Unfortunately, with the stink of the uproar over Net Neutrality, with the stink of the lies and denial of an administration which has turned the principles of freedom on it’s head (or ass, depending on your POV), and yes, with the stink of the terrorists factions who so sickly believe we ought to cowtow to their will, this story generated an attitude properly appropriate for our time.

AT&T might sell Android phones, someday

AT&T’s top wireless man told the Wall Street Journal at the CTIA tradeshow here this week that the company is considering using Google’s Android handsets.

Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T’s wireless unit, told the Journal he has reviewed the technology closely and is “confident it is something we are going to want in our portfolio.”

Which elicted this response from A Halsey;

“The openness of the underlying platform most definitely influences my buying decision. When given the choice between a platform controlled by a secretive company with proprietary technology, and a company taking a more community-oriented, transparent, FLOSS approach, I choose the later. This is for both idealistic and practical reasons.”

Temporarily at least, putting to rest the romance of: “After all, consumers don’t buy operating systems. They buy cool devices that can do really cool things.”

Post from: EveryJoe

Another Time Another Place Another Attitude

Jason Chen…

“We’re excited about the progress that we’ve made and look forward to making additional updates in the future as the platform evolves towards production-readiness.”

There are a couple of changes in m5-rc14 I’d like to highlight:

• New user interface – As I mentioned when we introduced the m3 version of the Android SDK, we’re continuing to refine the UI that’s available for Android. m5-rc14 replaces the previous placeholder with a new UI, but as before, work on it is still in-progress.
• Layout animations – Developers can now create layout animations for their applications using the capabilities introduced in the android.view.animation package. Check out the LayoutAnimation*.java files in the APIDemos sample code for examples of how this works.
• Geo-coding – android.location.Geocoder enables developers to forward and reverse geo-code (i.e. translate an address into a coordinate and vice-versa), and also search for businesses.
• New media codecs – The MediaPlayer class has added support for the OGG Vorbis, MIDI, XMF, iMelody, RTTL/RTX, and OTA audio file formats.
• Updated Eclipse plug-in – A new version of ADT is available and provides improvements to the Android developer experience. In particular, check out the new Android Manifest editor.

Below is a first hand look at developing an Android application.

Post from: EveryJoe

m5-rc14

Meanwhile, this is where my heart is;

And this is what my brain tells me;

[Yes, I've duplicated this post elsewhere...]

Post from: EveryJoe

Gonna Watch The Super Bowl

“We’d like to let you know that we are extending the submission deadline for the first Android Developers Challenge to 14 April 2008. Based on the great feedback you’ve given us, we’ve made significant updates to the SDK that we’ll be releasing in several weeks. In order to give you extra time to take advantage of these forthcoming UI and API enhancements, we’ve decided to extend the submission deadline.”

Which also updates the entire time line to;

April 14, 2008: Deadline to submit applications for judging
May 5, 2008: Announcement of the 50 first round winners, who will be eligible for the final round
June 30, 2008: Deadline for the 50 winners of the first round to submit for the final round
July 21, 2008: Announcement of the grand prize winner and runner-up

More info and additional links here.

Post from: EveryJoe

Android Developer Challenge Submission Deadline Extended

A small software developer, A La Mobile, based in San Ramon, Calif., on Monday plans to unveil a suite of applications — browser, camera, games and more — based on the new Google-endorsed operating system, Android.

A La Mobile applications (installed on a smartphone from HTC, the Qtek 9090) include: a Google browser, phone dialer for making voice calls, audio player, Google maps, camera, games, calendar, contacts manager, calculator and notes.

Don’t forget, the first Android Developer Challenge is accepting submissions through March 3rd, 2008. $10 Million is still up for grabs!

Post from: EveryJoe

Hoping To Get A Piece Of The Android Pie

You’d think that intelligent folk would understand that Google’s Android would require a developmental period as opposed to being ready to go out of the box.

Come on…

According to Scott Morrison of The Wall Street Journal and Adam MacBeth, Android is buggy so far. I agree with Dan Frommer – so what?

“On the plus side, there were some places where Android performed well, like the Eclipse plug-in and the ScrollView widget. Apparently, the Eclipse provided “seamless support for breakpoint debugging” by automatically starting up your program inside the emulator when in use. As for the ScrollView widget, it appears to support kinetic scrolling out of the box which saves developers and extra step.”

“What I discovered is a highly promising foundation that is plagued by transitional challenges and a development process that needs more work.”

Reality check eh? Back to work…

Post from: EveryJoe

You’ll Just Have To Work Harder To Win The $10 Million!

How It Works (from the Android Developer Challenge )

The award money will be distributed equally between two Android Developer Challenges:

* Android Developer Challenge I: We will accept submissions from January 2 through March 3, 2008
* Android Developer Challenge II: This part will launch after the first handsets built on the platform become available in the second half of 2008

In the Android Developer Challenge I, the 50 most promising entries received by March 3 will each receive a $25,000 award to fund further development. Those selected will then be eligible for even greater recognition via ten $275,000 awards and ten $100,000 awards.

Build Your Favorite Mobile Application

We welcome all types of applications but are looking to reward innovative, useful apps that make use of Android’s capabilities to deliver a better mobile experience. Here are some suggested areas of focus to get you started:

* Social networking
* Media consumption, management, editing, or sharing, e.g., photos
* Productivity and collaboration such as email, IM, calendar, etc.
* Gaming
* News and information
* Rethinking of traditional user interfaces
* Use of mash-up functionality
* Use of location-based services
* Humanitarian benefits
* Applications in service of global economic development
* Whatever you’re excited about!

The developers of Android – The Open Handset Alliance;

“a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies who have come together to accelerate innovation in mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience. Together we have developed Android™, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform.”

The Open Handset Alliance’s vision of Android;

“Android is not just a blueprint for the faraway future, but a complete platform that will give mobile operators, handset manufacturers, and developers everything they need to build innovative devices, software and services. We are committed to commercially deploy handsets and services using the Android Platform in the second half of 2008.”

Useful and interesting links:

Android Developers Blog

Android Developers Discussion Group

Post from: EveryJoe

Android – $10 Million On The Table – For You?