Android Things Is Google's New OS For Smart Devices (theverge.com) 30
Google wants to put Android in the next wave of smart devices that'll be vying to fill up your home. It's launching a version of Android today called Android Things that can run on products like connected speakers, security cameras, and routers. A report adds: The OS is supposed to make it easier for companies to start shipping hardware, since they'll be able to work with the Android dev tools they already know. Android Things is a new name, but the operating system itself isn't strictly new. It's basically an update and a rebranding to Brillo, an Android-based OS for smart devices and Internet of Things products announced a little more than a year and a half ago. Brillo has -- publicly, at least -- gone close to nowhere. It was more or less a no-show at CES last year, and there's been little mention of it since. But today's rebranding marks a key update meant to make developing a product with this operating system much easier. Unlike Brillo, development on Android Things can be accomplished with "the same developer tools as standard Android," according to Google. The hope is that experienced developers will be able to quickly get up to speed and start work on a new product.ArsTechnica has more details.
Seems like a bad idea (Score:1)
Re: Seems like a bad idea (Score:1)
The debian security team is faster are more thorough at releasing patches. See heartbleed and shellshock.
Re: (Score:2)
I get the rationale behind it. Its so that you don't have to write a ton of code to get your smart hub to work for any of 50 different cameras. But the smarthub makers want you to buy the camera they themselves make. There's no reason for them to happily support 49 other cameras.
Google makes the initial hub, and then adds it into Android auto as well as into their home hub. This provides the market, and the incentive to use their standard.
Re: (Score:2)
That seems like adding a whole lot of overhead and existing a pretty wide attack surface just to afford the use of development tools more "familiar" to (some) developers.
If they can guarantee that the devices will be kept up to date then the attack surface would be relatively narrow, however, we all know all to well just how good Google are at getting their Android Vendors to pass on upgrades. Even if they did manage it what happens when they drop support for one of the components in your box?
pf(common)Sense (Score:3, Interesting)
I think I'll be sticking with my pfSense firewall, maybe I'd allow these to run on a segregated network, but I certainly don't want a do-it-all OS to run on IoT devices as well as control the firewall that seems like a recipe for disaster.
Can you imagine install "apps" on your firewall from the play store ( yes I know there are modules for pfSense but the people using a custom firewall/gateway are probably a little more paranoid than the average user going to the play store for their next random App.
Fantastic! (Score:5, Insightful)
And, when it comes to support and ecosystem consistency for IoT, I think "Google"; because they've earned my trust [theinquirer.net]!
Seriously guys? I realize that 'IoT' is a garbage fire in a hazmat facility at this point; but adding Android? What are you thinking?
Re:Fantastic! (Score:5, Interesting)
Why is it so hard to get a SIMPLE display server and app store done right?
Re: (Score:2)
Why is it so hard to get a SIMPLE display server and app store done right?
Dunno, but we're talking about operating systems with support for mobile device needs [android.com], not simple display servers. If you want a device that can pick up DHCP and start a VNC client, those are also available. It would suck to try to use one as a phone, though.
Preempting Tizen? (Score:2)
Why? (Score:4, Informative)
we already have embedded linux everywhere and is working just fine.
And no I dont need "apps" for my security camera.
Found the LUDDITE! (Score:1)
Apps!
Re: (Score:1)
What IoT devices are running on Linux? Aside from the self made hacks people make in their basements I mean. Basically no commercial IoT devices are shipping on a Linux OS. Wink? Nope. SmartThings? Nope. Nest? Nope. Phillips Hue light hub? Nope? That GE thing? Nope. That's like 75% of the market right there.
Manufacturers will not race to adapt this Google abortion. They all want to us their own API's for a host of reasons ranging from security to "just because." Everyone is also trying to be as much of a "W
Re: (Score:1)
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are you fucking stupid?
Wink runs linux.
Smartthings runs linux.
Hue runs linux.
you seem to know absolutely nothing at all about anything you ever talk about.
How long will this be supported, I wonder? (Score:4, Insightful)
Google seems to be run by a pair of ADHD-afflicted billionaires. Add in the fact that this is unlikely to be much of a money-maker for them, at least in the near term, and you end up with a product that already seems destined to be abandoned in 3-4 years.
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I reckon it won't last long enough to get a ui, let alone for them to bugger it up.
Good News, Everyone (Score:2)
Look on the bright side. At least this means we know the devices will run Linux.
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Re: In other news . . . (Score:2)
So... do you like... stuff? [youtube.com]
I read it as... (Score:1)
Android Thinks It's Google's New OS For Smart Devices and I thought "Wow, that's appropriate!".
The real headline wasn't anywhere near as exciting.
They haven't even got the phone thing right (Score:3)
Google can't be bothered to keep Android working on their flagship devices much past a couple of years and we're supposed to believe they'll keep a device sitting in our homes secure for years to come? I'll pass.
Humor (Score:2)
I can already see myself telling a grandkid, "See this screen on the refrigerator? The settings and options you use every day have an operating system that controls its functions, and that operating system was called 'Android Things' back in the old days. That operating system has a core kernel that makes all of the hardware/software interfaces happen, and that kernel was written back when I was a 37-year-old young guy working in IT. See [pushes button], it's still here today, working just like it did th