Google's Android Arriving Tomorrow

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

I don't really know what to think of the Android just yet. Google had a pretty good track record of cool innovative things but this is a direct competitor to the iPhone and I wonder how it will shape up. I aslo wonder if anything will happen to the Maps application in the iPhone. We may see some changes to it since it uses Google Maps.

 

[BlackMax]

I'll approach the Android optimistically and give it six months on the market before I make a judgment call.

 

[spidermitch]

Like desktop software, anybody can sell an application for any purpose. But I wonder if there will soon be headlines about a harmful application that resulted from the lack of an approval process.

I second this sentiment. How much personal information on your phone do you want someone's application to have access to? I can see the headline already for an app that steals your contacts and shares them to unsavory companies.

There needs to be some controls in place, otherwise you get a large community of people with malware ridden devices that need constant care. (Oh wait, that sounds like another OS)

 

[zacman]

I'm not familiar with Jamba. Do these apps mostly fall in the first category of apps, or the second?

They offer both. But I guess the sell more games than other apps.

 

[csimmons]

iPhone is not in danger from Android...

...Windows Mobile is.

If Google has similar success against WM like RIM has achieved recently, WM will end up like Palm OS before too long.

Apple has little if anything to worry about.

 

[macsmurf]

I second this sentiment. How much personal information on your phone do you want someone's application to have access to? I can see the headline already for an app that steals your contacts and shares them to unsavory companies.

There needs to be some controls in place, otherwise you get a large community of people with malware ridden devices that need constant care. (Oh wait, that sounds like another OS)

There's actually quite a bit of security built into the platform. Don't assume some feature isn't available just because you're too lazy to read the documentation

 

[bassproguy07]

that thing is fugly!!!

 

[iPhoneJoe]

I love my iPhone, but I am looking forward to seeing what android brings to the table. the videos look cool so far

 

[benpatient]

Ehh... pretty lame. Aside from potential problems, what about rewards? "50 Android devices" sounds like it could become an extremely successful product to me. Don't get me wrong, I love the iPhone but I will not be drawn into this cult-like mentality where I begin to dislike variety. Yes, the iPhone was not only welcomed in the cell phone market, but it was desperately needed. However, this 'let Apple rule the world' mentality is getting old. And yes, I realize this is not what the developer was saying exactly, but the attitude is a recurring theme not only on these boards but in the newer Mac developer community.

I took his comments to be a not-so-clever way of saying "You want me to make my apps for FREE? No way, buddy. I made a quarter million on the iphone, so that's where I'm going to put my efforts.

I'm willing to bet that Android will work better than he's suggesting across devices. Also willing to bet that his games will suddenly become available for Android when they start doing for-pay apps on it.

 

[ddTaylor]

Let's be very clear about the fact that there are 2 different kinds of apps.

1) Information and data apps: Mail programs, chat, web browsers, 'to-do' apps. These sort of programs, like web pages, can easily be programed to take advantage of different hardware as it sees fit. These won't be a problem.

2) Graphical programs: Games, primarily, but some other utilities and applications are starting to be designed this way. If you think that "Galcon" can be made in one way to work on all phones, you're crazy. There are a ton of visual and control refinements that guy had to do to go from Windows to the iPhone. Every Android phone is going to require the same sort of tweeking.

It's this second kind of program that's going to be difficult. And it happens to be the more expensive, more fun, and more attention-getting type of program.

Android will have tons of great little simple, boring apps that do simple jobs. That's not the problem. The problem is that Android will take a lot more time to attract the really cool programs like Galcon and that new flight simulator.

It's not the they won't come, but that it will take longer and be much harder for the developers. And when they do come, I suspect each one will only work on certain phones.

That's kind of a downer for the platform as a "platform."

I wish I knew as much as you think you know. Then I would be smart!

 

[ivladster]

Can't wait to spill complaints about it, like people complain about iPhone.

 

[csimmons]

Go back up and read my post on the two type of cell phone apps.

I'm not familiar with Jamba. Do these apps mostly fall in the first category of apps, or the second?

Jamba sells primarily MP3 & MP4 music videos, audio & video ringtones, wallpapers and Java-based games; nothing at all like the App Store or the forthcoming Google Market.

 

[naroola]

Hmm...

"...any developer can upload any application." I guess this means that porn is coming to Android!

 

[50548]

Let the competition begin.

Nope...Android means NOTHING to the iPhone, as it will just be a slightly improved OS over the craptastic Windows Mobile...so Monkey Ballmer should be worried, not Apple...

As for the proposed UI...what a big YAWNNNNNNNNNN...wake me up when this is over...

 

[chr1s60]

No approval process? So if someone wants to write and application that will purposely crash your phone they can just go ahead and do it? This sounds like it will be a mess and a headache for developers and users.

 

[question fear]

Let's be very clear about the fact that there are 2 different kinds of apps.

1) Information and data apps: Mail programs, chat, web browsers, 'to-do' apps. These sort of programs, like web pages, can easily be programed to take advantage of different hardware as it sees fit. These won't be a problem.

2) Graphical programs: Games, primarily, but some other utilities and applications are starting to be designed this way. If you think that "Galcon" can be made in one way to work on all phones, you're crazy. There are a ton of visual and control refinements that guy had to do to go from Windows to the iPhone. Every Android phone is going to require the same sort of tweeking.

It's this second kind of program that's going to be difficult. And it happens to be the more expensive, more fun, and more attention-getting type of program.

Android will have tons of great little simple, boring apps that do simple jobs. That's not the problem. The problem is that Android will take a lot more time to attract the really cool programs like Galcon and that new flight simulator.

It's not the they won't come, but that it will take longer and be much harder for the developers. And when they do come, I suspect each one will only work on certain phones.

That's kind of a downer for the platform as a "platform."

It all depends on how well written the app is. I had palm os apps (games and productivity ones) that followed me from PDA to Treo without a hiccup, even though the screen size was slashed from TX-->Treo. I have also used windows mobile apps that were designed for smartphones but ran on PDAs and vice versa.

The bigger factor than multiple devices is how well the SDK is written. If everything is built around a slideout keyboard and a certain size screen, it's going to cause problems. If they build it with more flexibility, it's going to be fine. There's a great deal of windows mobile games out there that run on several different devices. Just check out handango or pocketgear.

IMHO it's a ridiculous argument to say that multiple devices will stifle the development of the platform's games, etc, since it clearly did not hold back WinCE/Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm OS, etc. Every other OS has to have apps that are written to play nicely with multiple form factors, Google isn't reinventing the wheel on that one and devs who have trouble can look at how established players in the smartphone market have done it.

 

[Stella]

Its way too soon for *anyone* to say that Android will tank. A lot of people had predictions of iPhone tanking, and look what happened. No one has yet seen a production model, apart from what they've seen from the SDK, so claims of Android being 'slow', 'unstable' etc etc are talking almost BS.

There are a lot of carriers interested in the platform and as a result could well be an overwhelming success, with alot of developer interest.

The different screen sizes isn't such a bit deal... look at Java apps on mobile devices today.

 

[DavidLeblond]

Ditto on the support of multiple devices, if programmed correctly the apps should have no problems porting. Just you wait until Apple decides iPhone 4G will have a higher resolution. I think you'll be surprised about how many people coded their apps to assume a resolution rather then get the info from UIDevice.

 

[Mindflux]

As for the proposed UI...what a big YAWNNNNNNNNNN...wake me up when this is over...

I'm so glad you've tested the YET TO BE RELEASED Android phones. You seem to know so much about something you've never used.

 

[weasel5053]

Personal app development

I don't know the specific details of iPhone's rules, but imagine if I program a small app (just like a widget, on the mac I have many widgets, applescripts and such that I coded for my use only), and I would like to use it and be the only one to use it, I think it still has to go to the itunes store, right?
that's sad because if you plan to not distribute a program, there should be a way to install the app in the iphone without making it public. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

If you sign up as an iphone developer you can write any app you want and install it on your iphone. In fact you can install it on up to 100 iphones directly from your development mac.

 

[OS X Dude]

Yeah... that might be possible. It'd be an interesting testimony to Apple's hardware if there were any significant number of users who actually did that.

People would do it to say they'd done it and look "1337". If Android is as open source as Google say, then all it would need is drivers for iPhone hardware and optimisation. I suppose there's less of a risk as you can back an iPhone up and restore it's factory settings with iTunes.

I would, especially if it meant I could do MMS.

 

[FX120]

Let's be very clear about the fact that there are 2 different kinds of apps.

1) Information and data apps: Mail programs, chat, web browsers, 'to-do' apps. These sort of programs, like web pages, can easily be programed to take advantage of different hardware as it sees fit. These won't be a problem.

2) Graphical programs: Games, primarily, but some other utilities and applications are starting to be designed this way. If you think that "Galcon" can be made in one way to work on all phones, you're crazy. There are a ton of visual and control refinements that guy had to do to go from Windows to the iPhone. Every Android phone is going to require the same sort of tweeking.

It's this second kind of program that's going to be difficult. And it happens to be the more expensive, more fun, and more attention-getting type of program.

Android will have tons of great little simple, boring apps that do simple jobs. That's not the problem. The problem is that Android will take a lot more time to attract the really cool programs like Galcon and that new flight simulator.

It's not the they won't come, but that it will take longer and be much harder for the developers. And when they do come, I suspect each one will only work on certain phones.

That's kind of a downer for the platform as a "platform."

There are thousands of Windows Mobile games, many of them accelerated 3D games, most of these support hundreds of devices.

To put it simply, you're wrong.

 

[pubjoe]

I've been looking forward to this, but that youtube video was really uninspiring tbh. Even the guy going through it's capabilities sounded droll as he listed through the seen-before features that android has, but the iphone already does it better.

It just looked like another lg/samsung/moto (whatever) iphone software clone.

...If this platform is open, he should have shown documents/pictures/additional software (etc) being easily transferred from PC and opened on the phone's OS (then edited or whatever) without the need for specialist software or any jumping through hoops. That would have been a lot more inspiring.

 

[OS X Dude]

No approval process? So if someone wants to write and application that will purposely crash your phone they can just go ahead and do it? This sounds like it will be a mess and a headache for developers and users.

But people don't have to download it. Diligent users would only download apps from reputable sources and only to fill a purpose they want. You could say the same about Windows software that is made to purposely kill your system.

That said, I can see Android viruses becoming widespread, especially if the platform takes off.

 

[highjumppudding]

i find the demo video embarrassing. best of luck with that, google.