Posts tagged: android
Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) is ready! No, not really.
Google is done with Ice Cream Sandwich, but the process of getting it to customers is far from over. Having Google release the source code is just the first step in the process — now the real work for handset makers begins.
Motorola and Sony have outlined the process still left before it hits customer’s phones. As Motorola says, “Once source code is released from Google, it doesn’t automatically update to your device.”
So what are these steps?
Only 5 long steps. Android users, happy waiting!
Marco Arment:
A truly open facet of Android — the open-source codebase, minus Google’s apps — has enabled one company with a strong market position to step in, effectively close it, and make themselves the gatekeeper. And as gatekeepers go, Apple looks quite benevolent by comparison.
Sounds absolutely plausible. I’m delighted actually.
Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support (via the understatement).
So colourful and cheerful, don’t you love Android?
Sure way to help with sales!
Typographica:
Just in time for Halloween, from the depths of the Android 4.0 laboratory emerges a frightening cross-breed creature called Roboto.
It was built from scratch and made specifically for high density displays. Google describes it has having a “dual nature. It has a mechanical skeleton and the forms are largely geometric. At the same time the font’s sweeping semi-circular curves give it a cheerful demeanor.”
— GottaBeMobileThis is pure PR BS. I know it when I see it because I’ve had to write a few glowing descriptions about typefaces that don’t really glow.
I guess this embodies the state of Android pretty well too.
Mike Rundle:
Pervasive lag? On a mobile device that’s running the very latest Android version? Powered by one of the beefiest mobile processors in the world? Samsung’s cream-of-the-crop phone running Ice Cream Sandwich is still, still laggy?
Totally fucking unacceptable.
Everything that is wrong with Android can be summarised with that one sentence.
So what if it’s a little you may ask. Mike puts it succinctly:
Imagine if your mouse cursor couldn’t keep up with your hand movements, or if letters didn’t appear on the screen until a moment after you pressed your keyboard. That’s how egregious of a user experience problem this is. If a user interface doesn’t respond as quickly as possible to a user’s intentions and movements, it’s a pile of rubbish.
If that still doesn’t stand out to you, imagine your car’s steering wheel lagging behind your steering input—how annoying (and dangerous) that would be!
Here’s how it looks like, Mobile Safari on 3GS versus Android’s Browser:
Are you wondering how many fonts are installed on Android? Three is the best answer I could find.
A list of all fonts available on iOS that developers and site designers can use.
This is an example of one of those design decisions that you don’t usually notice until you see someone doing it wrong. (via 3.5 Inches - Dustin Curtis).
Google will keep fighting, but realistically, the jury will get to see the Lindholm email. As a result, there’s a fairly high risk for Google that it could be found to have infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property rights willfully, which in turn would result in triple damages and, even more importantly, an injunction — the maximum leverage Oracle could possibly get in order to dictate the terms of a license deal.
Exciting!
According to a new quarterly report from McAfee, Android has now soared to the top as the most targeted platform for malware. In only three months time, Android has gone from third most attacked platform to the first. Another recent report from Lookout claimed a similar upward climb in Android malware infected apps.
Three cheers for AntiVirus vendors on the “open” Android platform. I wonder how battery life will become.
On Friday, August 12, Google filed inter partes reexamination requests with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on the two patents asserted in patent infringement claims by Lodsys against, among others, several Android developers. The patents subject to these requests are U.S. Patent Nos. 7,222,078 and 7,620,565.
We have had a chance to review the reexamination requests, and after that review we believe Lodsys is in for a rough time. We have seen reexam requests before, but when we saw these, the above quote came to mind. Lodsys, you shouldn’t have brought a knife to a gunfight.
Good job.
Google doesn’t want to do what Motorola Mobility does (sell phones); it wants the company because it’s got a big heap of patents—seventeen thousand, apparently, with seven thousand more under review. And this is why today’s news is profoundly depressing.
I can sense that other Android OEMs, such as Samsung and HTC, would be rushing to find an alternative mobile OS, and Windows Phone 7 looks the most attractive thus far.
The smartphone landscape would be exciting to watch as upheavals are really threatening competitors without their own mobile OSes.
Judge Alsup — the federal judge presiding over this litigation — attaches a great deal of importance to that particular document. At a recent hearing, he essentially said that a good trial lawyer would just need that document “and the Magna Carta” (arguably the origin of common law) to win this case on Oracle’s behalf and have Google found to infringe Oracle’s rights willfully.
Google’s behaviour is pretty appalling. What’s happened to “Don’t be Evil”?
A good read if you’re interested in the fundamental differences between Android and iOS development. Also, the articles explains the lag commonly experienced on Android devices, and why the iOS has a very smooth and responsive display.
I guess it’s just lucky for us that this was an experiment, and that we don’t make our full time income from selling Android apps, but rather from developing for iOS. That said, we want to make a clear stand here, so that Amazon doesn’t take advantage of those less fortunate than us.
So today we’re making a stand. Effective immediately we are removing ourselves from the Amazon Store. We’re not the only ones doing this.
That’s extremely unethical. I recommend boycotting the Amazon Appstore.
