Google Phone

If Google’s Rich Miner was a developer, he’d be coding for the iPhone; however, he’s actually Group Manager for Mobile Platforms, and as such is more interested in boosting Android’s profile with confident predictions that handsets based on the platform will wildly outsell Apple’s cellphone.

“Once you have devices out there from Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and so on, there’s a much larger potential market on Android than for the iPhone. [Apple is] a single manufacturer, it’s targeted at a particular demographic, and it falls far short of the 1 billion mobile phones sold every year worldwide” Rich Miner, Google

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Core Security, who research exploits and loopholes in software releases, have identified eight different security issues in Google’s Android beta, including some that are blamed on the developer’s use of outdated and vulnerable open-source image libraries. The flaws could see a hacker take “complete control” of an Android-powered handset, including exploiting heap overflows and integer overflows, and Core Security demonstrated the issues with proof-of-concept code that worked successfully on the Android SDK emulator.

“Several vulnerabilities have been found in Android’s core libraries for processing graphic content in some of the most used image formats (PNG, GIF an BMP). While some of these vulnerabilities stem from the use of outdated and vulnerable open-source image processing libraries other were introduced by native Android code that use them or that implements new functionality” Core Security statement

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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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Another day, another Linux-based cellphone OS: it’s the turn of Azingo to launch their Azingo Mobile platform, based on the existing work of the LiMo Foundation, as an out-of-the-box suite of mobile applications plugging into a pre-existing middleware framework and kernel.  Like Android, Azingo Mobile is being marketed as a straightforward, low-development-intensive option for manufacturers looking for an OS for their hardware designs; unlike Android, Azingo already have a history with those manufacturers.

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Following feedback from developers, Google has made “significant updates” to the Android SDK that will be released in several weeks time.  Although the full list of changes is yet to be announced, both UI and API have been enhanced.  As a result, Google has put back the deadline to submit entries to the Android Developer Challenge part I to the 14th April, both to give time to take advantage of the new functionality and to satisfy coders who have requested an extension during which they could build and polish their entries.

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Back in November there was a flurry of interest when Bug Labs unveiled their BUG modular cellphone development platform and confirmed it would be compatible with Android: for the first time, homebrew coders and software specialists could trial their wares on proper reference hardware, previously only available to big developers, rather than relying solely on emulators.  Now pre-order prices and availability dates have been announced, together with a bundle offer, and Bug Labs are tentatively opening their doors to consumers.

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After a delay while Google’s engineers attempted to fix the submissions system, the Android Developer Challenge has finally opened for entries.  With a total prize-fund of $10m, the competition has both been lauded and criticised as stimulating software coding and simultaneously encouraging developers to jealously guard their skills.  Challenge I, which will be accepting entries until March 3rd, will offer 50-percent of that jackpot, with fifty winning entries getting a guaranteed $25,000 each and the possibility of supplementary awards - ten of $100,000 and ten of $275,000 - for particularly good applications.

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For existing Linux cellphone developers faced with Android, the options seem to be deride the newcomer, deny it’s competition or demonstrate that you integrate with it.  A la Mobile, who are behind a stack known as the Convergent Linux Platform (CLP) that is already on the market in the shape of the Gupp Phreedom (right), have chosen the third route, and claim that the kernel, drivers and middleware included in their product can in fact halve the time it takes to bring an Android product to market.

“Despite the open-source nature of the Android framework, developing a complete mobile system solution with customized, differentiated features continues to present major technical challenges requiring considerable time, effort, and resources — a barrier and reach beyond the scope of many handset vendors” Pauline Lo Alker, CEO, A la Mobile

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As useful as the Android SDK’s emulator is at playing with layouts, testing code and generally experimenting with various versions of software, there are times when having the platform on a handset you can physically hold is preferable; only then can you gauge how straightforward your UI is with a cellphone’s keys, or whether the typical display can do it justice.  Few developers will have access to an official gPhone prototype, however, and while projects such as Bug Lab’s BUG modular smartphone suggest an innovative alternative, they too will often be outside of the reach of many.  Josh Guilfoyle has been working on using a Windows Mobile-based smartphone as an Android test platform; the handsets are readily available, and thanks to full-screen VNC it allows programmers to experience their wares outside of the SDK.

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