“Google today released its promised software development kit for Android, the company’s new Linux-based operating system for cellphones and handheld devices,” MacNN reports.
“Conspicuously, the introduction also reveals influences from Apple in both the interface and in software. By default, the web browser is based on the WebKit rendering engine used by the iPhone and shares the same emphasis on rendering sites as they would appear on a computer. Devices with a touchscreen can similarly control pages by dragging and tapping, though Google does not say whether multi-touch devices are supported. Other touches include a Mac OS X-like dock interface for phones with keypad-only controls, a Cover Flow-like web browsing history view, and iPhone-style notification bubbles,” MacNN reports.
Full article, with video and screenshots, here.
“supports playback of AAC/MP3 songs and H.264/MPEG-4 video”
“By default, the web browser is based on the WebKit rendering engine”
Clearly this is a move against windows mobile and thus against msft. and their media players and formats (both existing and proposed) as well as IE. It also takes a shot at Adobe & flash and Sun and Java as well.
These moves will help to establish and maintain open formats, and will help prevent Windows from gaining a dominating position in this newest of emerging computing arenas—connected handhelds—where in the 21st Century, the platform wars will rage on, unabated.
This will benefit both Apple & Google.
@ Bryan
> Actually, HTC plans to release 2-3 Android handsets in 2008. That’s 13.5 months away — at most.
If they are planning “13.5” months, that’s “optimistically two years” (for even the first devices using Android), just like I said. Apple will be on the third iteration of iPhone by that time.
This is great. I can see a lot of creative and innovative ideas coming out out on this platform. And like most innovations in open source, the best software will eventually be integrated into Mac OS X.
The stone age of mobile phone software is officially over.
This is the end of Windows mobile as we know it ; -)
I don’t believe this affects Apple. It WILL HURT Microsoft and other inferior systems. Nokia will have adopt it or… I donät believe Nokia’s ageing Symbian will be able to compete against Apple & Google.
Apple makes the iPhone and the OS so Apple will be able to provide the whole concept whereas Google will be the “microsoft killer” Haa..
Uh, for all of you who think this is going to kill Java ME …
It *is* Java ME; specifically, Java ME with a custom library added and a Java VM hyper-optimized for ARM devices.
The odds that the iPhone will be able to run Android applications natively are about the same as Steve Jobs reversing his hatred of Java. Seeing how much Apple has invested of late in LLVM, the odds are pretty slim.
But then, he changed his mind about Intel…
@ Rob Menke
Since when does Steve Jobs hate Java? I’ve been writing native Java applications for Mac OS X for years. If Jobs hates Java, then why is Java so elegantly and tightly integrated throughout OS X? I just took a look at apple.com/java, and they say: “Mac OS X is the only major consumer operating system that comes complete with a fully configured and ready-to-use Java runtime and development environment.” They make it sound like Java and Apple are intimate bedfellows.
Looking through Android’s SDK documentation just now, I noticed all the code is Java. This is a great time to be a Java developer!
google use of WebKit will only help Safari-based Web Browsers dominite the mobile space. Nokia already uses appleʻs underlying software for their mobile browsers. this hopefully means more compatible sites…and sites not tied to I.E. alone
My analysis: Google plays middleman. Apple is the king, with the iPhone. All the rest, wannabes. The business plan: Google teams with Apple (2 winners), but Google also sells an iPhone offshoot OS, which every other competitor wants. Apple’s in on it, but they don’t care, they probably receive ‘licensing fees’ off of every sale, plus these companies probably hate Apple anyway, why bargain with them? let Google do it. As Jim Collins says “you can’t motivate, un-motivated people, it’s a waste of time”. These same companies were never motivated to make great products ever, so the likelihood of them beating the iPhone now? not likely. Apple makes a fortune, Google makes a fortune, The Other Companies pretend to have an iPhone killer, stock prices rise, the execs make a fortune, but unfortunately the consumers have only the next era of ‘good enough’ products, nothing close to an iPhone, unless of course, they were smart enough to see through the shennanigans, and buy an iPhone in the first place.
iPhone will eventually host Android
http://www.gooplesdigiworld.com/2007/11/iphone-begets-android.html
I really can’t see how Apple will be pissed off at this. Yes Google’s Managing director sits on the board of Apple’s directors so he isn’t going to geopardise that relationship is he?
Apple’s board surely knew about this. It was probably already developed ages ago but Apple asked them to stall for the release of the iPhone.
Come on, Microsoft are the monopolisers with their god awful products that IT techs seem to love for some strange reason.
It’s all about toppling Microsoft. A united front so to speak.We’re talking Apple, Google, other open source based organisations being the allies against the Dictator M$. Once Microsoft have left the playing field competition becomes free and fair again.
Go allies.
Woop woop!!!
Apple can’t take down M$ by themselves; neither can Google. M$ is too big and too entrenched (the mindshare thing). However, Apple and Google both see a way to bring M$ to their knees: open source, the kryptonite to M$’s Superman, the sunlight to M$’s vampire.
I’ve said on MDN before that Apple and Google have created an informal alliance to bring about the demise of the proprietary Windoze hegemony. The development of the iPhone based on OS X and the development of Android are not happening in isolation, as is apparent to most of us MDN regulars.
It’s going to really become interesting going forward. How interested are Apple and Google in this 700 mhz spectrum auction coming up early next year? How are they going to play that?
What’s good about this is that Ballmer’s throwing chairs right now as M$ gets painted further and further into a corner by (from their perspective) the approaching storm of open source. They don’t have enough umbrellas in Seattle for this Category 7 hurricane called Apple, Google, open source, and this new initiative/alliance that Google has put together.
We may actually live to see the day when M$ gets toppled, and the party’s at my house when it happens!
Peace.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Olmecmystic
After watching that video I am more in love with the fact that the iPhone is all touch screen and only one button on the front. WM will be dead soon and Android is the iPhone’s cousin.
Similar to Steve Jobs helping setup the DRM-Free Music Store on Amazon, so is this Google demonstration.
Apple has allies. Google and Apple are a great team.
gzero you are right. MS Mobile die!
This is another genius plan. Expect more from Apple.
The OS wars on tiny devices has started.
Wee I’m lovin it.
they have gPhone ready.
Second gen iPhone shall come in two sizes.
An iPod Nano size and the other the present size.
The main difference in second gen iPhones will be 3G technology and option to use open-source linux for the Google 700 Mhz network.
Consider this huge. With price points on these phones where present non-apple phones are today.
May 2008 – W.Mobil is offically dead!
Shock and Awe will be the running advertisement on Apple site.
But don’t forget Samsung… which is also in the game not to compete either with Apple but to aid in easing iPhone wannabes to see the LIGHT of the Google Cloud Server in all it’s glory.
Hail Google.
Yet trust Apple to provide this map that has been beautifully staged. This will go down as the biggest reversal ever… making the Classic Coke campaign look like a toddlers brain fart.
W8 4 it
this will be something to see and record for the history books
magically re-enacted daily
at Disneyland at the Spectacles of water and light.
yup in a word it’s going to be
Fantasmic !
Androids do as they are programed.
Apple has not attacked the competitors which are looking very iphone-like because they are all in on it. They are all allies waiting to hit the big wave ever.
This is really big and MS doesn’t have a clue what is about to hit them.
Android is Apple’s way of by-passing the AT&T;exclusive legal agreement. That is over done. Thx.
Android is Apple unlocking the iPhone to developers.
Sweet
Ummmmm yeah well maybe
I love how the fanbois now are siding with Google and ‘other open source’ companies.
Apple and Microsoft are the same beasts: they prefer to live in the shadows of closed software, not letting any look into their magic books of spells.
Fanbois may like to put themselves in the anti-microsoft camp bu their business pratices are the same.
Besides, Bill is your uncle: without him, Apple would have been as alive as Amiga. Is that how you repay someone who saved the company from extinction?
@UltraVisitor
I should clarify: Jobs doesn’t hate Java, he hates the Java EXPERIENCE. He’s mocked the Swing/SWT “close-enough” interfaces in the past. Java is just not a high-priority for Apple.
I also back out of saying that Android is just Java ME; it’s a completely different API, with a completely different underlying VM called “Dalvik.” Definitely not binary-compatible. Google simply adopted Java *syntax* for their development environment so that they could cherry-pick from the existing Java SE libraries (mostly from Apache Harmony) but release the environment under a more relaxed licensing scheme than GPL; or because the JCP is too slow, if you buy into Google’s PR machine. In any case, it’s the first major forking of the Java platform since it became open source.
Right now there are two ex-employees of Sun laughing their heads off at Jonathan Schwartz’s expense.
Interesting things are afoot.
It looks like all this crap was invented long ago acording to this…
Major IP landgrab
Page: < Prev 1 2
By Wireless Watch → More by this author
Published Tuesday 29th November 2005 14:33 GMT
Download free whitepaper – Optimize Your Business Applications with a Server-to-Storage Virtualized Infrastructure
Battle for mobile email
Behind all these debates over the principles of royalties, there is a major landgrab going on for patents in areas that are seen as critical to revenue growth in mobile systems. Vendors are seeking intellectual property not just to generate new revenues but to disadvantage their rivals as they race after new and lucrative markets. Most prominent among these is currently mobile push email, and beyond that, cellphone-based integrated messaging incorporating email, voicemail, instant messaging, presence capabilities, SMS and future techniques like videomail, under a single telephone directory and user interface.
…. (edited) complete copy here http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/29/mobile_email_patents_war/page2.html
But there are other patents in this area that are up for grabs. Of course, there is the long running saga of RIM’s battle with patent hoarder NTP over some core push email intellectual property. RIM claims it has devised a workaround, and if it has, this would certainly boost its value and potentially, the likelihood that a larger company will acquire it as it sees its huge market share start to dwindle. RIM has leveraged its own patents to try to keep other minor players out of the space it pioneered, and its IP remains attractive if it can be freed of legal burdens.
Then there is Wireless Science, the intellectual property sister company to mobile content specialist Wireless2Web. This company claims to have 1,600 patents or pending patents, including the LinkPush user-controlled content mechanism, and has indicated that it is keen to gain an acquirer or exclusive licensee for them. It works in areas including push email, mobile multimedia, voice-email integration, music download and others.
Microsoft could be on the look-out for acquisitions in this area, although it is relying on its own market weight rather than patents to spread its integrated communications platforms, including its new DirectPush email function – now the basis of future offerings from the other surviving major independent alongside RIM, Palm. The giant has no significant patents in this market, but does, of course, license its Windows Mobile Media Audio and Video technologies to third parties, such as Qualcomm and various phonemakers, which use these partly to underpin multimedia messaging and other data services.
If Wireless Science’s patents are as valuable as the company claims, they could be a good purchase for a handset maker, providing a headstart in an increasingly pivotal and competitive market and a way to keep other rivals out. All of which shows that patents are becoming more, not less, important to the way that vendors compete in the mobile market, and that the royalties issue will not be easily solved. Rather than relying too heavily on the slow processes of the European Commission and standards bodies, the cellcos may do better to emulate Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and Korea’s SKT and acquire some IP of their own, so that they too have something to trade with the increasingly royalty- dependent equipment makers.
Copyright © 2005, Wireless Watch