app on a "real phone", then port it to the final public API when that becomes available. Then again, your project may be more time-critical -- mine is more of a hobby, so it can afford to be on hold for a while.

In any event, as RFCOMM was deferred to focus on A2DP, and A2DP is now released as of 1.5, I expect it plumbed through in the next release cycle.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[R3d M3rcury]

Well, one difference is that you could buy a CDMA Android Phone and take it to Verizon and buy a plan. You don't have to do the "bundled" phone thing.

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[miknix]

In late July of LAST year WinMo _alone_ had 18K applications.

Does it matters? Most of WinMo apps are utter crap. The platform itself isn't good for any specific purpose.

Seriously, I find my old Nokia N-Gage with Symbian more useful to make calls and manage contacts than my WinMo device.

So lets all assume the platform is more useful for non-phone applications. But it isn't!

The IE browser is totally useless, it cannot render correctly most pages (meaning that you cannot really surf them).
The embedded "office" is a joke, even the MSN messenger is so badly designed that makes me feel totally annoyed with constant popup windows (people login/logoff) that steals the window manager focus.

IM+ is a very good replacement for default mobile MSN messenger. There is also skyfire that renders your pages on their servers and sends you layered jpegs, it works very nice but has privacy issues.
So what can we tell when third party apps are better than platform bundled ones? We can tell that after spending 600â on a HTC phone with WinMob, we need to spend a lot more buying apps to make the brand new phone near useful.
It makes sense, doesn't it?

If everything wasn't bad enough, the bundled messaging app is always crashing. Activesync (which I don't really use) starts up randomly for no reason on the phone at starts hogging the cpu.

Then there is also stupid design issues like when the phone is getting with low battery. In this case, WinMo likes to awake the device from his low power state to inform me that the device is low power. Of course it would be enough to tell me this once, but it doesn't. It turns on every 10 minutes or so.

This is only what I could remember from the top of my head, but I assure you, there is a lot more.
I didn't dumped the device just because I'm actually enjoying hacking Linux into it:
http://linwizard.sourceforge.net/

Re:Are there more than 20 apps for it?

[mrsteele]

Crappy devices and development stagnation did the Palm line in. When the iPhone launched it looked exactly what Palm *should* have done with their devices.

I loved Palm 8-10 years ago, and I wrote several apps for my own personal use, but I stopped being interested in them when the entire marketplace passed them by.

Re:devices? Since when

[salesgeek]

Six weeks. Samsung and Moto have product releases scheduled, as does HTC.

Exciting but still unappealing & limited hardw

[blahbooboo]

I really like Android as concept. Unfortunately, in the USA the number of devices are not very appealing (the ones that are available). My carrier doesn't even have android phones. Strange, because the whole point of Android I figured was to allow manufacturers to focus on innovative cell phone designs. Maybe manufacturers will eventually make more phones with Android, but right now they are kinda lousy IMHO.

Until better hardware, the future is Palm Pre or iPhone

Re:android sucks

[4D6963]

android and everything google does, sucks.

i hate google, gmail, youtube, etc. fuck'em

A most compelling argument, I am convinced!!

Re:android sucks

[koutbo6]

Balmer .. is that you?

Re:Missing Enterprise Feature

[salesgeek]

Actually, you have the issue backwards. Your selection of MS-Exchange as a messaging platform has limited the financially viable choices available to your firm to basically, Windows Mobile. Don't blame your vendor lock in on anyone other than your messaging vendor and the person who decided to buy MS-Exchange. You didn't HAVE TO do it.

Re:android sucks

[ScrewMaster]

Balmer .. is that you?

Nah ... he just said he hates Google. Now, if he'd said he was going to (and I quote) "fuckin' KILL Google", well, yes, that would probably be Ballmer.

Re:devices? Since when

[Warbothong]

I've had Android running quite nicely on my Freerunner for a while now, connected to the O2 account I've had for years. Freerunners are for sale, thus there is more than one Android handheld available to buy.

Obligatory XKCD

[Anonymous Coward]

http://xkcd.com/178/

Re:Obligatory XKCD

[Koiu Lpoi]

Click
Ctrl-C
Ctrl-T
Ctrl-V
If you're not used to doing that on the internet by now, you're probably doing it wrong.

Re:Obligatory XKCD

[pisto_grih]

(On Safari 4)

Step 1) Triple click to highlight
Step 2) Right click
Step 3) Select "Open Address in new tab"

Re:Obligatory XKCD

[benji fr]

(On Safari 4)

Step 1) Triple click to highlight
Step 2) Find the right click on this $($ë!!!@@ mouse
Step 3) Accidentally left click
Step 4) Go back to the article...
Step 5) Find the Right click on your mouse
Step 6) Select "Open Address in new tab"

Fixed this for you...

Re:Obligatory XKCD

[zerblat]

(Firefox, assuming middlemouse.contentLoadURL is set to true)

Step 1: Triple click to highlight
Step 2: Middle click to load URL from primary selection.
Step 3: There is no step 3.

Re:Obligatory XKCD

[OutOfMyTree]

Firefox, assuming Easy DragToGo installed:

Step 1: Triple click to highlight
Step 2: Drag in chosen direction for chosen action - open in this tab, open in new tab, save link as ...

but it is the choice of 4 different searches for a piece of highlighted text that really makes the extension worthwhile.

Re:Obligatory XKCD

[Vu1turEMaN]

Why do you need an addon?

Firefox:

1. Triple click to highlight.
2. Drag to empty area of tab bar.

Re:Obligatory XKCD

[mcfedr]

If your using a mac for more than a few hours and havnt got sufficently used to the right click you clearly shouldnt be trying to share you wisdom with the world

works for me

[soundguy]

The G-1 has all the "killer apps" I need at the moment - Accuweather, Google Maps with GPS, an IP Cam viewer so I can monitor my security cams at home and at my datacenter, SSH client, voice recorder, handy tools like data conversions, a level, a ruler and of course the Magic 8-ball. The browser works for the kind of things I need every day - my MRTG graphs, logging into my switches, routers, and remote-reboot controllers. It doesn't do SlashDot for shit though...someone needs to work on that.

Seriously, anyone judging a smart phone based solely on the camera, eye-candy, and "gaming experience" is probably 12 years old. Mine is a tool to help me earn a living first, and a toy second.

Re:works for me

[MrCrassic]

Unfortunately, several thousand iPhone owners would probably disagree with your ideology. Most people use their cell phones as tools too, except not in the same light as you use yours. To some, having a cameraphone or gaming capability is of utmost importance; that doesn't make them any more of an immature customer.

I owned an iPhone for a while, and while I was mostly pleased with it, I found it to be very premature as a smart-phone. It met the general requirements for everything except internet browsing, where it exceeded them in spades, but only barely. If iPhone 3.0 changes that, then I might go back. I am, however, getting more interested in the Android platform.

For those that have used an iPhone previously, what differences should I keep in mind while making the transition? Does the G1 play music as good as the iPhone/iPod Touch does? How is its e-mail client? How does internet browsing compare?

Re:works for me

[slyn]

Your concept of a smartphone is that of companies like Blackberry and Palm's 24 months ago.

Apple saw a market for a consumer smartphone and exploited the fuck out of it. Now all the traditional business smartphone companies are trying to catch up.

Just wanted to hit one of these points

[xant]

> Google has already demonstrated that it is willing to pull certain apps that T-mobile doesn't like.

Except it doesn't matter, because on an Android phone you can install an apk package from anywhere on the web without rooting your phone. (There is a single checkbox in the settings you need to check first.) The Market actually has a strong incentive to be less fascist than the app store, because if it is perceived as hampering developers, developers will simply go elsewhere. I have no doubt that Google knew this when they designed the OS, and that they intend to be more egalitarian in the future. They're also still getting used to this thing, so I'm cutting a little slack. Have no doubt that if, in the future, Google decides to be dicks about the Market, I will put the apps I develop for Android online somewhere else.

Re:Just wanted to hit one of these points

[Yfrwlf]

I just want VoIP apps. The government refused to force this monopolistic industry to offer regular internet access plans and VoIP applications to circumvent their precious traditional cell phone plans, something that they should have done eons ago had there been proper competition in the industry. Once again, advancements in technology which have been around for ages take a back seat to greed and corruption.

Imagine if you could use a completely open device, not tied to any one company like with cell phones now, and simply paid to have internet access, period. You were then free to do whatever the hell you wanted to do, the way it should have been 20 years ago. (give or take...5 years? I dunno). It's amazing how software has been used as a tool for control for so long.

!Troll

[Max Littlemore]

The parent makes some good points

I own an HTC Dream (called TMobile G1 in the US). My first phone bill after I bought the phone was $200 more than usual. It is now dropped because I changed my plan to allow for more mobile data, but buying the phone to start with, I had no idea that when I first turned it on it would start downloading a crap load of my gmail. It took me a little bit to figure out how to get the data usage down.

I really like the phone, but I wish there was clearer pre-sales on how much data it was going to use and how to make it cheaper to operate. I also would like a "turn data off - just be a phone" mode. Also the fact that it's advertised as having bluetooth but still - even with cupcake - can't do bluetooth file transfer is just stupid.

Re:Exciting but still unappealing & limited ha

[CyDharttha]

Patience, young Padawan. They're coming; Motorola's been all abuzz about it for a few months now, they're hoping it will save their skin. Samsung and Sony are among others that have announced phones arriving in 2009.

Besides, there's only one Android phone in the US market now, and it just came out 6 months ago.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/smartphones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212501692

Re:Missing Enterprise Feature

[Anonymous Coward]

Might find some alternatives here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collaborative_software

Why would that be a showstopper?

[SuperKendall]

There is no native code (C/C++) SDK for it last time I've checked, that was about a half year ago. That is a show stopper for lot of people.

I'm not sure who, since on Android devices the code produced is highly performant.

You can do games on Android after all... and as we see with the update real time video recording and encoding. I mean, just what is holding people back here?

The only people who this bothers are those still scared of Java 1.1 and Applets. Java moved past that point long, long ago.

Re:Why would that be a showstopper?

[Chrisq]

You could use a c to bytecode compiler

Re:Why would that be a showstopper?

[moogord]

Its a show stopper for me? I was looking into mobile phone development a few months ago, no native C = no open source C libraries i can use (glib/gobject/gtk/clutter etc...)

I don't want to have to reinvent the wheel over and over again in java when my C stack does it fine just now.

Mostly I just don't want my freedom of choice removed, this is supposed to be the worlds open source mobile OS, but in reality it feels just as closed off as anything else, Its their way or the highway.

Re:Why would that be a showstopper?

[shreddertomas]

I'm convinced that the programming model of Android is what will make it a winner. Programming for Android is very easy if you're a java programmer, and there's millions of java programmers out there.
You can't even compare it to developing for WinMo or Symbian phones, which is a very hard task.

The ease of development, and support for a market with tons of free (and paid for) apps simply blows WinMo and Symbian out of the water.
Once you get a phone with the app support of Android (or iPhone) there is no turning back.

Symbian will die soon for sure, except perhaps for low cost, low function mobiles. WinMo will survive just because it has MS to hold it up with their desktop marketshare.

Re:Why would that be a showstopper?

[gbjbaanb]

don't forget there are millions of desktop/enterprise java developers. People who think 2Gb RAM and dual core is a minimum spec :)

Java on embedded devices is relatively small, certainly not as widespread as you'd think. I'd go out on a limb and guess that there are more Symbian developers (who use C++) as there are simply far more Nokia phones in circulation than any java-based phones.

I would think Google should release a C/C++ application environment for Android, lots of people want it, lots of code already exists to make use of it (or the underlying Linux platform), I can't really think there's a good reason to restrict use to java only.

In fact, the java-only model is a poor one, you're locked in to java, get what the environment gives you. Having Android linux based makes such good sense you're likely to get as wide a range of software running on it as you have with Linux. Making it Java only stops that, you only get Android programmers coding for it.

Beats me why they bothered - its not even real Java, considering they reimplemented their JVM to get round the licencing issues.

Re:Why would that be a showstopper?

[GooberToo]

What about people that have hundreds of thousands lines of C/C++ code written

I dunno....maybe compile it?! While C and C++ code is officially unsupported, its not like they prevent those applications from being published or installed. There are many applications available for Android which are bundled with C/C++ libs.

On Android, it seems, "unsupported" does not mean "disallowed"; it means no support is provided - you're on your own.

Re:Why would that be a showstopper?

[GooberToo]

For the last time, native C absolutely is available. Period. Google is simply not going to support you. Many apps have been released which include libs compiled from C/C++. Android supports but JNI and an even higher performance interface which allows DVM to call into C/C++ libs. Furthermore, there is an interface which allows for C/C++ libs into the DVM environment.

Re:WiMo a distant second.

[Splab]

I own neither of those phones, but could someone explain to me why 35.000 is much more important than 20.000? With that many apps chances are you will have a harder time finding quality in the heap of binary junk.

Re:Missing Enterprise Feature

[trawg]

How do you figure that?

Zimbra for a 50 seat license: US$1,400

Exchange 2007 Standard with 5 CALs: AUD$2234 (USD1,714.93 at the time of writing).

The site I'm looking at only has CALs available in units of 5, and they're USD$576 for a block of 5.

And that's just a CAL - do you need a license for Outlook as well? I thought you did.

Re:WiMo a distant second.

[R3d M3rcury]

Agreed. This is usually the way to spot the Apple fanboi.

When they bring up how Apple's App Store has 35,000 applications and Windows Mobile (or some other phone) has only however many thousand, point out that Windows has far more applications available than Mac OS X, so it is obviously superior.

I did this once. It was great fun to watch him stammer. "But, but, but...it's completely different! How many word processors to do you need?" "Oh, I don't know, probably about as many tip calculators, fart noise generators, and flashlights."

document compatibility??

[robcohen]

How did they miss the ability to read .pdf and MS Office documents?? They're pretty basic to anyone using the phone for business of any size. Sigh... r

Re:devices? Since when

[noundi]

Every time I hear the word Freerunner my fingers tickle. I simply must have one, but until the battery life reaches at least 4 days standby I'll wait. Right now it needs a daily recharge and whilst it's an awesome toy daily recharging doesn't exactly cut it as mobile. On the other hand I understand that stabilizing the software is of course of higher priority (and perhaps even a contributing factor). Plus it's not like this battery is cutting edge in any way. I guess they will look for other more suitable battery variants in the future. So let's not forget: good things come to he who waits.

Not true

[SenseiLeNoir]

parent is false....

Only Webkit, and its direct connectors run native, the wrapper around the browser runs in the DVM.

This is more due to Webkit itself not based on Java, and allows for performance.
most other apps, including the dialer do NOT use native code.

Of course, some libraries use native Code too (like the DB, etc) but you have access to the same libraries via the same API.

Yes you can.

[Svenne]

I got one last week. The Android Dev Phone 1 (ADP1) has the same hardware as HTC Dream, with the only difference in that it won't run DRM-damaged applications.

It'll cost you about 4600 SEK all in all, not bad at all. Also, you get the cool dev phone pattern on the back ;)

http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html

APD1 vs G1, vs iPhone- not tied to Tmobile, Apple

[olden]

G1s aren't exactly hard to unlock, especially when one variant happens to be like that out of the box (yes, the Android dev phone 1 or ADP1). Well worth the extra $25 "Google tax" IMHO. Plus I've had a chance to try 1.5/cupcake >2 weeks before most G1 users, and I like it.

I use my ADP1 with AT&T. Yup, no 3G for me (yet?) because US carriers somehow manage to always pick their very own frequencies (wtf?!? 1700 MHz band aka AWS for T-Mobile, some 1900 flavor for AT&T even though they have a 1700/AWS license as well, and whereas the rest of the world agreed on 2100 long ago).
Anyway, I have 3 lines on a $50 +2 x $10 family plan = $23/line, or ~$26 with taxes etc... Unlimited data adds $15/mo.
Yes I'll need about 6 months to recoup the extra cost of this phone ($424) vs an iPhone with typical voice+data plan ($199 + $78-ish/mo) -- not taking into account the pennies I can save on apps (e.g. free SSH client) and on calls using VoIP/SIP.
Speaking of which, check out http://www.sipdroid.org/; it's definitely still buggy but works over 2.5G. Cupcake and open-source in general rock.

Re:devices? Since when

[Yogiz]

Daily recharge is a bit harshly put. I'm running on SHR unstable and using phone and SMS (maybe 3-5 calls a day) the Freerunner can handle 48 hours before needing a recharge. It changes of course if you want to use it as a GPS or audio player a lot (Then it's about a day) but it's really not that much of a problem. It's not that hard putting a tail behind it before going to sleep every second day. Never tried how long it would last when on standby the whole time, I can't afford to not have a phone for that long : ).

Actually that doesn't really matter

[SuperKendall]

don't forget there are millions of desktop/enterprise java developers. People who think 2Gb RAM and dual core is a minimum spec :)

My experience is all in iPhone development so far, but from what I've seen it applies roughly to Android as well...

When you are developing an application for the new mobile platforms, the app by nature is small enough that taking the approach of a desktop programmer is OK. The frameworks you use are there to help keep your app small, and in the end if you hit resource constraints there are tools to hunt them down and address them.

But generally, it actually doesn't matter much in development that you are targeting mobile, not in the way it used to be the case with platforms like J2ME. And the devices are following the same More's Law path desktops have...

In fact, the java-only model is a poor one, you're locked in to java, get what the environment gives you.

Which is actually the widest range of development tools around! Eclipse is no slouch in development.

Java really is not the limitation people think it is, and it provides 99% of apps an easy way to run across a wide variety of mobile devices. The flip side of being "locked into Java" is that phones are not locked into a processor, which is actually a bit of a concern with the iPhone although Apple has shown they know how to migrate processors in a seamless manner (I don't mind having to generate fat binaries though it's not as elegant).