Google Revs Android, FCC Approves First Phone 259
Cycon writes "Google has announced, 'We're releasing a beta SDK. You can read about the new Android 0.9 SDK beta at the Android Developers' Site, or if you want to get straight to the bits, you can visit the download page.' A new Development Roadmap has also been released to help developers understand the direction the software is taking (as this is still only a Beta release). In addition, the FCC has approved the HTC Dream, and it is believed Google and T-Mobile will launch the phone in the US on November 10, since a confidentiality request attached to the application asks the FCC to keep details secret until that date."
Re:iPhone appstore killer. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm going to get troll-rated into oblivion for this, but how is it different from few dozen window mangers for Linux - arguably one of the main reasons why the community is so fragmented and the interface standard still lagging behind proprietary systems?
Choice is often overrated. A team of professional interface designers should make the choice for me instead of giving me tons of options to figure out.
Android is a cute gimmick that's going to make an initial splash and then fade away into obscurity. And knowing Google's mantra of perpetual beta products, I'm going to guess that the project will be kept on life support forever, eventually ending up on cellphones in developing nations.
Re:The new PC vs MAC (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll be interesting to watch the clean, sleak and confined iPhone go against the more likely open and flexible Android.
Depends. It will be a short race if we're watching the clean, sleek and confined iPhone go against the clean, sleek, open and flexible Android....
Frankly tho', I'm surprised at the number of posters on this site who seem to believe we're going to be looking at a contest between Apple & Google for the smartphone king crown.
Is it American chauvinism that makes so many here discount RIM & Nokia?
Re:I think this stuff should all be spun off (Score:5, Insightful)
Or you could choose not to use Google.
The rest of us shouldn't have to suffer for your paranoia.
All Android Needs to Succeed (Score:4, Insightful)
The made a big deal about the big buck$$$ iPhone displaying the I Am Rich jewel. I guess Apple didn't want competition for their own Apple I Buy Things When They're New And Expensive And Still Have Bugs logo on the phone.
Re:All in all, another brick outside The Wall (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone can grow a garden at home. Yet still may people seek to attend the carefully cultivated gardens of botanical centers around the globe, and gladly pay to do so...
You totally missed the point. I wasn't saying that Android's an appstore killer because of homebrew development.
The difference is that the ecosystem of paid, professional developers for Android will be able to do things like:
* Add copy/paste functionality (if missing)
* Develop an unrestricted skype / SIP phone application.
* Develop apps that run in the background.
* Allow applications to be installed without the vendor's approval.
* etc, etc etc.
Re:iPhone appstore killer. (Score:2, Insightful)
This is a statement about the Android software, not about the phones that run it. In other words, the real question is: replaced by whom?
Nothing in the Android license requires phone manufacturers or network operators to allow users to replace software. Google didn't get all those mobile operators on board by promising them a lack of control.
Re:iPhone appstore killer. (Score:5, Insightful)
So how long until we see the first security hole that lets the payload replace the dialler and home screen (and maybe the contacts app)
You realize that there's been several security holes in the iPhone that give the attacker root access? I'm not sure why you believe Apple's closedness with regards to the appstore has improved security.
Why do people assume it will be open? (Score:5, Insightful)
What makes people think that the mobile network operators, who have resisted this sort of openness in their handsets before, will embrace it now? Nothing in the Android license requires them to do so.
Apple had to struggle to find a single carrier willing to allow the iPhone. Google showed up with six. You don't get six times as many carriers by promising them less control.
Re:All in all, another brick outside The Wall (Score:5, Insightful)
And you sir missed mine (Score:5, Insightful)
You totally missed the point. I wasn't saying that Android's an appstore killer because of homebrew development.
I didn't miss your point. I pointed out, there are many points.
The difference is that the ecosystem of paid, professional developers for Android will be able to do things like:
* Add copy/paste functionality (if missing)
* Develop an unrestricted skype / SIP phone application.
* Develop apps that run in the background.
* Allow applications to be installed without the vendor's approval.
* etc, etc etc.
And all those are great - for some people. But are not needed - for some people.
After all you're already splitting hairs with end users on many points in your bullet list - does an end user care new IM notifications come from an external server? No. Do they really care if they can't get incredibly sucky VOIP over 3G and find WiFi instead to use Skype, those 1% of users that actually will seek out other ways to talk using voice on a PHONE? No. Do end users care what a developer must do to get an application? No, they see the applications before them. And developers can run anything they like on a phone without any restriction whatsoever for just $99.
There are some people that demand all those things, and many people who would consider they have them with an iPhone already, or at least the ones they care about.
The whole copy paste thing is so tired. It was debunked the first day someone used an iPhone. Would it be handy sometimes? Sure. But the device is perfectly usable without it because many data channels where you would normally use cut&paste are wired to funnel data as you desire (like emailing a web page link).
Re:iPhone appstore killer. (Score:3, Insightful)
Some choice>No Choice
Too few choices>Too many choices.
many carries are open, Apple is not (Score:3, Insightful)
What makes people think that the mobile network operators, who have resisted this sort of openness in their handsets before, will embrace it now?
T-Mobile, Cingular, AT&T, and others have allowed unrestricted, fully programmable handsets on their networks for many years.
Apple's iPhone is a huge step backwards in terms of openness. Apple's misrepresentation of the facts is adding insult to injury.
Apple had to struggle to find a single carrier willing to allow the iPhone.
That's because the iPhone is locked down and controlled by Apple. If the iPhone were as open as Palm, Symbian, or Windows Mobile, every major carrier would be shipping it.
I mean, people have been unlocking the iPhone and using it on other carriers. The carriers didn't complain, Apple did.
Re:many carries are open, Apple is not (Score:5, Insightful)
If the iPhone were as open as Palm, Symbian, or Windows Mobile, every major carrier would be shipping it.
I'm not sure I follow. Are you saying that the carriers rejected the iPhone because they thought its closed nature would make it unsuccessful in the market? Or maybe they were making a moral stand for consumer openness?
A more likely explanation is that the iPhone took control from the carriers and gave it to Apple. Consumers, empirically, ended up somewhat better off.
I mean, people have been unlocking the iPhone and using it on other carriers. The carriers didn't complain, Apple did.
Carriers complained bitterly about unlocking. It took a class action lawsuit and a visit to the Supreme Court to end AT&T's policies against unlocking. If they've been quiet about iPhone unlocking, it's only because they've lost that battle.
Apple has to make a good faith effort to prevent unlocking as part of their contract with AT&T. To Apple, an unlocked phone is another sale, and they have no reason to care if you do so.
Re:Why do people assume it will be open? (Score:1, Insightful)
Basically, because since the earlier Android release there have been a shift to openess in the hand-set industry: Nokia bought Trolltech in January, Nokia took control of Symbian (default OS for many hand-set manufactures: Samsung, LG, Nokia, etc) and it will be releases as open source soon, the LiMo foundation have strenghten with new members, and more. All these platforms, Android included, have one thing in common: they are open and based on Linux.
So, it seems that the future of mobile will be a fight of open platforms (Android, Symbian, etc) against iPhone and maybe Windows.
Re:iPhone appstore killer. (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly... You have you "professionally" designed interface there by default, and which most people will use...
But there is still choice for those people with different requirements, some people may choose to use the phone for things the original interface developers never thought of, others may be handicapped and need a special interface, leaving the choice available is a good thing even if most users will just stick to the default.
As for so called "professional" interface designers, how many phones have you used with utterly horrendous interfaces? All of the windows mobile phones i've used had terrible interfaces that were more suited to a PDA than a phone...
And then there's interfaces which are just great for some people and some tasks, but useless for others, like the iphone which is the best phone interface i've ever used for web browsing, but is pretty useless when you want to type a text message one handed.
Re:The new PC vs MAC (Score:1, Insightful)
I very rarely here anyone talk about mapquest anymore...
Re:I think this stuff should all be spun off (Score:3, Insightful)
hello again,
I'm not stopping you from getting on with your life or using/enjoying googles free services, far from it, I wish you great enjoyment :)
To label me a 'paranoid freak' for not being 100% gullible about what google is going to do with all that data, and noting that you do not speak for more people than yourself (even though plenty might agree with your, but then again, they might agree with me too) is not exactly friendly.
I've worked for some a big corporation that was datamining the hell out of whatever information they had in order to improve their sales, privacy be damned. I was young and ignorant then, and didn't even realize how wrong it was, but I've gotten a bit more skeptical since then.
I doubt google is much different, the bottom line is what matters to them. The product of google is not search or applications like email or maps, the product is their knowledge about you, the user and to capitalize on that knowledge.
I remember this episode:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/06/08/google-research-prototypes-ambient-audio-contextual-content/ [techcrunch.com]
And the double click acquisition as well as the amount of pressure that had to be put on google to get them to (finally!) place a privacy policy on their site.
So, how about we do a little wager, say 1,000 euros that before 2015 there will be some major (say > 1000 accounts) breach of privacy that will have googles accumulated user data at its core ?
This would include inadvertent leaks, disclosure of such records to authorities, outright data theft, identity theft and such.
Since I'm just a 'paranoid freak' and you're speaking for 'the rest of us' and you're pretty sure that google is collecting that data in a responsible manner with no chance of mishap whatsoever that should not be a hard decision.
take it ?
greetings,
Jacques Mattheij
No Bluetooth? (Score:3, Insightful)
Did I read that right? Android 1.0 and Android 1.0 devices won't have bluetooth? That seems like kind of a big miss.
Re:iPhone appstore killer. (Score:3, Insightful)
All the Windows Mobile PDAs I've used had terrible interfaces that were more suited to a desktop than a PDA.
Re:iPhone appstore killer. (Score:5, Insightful)
There's one more factor, monocultures are very susceptible to diseases, for virus writers/bot herders to have to choose limits the impact of their deeds.
As a rule they'll go for the lowest hanging fruit first, the more diversity there is the harder it will get for them to make a living.
Re:I think this stuff should all be spun off (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the OP's problem with you is your headline and what seems to be your conclusion: That these services should be "spun off" because too much information in one company's hands is asking for trouble. The only logical way that makes a difference is if these new, spun-off companies/divisions can't talk to one another or share that data. If that weren't the case, it would be the same situation we have now that you're objecting to.
With that in mind, there's an argument to be made that Google couldn't offer the same level of service without the same level of information, due either to the fact that the information is the price they ask you to pay for their otherwise free services or because they actually need the information to make the service itself better. Thus while you claim you only speak for yourself, you're actually proposing a solution that would impact everybody. The OP's suggestion was, in my mind, the correct one: Rather than forcing your views on everybody in that manner, if you're uncomfortable with Google having so much information about you, you should just not give it to them by not using their services.
Your concerns about privacy are valid, the decisions should just be made by each individual for himself.
Re:The new PC vs MAC (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember when MSFT was the one promoting openness, as compared to the evil Apple and IBM empires?
No, I don't.
I do remember how they screwed over their suppliers (QDOS), partners (IBM with OS 2, Sun with Java, PlaysForSure etc), and customers though(WinME, PlaysForSure). Also how they steamrollered the industry into the near monopoly monoculture we have today (Contracts forbidding BeOS or Linux on OEM machines, binary formats etc). Nice job rewriting history though.
Worked out well for them till people got tired of being screwed over and paying for mediocre knock-offs of other people's ideas.
Re:The new PC vs MAC (Score:3, Insightful)
Is it American chauvinism that makes so many here discount RIM & Nokia?
I suspect it's more a question of what hype you're buying into. Personally I don't find either platform particularly compelling (nor am I particularly impressed by RIM & Nokia). Call it a decades worth of weariness at more or less semi-proprietary offerings that never seem work quite right.
I find the Openmoko far more interesting; I'm sure it'll be... difficult... in the beginning, but the potential for actually evolving into something entirely new (rather than what some particular 'Vision' dictates) makes it something I'll throw some money at.
A blessing for small manufacturers.. I can't wait. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not that difficult to put together a physical phone since most chipsets are fully integrated little marvel. Building an operating system and all the applications a user expects takes a while. Polishing them until they shine, ala apple, takes even longer.
Now I am just wondering what will happen, if Google keep its promises, when those manufacturers will get access to the Android system for free. I saw at least 5 or 6 iclones that I would gladly use if the system was decent. It could very well be a revolution.
Re:The new PC vs MAC (Score:4, Insightful)
You haven't heard of blackberry?
Or the company that broke 40% market share in the mobile handset market earlier this year?
Which rock have you been under? It must be a big one.
Re:iPhone appstore killer. (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a statement about the Android software, not about the phones that run it. In other words, the real question is: replaced by whom?
Nothing in the Android license requires phone manufacturers or network operators to allow users to replace software. Google didn't get all those mobile operators on board by promising them a lack of control.
This is a statement about the Android software, not about the phones that run it. In other words, the real question is: replaced by whom?
Nothing in the Android license requires phone manufacturers or network operators to allow users to replace software. Google didn't get all those mobile operators on board by promising them a lack of control.
Exactly right. Apple didn't like handing control of their platform over to Verizon and Verizon wasn't interested in anything but controlling the platform so Apple courted them all and AT&T seizing on the platform's upside took the risk and has seen profits ever since. This also motivated more Fortune 1000 companies to do business with AT&T for showing they were willing to work with Apple.
Re:The new PC vs MAC (Score:4, Insightful)
Second that. I've had plenty of Nokia phones and I'm really quite tired of the sloppy workmanship (3rd headset in as many months, menu key just sort of dropped off the phone, and really all I do is have it in my pocket) as well as the lousy software.
The first series nokias are why people are still buying them today, those things were indestructible and reliable. It takes a while to destroy a brand of that size, but they'll get there.
THe openmoko is the most interesting thing happening in the telco space in 10 years, far more interesting than the iphone (to me at least).
Re:iPhone appstore killer. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The new PC vs MAC (Score:3, Insightful)
Nokia makes...oh shit, no one in the general public can tell you a single model number of a Nokia.
People know that Nokia makes phones. The model numbers are irrelevant. I'd bet that more people know that Nokia makes phones, than know that Apple makes phones. You might as well complain that people can't name a particular model of Macintosh, or a particular model of a Dell PC.
No one "cares" about their Nokia, people "love" their iPhones.
Most people care about their phone. There just seems to be something peculiar about the Iphone and Slashdot that makes some people hype it up as something better than all other phones ever.
And, hell, Android? Man, no one has even heard of it.
So what? Last time I looked, people had heard of Google. And unlike Apple or most other companies, they seem to have achieved massive brand awareness with hardly any advertising.
Re:The new PC vs MAC (Score:5, Insightful)
How do people like this get modded insightful??
I can't speak about RIM but I have owned a dozen Nokia phones over the past 10 or so years and they sucked or were decent but nothing great. About six months ago I purchased an HTC tytn and it is leaps and bounds better than anything Nokia ever put out. I think the iphone is ridiculously overrated but I used one and it was still better than anything Nokia has put out yet. This has nothing to do with "American chauvanism" and it has everything to do with Nokia having a very long track record of putting out half ass products.