As reported on The Register

Google’s strict code of secrecy may work fine for protecting its internal operations. But the company isn’t ingratiating itself to software developers by keeping major updates to its Android mobile software platform locked away in a Mountain View dungeon. Now, even those developers once very committed to pushing Google’s technology forward are thinking about abandoning Android – the most closed open platform to not yet exist.

Over at Google’s official Android discussion group, independent coder Nicolas Gramlich recently posted an ad hoc online petition calling on Google to at least tell developers why they can’t get a new and improved SDK for the fledgling mobile platform. Google hasn’t publicly updated the Android software developer’s kit in more than five months.

“In order not to lose many highly encouraged developers, I think it’s time to release some news about the development process of the SDK. Maybe let us know why we have to live with these long cycles,” reads his open letter to Google’s Android overseers. “In my personal opinion it is not the right choice to keep developers in the dark. We, the developers, are the absolute base of success to the whole Android platform.”

Gramlich is the man behind AndDev.org, an online Android developer community that boasts 3,075 registered members. He began coding for the as-yet-unreleased platform in November, the very day Google first unveiled the SDK. And he sees himself as one of the platform’s “biggest fans.” But he fears that Google’s ongoing Android secrecy is alienating its biggest supporters.

“Developers are getting annoyed and some have moved and some are thinking of moving to another platform,” he tells The Reg. “I hope Google will think twice about how long it waits for the next public-release.”

Of course, there are other reasons to code for other platforms. Other platforms actually exist.

Google had promised a real live Android phone by the end of the year, and now, even that’s a stretch, with reported delays on the prowl. And, many developers argue, the company’s SDK silence has set the platform back even further.

“I lost patience long ago. will keep coding/waiting untill the end of july. then ill either switch to the iphone (if sells are good) or windows mobile,” reads a mostly intelligible post from one of the many developers voicing their support for the Gramlich petition. “i see absolutely no use in working with a barely finished SDK on an emulator without a piece of hardware in my hand. MOBILE phone development is no fun if you cant test it MOBILE.”

Google unleashed the last major update to the Android SDK on February 13. The last minor tweak arrived on March 3. And in the nine months since Android was first announced, the company hasn’t given developers even the slightest hint about when updates would arrive. “This is the biggest mistake that Google could have made: not to have small public-release-cycles,” Gramlich says.

He’s doubly ticked off because he knows that a new SDK exists. Google is sharing updates with certain VIP developers - the fifty finalists for the company’s Android Developer Challenge, a coding contest offering $10m in prize money. Finalist Zach Hobbs wouldn’t speak to us about the SDK because - like the other finalists - he signed a Google non-disclosure agreement before getting his hands on those updates.

Google has already annoyed countless developers by keeping the Android source code under wraps. Though the company calls Android an open platform, it won’t actually release the source code until the first Android phone arrives sometime in the unspecified future.

And so the soap opera will only continue.

Read the entire entry »

As reported on WashingtonPost

Over the weekend, a stream of rumors flowed from Sun Valley, Idaho, where Google ( NSDQ: GOOG) executives supposedly talked about a Google-branded phone. I’ll explain what happened, but first off, it doesn’t appear to be true, and second, what is more important than whether a gPhone is in the works or not, is that the Google Android developer community is starting to show signs of malcontent.

Here’s how the gPhone rumor mill got going: It all started when The Hollywood Reporter wrote that three Google execs, who held a press conference in Sun Valley, apparently said that they are making “its own branded mobile phone as a replacement for the iPhone.” The story never comes full circle to give more information on exactly what that means, and no other reporters at the press conference picked up those comments. Nonetheless, the rumor caught fire and ran rampant on the Internet. GigaOm linked to the story, so did TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb to name just three. TechCrunch took it a step further and reported that “San Francisco-based Ammunition Design Group, which has designed computers, mobile phones, hardware, and other devices for companies like Palm ( NSDQ: PALM), Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer, and Logitech, may be working with Google to create an Android-based, Google branded Gphone.” Despite this, all of it appears to be untrue and that the original reporter misunderstood what the executives said. Google said last year when it launched Android that a gPhone was not under development, and they have not changed course.

Here’s the real story: ReadWriteWeb reported that Google Android developers and even Google engineering employees are frustrated with how the Android platform is evolving. This is a real threat to Android. With iPhones flying off the shelves, and Windows Mobile devices already out there in droves, and the Symbian OS becoming open and free, Google has to build a healthy developer community in order to compete. A petition seeking more information about the SDK was posted late last month to the Android Discussion Group, complaining of delays and bugs that have yet to be worked out. It says: “I’m starting this petition, to express my personal frustration about the release cycles and the information policy of the Android SDK…In order not to lose many highly encouraged developers, I think its time to release some news about the development process of the SDK.” One of the 38 responses to the post is signed by someone claiming to be an Google Android engineer. He says have some frustrations, too. “There is some truth however in saying that we (the Google Android team) are very much focusing on playing our part in getting an Android device on the shelves as soon as we possibly can, and that focus comes at the expense of other tasks, like getting an SDK out.”

As reported on Boy Genius Report

While the image above is a design originally conceived for Samsung, it represents the work of San Fransisco-based product design and development firm Ammunition Design Group. Why should you care? Well beyond the fact that their site is packed full of amazing designs done for huge companies including Panasonic, Dell, Nike, HP, Wells Fargo, Microsoft and more; Ammunition may be the team helping make the much-rumored Google Gphone a reality. Last year there was plenty of buzz surrounding the possibility of a Google-baranded handset, however most of it was squashed shortly after the announcement of Android. Even still, at no point did Google really deny the claim that it was working on its own handset. As of today, consider those rumors back in full force as Techcrunch reports state that a Gphone is most likely in the works. The article cites two main reasons for the claim:

1. Hollywood Reporter Dan Cox’s recent piece stating, “The trio of Google execs also used the opportunity to talk about the inroads the company is making with its own branded mobile phone as a replacement for the iPhone,” after an interview with Google’s top execs Brin, Page and Schmidt.
2. “A good source” that swears Ammunition is currently designing a “seriously beautiful” Gphone for Google.

If the rumors are true, this will definitely have a huge impact on the handset market as we know it. A few big handset manufacturers have run the game for quite a while now and Google could be the second “newcomer” to hit the market in just a few years and make a huge dent in the business.

As reported on TechNewsWorld

Making good software for mobile phones is hard — even for a technically adept company like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) .

Indeed, it’s so difficult that the fleet-footed champion of search advertising finds itself in the unaccustomed position of playing catch-up to normally slow-moving industry behemoths.

As Google scrambles to release its mobile phone code sometime later this year, a nonprofit consortium of some of the world’s biggest telecommunications companies and handset makers has quietly beaten the search giant.

The LiMo Foundation, created in 2007 by Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), NTT DoCoMo, Motorola (NYSE: MOT)  and four other telecom giants, delivered its first phone in February. It now boasts 18, including the Motorola RAZR2 V8 and MOTO Z6w.

A Tough Timetable to Meet

Feverish speculation about the “Gphone” contributed to industry unease, though much of the concern subsided after Android, Google’s name for its mobile efforts, was announced in the fall of 2007. Android wasn’t a phone, but a bundle of still-to-be finished software that anyone could use to create a phone.

Like LiMo, Android wanted to become an industry standard. However, first it needed marketing partners. Initially, 33 companies signed on to Google’s Open Handset Alliance.

Google promised the first phones carrying the code would be available sometime in the second half of the year — along with the code itself.

However, meeting that timetable has been tough. Despite widespread interest among carriers and handset makers, only one carrier, T-Mobile , has announced plans to distribute an Android phone before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, LiMo has sprung ahead by using existing software contributed by members. “This means you have a far lower level of bugs and defects that you need to deal with,” said Morgan Gillis, the executive director of the LiMo Foundation.

Read the entire entry »

As reported on Mobile Entertainment

The blogs are saying that T-Mobile USA will launch an Google Android-powered handset in the autumn in support of its nationwide 3G network rollout on October 1st.

It all started last weekend when TmoNews speculated on the T-Mobile 3G dates and suggested the Android handset would be the HTC Dream.

Despite telling its own readers that the news should be treated with ‘a whole damn bucket of salt’ it set off a chain reaction of blogging and re-reporting (hey, we didn’t want to miss out) that four days later leaves us in no clearer position.

It’s all exciting stuff. But remember just two weeks ago all the talk was of Google reneging on its promise to have Android handsets in the market by the end of 2008.

In light of that, The Register speculates on ways that Google and T-Mobile could speed up Android phone development to meet that October 1st day of destiny.

As reporeted on PC Advisor

T-Mobile could be one of the first mobile operators to launch a handset running Google’s upcoming Android smartphone operating system, according to various blogs in the US.

One report claims T-Mobile USA will release an Android smartphone when it rolls out its 3G wireless network across the US towards the end of 2008.

Google Android installed on Nokia’s N810

Android marks Google’s entry into the mobile phone operating system market, with the search giant hoping to go head-to-head with the likes of Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm. It will have a complete set of components, including a Linux-based operating system, middleware stack, customisable user interface and applications.

Google announced Android last year, and prototype devices based on the platform were on show at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year. However, last month it was reported that the first handsets running Android won’t be available until the fourth quarter of this year.

Reports from the US seem to back up that prediction, with News.com suggesting T-Mobile will launch an Android phone – possibly the HTC Dream - in October.

As reported on CompterWorld

With a skyrocketing stock price, fanboy hysteria and — most importantly — really useful products, Google Inc. is the prima donna of tech for the new millennium.

The company is so active that it’s hard to keep track of everything it does. And, just when you get a good handle on its litany of Web applications, promising lab innovations and unheralded research projects, it seems to turn on a dime — a difficult move for a $167 billion company with 19,000 employees — and invent something new. Who would have thought a search site company would get involved in laying a fiber-optic undersea cable between the U.S. and Japan?

Of course, not everything has worked out for the company, as these flubs, flops and failures illustrate. JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg, for one, isn’t put off by the wide range of directions the company has taken and occasional miscues.

“The whole Google empire started as a research project, and it’s a core in their DNA to try and discover new things and figure out how to monetize them,” he says. “When you have a market cap like they do and the cash cow in the guise of paid search, they can keep experimenting. You need the financial wherewithal to support these projects, and plenty of smart people to carry them out. Google does not seem short on either.”

“Truth and Rumors”

Here’s an update on some of Google’s most interesting projects, including some new details about Android, energy initiatives, language translation and a new facial recognition search technology. Also, the Web is rife with wild rumors about clandestine Google projects, so we asked the secretive company to comment on some of the more prominent ones to try to find out what’s really going on.

“Android”

Although the “gPhone” never materialized, the company has been planning something better: an operating system for phones called Android. It’s partly a direct competitor to Windows Mobile and partly an experiment in open-source development. Recently, the company held a contest for third-party developers to create innovative apps for Android. 1,700 programmers took up the challenge.

Read the entire entry »

As reported on Boy Genius Report

Google Maps Mobile is probably Google’s most actively developed mobile application. It seems like there are new versions popping up for one platform or another every couple of weeks these days. In the past few months for example, Google has issued a native S60 version updated several times, various versions that can make use of internal GPS, versions that can integrate with device phonebooks and Nokia Maps, cell-based location, etc. For the most recent feature addition, Google has decided to implement a bit of voice recognition. Sweet! A new version of Google Maps Mobile has been made available for the US BlackBerry Pearl 8110, 8120 and 8130 that allows users to speak their search criteria rather than type it. Voice search uses the same voice recognition engine as GOOG-411, Google’s free information service, so we know the accuracy will be spot on. Using pretty much couldn’t be easier:

1. Press “0? to center the map view around your location
2. Press the left-side key and hold it while you say the name or type of business you’re looking for (for example, “pizza”)
3. When you’re done speaking, release the left-side key, and our voice recognition technology will figure out your request and find the business you’ve been looking for, no typing needed.

These days there’s a pretty good chance that the rest of your BlackBerry-toting friends make fun of you from time to time because you’re still carrying a Pearl. Opportunities might be few and far between, but here’s a good chance to show them a little something they can’t have quite yet. Hit http://www.google.com/gmm from your Pearl to snag the latest build.

As reported on PC World

Google has signed a deal with digital-map maker Tele Atlas which allows Google to use the firm’s map data on a host of devices including cellphones and gadgets based the much anticipated Android operating system. Under the terms of the 5-year deal Google will also continue to use Tele Atlas mapping data on a host of Google services such as Google Maps and Google Earth.

Tele Atlas owns GPS device maker TomTom which assures a cozy relationship between Google and TomTom. Under the terms of the deal Google has agreed to send end-user mapping data back to Tele Atlas when it concludes user edits to maps. This, one would hope, would be a very efficient way for end-users help both Google and Tele Atlas to more accurately update maps with road closures and other type of mapping information.

This Wiki style of map making by using user edits has already been a tremendous help to both Google maps and TomTom devises through the Map Share feature, however now edits made on one map system will be carried over to the other. It’s possible now that by sharing the edited maps between TomTom and Google maps it could create the most accurate road maps around. And Tele Atlas wouldn’t even need to do any additional research to create those maps.

As reported on SearchMobileComputing

Though Android won’t make its official debut for several more months, information concerning the details of the OS indicates that it will take advantage of many of Google’s online services. Android icons will most likely link back directly to Google services such as Google Maps and Gmail.

The release of the first smartphones running Android is still months away, so information on the Android operating system is still emerging.

Google is heading up the development, and the company’s director of mobile platforms Andy Rubin recently gave a demo of it to CNET.

This isn’t the first time Android has been demonstrated, but a few facts came to light that might not be widely known yet.

Not surprisingly, this operating system and bundled software will be strongly tied to Google’s online services. There will be client applications for Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps, for a total of 20.

Android will definitely support multi-tasking, and Rubin said steps had been taken to ensure that applications running in the background won’t hog system resources, slowing down the foreground app.

A small icon of an exclamation point on the upper-left corner of the display will notify users that something has happened in the background that they need to be aware of, whether it’s a new email or a system error.

Some videos of Android in action are available in this earlier article.

What about hardware?
This demonstration was done on a device which was described as being similar in size and shape to the HTC TyTN II (a.k.a. the HTC Tilt). No pictures of this smartphone were allowed, but the description fits the HTC Dream, which will supposedly be the first Android-based device to hit the market.

The minimum hardware requirements for this operating system are a 200 MHz processor.

More about Android
The group behind this operating system is called the Open Handset Alliance, and it’s a collection of 30+ companies, including Intel, TI, Sprint, T-Mobile, HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and Wind River, but being led by Google.

Android will consist of a Linux-based operating system, middleware, and key mobile applications. Many of these are likely to tie into Google’s services, like Gmail and Google Maps.

Because this platform will be open source, the Alliance hopes it will be quickly extended to incorporate new technologies as they emerge.

In addition, it will be open to third-parties to create applications using Java.

The initial smartphones running Android are scheduled for release later this year. The first of these will be from HTC and will debut in the United States, but this will be followed up by devices from a variety of companies and wireless carriers a round the world.