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First Look at Google's Android Mobile Platform

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,532
30,841


Google has released the software development kit for Android - a mobile platform announced by Google last week.


and1_300.png



Documentation and first look videos are offered through the Android Project page. Most interesting, perhaps, is the Android Demo video which walks through prototype Android devices. Both a smaller and more advanced prototypes of Android phones are shown. They demonstrate functionality as well as detail capabilities as shown here:


and2_300.png



Android's web browser is based on Webkit which also powers Apple's Safari browser. This means that web pages will render the same on Android's browser and Safari. Zooming/Scrolling with a touch interface is also supported as shown in the demo.


and3_300.png


3d OpenGL support, as shown by a demo of id software's Quake.

The demo video shows other capabilities, such as tight integration into Google Maps. The first commercial phones based on the Android platform are not expected until the second half of 2008. Unlike the iPhone, the Android platform appears to emphasize openness and is encouraging of 3rd party application development. Despite early plans to keep the iPhone closed to 3rd party development, Apple has announced that a 3rd party development kit will become available for the iPhone in February 2008, though what restrictions it may likely entail are not yet known.

Article Link
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2007/11/12/first-look-at-googles-android-mobile-platform/
K

kainjow

Moderator emeritus
Jun 15, 2000
7,958
7
It's good news for Safari users since it uses WebKit, which means more developers working on improving it.
 
arn

arn

macrumors god
Staff member
Apr 9, 2001
16,363
5,795
I think this will be big competition to the iPhone. You can see what kind of developer community sprouted up for the iPhone... I think with encouragement, a more massive one will easily appear for Android.

arn
 
Nabooly

Nabooly

macrumors 6502a
Aug 28, 2007
849
5
Wait....didn't google say a couple of days ago that its only going to be providing software, and not actual devices? :confused:
 
D

dr_lha

macrumors 68000
Oct 8, 2003
1,633
176
The biggest problem I've seen so far with this is on one of the screenshots not posted here which shows a menu. Plain and simple, pull down menus don't belong on mobile phones. Microsoft hasn't figured this out yet, I would have hoped that Google would. Maybe they're not very prevalent, overall this looks nice I'd say.
 
A

aLoC

macrumors 6502a
Nov 10, 2006
726
0
Apple showed prototypes of the Mac to Microsoft and they stole it. Now Google is doing the same with the iPhone. Back stabbers.
 
P

plumbingandtech

macrumors 68000
Jun 20, 2007
1,993
1
the lack of a double tapping to zoom really held back the maps demo.

Looks like more competition to windows mobile then the iphone in the overall scheme of things, at least in the short term.



No elegance what so ever though, and when the phone companies switch out their dialers etc.. with their custom version we are looking at something that will prob. sell more units then the iphone (read cheaper) but will look like kitchen with too many cooks in it.

Yah. There will be the people here that will be smart enough to swamp out the bad stuff. (if allowed. i know google says they can but...) but most people will simply use the default sprint-verizon style retracted apps and interfaces... to make it look like a fancy razor.
 
queshy

queshy

macrumors 68040
Apr 2, 2005
3,690
4
Completely opposite attitude for the iPhone: Google is giving away $10 M to write the best apps, and it seems like Apple is trying to STOP us from unlocking, and in some cases, bricking iPhones.

I think this is great for Apple. It will force them to work harder with the future progression of the iPhone. Without Android, they might have just let the iPhone stay as is for a year or 2 before giving it some updates (why should it have to if it's so far ahead of the market?) - but now with android, I think we'll be seeing more incremental updates to stay in competition with android.
 
I

iPhoneHome

macrumors 6502
Jul 8, 2007
335
0
this is the first software/device that could actually give the iPhone some SERIOUS competition...I own a iPhone and i found myself really interested in purchasing this! Apple needs to re-market itself very soon, and give us some features that are very much wanted/needed.
 
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dashiel

macrumors 6502a
Nov 12, 2003
876
0
i really want to like this, open source, google, encouraging developers from the word go, but everything i've seen so far doesn't give me much hope. by the time hardware starts arriving the iphone will have close to 10 million installed units and had their SDK out for almost as long as android -- not to mention be up to 3g (you could tell that was their big "we're better than the iphone" plug).

more power to them, competition is great, but so far this isn't a patch on the iphone
 
Stella

Stella

macrumors G3
Apr 21, 2003
8,838
6,341
Canada
The initial screenshots / details are encouraging. The Google platform could offer a great platform, including more competition. This should help improve all existing cell phone platforms.

aLoC said:
Apple showed prototypes of the Mac to Microsoft and they stole it. Now Google is doing the same with the iPhone. Back stabbers.
Click to expand...

Its a fact of life - companies gain inspiration from each other, including Apple ( who have also copied others). Evolution of products - improving upon existing, seeing a potential opportunity where there is a gap in the market. Google think they have seen one. ( I don't consider Google to have stolen anything from Apple ).
 
AtHomeBoy_2000

AtHomeBoy_2000

macrumors 6502a
Feb 3, 2005
879
0
Looks like I'll be waiting until late next year to by a new cell phone. i want to see how this all pans out.
 
Novaoblivion

Novaoblivion

macrumors regular
Jan 13, 2006
211
476
While some of this looks pretty cool being open source and all. The interface and the speed of the UI doesnt look nearly as fast as the iPhone. Hopefully it will encourage Apple to open up the iPhone a little more though :).
 
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