Google Preps Devs For One-Size-Fits-All Android

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Google Preps Devs For One-Size-Fits-All Android

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday September 20, 2011 @12:16AM from the ways-in-which-operating-systems-are-like-sweatpants dept.

alphadogg writes "Google is preparing Android developers for the latest edition of its Android mobile operating platform that will work the same on both tablets and smartphones. Scott Main, the lead tech writer for Google's Android Developers Blog, reminded developers on Monday that the newest edition of Android — dubbed 'Ice Cream Sandwich' — will 'support big screens, small screens and everything in between.' Main also emphasized that Android would maintain 'the same version ... on all screen sizes' going forward."

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Biggest thing is SUPPORT by GeneralTurgidson · 2011-09-20 00:21 · Score: 3, Insightful

Google needs to force the carriers to keep their androids up to date. This buy a new phone for the latest android version is bullshit.
1. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by obarthelemy · 2011-09-20 00:27 · Score: 2
  
  I think that won't happen because phone manufacturers want to keep selling phones, and carriers want you to commit to another 2yr contract for your subsidy.
  The realistic best we can get is hackable phones and CM7, because hacking frightens most people off so it won't break that upgrade loop as far as most users are concerned; and it targets geeks who will mostly update asap anyway.
  
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2. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by Xest · 2011-09-20 00:41 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  To be fair everyone whinged and whinged and whinged about the HTC Magic on Vodafone in the UK not being updated from 1.6.
  Then they updated it from 1.6 to 2.2 and it turned out that yeah the hardware really was a bit too shitty to support the new version decently. The same has happened with iOS where the oldest supported model tends to run shit with the most newly released update.
  I sympathise with some as some phones really can and should be updated, but sometimes there's also good reason not to update phones too. I spoken to someone at Vodafone outside of their official work setting where they could be a bit more frank and he said they were damned if they did, damned if they didn't - by not updating they got tons and tons and tons of flak, but then when they finally updated the Magic they then got loads and loads of flak from people complaining their phone was slow, and couldn't run some of the newer 2.2 only apps very well, the net result being post update they actually saw a higher burden of complaints. I know Vodafone et al isn't blameless when it comes to updates, far from it, their messing around with the Desire was just silly, but hearing this other side of the story was interesting. There are very real concerns for carriers if they allow any old update on any old phone - because they provide the phone people go to them for support when things go to shit.
3. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by beelsebob · 2011-09-20 00:43 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  And yet somehow, Apple, who does also want to keep selling phones, manage to ship at least 2 major OS updates to every device they ship.
4. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by MrNaz · 2011-09-20 00:48 · Score: 2
  
  There's this thing called "business strategy". It's a fairly complex subject, but the only part that you seem to need to know is that it is not identical for every company selling competing products.
  
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  I hate printers.
5. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by ceoyoyo · 2011-09-20 00:48 · Score: 2
  
  Apple strong armed the carriers. Do it our way or no iPhone for you, and they make the device so they can do whatever they want with it. Google doesn't make phones and individual android manufacturers aren't powerful enough to bully the carriers. Google probably wants everyone to be able to update but the carriers really, really want you to sign that contract extension if you want a new phone.
6. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by asdf7890 · 2011-09-20 01:04 · Score: 2
  
  Prior to Google buying motorola this was my reason for not bothering to look at Andriod phones next time I needed to change for some reason (like when the hinge on this thing dies or there is a security flaw found that can't be fixed without an upgrade I'm not permitted to apply). Apple supports their devices with updates far longer, though I'm not planning to play the Apple game for other reasons (which basically leaves Windows as my next option as blakcberry isn't gonig anywhere).
  
  When new models get released under the now-owned-by-Google-motorola-mobile flag perhaps they will permit them to be upgraded and this will force other manufacturers to do the same to remain competative. Unless of course they only bought that for the patents and simply won't be releasing any hardware...
7. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by MoonBuggy · 2011-09-20 01:07 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  A fair point, but it doesn't explain the logic behind the far, far more annoying practise of installing carrier-branded firmware. It is (in my experience) invariably slower, buggier, and less frequently (often never) updated than the generic version. Thankfully it seems to be flagging a little as customers begin to understand what 'firmware' is, but it's by no means extinct. You've already signed a contract promising to continue giving them money for the next year or two, so it's not like the advertising impact of that shiny new theme in $Carrier'sColour is going to do much good to anyone - why on earth do they still insist on spending money on coders to produce these abominations?
8. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by MoonBuggy · 2011-09-20 01:12 · Score: 2
  
  Push updates? Nothing beyond bugfixes, and even then probably with a clear 'opt out' button. There's a whole gulf of possibilities between over-the-air auto updates and the current practise of locking the bootloader to prevent customers from doing their own goddamn thing, should they so choose, though.
9. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by robmv · 2011-09-20 01:27 · Score: 2
  
  The same can be said about the Nexus line of phones, but people still buy other brands
10. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by babblefrog · 2011-09-20 01:34 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  At some point, they will be forced to do some kind of updates, if only to deal with security issues. Imagine how things would be if Microsoft never sent out patches for Windows. That's what Android will be like in the future if the manufacturers and carriers don't get together and address this problem. Remember the days of the "I love you" and Melissa viruses? I'd rather not.
11. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by MoonBuggy · 2011-09-20 01:36 · Score: 2
  
  Update latencies for Honeycomb devices are the lowest I've seen on average for any Android revision. No one seems to take more than 1-2 months to release an update.
  I'm not entirely up to date with the tablet market, but I have to wonder whether this is due to a difference in customer expectation rather than in Google's strategy. The market for "tablets that aren't an iPad" is significantly more geek-oriented than the market for Android phones, not to mention that tablets fall much closer to "computer" (which even non-geeks expect to come with a level of upgradability and customisability) than "phone" (which, until fairly recently, didn't generally have customisable firmware or software of any kind). Couple that with the fact that phone companies have probably got you tied in for a few years anyway, and it seems like a company slow to update its tablets would be far worse of than one slow to update its phones.
12. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by hansamurai · 2011-09-20 01:40 · Score: 2
  
  My wife, sister, mom, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, and father-in-law all have Android phones, actually only two variations among them. I would root them all if I could, but it voids the warranty, and I don't want to be _that_ guy who screws people from getting their phone fixed. Instead, I just listen to them complain about City ID, etc. Ah well.
  
  --
  Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
13. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by Desler · 2011-09-20 01:55 · Score: 2
  
  Being able to port it to the handset does not mean it will run WELL on the handset. As I said, the manufacturers will just say the new version will not run well on the hardware and they get out of the commitment.
14. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by moronoxyd · 2011-09-20 02:46 · Score: 2
  
  Apple does not only sell hardware, but also content (apps, music, movies, whatnot).
  So they still earn money from customers who do not buy a new phone. And they earn more if they make the new features available for those customers.
  Most companies that sell Android ore Windows Phone devices do not offer any or much content, so they need the customers to buy hardware to earn money.
15. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by chrb · 2011-09-20 03:23 · Score: 2
  
  Apple is as bad as any of the other manufacturers. The iPhone 3G was superceded by the international release of the 3GS in July/August 2009, and the last software update was November 2010. For people who bought a 3G just before the 3GS was released, that's 15 months before updates were cut off. At least with Android you can install Cyanogen to get the latest software.
16. Re:Biggest thing is SUPPORT by s73v3r · 2011-09-20 06:39 · Score: 2
  
  I honestly don't give a shit about their "business strategy". All I know is that Apple is keeping devices up to date far longer than most of the Android vendors. That gives them a couple points over the Android makers in that regard.
The interesting thing... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2011-09-20 00:40 · Score: 2

I'll be interested to see how they handle the UI design. Architecturally, resolution and screen size independence aren't exactly trivial(especially if you are on a serious battery budget and can't just scream "THROW MORE FUCKING VECTORS AT IT!!!" any time you run into a scaling question); but, so long as the device's screen is accurately reporting its resolution, size, and DPI, it isn't a thicket of unsolved or fundamentally intractable problems.

The question of how to do a UI that scales to make efficient use of different screen sizes, though, is a bit trickier: the best UI for a teeny little screen almost certainly isn't suited to a larger one, or to a large, but low resolution, TV-style screen at a good distance from the user.

Are they just going to have a few hardcoded presets(phone, tablet, TV?) that use the same architectural foundation? Will it be a single 'windowing' mechanism that follows certain layout rules that result in different effects based on screen size and DPI?
NASCAR by stephanruby · 2011-09-20 00:46 · Score: 2

Twitter, I wouldn't mind. It's more apps like NASCAR that I couldn't care less about. Are there really that many fans of NASCAR on Sprint??? What's next?? an unremovable app for Vagesil on all Sprint phones??? It's not like Sprint is a low-cost carrier to begin with.
the phone reports it by jDeepbeep · 2011-09-20 00:50 · Score: 2, Informative

Are they just going to have a few hardcoded presets(phone, tablet, TV?) that use the same architectural foundation? Will it be a single 'windowing' mechanism that follows certain layout rules that result in different effects based on screen size and DPI?
Android has been doing this for a while, choosing at runtime which resources to serve up based on DPI. The source tree of an Android app has 3 'drawable' directories under res/ (drawable-ldpi, drawable-mdpi, and drawable-hdpi) and it picks the best one for each situation.

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Reply to That ||
1. Re:the phone reports it by JAlexoi · 2011-09-20 01:14 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Don't forget drawable-xhdpi and other -ldpi, -mdpi, -hdpi, -xhdpi, -nodpi, -tvdpi, -large, -small, etc...
  FYI: The guide has been recently updated http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
Re:You don't "GET IT", do you? by MrNaz · 2011-09-20 00:53 · Score: 2

Literacy at a level where people can communicate between the lines died decades ago. It's very hard to hide from the onslaught of lolspeak, the conflation of they're/their/there/your/you're and other linguistic degeneracies. Encouraging people to communicate in an intelligent manner? Not going to happen. Not with this generation.

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I hate printers.
Yes, but will it support multiple users...? by eepok · 2011-09-20 01:35 · Score: 4, Insightful

I never played with an Android device until I bought my Asus Transformer. When I set it up for the first time, I thought all the requests for my Google identity info were just to set up accounts, but it turned out that the tablet was just like the phone-- Google still treats it as a personal device.
While this isn't new to someone who knew Android well already, it came as quite a shock to me. After all, I planned to use my tablet like a netbook-- handing it off to other people who need to use it when I don't. I can't do that, though, because all someone has to do is hit that GMAIL icon and be automatically signed into my accounts. The same with the Android Store.
What Android needs for me to fully enjoy using it as well as for me to suggest it for other users is to provide the option to treat the device like a potentially public device as does Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. It should not be assumed that the primary owner always has control of the device. It should require loging in for any GMAIL user and the device should not be tied directly to a Google account identity.
I'll continue to use my Asus Transformer as is, but only until there's a tablet friendly of Ubuntu up and running... or maybe I'll stick with Android if such changes are made. But until then, I won't be buying another tablet as an upgrade and I will continue to stay out of the smartphone market.
1. Re:Yes, but will it support multiple users...? by Lord+Grey · 2011-09-20 02:09 · Score: 2
  
  After all, I planned to use my tablet like a netbook-- handing it off to other people who need to use it when I don't. I can't do that, though, because all someone has to do is hit that GMAIL icon and be automatically signed into my accounts.
  
  Excellent point. All tablet vendors seem to be missing the multi-user feature, and they really need to add it. As you pointed out, tablets are less intensely personal and the owner is more apt to loan a tablet than they would a phone. A tablet is expensive enough to be a "family device" as well, where many people use it for slightly different things, like that desktop system sitting in the corner of the living room used to be, 15 years ago.
  In addition to supporting multiple users, I'd like to have a "no user" setting. That setting would disable all the personal apps (like an email or address book app) but leave the generic network surfing stuff visible. Maybe have which apps enabled/disabled setup as a preference. That would be handy when loaning the device to other people.
  
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  // Beyond Here Lie Dragons
2. Re:Yes, but will it support multiple users...? by eepok · 2011-09-20 04:28 · Score: 2
  
  Most PCs are set up with one account because almost all private things can be password protected. If you sign into Gmail from a PC, you have to enter a login and password. Not so with the stock Gmail program in Android. If you turn on Steam to download games, you can have to request a password-- not so much of a security feature with the Android store. The device always assumes that the main device owner is the device user. But that's not sufficient for tablets. Smartphones, yes. Tablets, less so.
  And Outlook asks me to log in every time I start it. As does my computer. What I want is a multi-user environment on a device that is likely to be used by multiple users as a tablet it.
  (Note: I don't see a tablet as a giant smart phone. I see it as a keyboard-less netbook.)
Re:CM7 users have to warez the Market by kidgenius · 2011-09-20 02:39 · Score: 3, Informative

Seriously? CM tells you how to do this, as does rom manager, etc. Google and Cyanogen came to very nice terms quite some time ago about gapps. Cyanogen can't include it, but they are allowed to provide it as a separate package. So here you go: http://goo-inside.me/gapps/
Breaking Up the System by Kamiza+Ikioi · 2011-09-20 03:40 · Score: 2

I think the fact that they are breaking up parts of the system into Apps that are automatically updated by Google will be fantastic, such as the browser. The more they break out of the base system, the more control they have over updates, ironically.
Also, they should take the opportunity to unify the UI a bit more. I'm not saying go iPhone, but I think it could be done better.
Any time people leave the default, you're not doing it well enough, be it a dev or a user, such as leaving the default keyboard for Swype, TouchPal, or FlexT9.
If they had a killer UI, it would discourage fragmentation. There are some great UIs out there that they could purchase and integrate, such as Go Launcher or ADW Launcher. I think they should also be stricter on the hardware so that there is also better driver support between phones. Then again, that's the CyanogenMod talking for me, which probably is less important to mainstream users.

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I8-D
Re:Producing a firmware update for existing phones by s73v3r · 2011-09-20 06:50 · Score: 2

Why the fuck should the "economic sense" come into play? We're asking them to support their god damned phone, and Google is trying to force them to do it.
Re:Oh goody. by oakgrove · 2011-09-20 06:58 · Score: 2

Of course a calculator and notepad don't generally run on start and stay in the background, which is generally the real problem with bloatware.
The real problem with bloatware is whatever the owner of the device thinks the real problem is. The clue there is the owner. You know, the person that should have the final say as to what is on their computer and what isn't. And notepad and calculator were just examples. I don't have a Windows computer at my disposal here to find other ones like, oh, I don't know, defrag, firewall, and other various and sundry replaceable yet uninstallable crapware. Furthermore, the difference is notepad and calculator are uninstallable whether I find a better replacement or not. If I can completely obviate my need for notepad by installing notepad++, I should be able to remove notepad from my computer. If I cannot, then, by definition, it is bloatware no matter how small or trivial. On Linux, for example, you can do this. And Android doesn't even come with a text editor by default so if a device has one, the OEM put it in there.

Your definition of bloatware seems to be 'it comes with Windows', which is a pretty retarded definition for obvious reasons.
Do you regularly abuse people in real life when you disagree with them? Do you think that makes you cool?

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