Android 1.5 SDK Is Released

RadiusK writes "Starting today, developers can get an early look at the SDK for the next version of the Android platform. Version 1.5 introduces APIs for features such as soft keyboards, home screen widgets, live folders, and speech recognition. At the developer site, you can download the early-look Android 1.5 SDK, read important information about upgrading your Eclipse plugin and existing projects, and learn about what's new and improved in Android 1.5."

The big question is:

[d3vi1]

Feature and usability-wise is it getting close to the iPhone?
I have a lot of "toys" at home, including a GTA01 and a Nokia N800. While a lot better in some technical aspects, and in most philosophical ones, they all fade in comparison to the iPhone. No SyncML, no PIM suite (GPE doesn't count as it's not really integrated to the platform).

Re:but where's my motivation?

[h4rr4r]

Then I am sure the people who own Android phones thank you. DRM is not something they want, you can keep that stuff for the mac fans.

Re:but where's my motivation?

[sverdrup]

That might be the case for now, with bleeding-edge early adopters making up a big portion of Android's userbase. But the huge selection of apps for the iPhone came when developers realized it was the next gold rush. I think what you'll see on Android is a ton of apps with the DRM built into them, free apps that you have to pay to unlock.

Re:but where's my motivation?

[sverdrup]

I suppose that's the tradeoff. Android's openness lets you program cooler stuff, but shifts the burden of protecting your work to the developer.

That's nice...

[pdragon04]

...now how about getting some more phones that can actually use it?

Android Owners Aren't Losers Like iPhone Owners

[Anonymous Coward]

People with Android phones, shockingly, buy them because they work well and get on with their lives. They aren't lifestyle choices. They aren't something that fills a hole in their sad and empty lives.

So, no, Android phones aren't:

* Carried in the most visible way everywhere in public places hoping everyone will notice just how 'special' they are for what phone they own

* Brought up in every single conversation with every single person they meet in public

* Used in the most annoyingly over manner in public places with a desperate and sad hope that people will ask them about their phone

Samsung
LG
Asus
Sony
Motorola

all have multiple Android based phones coming out in 2009. Companies like Motorola are building a 200 person team just to focus on Android phone development alone. It is rapidly becoming the default platform for cellphones.

Re:C API yet?

[gbjbaanb]

I keep hearing a lot of people ask this, especially from Symbian devs who can't see how their image processing code would even work on java.

Seeing as the underlying OS is all C/C++ it really beats me why they don't expose the 'environment' to C coders too. Then we'd see some fancy fast applications on Android that might make other phone manufacturers look on with envy.

There again, if they released a C API, you'd be able to run ruby/python and perl code on it too!

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:C API yet?

[josath]

The problem is that mobile phone apps pretty much have to be sandboxed, and that's a lot harder to do with C/C++ than it is with something like Java. The tools available on modern PC's for sandboxing applications don't even work all that well most of the time (see Vista). Now imagine that instead of a full-powered PC with all sorts of extensions and opcodes and so on, you're running on a much more limited platform. (sidenote: technically Android isn't pure Java, they've created their own bytecode, so they aren't beholden to Sun's iron grasp)

Re:The big question is:

[Zero__Kelvin]

"Feature and usability-wise is it getting close to the iPhone?"

If by "getting close to" you mean "better than", then yes ;-)