Google Android News Android Forums

Android Certification Testing Center Needed In Taiwan

Google and the Open Handset Alliance have been called upon by the government backed Department of Industrial Technology (DOIT) to establish a certification program in Taiwan for the Android platform.

Wen-jen Ho, director of Multimedia Technologies Laboratory (MTL) of the government-backed Institute for Information Industry (III) believes a certification testing center in Taiwan is vital in accelerating the development of Android-based handsets.

Speaking at a smartphones seminar, Ho noted that whilst they were still waiting for the HTC to roll out its first Android powered smartphone, the Alliance had still not decided on how they plan to carry out the certification process for Android powered devices.

With the vast majority of Android based devices likely being produced either in Taiwan or China, a Taiwan based certification testing center will help keep manufacturer’s production costs down and help shorten the time to market for those Android powered devices.

[via Digitimes]

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed!

Dan Morrill: “We’ve said all along that we expect the devices to be out in the second half of 2008, and we’re still on track for that.”

Google Android’s Dan Morrill recently took some time out to answer a few questions from apcmag.com regarding the state of the Android OS and it’s future.

Here’s some highlights from the interview:

We’re in a situation right now where we’re focused very strongly on getting the first device out the door and the reason for that is we want to make sure the first device that ends up in consumers’ hands basically is a good device. We want to set the bar with it. We don’t want to just release the stuff and say “Here’s a platform that’s capable of this huge list of functionalities” and then the first device doesn’t really take advantage of it; that doesn’t tell your story well.

So really what we want to do is make sure that the first device is very high quality, is really compelling to users and that is and it has to be the foundation for everything else we do. So right now our engineers are purely focused on that. We’ve got a few other things that we started doing. We’re not in the early stages of organising how the open source release process is going to go, so we’re starting to answer some of the administrative details of the product.

So when will that happen?

People always ask this question. We’ve said all along that we expect the devices to be out in the second half of 2008, and we’re still on track for that.

[via apcmag.com]

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed!

Nokia Acquires Symbian, Plans To Make It Open Source

Nokia have today announced the acquisition of 52 per cent of the operating system Symbian, alongside plans to make the OS an open source platform.

The Symbian operating system currently powers Nokia’s smartphones, as well as those of a large number of other hardware manufacturers. Other major stakeholders in Symbian have accepted the offer, representing approximately 91% of the Symbian shares.

In a statement, Nokia’s CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo commented that they aim to create “the most attractive platform for mobile innovation and drive the development of new and compelling web-enabled applications”.

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed!

Android Handset’s Could Be Delayed Until 2009

According to a report published in the Wall Street Journal, many Android manufacturers are expected to delay the launch of their Android powered devices - in some cases into 2009.

Citing a number of anonymous sources familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal said that T-Mobile expects to deliver an Android-powered phone in the fourth period, while Sprint Nextel won’t be able to launch such a device this year. China Mobile will also likely have its Android launch delayed until late this year or early 2009.

Google had previously stated in November that the first of the Android powered phones would be made available by the second half of 2008.

[via Reuters]

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed!

Interview With ADC Winners Commandro

Our series of interviews with Android Developer Challenge top 50 finalists continues, this time we posed our questions to the creators of Commandro - a GPS based social networking device for the Android platform.

Click here to read the full interview with the team behind Commandro!

Previous interviews include, Eco2go, BreadCrumbz.

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed!

Android To Cause An ‘Explosion Of New Phone Makers’

Hampus Jakobsson, Co-Founder of Open Handset Alliance (OHA) member The Astonishing Tribe, predicts that the Android platform will pave the way for new phone manufaturers to enter the marketplace.

Speaking to TechRadar, Jakobsson had this to say:

“There will be an explosion of new phone manufacturers,” he said. “This is going to be really positive, especially from a user’s point of view.

“The actual building of the phone is simple, as it has become more commoditised over the years. The trick is getting the phone to appeal to the target audience.

“Android and the OHA will enable more companies to do that. Members of the group include not only manufacturers, but silicon vendors, UI builders, all the people someone would need to help build a device.”

[via TechRadar]

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed!

Android Running On Nokia N95 Video

Following on from the recent Android installation on the Nokia 810 Internet Tablet comes this demonstration of a similar port to the Nokia N95.

Other than this somewhat grainy YouTube video little is known about this latest Android port, although judging from the footage it does seem to be gathering data from Google Maps although it is questionable whether the call dialer actually makes a connection. Judge for yourself below.

If you’ve managed to get Android up and running on a similar device, drop us a line and let us know!

[via EngadgetMobile]

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed!

Interview With ADC Winner Eco2go

Next up in our series of interviews with the winners of the ADC comes the Eco2go Android application. The application has received a lot of media attention since winning it’s place in the next round of the Android developer challenge, and recently took time out to answer a few of our questions.

Click here to read the full interview with the team behind Eco2go!

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed!

HTC Remaining Tight Lipped Over Android, Q4 Launch

At the recent HTC Touch Diamond launch in South Africa, PhoneReport.info managed to grab a few minutes alone with HTC’s General Manager of HTC for MEA and CIS Kevin Chen.

Chen remained extremely tight lipped when asked about the HTC Android, offering only that the device was very much on track for a release within the next six months (Q4). Chen refused to speak about any of the specific details of the Android device - a move which has been pretty consistant from all that we have heard about Android thus far.

[via PhoneReport]

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed!

Google I/O Videos

The full video presentations from last month’s Google I/O developer event have now been made available online.

The presentations range from an introduction to the Android platform to more advanced topics covering the Android frameworkand other technical details.

An Introduction to Android

Android is the Open Handset Alliance’s mobile software platform. Come learn about Android and our vision for more open, powerful, and useful mobile devices.

Building an Android Application 101

This session is a practical introduction to building Android applications using the SDK and developer tools. We’ll walk through building a non-trivial application and use it as the basis for discussing the various facets of the Android application framework.

Anatomy & Physiology of an Android

Android has been designed as a modern mobile platform that will enable applications to take full advantage of the mobile device capabilities. This session will break down the various components of the Android platform, examine how they work, and give developers a deeper understanding of the underlying technologies that drive the Android platform.

Inside the Android Application Framework

Android is designed to be fast, powerful, and easy to develop for. This session will discuss the Android application framework in depth, showing you the machinery behind the application framework.

Dalvik VM Internals

Dalvik — the virtual machine with the unusual name — runs your code on Android. Join us to learn about the motivation for its design and get
some details about how it works. You’ll also walk away with a few tips for how to write code that works well with the platform. Be prepared
for a deep dive into technical details.

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed!