Open Source Featured Article

Days after confirming that T-Mobile USA will produce the first cell phones based on Google’s widely anticipated mobile platform, “Android,” company officials this week are releasing a development kit for software makers.

 

The open source platform’s beta release, “Android 0.9 SDK,” is expected to yield an Android 1.0 version later as early as October, according to Google (News - Alert).

 

“The SDK contains what you need to build and run Android applications, including a true device emulator and advanced debugging tools,” Google says on its Android Developers’ Site.

 

According to Google developer advocate Dan Morrill, applications developed with the beta version may not be compatible on the final Android version.

 

“However, the APIs are now pretty stable and we don’t expect any major changes,” Morrill said. “If you’re one of the many developers who were waiting for something a bit more mature, this might be a good time to take another look.”

 

The announcement drew strong reactions from developers, some of whom said they were disappointed that the Internet giant waited so long to let them work on the platform.

 

“Has Google irrevocably damaged its relationship with the mobile developer community?” writes FierceDeveloper’s Jason Ankeny. “There is undoubtedly growing disillusionment and distrust among the developer segment, who feel the web services giant has taken them for granted: The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back was the recent revelation that Google secretly made a new version of its open-source Android OS SDK available to Android Developer Challenge finalists under non-disclosure agreements.”

 

Matthew Sparkes of PCPro says the development community is feeling relieved that Google is releasing the updated SDK.

 

“Last month Google withheld access to the latest version of the SDK to all but 50 programmers who won an application design competition,” Sparkes says. “The move frustrated those developers left in the dark, with some posting on Google’s own discussion board that they felt ‘cheated and betrayed.’ ”

 

Google has seen more than bump in the Android road, including rumors that the platform’s release would be delayed until next year.

 

Last week, two technology writers from The New York Times, Laura M. Holson and Miguel Helft, reported that T-Mobile (News - Alert) USA will be the first carrier to offer a phone powered by the platform.

 

The HTC (News - Alert) phone, which many gadget sites are calling the “dream,” according to the Times, will have a touch screen that’s similar to the Apple iPhone’s.

 

“But the screen also slides out to expose a full five-row keyboard,” the Times writes. “A video of the phone has been posted recently on YouTube (News - Alert). A person who has seen the HTC device said it matched the one in the video.”

 

Yet it isn’t clear just when a phone that uses the Android platform will become available, according to the Times.

 

“The phone’s release date depends on how soon the Federal Communications Commission certifies that the Google software and the HTC phone meet network standards,” the writers say. “Executives at all three companies are hoping to announce the phone in September because they would benefit from holiday season sales.”

 

Like the iPhone, devices using Google’s Android platform are expected to allow users to tailor their phone by downloading whatever applications they want. The phones also would be Internet-friendly – a feature that’s expected to allow carriers to charge more for data plans, the Times says.

 

Android phones made headlines when Google unveiled them at a demonstration during a developers’ conference in May.

 

The device’s touch-screen display included a number of colorful icons that launched Web programs such as g-mail, or could notify a user of imminent appointments, reminders, notes and unread e-mail.

 

According to Google’s Android Developer’s Site, features of the platform include: an application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components; Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices; integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine; optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional); SQLite for structured data storage; and media support for common audio, video, and still image formats, such as MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF.