Google Phone

Having gone to Barcelona more than a little ambivalent about Android, Vincent ended up pretty impressed by the state of Google’s mobile OS (you can read all our coverage here); from what he saw, the software and hardware partners Google has managed to bring on board are doing a pretty good job of turning what could be just another Linux cellphone distro into something capable of threatening Symbian and Windows Mobile. It looks like the BBC’s Darren Waters feels much the same way after meeting with Android developer Andy Rubin (and shooting the video you can see after the cut); despite demonstrating an alpha version of the software stack, the handset Rubin brought was still capable of browsing the full internet, smoothly showing Google Maps and even the hitherto desktop-only Street View location-image app.

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Although nowhere near as polished as the offerings from Sony Ericsson, Samsung and the rest, a number of Android prototypes and reference designs are on show here at the Mobile World Congress, and I’ve been shooting exclusive video demos of them for PHONE Magazine. Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and ARM all had displays, and in the three videos after the cut you can see exactly what they would - and wouldn’t! - show me. In Qualcomm’s case, the setup might have looked cobbled together and the processor is the last-gen 7201a, but the screen was an amazing WVGA touchscreen running at 800 x 480; that’s the same sort of display Sony Ericsson picked for their XPERIA X1.

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Google has released a new version of the Android SDK, m5-rc14, making significant GUI and API changes that, in many cases, have been prompted by developer feedback. Layout animations have now been included, making transitions within and between apps smoother, a greater number of audio codecs are supported (including Ogg Vorbis and MIDI) and there’s a geocoding process that streamlines location searches in the mapping software.

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On Monday we showed you the video of Texas Instruments’ non-touchscreen Android prototype at the Mobile World Congress; today we’ve got their touchscreen version demonstrated live on video. Two aspects of this demo stand out for me, firstly the hardware itself - TI have put together what they claim is a sub-$1,000 reference platform targeted predominantly at the open-source community - and secondly as this is a great, working example of the “building blocks” menu GUI we saw in the latest Android release.

Check out the TI touchscreen reference platform after the cut

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You may not have heard of E28, but they have something particularly rare on show at the Mobile World Congress: a current, off-the-shelf handset that’s running Google’s Android cellphone platform. I stopped by to shoot some video and find out exactly how well the Android OS works, away from reference designs and hardware test-beds; remember, this is basically E28’s E2831 quadband GSM smartphone, with WiFi, a 2.2-inch QVGA touchscreen and 1.3-megapixel camera, entirely stock aside from the OS. The good news? Android works pretty damn well indeed.

Check out the video of the E28 Android phone in action after the cut!

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The LiMo Foundation - who were working on a mobile Linux OS before Google entered the market, remember - have finally launched their LiMo Platform, with APIs available for developers now, and the first full release expected in March.  Of course, while discussing his own offering, LiMo executive director Morgan Gillis still found time to give the Android team a little advice but first, predictably perhaps, a discrete slight:

“The first release of the LiMo Platform combines technologies already extensively market proven within an array of leading handsets. This will enable initial LiMo handsets to register in the marketplace far more rapidly than handsets based on unproven technology” Morgan Gillis, executive director, LiMo Foundation

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Recently Google held three developer workshops - in London, Munich and Tel Aviv - to publicise accurate Android facts and demonstrate how to code on the platform; another such event will be held on the 23rd in Boston.  Lance Davis of RegDeveloper was invited, along with other software coders, to visit Google’s London office and get some basic understanding of how the company has put together the Android embedded OS. 

For the non-coders among us, or those new to mobile development, Lance neatly illustrates the challenge Google has faced - and perhaps set for programmers already working in the field - by comparing computer versus phone architecture:

“Computer people coming to mobile have a very different view of phone architecture to phone people adding features. Phone people see the phone functions - the GSM chipset, Bluetooth, DVB-H, for example, as a foundation, with drivers on top. Then there’s an abstraction layer, an operating system, a user interface framework and the applications on top. Computer people look at the system as a processor with a BIOS on top, then an OS, framework and applications. The bits that mobile phone people see as a foundation, the computer people see as an adjunct connected by drivers. Voice is just another application. And this approach was reflected yesterday” Lance Davis, RegDeveloper

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