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Well since I have had a G1 in my posession for a week now I thought i'd give my opinions on it.
I LOVE IT!!
I've been a windows mobile user ever since the first day the original SPV came out, I have owned pretty much every generation on device since that day, many of the orignal SPV owners will recognise me as a developer for the Windows Mobile platform (Smartanoid amonst others).
So why do I prefer the Android operating system?
Well it's simple. As a developer I can actually use all the features of the phone. The accelerometer, the gps, the camera, the internet, even text messaging and making phonecalls are all available to the developer within a couple of lines of code! A while ago I wrote a simple app that read the values from a bluetooth GPS on the C500, it worked fine but involved a page of code, The android allows me to do everything that application had to offer in a few lines.
I know the operating system has a few bugs in it at the moment, but again I see the positive side of this. Windows Mobile has bugs too, and what happens when someone finds one? Microsoft make a fix (After a few months), A new firmware is created (A few months later), orange sit down for a few months and brand the firmware, orange release a firmware update (by this time the phone is obsolete and has been replaced by something new!).
The android OS is open source. It will be continuously worked on by many developers and Google will be working very hard to increase it's reliability and functionality. And with over the air updates, as soon as they have something good to show us, they will just push it out, Brilliant!!.
And then there is the Market Place. Yes there are hundreds of apps available for the windows mobile phones, but they are scattered far and wide. I never seem to be able to find the application I want when looking for windows mobile stuff, I guess this is partly the reason why I wrote my own stuff! The Google Market Place provides a central place to find all the applications you could possibly want. And from a developers point of view it is excellent. A couple of days ago I wront a simple snow globe application for the G1, animated snow, music, motion control etc. I published it to the Market Place to see what the procedure was like.
I compiled the application, Self signed it (Don't need to pay to have it officially signed like on windows mobile), Signed up for a developer account (Cost $25, one time fee!), Uploaded my app. Instantly my application was available to everyone in the world who has an android phone. Just a few days later my simple app has had 18,000 downloads!!!! 18,000. I cannot believe it!!
Early next year Google are going to allow developers charge for their applications, as a developer you will get 70% of the revenue (not a bad deal). This will certainly give people motivation to code some brilliant apps and games. Just the fact that I can write my game and get it on the market without having to deal with distributers etc.
So in conclusion. Yes this OS is in it's infancy but I seriously think it will turn into a great community just as Windows Mobile has.
Open source Folks, it's the future! biggrin.gif no restictions, no licence issues when writing your own games (e.g don't have to pay for a graphics library to make your game easier to write as it's already built in for free).
Look forward to seeing the modaco android community grow!
Matt, Croccy22.
I LOVE IT!!
I've been a windows mobile user ever since the first day the original SPV came out, I have owned pretty much every generation on device since that day, many of the orignal SPV owners will recognise me as a developer for the Windows Mobile platform (Smartanoid amonst others).
So why do I prefer the Android operating system?
Well it's simple. As a developer I can actually use all the features of the phone. The accelerometer, the gps, the camera, the internet, even text messaging and making phonecalls are all available to the developer within a couple of lines of code! A while ago I wrote a simple app that read the values from a bluetooth GPS on the C500, it worked fine but involved a page of code, The android allows me to do everything that application had to offer in a few lines.
I know the operating system has a few bugs in it at the moment, but again I see the positive side of this. Windows Mobile has bugs too, and what happens when someone finds one? Microsoft make a fix (After a few months), A new firmware is created (A few months later), orange sit down for a few months and brand the firmware, orange release a firmware update (by this time the phone is obsolete and has been replaced by something new!).
The android OS is open source. It will be continuously worked on by many developers and Google will be working very hard to increase it's reliability and functionality. And with over the air updates, as soon as they have something good to show us, they will just push it out, Brilliant!!.
And then there is the Market Place. Yes there are hundreds of apps available for the windows mobile phones, but they are scattered far and wide. I never seem to be able to find the application I want when looking for windows mobile stuff, I guess this is partly the reason why I wrote my own stuff! The Google Market Place provides a central place to find all the applications you could possibly want. And from a developers point of view it is excellent. A couple of days ago I wront a simple snow globe application for the G1, animated snow, music, motion control etc. I published it to the Market Place to see what the procedure was like.
I compiled the application, Self signed it (Don't need to pay to have it officially signed like on windows mobile), Signed up for a developer account (Cost $25, one time fee!), Uploaded my app. Instantly my application was available to everyone in the world who has an android phone. Just a few days later my simple app has had 18,000 downloads!!!! 18,000. I cannot believe it!!
Early next year Google are going to allow developers charge for their applications, as a developer you will get 70% of the revenue (not a bad deal). This will certainly give people motivation to code some brilliant apps and games. Just the fact that I can write my game and get it on the market without having to deal with distributers etc.
So in conclusion. Yes this OS is in it's infancy but I seriously think it will turn into a great community just as Windows Mobile has.
Open source Folks, it's the future! biggrin.gif no restictions, no licence issues when writing your own games (e.g don't have to pay for a graphics library to make your game easier to write as it's already built in for free).
Look forward to seeing the modaco android community grow!
Matt, Croccy22.
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