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Android Presentation Talks No Restrictions, Android Oppeness

Speaking at LugRadio Live in San Francisco, Robert Love a Google Developer and Linux kernel contributor spoke at length about the Android platform and what impact it will have on the mobile community. Love noted that the traditional closed nature of the existing mobile platforms failed to nurture any kind of creativity and that Android’s aim is to remove those barriers giving independent developers the ability to enrich the mobile software ecosystem.

“The goal of Android is to be open to developers, open to the industry, and open to users, users don’t need permission to install applications. Devices from Open Handset Alliance partners will not restrict users.”

Developers will not need to get any special permission from Google or other mobile carriers to release or run applications for android, likewise there will be no need for registration or certification for Android development. The official members of the Open Handset Alliance are obliged to respect these freedoms as part of their condition of using the Android platform.

[via Arstechnica]

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A Look At A Handful Of The Android Developer Challenge Entries

To mark the closing day of the Android Developer Challenge we thought we’d cover some of the contest entries that have been emailed into us here at TalkAndroid. If you’ve submitted an Android creation and want us to cover it, feel free to drop us a line.

Here’s a brief rundown of some of the most interesting Android applications we’ve come across since the contest started.

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Google’s Android Developer Challenge Deadline

Today marks the deadline for the Google Android Developer Challenge 1. The developer challenge opened back in January, in an effort to encourage developers to get onboard with the new Android platform. Google’s challenge offered applicants the chance to win $10 million in awards for submitting great mobile apps built on the Android platform.

The panel of judges who will be evaluating the entries are a group of experts in the fields of mobile devices, cellular telecommunications, and software development. Google will select the Judges from the member organizations of the Open Handset Alliance.

Now the first phase of the challenge has come to an end, the second developer challenge will be kickstarted later in the year after the first handsets built on the Android platform become available.

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Android Installed On HTC TyTN II

Earlier this week we reported a successful Android installation on a Nokia N810, now it’s the HTC TyTN II’s turn to get the Android treatment. A team of developers have successfully managed to get Android installed and running on the HTC device.

The XDA-Developers have managed to install Android inside of Windows Mobile so as not to require a system flash - this in itself has potential to open many doors for the platform. For example once Android is released we could see an application for installing a shell directly on top of Windows Mobile devices.

Video:

HTC TyTN II Specification:

• 400MHz processor (Qualcomm 7200)
• 128MB RAM
• 256MB Flash
• Windows Mobile 6.1

[via forums.xda-developers.com]

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Opera Announce Mini Browser For Android

Opera Software have today announced the release of their Opera Mini browser for the Android platform. A technical preview release has been made available at labs.opera.com allowing the android development community to test this new build and give their feedback to Opera to help with the upcoming beta.

“Today we’re glad to deliver our mass-market mobile browser to the Android development groups,” says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “Opera Mini will be able to empower users of Android-based handsets with access to all of their favorite Web sites with popular features for smooth effects and scalable, tailored viewing.”

The Opera Mini browser wil be available to any range of handset built on the Android platform.

You can read the full press release on the Opera website here

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AT&T Warming To Android - Dubious About The OHA

In a recent chat with Businessweek.com, AT&T’s CEO of Mobility Ralph de la Vega reiterated his warming towards the Android platform but still remains dubious about the Open Handset Alliance:

“As for the Open Handset Alliance, it’s not clear to me if that’s something that will continue to run or whether can just get the Android source [code] without having to be a member of OHA. So far, I like the progress they have made.”

De la Vega went on to mention that we may see a number of Android handsets hit the market later this year, although hinting that any offerings from AT&T would be released much later.

[via BusinessWeek]

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Nokia N810 Running Google Android

First it was the Sharp Zaurus and the Armadillo 500, now it’s the turn of the Nokia N810. Yup, Google Android has been successfully installed on the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet and it works too.

The Wiki page at elinux.org details the install guide on getting the Nokia device up and running with Android. The guide assumes you are familiar with the basics of embedded ARM Linux. Here’s some screenshot proof too.

[via elinux.org]

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AT&T Interested In Google Android

AT&T who were initially absent from the long list of mobile technology companies that supported Android in the beginning have now thrown their hat into the ring.

AT&T have announced their plans to offer phones running the Google Android platform - after being assured by Google that the company won’t be locked into only offering Google applications on the device.

It s reported that at this week’s CTIA wireless conference in Las Vegas, AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega was assured by Google that AT&T would be able to customize Android devices with any applications they saw fit.

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Google Celebrate 5 Months Of Android

Google’s Official Android developer blog is celebrating the five month anniversary of the announcement of Android. Android was announced back on November 5th 2007, and since that date has received great acceptance amoungst the open source developer community.

Here’s some of Google Android’s highlights from the past 5 months:

• The Android Software Development Kit (SDK) was released to developers
• Valuable developer feedback helped to squash numerous bugs and generate many fixes, new tools and improvements for the Android platform.
• The Android Developer Challenge was announced, offering would-be developers the chance to snag $10 million in award prizes for the best Android application - the events first phase is fast approaching it’s deadline!
• More recently in February the first working demonstartions of the Android platform were shocased by several mobile companies.

Here at TalkAndroid we can’t wait to see what the next 5 months of Android’s life has in store.

[via Google Android Blog]

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Android Phones Released As Early As Fall?

Oops, it seems that during a recent conference call about Google’s plans for the “white spaces” spectrum, Richard Whitt, Google’s Washington telecom and media counsel may have inadvertantly blurted out that Android phones could be out as soon as summer or fall of this year.

Since the Android announcement last November, Google have said that Android powered phones would not be available until the second half of 2008, and following this recent conference Google representatives once again re-iterated that position.

Google also emphasized that they had absolutely nothing to do with the release dates of Android phones, as that decision is left to the manufacturers themselves.

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