We're exciting to announce that our book, Android Wireless Application Development, is now available for pre-order from Safari Rough Cuts!
If you follow gadget blogs, you've probably seen that Android 1.1 is heading out to T-Mobile G1 handsets. Until today, though, you may have wondered if this affects you or not. Well, it might.
The Android 1.1 SDK Release 1 is a now available from Google. All Android 1.0 SDK applications will function without change on 1.0, according to Google. However, if you want to begin using the new APIs introduced in Android SDK 1.1, you'll need to download it and begin using it.The Android 1.1 firmware is being pushed out to all G1 users. According to T-Mobile, everyone with a G1 should have received the update notification within a week or two. This means that if you're developing an application that could benefit from the SDK changes, it probably is reasonable to require the upgrade.
As for changes in the new firmware and SDK, they include some bug fixes and a few new features. Many of the features are in built-in applications, but there are a few for developers:Download the new SDK here.
(P.S. He's supposed to be smiling. :o)
Google is now allowing registered Android Market developers to purchase the Android Dev Phone 1. This phone is similar to the G1, but fully unlocked. It can be flashed by developers with the firmware of their choice. Google is charging $399 with free shipping. There is currently a limit of one per registered Android Market account. They are available in more than a dozen countries across the world.
The Android Market is now available for developers to register with. Simply go to the Android Market page, login with a Google Account (not a domain account), give them your developer name, preferred email address, website, and phone number. Finally, you’ll pay $25 via Google Checkout and be bound to the Developer Distribution Agreement.
The first Android handset available to consumers, the Google designed, HTC built, T-Mobile branded G1 is now available for purchase. Get it while you can to test your apps on real hardware.
As part of the launch, Android Market is now available to consumers. Although it’s still in beta, this will allow developers, such as yourself, to distribute applications to consumers. In order to do this, we have learned today that on Monday, Oct 27th, developers will be allowed to register and authenticate themselves for $25. After that, applications can be made available on Android Market without further hurdles. However, only free applications can be provided for the time being.
We have learned that distribution for paid applications will be available early in 2009. Developers will retain 70% of the revenue generated by their applications. Carriers and billing handlers will retain the rest. In a surprising move, Google will not take any percentage. The details, though, don’t explain who gets the $25 registration fee.
Fulfilling the true open nature of Android, the full source code has been released today on the eve of the first Android hardware shipping tomorrow. Although this is not directly useful to application developers, having the underlying platform source code can help debug issues as well as reveal if an issue is with the platform or not. As with most open source projects, the community can be extremely helpful in debugging, providing ideas, and adding new features.
The open source project website for Android contains a number of useful pieces of information. There is a roadmap that can be used for planning purposes so developers will know when certain features are planned for the platform. For instance, we’ve learned the next next language planned for localization is German.
You can download all 2.1GB of the source code. Additionally, if you have Ubuntu (6.06 or later) Linux or Mac OSX, you can compile the source code if you have any additional 6GB of space available. There are a number of other dependencies, too, such as Git for source control and a variety of typical Java and developer packages. Surprisingly, Windows is not supported yet.
