Google has released their much ballyhooed "Android" mobile phone development kit and open source operating system, as well as this video that explains what all the fuss is about. Google hopes the platform will let developers easily create applications (with third generation wireless broadband content in mind, thank you very much) that will allow their new mobile OS to flourish.The company today also announced the $10 million Android developer challenge, which will shell out $10 million to developers with innovative ideas. Google's goal is to see commercially deployed handsets and services using the Android platform by the second half of next year. They're in talks with a multitude of wireless partners, and deals should be announced shortly. The Android blog and FAQ have additional detail.
"Listen! And understand! That android is out there. It can't be bargained with! It can't be reasoned with! It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until it is on your cell phone!"
I love the idea & approach! looking forward to next year (mid of 2008)...
i`ll be a happy camper if:
1) the OS+apps are 100% free (no ads please) 2) available for download 3) i can install them easily on my current phone (at the time of download) 4) did i mentioned free
A first hand look at building an Android application:
Your response brought to light how automakers are throwing in all kinds of crap into cars such as MP3 players, Bluetooth devices, etc.
Like you, I just want a car that is good at being a car and not a mobile entertainment center....like there isn't enough ON THE ROAD to distract you. Now you have additional crap in your car to do it!
Amen, what every happened to a vehicle being a vehicle. I thought that the primary reason for a vehicle was to get from point A to point B as safely as possible. The MP3 players, Bluetooth devices, etc., and texting, talking and, probably, watching video's on the iPhone, GPhone, whatever, don't give me a warm fuzzy feeling when driving down the road. And yeas I only want a phone that can send and receive calls.
Whenever the Verizon Wireless guys ask me "What do you want your phone to be able to do?", I always answer "Make calls." Everything else, to me, is icing on the cake.
However, I've come to expect one more thing from my cell phone: openness. Ideally, I'd like to take an MP3 that I've made and upload it to my phone by myself to set as a ringtone. I'd also like to be able to import/export contacts and download any photos/videos that I took. My previous phone (LG VX8100) let me do that via BitPIM, but apparently Verizon locked down my new phone (VX8350) so that BitPIM can't work with it. Instead, they want me to pay them $2 each for ringtones from VCast.
That's Verizon's suckiness at work. I've been able to upload my own ringtones, tether to data, and download pictures from every Cingular phone I've had "out of the box". I'm in no way a fan of Cingular's network, but they're a LOT more lax about selling their handsets with all the features enabled. My old 3650 wasn't even locked to their network.
said by Matt3:... I just want a phone that's good at being a damn phone. You can keep yer bells and whistles sonny.
Amen!
I am so over the "cool phone crowd" and the smaller is better, and can't have antenna, and has to flip open, or slide, or flip up or some other drivel...
quote:... even the iPhone doesn't hold any interest for me and neither does this.
I use mobile internet a lot. I just like to check news on websites when I'm waiting for something or riding as a passenger in a car. I've been using Motorola phones, symbian phones, and windows-mobile phones to do this for a while now.
Just yesterday I got an "ipod touch" for my birthday. I should NEVER EVER have touched the Safari browser on that thing. Holy geeze. It really makes the browsers on my current and old phones look like a sad, crude pathetic joke. Now I want an iPhone so bad I can taste it. But they gotta get 3g on the thing. I'm not really a koolaid drinking Apple fanboi but they seem to be the first to figure out how to make a FAST, fluid, usable browser on a tiny mobile device.
I REALLY hope Google can do the same or better with their phone OS.
I barely use my cell phone as a phone. I realized what I wanted most was something with a qwerty keyboard and net access, hence my purchase of a Sidekick. It's not the best, but it is the cheapest way to accomplish what I want. It's not bad as a phone, either.
The iphone's lack of a keyboard disqualifies it completely, IMO, to say nothing of the price.
Hopefully this doesn't mean an end to the OpenMoko platform »www.openmoko.com I have been really looking forward to their public launch on the Neo1973 phone.
I have always thought the Daleks look like salt and pepper shakers. Do you think that is the two sex's for Daleks.
Trnasmaster, you are correct. The first Daleks were born when the salt and pepper shaker fell into the sink, as well as the toaster and laptop (the toaster and laptop were connected into the same extension cord). After the laptop and toaster hit the water, the force on the extension cord pull the salt and pepper shaker into the water. After a loud explosion and failure of a surge protector, the Daleks were created.
The pepper Dalek died because there was no way for the pepper inside to fuse and create a circuit. The salt shaker Now that is a different story. The salt fused and the water created just the proper etching to make a simple, self thinking circuit. Over time, the first Dalek became tired of just sitting on a table. One day, a human decided to use the Dalek as a salt shaker, when nothing came out, the human tried to rip its head off. Oh...that was a bad thing to do. This was where the hate between humans and Dalek's began. This, my friend, was the first human to be killed by a Dalek.
The salt Dalek, stil morning the short life of his pepper Dalek brother, swore he would kill all humans for their ignorance. After many years, the first Dalek grew in multitude.
There is a moral to this story: When your out to eat, and the salt isn't coming out of the salt shaker, "DON'T SLAM IT ON THE TABLE EXPECTING TO LOOSEN THE SALT"! Muhhhhhh, muhhhhh, muhhhhhhhhhh!
Reminds me of Jerry from Boston Legal. I was waiting for the guy to hop out of his seat and start purring.
G-Phone. They should pack in a super vib into the thing then they can market it to women with a slogan such as "Stimlate your g-spot with the new G-Phone."
To most they will hear Java and start looking for Starbucks.
What can this phone do that you can not currently develop on Windows Mobile? I am sorry, but Windows Mobile has pretty much everything on the phone exposed. There are tons of apps, many free, that do just about everything. When I hear all the hype I just do not understand it. Microsoft did this a LONG time ago. The OS many claim is buggy, but my Treo 700wx is very solid and has all the apps I routinly use.
The only thing I wish for is built-in, stand alone GPS to use with google maps which runs native. That is a hardware limitation though that I could solve easily. I guess I will have to wait and see.