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Google Releases Android 4.1 SDK
hypnosec writes "Google has released the full SDK for its latest edition of Android, Jelly Bean, which was unveiled during Google I/O. Google has already released the source code of Jelly Bean earlier. Google announced through a blog post that developers can develop application against the API level 16 using the new Jelly Bean APIs. Developers would be able to develop apps that will run on Nexus 7 tablets. Jelly Bean is touted as one of the best from Google and it promises a smoother and more responsive UI across the system."
This is confusing. The Jelly Bean SDK has been out for a while now (since around Google IO). The "blog" link is wrong (correct url: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2012/07/getting-your-app-ready-for-jelly-bean.html). My dev tools already had API 16 installed and the Google APIs are the only thing that saw any updates (rev 2).
The release order changed when Google's need to give certain manufacturers exclusive early access outweighed the community's need to have the SDK prior to the OS release. This isn't that much of an impairment for most developers, and it's a cheap incentive to win over some hardware manufacturers.
However it is funny how the two closed source mobile operating systems give their developer base early access to their upcoming SDKs.
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Actually, there was a beta of the SDK that was released during the IO conference - so prior to the Nexus 7 becoming available.
But I do have concern about the general beta quality of all of their stuff (actually I think that Android 4.0.0 was more like alpha).
I'm pleased that, so far, my Nexus 7 seems to be very solid. Hopefully this means they are starting to focus more on quality.
Perhaps they needed to run it past their lawyers to check that Apple hadn't patent if or case statements.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The article is wrong. Android 4.1 SDK has been released three weeks ago
I've had the SDK installed since Google I/O - this is just a "final" revision to it. Really, not that big of a news item. I've gotten tons of updates on my phone that appear to be JB related - which is probably just the dev's targeting this release and testing it still works (And fixing what's required, which was probably pretty minimal)
That thing is horribly slow.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
Yeah, this is just rev. 2 of the 4.1 SDK. The title and summary are highly misleading.
Wouldn't it have been traditional for them to make the SDK available before the OS dropped, to make sure there was a base of current apps in place when devices started shipping?
The base of current apps was already there.
A 4.1 Android phone can run any app 1.5 and onward.
Well, eventually 99% of the devices will run ICS or later, so time spent developing for it is never going to be a "waste."
However, WHEN you should develop for it is a different matter. An app that REQUIRES ICS is only going to be commercially successful maybe a few months from now when a fair number of phones actually run it - and ICS is already nine months old.
It seems like adoption follows release by around a year or so with Android. Don't get me wrong, I love android, but lack of updates is maddening. I'm actually looking to upgrade my current phone but wouldn't consider anything on sale now. I can either get a Galaxy Nexus which is 9 months old and will probably only see at most one more OS update from Google, or something like a Galaxy S3 which has great hardware, but which probably will get Jelly Bean sometime but likely nothing after that. Being better hardware I suspect that somebody will hack together later OS releases for it, though likely with bugs on the camera/etc and a generally frustrating experience. Then again, it has gotten to the point where most of the big Android modders have just moved to Nexus devices and tend to get new ones every year, so not even the modding community is doing that great a job with older phones now.
I guess I'll just hold off until the next generation of Nexus comes along, and hope I like whatever choices are offered. Feels like Apple, ugh...