Google Phone

After lamenting the absence of (public) contenders for the $10m Google Android coding prize, mobile first-person shooter WiFi Army could stand a chance of scooping some of that cash with its blend of GPS, Google Maps and the camera likely to be included in most gPhones.  Developed by W2Pi Entertainment, players register online with a current photo and then rivals attempt to locate them using GPS-fed Google Maps.  Points are scored by “shooting” opponents with the camera; their image is compared to that on the server to confirm their identity. 

Check out the demo videos of WiFi Army after the cut

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Inputting data into a handheld device - and extracting data in a meaningful, easily interpreted way - is a hurdle that, although seemingly low-level, presents a real problem for developers looking to produce data-rich applications.  In Japan, the QR barcode system has been implemented with some degree of success, using matrix codes that can store address or URLs revealed by ’scanning’ them with a cellphone’s camera; Android developer Tom Gibara has created what could possibly be the next level of matrix coding - a system he calls Moseycode - which not only uses matrices to input data but can then overlay the visual output in real-time on the cellphone’s screen.

As the video (after the cut) shows, the Android software can recognise a 2D barcode glyph and then, according to its physical orientation, display varying information overlaid onto the glyph itself or, as in the second video, near to the glyph.  In this early demo, running on the Android SDK platform rather than as a mockup, the Moseycode tracks the four categories (author, location, status and comments) and can be zoomed in/out by moving the matrix code closer to or further from the cellphone’s camera.

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Slow development milestones for Android have previously been blamed on Google’s $10m coding “prizefund” forcing app creation undercover; could the truth be that the platform is simply not ready for primetime release?  That’s the strident criticism from developer Adam MacBeth, who has found the SDK toolkit to be riddled with bugs, poorly implemented code and a general absence of support from Google themselves.

“Functionality is not there, is poorly documented or just doesn’t work. It’s clearly not ready for prime time” Adam MacBeth

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Could a spinoff from Microsoft Research end up providing another open-access piece of the Android mobile-internet experience?  That looks to be the word out of Zumobi, a developer of the self-titled mobile browser that uses a unique “tiles” system of organising specific web content - such as Flickr feeds, multimedia content, information from RSS or blog data - and serving it up in a scrolling, resizing UI they’re calling the Zooming User Interface.

“Whether it’s Android [Google's platform for mobile devices], Verizon or Nokia, we want to provide a simple solution for people to access the data” Beth Goza, Senior Marketing Manager, Zumobi

Check out the video demo of the Zumobi beta release, after the cut

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Enterprise applications and data-loaded maps might be useful, but the childlike parts of us would probably admit that we’re also curious about what games will be available for Android.  Now, the platform won’t be societally-acceptable until Doom has been ported to it, but until then how about Japan-based developer Original Game Soft’s Dodge Balls.

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Android has the traditional carriers unnerved at the prospect of a rapidly evolving business model - unnerved enough for historically closed Verizon Wireless to let down the CDMA drawbridge, even - with open-source software promising to flood the market with low-cost, highly adapted cellular devices and advertising revenue supplanting monthly contracts and expensive add-ons.  Yet some believe this upheaval is merely the beginning; Linux software provider Wind River Systems dispatched their chief marketing officer, John Bruggeman, to talk to ZDNet’s Dana Gardner about not only the advancing role of geo-specific search and advertising, but the future of Android as a platform for mobile devices and the successful software that’s to run on it.

“You’ve got your phone. And, I know physically where that [phone's] IP address is. You are around the corner from Starbucks. Now, is Starbucks going to be willing to pay a premium to get you to drive or walk around the corner? Or, I know you’re sitting in the airport terminal. All the possibilities become very powerful concepts” John Bruggerman, Wind River Systems

With Google already experimenting with mobile adverts, and Microsoft this week launching both banner and text adverts on their MSN Mobile portal, it seems a safe bet that the business model is set to evolve.  Yet as eWeek’s Clint Boulton points out, consumers already consider banners passé and are fearful that the adverts will “clutter the tiny screens” of their devices.  The key difference will be targeting promotional content so that it is both personally and situationally specific enough to be of interest (rather than frustration) to the user, and cost effective to the company funding the advert who is, in effect, subsidising the user’s connection.

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Although some are predicting high standards of device security with Android, and the team working on the platform are busy publicising the high-level architecture that puts security under the remit of the Linux processes rather than VM, that hasn’t stopped anti-virus companies issuing ominous warnings about a spike in cellphone malware once handsets start hitting the market.  SMobile Systems, who are behind the SecurityShield anti-virus and malware package already available for Symbian, Palm, Blackberry and Windows Mobile systems, have today announced not only their concerns that Android’s Linux-base will more easily facilitate virus authors, but that they’re developing a retail product to help prevent against it.

“Once millions of consumers get these new devices into their hands, the thousands of hackers out there will turn their attention to the Google powered phones … The Google Phone platform will enable users to more easily access the Internet and download applications, which is great - but it will also encourage the hacking community to make new and more virulent strains of attacks” Rick Roscitt, CEO, SMobile Systems

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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.

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Datamation’s Kenneth van Wyk rolls up his sleeves and sets to work comparing the relative security strengths of the Android platform and Apple’s iPhone, using a combination of architecture documentation, premonition and feedback from the latter’s avid hacker community.  He rates them in categories of application security architecture, openness and configuration management, as well as examining how straightforward it is for third-party software to tap into the underlying safety features:

“There’s more to “openness” than just accessibility of a product’s source code. The Android team has clearly documented the process for developing and installing applications for Android, including how to interface with the underlying security framework. That openness has already resulted in at least one product vendor announcing it will be developing security applications—firewall, anti-spam, anti-malware, etc—for the platform” Kenneth van Wyk, Datamation

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Ironically, after preaching about anti-fragmentation agreements and partnership synergy - intended to ensure that no member of the OHA alters the Android platform to an extent where development becomes only partly compatible - it could be down to the Google-led system that Java suffers serious fractures.  Sun engineers are reportedly concerned that the specially modified form of Java that Android uses, as opposed to an off-the-shelf version that cellphones might normally adopt, could lead to a schism of developers creating software for one form of the language or another, spoiling the company’s “write once, run anywhere” selling-point.

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