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Google To Merge Honeycomb and Gingerbread

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the there-can-be-only-one dept.

eldavojohn writes "In Barcelona, Google's Eric Schmidt has been revealing future plans for Google, saying that the next release will merge smartphone and tablet versions of its mobile operating system Android. Aside from bragging about Android's growth, Schmidt tiptoed around a question of Google acquiring Twitter, instead offering the very nebulous statement that YouTube doubled its revenues last year."

23 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I haven't had lunch by A.+B3ttik · · Score: 2

    Seriously, I am going to give this food combination a try.

  2. Stays crunchy in milk by Drakkenmensch · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will it be sandwiched between delicious silicon wafers?

    1. Re:Stays crunchy in milk by jgagnon · · Score: 2

      Wheat or white?

      --
      Remember to maintain your supply of /facepalm oil to prevent chafing.
    2. Re:Stays crunchy in milk by A.+B3ttik · · Score: 2

      Eet's WAPHER THEEN!!

  3. Meaningless statement by It+doesn't+come+easy · · Score: 2

    Youtube doubled its revenues last year

    So, was that $13 to $26 or $13,000,000,000 to $26,000,000,000?

    --
    The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
    1. Re:Meaningless statement by MozeeToby · · Score: 4, Informative

      Youtube doubled its revenues last year. Emphasis added.

      The statement says nothing about profits, or profit margins; it's entirely possible to make a $1 billion profit one year, double your revenues the next year and suddenly be losing money. In Youtube's case it is probably a very good sign though, since no one really had any idea 5 years ago how to go about monetizing it.

  4. Where's Gingerbread? by TheSeventh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Shouldn't they focus on something like, oh I don't know, actually Releasing Gingerbread for existing phones, like they said they were doing "in a few weeks" back in November/December?

    No updates, no word from Google about why they aren't sending it out. Looks like things might be falling apart over there.

    --
    Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that they're not out to get you.
    1. Re:Where's Gingerbread? by PitaBred · · Score: 4, Informative

      But it's only on the Nexus S. They were going to release it for the Nexus One and others, but those plans seem to be on hold. I'm using 2.3 on my N1 via the nightly Cyanogen builds but it's definitely got a bunch of quirks in it still. I'm betting Google is going to just release 2.4 as their next "standard" release that's widely distributed.

      --
      My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
    2. Re:Where's Gingerbread? by TheSeventh · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I have the Nexus One, so my "OEM" is Google.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that they're not out to get you.
    3. Re:Where's Gingerbread? by idontgno · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Gingerbread? 2.3?

      It's released.

      Oh, do you mean, "Shouldn't they focus on pressuring Android phone manufacturers and network providers to release their own OTA updates to existing phones?"

      Google don't play that.

      May I recommend Cyanogenmod nightlies? I'm running CM7 Nightly 30 and it's rocking Android 2.3.2 flawlessly on my CDMA HTC Desire. If you're waiting for your network-providing gatekeeping overlords... well, I hope you enjoy waiting.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    4. Re:Where's Gingerbread? by TheSeventh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Gingerbread? 2.3?

      It's released.

      Oh, do you mean, "Shouldn't they focus on pressuring Android phone manufacturers and network providers to release their own OTA updates to existing phones?"

      Google don't play that.

      May I recommend Cyanogenmod nightlies? I'm running CM7 Nightly 30 and it's rocking Android 2.3.2 flawlessly on my CDMA HTC Desire. If you're waiting for your network-providing gatekeeping overlords... well, I hope you enjoy waiting.

      Yeah, see I have a Nexus One, so I'm not sure how they would pressure themselves . . . ? And with no updates and no word on when it will happen, I figure something must be falling apart over there. Apparently these days, Google doesn't play much at all. But they do like to talk about how much they are doing.

      I'll give it a few more days and then I'll go the cyanogenmod route. I was just being too lazy to want to deal with any quirks or bugs not worked out yet with the nightlies.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that they're not out to get you.
    5. Re:Where's Gingerbread? by idontgno · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, I saw that you replied to another poster about having a Nexus. My clever post and yours crossed in the mail, I guess.

      Still, most Nexus Ones were HTC-made, so it's probable that Google doesn't have as much leverage as you might think.

      I've had no problems with CM7, after rooting my Desire. Battery life is somewhat better than the stock Android 2.1 that came preloaded.

      So, yeah, I'm fairly happy with the nightlies, but I'm looking forward to when the nice people at CM get a definitive 7.0 official release out there.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    6. Re:Where's Gingerbread? by Facegarden · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But it's only on the Nexus S. They were going to release it for the Nexus One and others, but those plans seem to be on hold. I'm using 2.3 on my N1 via the nightly Cyanogen builds but it's definitely got a bunch of quirks in it still. I'm betting Google is going to just release 2.4 as their next "standard" release that's widely distributed.

      While I also am using CM7 on my N1 and wish Google would release a damn stable version already, I imagine they're pretty busy. I'd *much* rather they spend all of their energy on making Honeycomb kick ass than releasing Gingerbread for more phones. Gingerbread is a nice update, but Honeycomb tablets will be shipping soon (supposedly) and they really want to ship them with the best possible software they can. Not only am I much more interested in a honeycomb tablet than stable Gingerbread on my phone, I also want regular people to choose honeycomb over the ipad.

      Also, the Nexus one (and maybe the older dev phones) and the only ones google has any ability to "release" updates for. For the rest of the phones out there, its up to the manufacturer. Clearly cyanogen/koush et al have been working their asses off and they aren't done, I don't see any reason why the manufacturers would be any farther.
      -Taylor

      --
      Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    7. Re:Where's Gingerbread? by Facegarden · · Score: 4, Insightful

      which is why the Android model of open source is fundamentally broken, imho. But then it was never about the customer.

      This is such a stupid fucking argument.

      "Oh my god they released in December and it takes months for manufacturers to port to their devices! Android is broken!"

      You don't realize it, but this is the right way to do it. How would you expect it to work? Embedded development takes time, there's no way to avoid that. Even on full PCs there is a delay. Take Windows - they come out with new releases only once in many years, so they can easily delay the release 6 months to allow manufacturers to port their drivers - and thats what they do. Microsoft has a Release Candidate of windows ready many months before they "release", but no one complains about that. If google told us "Yup, the next version is done, so we're releasing to manufacturers and you'll see it in 6 months." people would get just as upset. And it wouldn't make sense to do - some people port faster and can use the new features sooner - so just release all the source and let the OEMs sort it out.

      You could look at Ubuntu - it releases all at once to everything - but then, thats where computers differ from phones. Computers have enough extra space and resources that PC operating systems like Windows and Ubuntu just include drivers for every piece of hardware they can - windows has many hundreds of megabytes of *extra* stuff on the disk just to make sure whatever network card you happen to have will work. Phones don't have all that extra space. Computers are also all built with certain things being constant. Phones have to be highly optimized though, so everything about them varies. The notification lights are hooked up to different pins on the microcontroller, different features on a bluetooth chip are enabled depending on space requirements, etc. All the code for every component has to be ported to exactly how that device is laid out. So far NO ONE has come up with a good solution for building a mobile phone OS that can be universally upgraded without issue. Thats something google is trying to do with Android, but thats one hell of an undertaking. They say Gingerbread includes some features that will help, but dude, this stuff is all new, it takes time.

      So chill out and think about what you say.
      -Taylor

      --
      Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    8. Re:Where's Gingerbread? by RocketRabbit · · Score: 2

      You just explained why people are choosing not to code applications for Android.

    9. Re:Where's Gingerbread? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Informative

      Still, most Nexus Ones were HTC-made, so it's probable that Google doesn't have as much leverage as you might think.

      The whole point of Nexus One (and now also Nexus S), aside from being "officially rootable", is that they run stock Android with no modifications. HTC was only involved in putting the hardware together for Nexus One; they don't control its software, nor is their participation required in updating it. Not pushing that update is solely Google's fault.

    10. Re:Where's Gingerbread? by Facegarden · · Score: 4, Insightful

      which is why the Android model of open source is fundamentally broken, imho. But then it was never about the customer.

      This is such a stupid fucking argument.

      "Oh my god they released in December and it takes months for manufacturers to port to their devices! Android is broken!"

      You don't realize it, but this is the right way to do it. How would you expect it to work?

      Like iOS?

      Apple says "oh hey new version of iOS is out and you can instantly get it for any iOS phone that's been out the past 2 or 3 years with a simple update"

      Takes months for manufacturers, maybe, if they actually were trying. They could have been experimenting with the beta version of Gingerbread and have it working by the time it was officially released. Hell what about all those Android phones still on 2.1, or worse, 1.6?

      Wow, you really don't get it. Apple tests iOS with every device they release it for, because, uh, there's only like 10 of them, and they created them all.

      And actually, I checked and what you said isn't even fucking true. iOS 4 came out last summer for phones and ipod touches, but not until fall for iPads. And it wasn't compatible with anything made before the iPhone 3GS - so, half of the iPhone models got left behind. So you're full of shit.

      http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/iphone-os-4-0-unveiled-shipping-this-summer/

      And yes, the nice thing about apple controlling every piece of hardware is that they can release for many devices at once, but that's not how Android works and I hardly consider that broken. If you want to work with multiple manufacturers using open source code, you have to accept that not everyone will jump on a release immediately. I'd much rather have many manufacturers than one, so like I said, I hardly consider it broken.
      -Taylor

      --
      Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    11. Re:Where's Gingerbread? by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 2

      You could have fooled me. There's no shortage of developers working on Android software.

      If you want your app to run on everything from $120 Huawei Cricket phones to the Motorola Atrix, Android is your choice.

      If you want your app to be on the most popular smartphone platform, Android is your choice.

      If you decide to forgo being on the platform your customers use because you can't handle compatibility testing, then your customers will decide to become customers of another developer who is less lazy.

      Writing software is hard work. We do not live in a homogeneous world and you cannot expect a single device model to meet everyone's needs. You can accept that and try to work within that framework (with the understanding that it's not as bad as the pundits say - Google has done a lot of work to abstract away the differences between devices). Or you can decide that it's not worth your time and money and develop for a smaller fragment of the market.

      You may wish that we lived in a world where everyone uses the same hardware. We don't. Android gives you the ability to target an incredible range of devices at the cost of additional compatibility testing and workarounds. You may not be willing to accept that compromise, but your competitors almost certainly are.

  5. OT Question by MozeeToby · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The new comments system... is it supposed to be hiding responses to low rated comments? Take this one for example, it will start out life rated at 2 (including the karma bonus) but won't be visible on the page unless you have set filtering to -1 because the GP is rated at -1. This seems extremely broken to me.

  6. New version every 6 months... by FunkyELF · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Google has promised Android updates will arrive every six months

    Consumers don't care about Google's promise of Android updates unless they actually reach the customers.
    Developers don't care about Google's promise of Android updates for the same reason... unless those updates reach customers developers wanting to target that huge android base need to target the lowest common denominator.

    http://designdare.com/how-to-buy-an-iphone-at-the-worst-possible-ti

    1. Re:New version every 6 months... by GweeDo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, this whole fragmentation thing is just killing us Android dev's right???

      Or not: http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html

      90% of all users that connect to the Market are now on Android 2.1 or greater. Android 2.2 and 2.3 haven't brought any kind of huge API changes that require you lock out 2.1 users to get some awesome new feature. The new "big thing" is going to be the Fragments API and it will support all the way back to Android 1.6.

      Now, don't get me wrong. I want everyone that can be to be on 2.3 yesterday, but it isn't exactly a big deal.

      --
      Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
  7. Twitter acquisition by vlueboy · · Score: 2

    Great... big scary companies that can't earn our trust force us to "sign up" by purchasing their replacements that we did trust. First it was USA banks getting gobbled up, and our diversity perks disappearing after the acquisition. Now, big web companies either create "sign into Yahoo with your Facebook ID" kind of mergers. TFA mentions the twitter question "dodge" very shortly, but to me it counts as guiltily "pleading the fifth"*. When they acquire twitter, they can get data on my habits that I chose NOT to give up when everybody opted-OUT of joining Google BUZZ exactly 12 months ago.

    Youtube refused to let me in with my 4-year old YOUTUBE username to view a video yesterday... apparently they don't care; they want me to sign in with a Google address. Nothing is stopping me from faking data and so on, but nothing will fool their geolocation tracking and their silently associating my video playlists with the content of those emails I receive. Twitter data would provide my outing habits and random data to mine. Eventually it will be a giant single company out there with access to everything, and in the end, we'll have nobody left to trust.

    * amendment of the USA constitution against self-incrimination

  8. I shall try to do the same. by Grael · · Score: 2

    It sounds quite delicious.