The glossy demo videos of Android are all well and good, but if the reference designs are to be translated into meaningful hardware the guts of the platform need to be better understood.  Over at the Android Developers Blog the latest podcast features two of the architects from the engineering team, Dianne Hackborn and Jason Parks, who talk us through some technical history of the project, discuss security and the way services are handled, as well as guidance on programming for small devices.

What stands out is the sense that developing for Android can be as straightforward or as complex as you - and your skill level - wish it to be.  Hackborn and Parks, who both worked for Be and PalmSource earlier in their careers, describe the use of both in-depth Linux and Dalvik VM programming, as well as discussing thread support and how, if you’re not comfortable working with them, you don’t have to.

If you’re interested in producing software for Android, you should definitely give it a listen; you could also do worse than join the Android Community and get talking with like-minded developers.