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Google Releases the SDK For Version 1.6 of Android
Qwavel writes "This release includes improvements to the Android Market, the Search Framework, and Text-to-Speech. It now has support for more screen resolutions and CDMA phones. Android 1.6 is based on v2.6.29 of the Linux kernel and is expected in phones that will be available next month. The mystery of Android 1.6, however, is Google's continued unwillingness to commit to a Bluetooth API and any Bluetooth functionality beyond the basic audio functions."
I want real Bluetooth :(
Google doesn't seem to like bluetooth. But why? I don't see them making a new solution for short range wireless communications.
Why is it that Android (and other cell phones) seem to have some obvious feature left out that developers are unwilling to fix? And usually they aren't "this will take years of R&D and some genius to realize we left it out" but blindingly obvious features. Why isn't Android embracing Bluetooth? I can think of a lot of good reasons for it, for one would be P2P networks for gaming, file sharing, etc. Or perhaps a feature that would let you use text messages and MMS over Bluetooth rather than using the cell network. If there was a phone with the openness of Android/WebOS, the polish of the iPhone, the large amount of networks like the BlackBerry, all in one phone it would sell like crazy. Instead they leave out important features and make phones that are decent, but not great.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
If they put it in right away it would be easy to provide BT-based tethering to laptops, which a lot of cell service providers would hate and thus probably not allow android-based phones to be used on their network.
I bet they are waiting until there is widespread adoption of android on multiple networks before they add the functionality.
Yet Android 2.0 is going to be the worthwhile update. It is expected to include multi-touch. Its irrating how slow development on the official Android source seems to be, it would have been nice to see this stuff 6 months to a year ago. Never fear, the community has taken matters in to their own hands. Modded ROMs such as Cyanogenmod http://www.cyanogenmod.com/ already incorporate the latest code far ahead of any ROM official releases from OEMs.
If your on a edgy modded ROM your likely using 1.6 (Cupcake) and some 2.0 (Donut) code.
(The latest experiemental Cyanogen ROM includes BFS (!) my first taste of the new scheduler on any system all I can say is the speed is mind boggling).
Delightfully, there is a glut of android phones on the way from various OEMs which should see the market grow and the code improve. Not that Android needs improving, in a year of having a G1 it never needed a hard reset, even with shitty crashing applications. I can't say as much for my iPhone.
Multitouch is coming to Android, now that Google is no longer affraid of Apple.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Android (and Palm's new WebOS) phones seem fairly cool but I'd rather use a phone that had more of the normal Linux userland. The FreeRunner still has lots of very rough edges but the new Nokia N900 with Maemo 5 looks really mouth-watering
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Struggling to find a day everyone can make? WhenShallWe.com
Not only BT is missing. There's no calendar-app, and still no SyncML. Why? Even the Siemens S55 I bought in 2003 had a really pleasing set of Bluetooth-profiles, had SyncML, a calendar and J2ME... In my book, these are default, but required features. (ok, J2ME not so, since there's an alternative)
I have no problems tethering with my Samsung Galaxy out of the box. No root access required, no special applications. It provides a serial (over USB) interface to its internal modem, just point pppd to the proper device and it works.
(To enable it: Settings -> About phone -> Additional settings -> deselect "Mass storage only")
dakkar - mobilis in mobile
One way is to use the Native Development Kit, which lets you run regular C code on the phone. Here's a post explaining how to bind to bluez: http://blog.blackwhale.at/2009/08/android-bluetooth-on-steroids-with-the-ndk-and-bluez/
The other way is to use the existing android bluetooth API: http://code.google.com/p/android-bluetooth/
What that developer has done is use java reflection to wrap the existing (just not documented) android.bluetooth class API. I've been using it to communicate with an OBD-II adapter with some success (thought the dynamic port discovery API doesn't work entirely.)
For tethering, Wifi Tether works pretty well, since it doesn't even require the laptop to support bluetooth. It makes your phone a portable ad-hoc access point. Does require root access, for which there are some one-click solutions out there.
Perhaps Google is hesitant to include a technology in Android that sucks as much as BT.
I think google just sucks at bluetooth coding. I can't (well technically i can but i DONT) use A2DP from my Magic because the bluetooth process doesn't keep up - CPU is nowhere near maxed out but it skips, speeds up and slows down in pitch, changing tracks causes horrible, horrible stuttering and delays etc, yet this is all fine when playing through the included headset. There's a bug for it and it has 'medium' priority and it hasn't even been assigned - see http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2765
This is just spiffy. Maybe next release, they'll decide to support CLDC /J2ME so that the tons of existing phone applications can be used without rewriting for Google's custom Java & API.