Three short stories, all about Android [LWN.net]

By Jonathan Corbet
February 5, 2010

Occasionally, your editor will be struck by a series of topics all associated with a common theme. The recent fuss about Android's presence (or the lack thereof) in the mainline kernel ties in well with a couple of other items of notice: the Nexus One phone and the role of free software on the Android platform in general.

New toy

Thanks to some generosity on the part of Google's open source office, your editor is now in possession of a shiny new Nexus One handset. For some, this might not seem to be hugely exciting news; the Nexus One is another Android phone, and Android has been reviewed here before. That said, this device is noteworthy, to that point that its predecessor (an Android Dev Phone 1) has found itself headed toward early retirement.

As hardware goes, the Nexus is a beautiful device. It's less bulky than the ADP1, but it's far more capable. The screen is gorgeous and more responsive to touch than the ADP1 screen. The device has a real headphone jack, making it easy to connect to arbitrary audio systems. (On the other hand, the use of yet another mini-USB connector format for the charger is not appreciated). The camera works well and audio quality is good. Perhaps nicest, though, is the 1GHz processor, which makes this device the fastest and most responsive phone your editor has ever used.

The Android software has progressed somewhat beyond what is currently available for the ADP1. There is a 2.6.29 kernel (sort of - see below) and lots of eye candy. The device now has turn-by-turn navigation built into it - a great feature; it's just too bad that the voice that comes with it is so annoying. Your editor would suggest that anybody wanting a Nexus One, but lacking the resources to purchase one, could simply search alongside busy roads for handsets thrown out the window when their owners realized they simply could not listen to that voice any longer. "Goggles" will perform searches using the camera, which could prove useful for those "WTF is that?" questions. With the recently-pushed update, Google has finally incorporated multitouch into the device, even for those of us living in the USA.

The point of an open Android phone, though, is that one need not live with what the vendor has provided. The Cyanogen builds are the definitive alternative firmware for Android phones. As of this writing, builds for the Nexus are in a rather early state; in fact, only a beta image is available. There is also the obligatory enhanced recovery image out there. For the less adventurous, there is also an add-on image from Cyanogen which adds various command line utilities and an improved kernel to the existing firmware. Your editor hopes to be able to play with all of these in the near future, stay tuned.

Kernel participation

Greg Kroah-Hartman's recent discussion of the removal of the Android code from the staging tree contained little in the way of surprises, but it seemed to surprise enough people anyway to get a wide distribution. The problem here is simple: Google did its Android development work behind closed doors, then threw it out into the world as a fait accompli that was not subject to outside improvements. This code, unsurprisingly, was not seen as fit for immediate inclusion into the mainline kernel, even when non-Google people made the effort. It's a rare patch that doesn't need some sort of change; patches adding strange new features - some of which duplicate existing functionality - have an especially hard time.

Shipping new kernel features to users before being sure that those features will be accepted upstream can be a fundamental mistake, especially where new APIs are involved. Kernel developers tend to be cautious about API additions, since they must be supported forever; any API shortcomings need to be fixed before they can be merged. But if that API has been shipped to customers, the company responsible is faced with the choice of imposing an API change on those customers or maintaining the code as a fork.

Google seems to have taken the fork approach; indeed, recent comments from Google employees suggest that the company sees no problem with long-term forks. It is a little strange to hear that a few months after another Google employee gave a talk on how the company wants to work much more closely with with the kernel community. The kernel has been one of the unifying factors that has helped Linux to avoid the kind of fragmentation which plagued proprietary Unix and which we have seen in the BSD community as well. Google is doing a lot of things right; it has created a Linux-based phone platform which can compete with the best. It would be a shame, though, if Google were to do all this at the cost of bringing unwanted fragmentation to Linux.

Free applications

The Android "Market" gives access to a wide array of applications. Many of those cost money; others are free. There's even a button to select only free applications, for those who are not looking to pull out their credit cards at the moment. But "free," in the Android Market sense, is purely "free beer." Some of the "free" applications are indeed free software, but there is really no way for the user to know that or to look specifically for free/open source programs.

Twenty years ago, many of us were busily installing free applications on top of proprietary kernels and low-level libraries. The arrival of a viable free kernel made it possible to create 100% free systems, and large numbers of people have never looked back. Now, with Android, we have a free kernel which is heavily layered with proprietary applications on top. These applications cannot be changed or fixed, and they can lead to unfortunate situations like the cease-and-desist notice served against the Cyanogen build last year. They can also be loaded with antifeatures; your editor was recently put into the position of having to explain the "Unlimited girls on your G1!" ad helpfully displayed by WeatherBug to his spouse.

There are good free applications out there. The ConnectBot SSH client can be hard to do without. Astrid looks like a useful task manager; Tomdroid can be used in that mode as well. Android-wifi-tether is a hugely useful utility which turns a phone into a wireless access point connected through the cellular network. (Note that use of this tool may well put one at odds with one's cellular carrier; it also requires an enhanced kernel on some platforms). Your editor is not prepared to be quite so enthusiastic about the K9 mail client, but it is improving, slowly. Ringdroid is a good way to make your own special annoying ring tones. And so on.

Clearly, free applications exist for Android. But finding them takes work, which is silly; this is a perfect job for a computer. An ideal solution would be for Google to add a "freely-licensed" option to its (proprietary) market application. Failing that, it should be possible (for somebody with a bit more Android application-level programming experience than your editor) to put together an alternative market application which would focus on the growing body of free software for the Android system. It is an area worthy of encouragement; free software doesn't become less important just because it's running on a machine that fits into a shirt pocket.

to post comments

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 5, 2010 21:51 UTC (Fri) by kragil (guest, #34373) [Link] (3 responses)

The "yet another mini-USB connector format" is micro-USB and will be the mandatory standard for all phones in the EU.

micro-USB

Posted Feb 5, 2010 22:18 UTC (Fri) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]

Indeed, it's a standard that has been agreed on for the data and power
connection for "almost all" the major cell phone companies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Mini_an...
My late-2008 LG Lotus and my Plantronics bluetooth headset both use micro-
USB.

HTC has been a holdout with their proprietary connector, so I'm pleased that
the Nexus One has micro-USB.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 5, 2010 22:20 UTC (Fri) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link] (1 responses)

it's already used by various other devices as well (the kindle 2 and kindle DX use it for example)

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 6, 2010 16:13 UTC (Sat) by JoeF (guest, #4486) [Link]

The B&N nook uses ti as well.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 5, 2010 21:51 UTC (Fri) by marduk (guest, #3831) [Link] (35 responses)

OS X, and therefore, iPhone OS, are also platforms also derives from free software, but has forked
from it and, in some ways, alienated itself from that which it has been derived.

Android seems to have repeated this formula. It appears to be very successful.

I too was intrigued by the thought of Android and it's "openness" and have been watching the
different hardware coming out for them with interest, but thus for nothing has dissuaded me from
considering these things as nothing more than "locked-down PCs that dictate what I can run on
them and force me to sign register and subscribe to a huge media conglomerate in order to
make use of most of what it offers."

So not much better than a PS3. I'll wait for something else to arrive that's also commercially
viable, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 5, 2010 22:21 UTC (Fri) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (34 responses)

What you describe sounds accurate for the iPhone, but not for Android.

Even if Google forked the kernel, it's still Free Software. Depending on the
specific device it may or may not be somewhat locked-down (though always
less than iPhone). There's nothing at all stopping you from installing
whatever Android applications you want on there, with no approval from
Google or anyone else required.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 5, 2010 22:39 UTC (Fri) by briangmaddox (guest, #39279) [Link] (33 responses)

No, Android suffers from another problem. Google proved with it's exclusivity agreement with Verizon that it's more than willing to withhold versions of the software from other carriers just to get more limelight (no other phone can get Android 2 until a certain period of time runs out). With the Nexus One they're showing that they want to follow business as usual: lets sell things and then make it insanely hard for people who pay us money to actually get any support. That's what bugged me more than anything about Google and promises of openness and the main reason I'm starting to regret picking up an Android phone.

Some day Google fan boys will realize they're not quite the second coming they want people to think they are.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 5, 2010 22:47 UTC (Fri) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (32 responses)

You do realize that the Nexus One has Android 2.1, right? That seems to
shoot a hole in the idea of no other phone getting Android 2 soon after
Verizon.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 5, 2010 22:51 UTC (Fri) by briangmaddox (guest, #39279) [Link] (10 responses)

I do realize. And until the Nexus One came out, no one else could get their hooks on it between the Droid launch and the Nexus One. And to reiterate the point, had Google not come out with the Nexus One, everyone else but the Droid would be stuck with 1.6. Exclusivity deals go against the whole OSS concept ya know?

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 5, 2010 23:02 UTC (Fri) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (9 responses)

Open Source Software. Have at it: http://source.android.com/

source

Posted Feb 5, 2010 23:07 UTC (Fri) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] (8 responses)

That's the source for the free parts of the base system, which is great. Was my writing that unclear, though? I was talking about applications, as found in the Android market.

source

Posted Feb 5, 2010 23:12 UTC (Fri) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (7 responses)

Er, yeah, that's what you were talking about. But briangmaddox was
complaining about a lack of Android 2, not about the applications that run
on it.

source

Posted Feb 5, 2010 23:20 UTC (Fri) by briangmaddox (guest, #39279) [Link] (3 responses)

Nope, I'm complaining about why other manufacturers couldn't release 2.0 updates to their phones and instead kept them at 1.5/1.6. And Google pledged to work with Verizon on exclusive Droid features.

But I'll leave that Googling as an exercise to the reader :)

source

Posted Feb 5, 2010 23:34 UTC (Fri) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (1 responses)

You invoked "the whole OSS concept", which in my experience has little to do
with what manufacturers build into their devices beyond "is the source
available?". What's more relevant is whether you can change/replace the code
in your device.

FWIW, my understanding is that 2.x updates (probably 2.1) to at least some
non-Verizon phones are due out in the first half of this year.

source

Posted Feb 6, 2010 13:08 UTC (Sat) by alankila (guest, #47141) [Link]

And perhaps it ought to be mentioned that I've been running an unofficial 2.1 on my Hero for about a
month now. HTC's still working on releasing an official 2.1, but I think by this point I don't much care
what they will release.

I'm hoping that someone will make a ROM image that can be dumped into most existing android
phones, and most people simply run that and forget about manufacturer's ROMs...

source

Posted Feb 6, 2010 9:12 UTC (Sat) by lacostej (guest, #2760) [Link]

> I'm complaining about why other manufacturers couldn't release 2.0
updates
> to their phones and instead kept them at 1.5/1.6.

there are some technical reasons for some of these phones being stuck with
1.x (e.g. G1). Second Google doesn't dictate what the phone companies are
doing. If they want to stick to 1.x they do. You think of an android phone
like a Linux computer, these companies still think of them as their
hardware.

It's not Google's or Android's fault.

You could buy a ADP1, like me. it's carrier agnostic. Or unlock your phone.

> And Google pledged to
> work with Verizon on exclusive Droid features.

Google sell an OS stack to hardware companies, and services to add
features. It's normal for these companies to compete on hardware &
features. The core is still open. Same as Linux distributions...

Don't worry if a feature is really useful for android it will end up in the
core.

source

Posted Feb 5, 2010 23:31 UTC (Fri) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] (2 responses)

OK, sorry. Long week and I'm getting irritable...

source

Posted Feb 5, 2010 23:36 UTC (Fri) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]

No problem; I know the feeling. :-)

source

Posted Feb 8, 2010 2:40 UTC (Mon) by davi (guest, #18853) [Link]

Nexus One is a cool gadget, but it is not 100% free software.

Google adds a little non-free enough to lock customers :)

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 7, 2010 12:56 UTC (Sun) by hingo (guest, #14792) [Link] (20 responses)

I'm no fanboy, I'm just looking at what's available. And right now, in the U.S., Android looks to me like the best compromise of open, available, and application availability (which depends greatly on availability network effects and somewhat on openness).

For someone living outside of America, this never ceases to surprise me. When you say Android is the best "what's available", did you also count Maemo (Nokia N900), or do you count it as "not available" (which isn't true, but I realize you may have to search down the right isle at Fry's or something).

If you count the Maemo as available but not as good as Android, I would be interested to know why. I have only brief encounters with either, but as far as I can see, Maemo: is more open, including that it works much better with upstream projects; is available; doesn't have as strong a marketplace as Android or Apple, but does have more FOSS applications available.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 7, 2010 17:07 UTC (Sun) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link] (4 responses)

I can't speak for the OP, but for me the biggest drawback to the N900 is the silence. Android has a vibrant developer community churning out tons of apps, lots of different companies creating Android devices in all sorts of form factors, and tons of passionate end users. It's quite impressive.

As for Nokia? A single uninspired handset and pretty much zero community. >crickets<

The N900 really smells like a one-company dead-end platform. How long will Nokia keep dumping cash down that hole?

So, even though the N900 appears to have an top-notch software stack, I'm carrying around an Android device. And, when I that ebook reader, I'll be carrying multiple.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 7, 2010 17:40 UTC (Sun) by halla (subscriber, #14185) [Link]

Maybe you're looking in the wrong place? It's so easy to feel that a community is dead -- I tend to think that Gnome is all but dead, even though I read planet.gnome.org, but I'm sure it's a hugely vibrant community where lots of cool things happen. Similarly, I've never seen any evidence of Android being alive in any real sense of the word, while I'm seeing so many cool and interesting things happening in Maemo...

Given that Android and Gnome tend to be US-centric, and KDE/Qt EU- the stuff that's happening because Gnome/GTK is being phased out?g

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 11, 2010 10:50 UTC (Thu) by epa (subscriber, #39769) [Link]

Surely somebody has ported the Android stack to run on the N900 so you can install Android applications?

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 11, 2010 16:36 UTC (Thu) by dsommers (subscriber, #55274) [Link]

As for Nokia? A single uninspired handset and pretty much zero community.

You're very much welcome to #maemo and #maemo-devel on FreeNode ... I'm struggling to see "zero community" there. It's actually pretty responsive channels ...

Search and you will find ...

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 12, 2010 19:05 UTC (Fri) by jebba (guest, #4439) [Link]

> As for Nokia? A single uninspired handset and pretty much zero community. >crickets<

I don't know where you get that from. I didn't check my mail for a couple days and have over 50 messages in my maemo-devel folder. http://lists.maemo.org/pipermail/maemo-developers/2010-Fe...

On the forum, http://talk.maemo.org, it reports:
"Currently Active Users: 1255 (302 members and 953 guests)" -- "Threads: 38,568, Posts: 513,203, Members: 33,384"

In sum, you are wrong.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 8, 2010 2:38 UTC (Mon) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (14 responses)

I did not count Maemo, because yes I do consider it "not available" here,
or at least "not usefully available". (Here in Ohio I've never even seen a
Fry's, let alone been in one, and the closest approximation around here
doesn't have that sort of thing.)

There are two things you have to keep in mind about the U.S. market. The
first is that the cellular market is fragmented: phones are closely tied to
carriers because there isn't a single national technology standard. Just
looking at voice and 2G, two major carriers use CDMA (no user-exchangable
SIM cards) and two use GSM like Europe. Then when you get into 3G data,
even if you have a GSM phone and a GSM carrier, they might not use the same
frequency band for 3G. So an unlocked phone isn't nearly as useful here as
it is in other countries.

The second thing is pricing. People in the U.S. almost never pay full
retail price for a phone; it's subsidized by a two-year contract with a
carrier. For example, back in October my wife bought an Android-based HTC
Hero from Sprint for $180, which is the price with two-year contract and
$100 rebate. Without that contract and rebate it would've been $480. She
(nor I) would not have been willing to pay that $480, much less $600+ for
an N900. And as far as I know, no U.S. carriers have an N900.

As for application availability, I simply haven't heard of any applications
for Maemo. Meanwhile everybody and their brother is writing apps for the
iPhone, and a large proportion of those people are now also writing (and
releasing!) apps for Android. The network effects of iPhone and Android
popularity in this country are very important.

(I have enough trouble finding decent J2ME applications for my old phone,
and J2ME is certainly an open platform.)

As I've said before, I'm sure things are very different in other countries.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 8, 2010 3:12 UTC (Mon) by mjg59 (subscriber, #23239) [Link] (1 responses)

t-mobile offer non-subsidy plans at $20 a month less than the ones with subsidised handsets, so as long as you're willing to deal with them then it's entirely possible to save money by not buying a subsidised phone these days.

T-Mobile

Posted Feb 12, 2010 14:54 UTC (Fri) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]

T-Mobile has a lot of great incentives and perks. Unfortunately they also
have the worst coverage (likely the reason for all those incentives), and no
coverage near my home.

Otherwise I probably would've gotten a G1 when it was introduced, and would
definitely have a Nexus One now. :-)

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 8, 2010 22:19 UTC (Mon) by Tuna-Fish (guest, #61751) [Link] (10 responses)

Re: apps for maemo

Maemo includes a full debian stack -- nearly every app you have on your desktop can be trivially ported to it. Actually, the biggest hurdle usually is adapting packages to it's insane filesystem layout (anything that takes any space at all needs to be put in /opt or /home), the actual porting part is usually just an uneventful crosscompile. Stuff like Skype, various proper productivity suites, and, of course games like Jagged Alliance 2 run perfectly.

apps for Maemo

Posted Feb 8, 2010 22:39 UTC (Mon) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (9 responses)

You really need something netbook/tablet-sized before desktop apps start to
make sense, which is why so many people were disappointed that the iPad runs
the iPhone OS instead of fullsized OS X, while nobody ever wanted to run
fullsize OS X apps on the iPhone.

apps for Maemo

Posted Feb 9, 2010 9:02 UTC (Tue) by Tuna-Fish (guest, #61751) [Link]

With the stylus, you get just as accurate as with a mouse, making stuff like drawing apps usable, and the normal buttons are surprisingly usable even with fingers.

That being said, the most time I have spent with one has been inside the terminal. 800*480 is just about enough for 80*24.

apps for Maemo

Posted Feb 11, 2010 16:46 UTC (Thu) by dsommers (subscriber, #55274) [Link] (6 responses)

That's cool. I love the idea of Debian on my phone. The trouble is that nearly every app on my desktop was designed for either an 80-column terminal or a minimum 800x600 screen (*maybe* 640x480), along with a pointer that's much more accurate than my fingers. Pocket-device apps really are a different beast than desktop apps.

You do know that the N900 got 800x480 resolution? That's just 0x120 pixels away from your 800x600 requirement ... And far beyond the "*maybe* 640x480"

The font which I use for the Terminal (Monospace 12), which is very much readable btw, gives me 79 characters in the width. Going down to Monospace 10 gives me 99 characters, and is readable as well but not as well as font size 12.

You do know that the N900 got a stylus as well, which is "much more accurate than my fingers."?

I'm sorry ... but I can't help thinking you don't know much about the N900 specifications at all. Go look at one! YouTube is filled with videos of it, if you don't have a shop nearby selling them.

apps for Maemo

Posted Feb 11, 2010 22:45 UTC (Thu) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (5 responses)

You're right, I don't know much about N900 specs. See my comments above
about availability and the issues with the US market. (And I didn't even
mention that one of the two GSM carriers in this country has no coverage
where I live.) Why should I bother learning all its details when it's not
really available to me in any practical way?

And if you think I'd even consider buying a $500+ phone without getting my
hands on it first, you're nuts.

(Why do the Maemo fans come out of the woodwork every time Android is
mentioned?)

stylus

Posted Feb 11, 2010 22:47 UTC (Thu) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (3 responses)

Oh, and there's no way I'm interested in using a *stylus* for a *phone*.
Yeesh.

stylus

Posted Feb 12, 2010 1:04 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Seconded. Styli on phones might be good for Zaphod Beeblebrox, but for
those of us with only two hands, not so much. (Let alone those of us with
only two hands and awful coordination. I go to some lengths to avoid using
things shaped like pens, thanks.)

stylus

Posted Feb 12, 2010 9:10 UTC (Fri) by dsommers (subscriber, #55274) [Link] (1 responses)

Gee man ... is this a flame-bait or what?

But just to correct possible misunderstandings. N900/Maemo is a "finger" GUI. I use my fingers very much successfully 99% of the time. But I find the stylus very useful when marking text in the terminal. In other words, you have the best of both worlds. And if you don't like stylus at all, feel free to skip it. I just happen to find it convenient occasionally.

stylus

Posted Feb 12, 2010 14:51 UTC (Fri) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]

I mentioned that app availability is an issue on Maemo. The response from Maemo fans was basically "you can run anything you can run on Debian". Cool, I responded, but those aren't really practical for a small touch screen. That's OK, comes the response, you can use a stylus. I recoil in horror at using a stylus for a phone, and the response is that it's a finger GUI.

So, back to the original problem: app availability.

Anyway, it'll be tough for me to switch to any touch-oriented screen from my LG Lotus flip-style phone. Yet I'm still looking to do so, for one reason: app availability. Not many decent J2ME apps around compared to Android apps.

apps for Maemo

Posted Feb 12, 2010 7:57 UTC (Fri) by hingo (guest, #14792) [Link]

(Why do the Maemo fans come out of the woodwork every time Android is mentioned?)

Actually, my original intent was not to fanboy anything, just to confirm whether Maemo/N900 is still considered "unavailable" in the US. Likewise, you might consider yourself educated by this thread that a) the Android/iPhone dominance, while a significant phenomenon, is a US anomaly and b) there are indeed apps (and lots of low hanging migration potential) for Maemo.

I find discussions like these very educational, and much cheaper than either of us having to travel to another continent to learn about this.

apps for Maemo

Posted Feb 12, 2010 15:53 UTC (Fri) by wookey (guest, #5501) [Link]

Whilst you may not have many non-desktop apps installed, there are plenty in Debian already. The whole GPE suite, most of the Free Smartphone stack, intone, tangoGPS etc. There is of course still a great deal of work to be done on this front, and simply installing plain Debian (or emdebian) on a freerunner or N900 could currently fairly be described as 'crappy', there is quite a lot of activity giong on to make this less painful and more mainstream.

Maemo or Mer or SHR plus a pile of extra apps from Debian is already straightforward.

And there is at least one phone platform which already runs on an emdebian base and is partly built with open hardware (balloonboard): the Toby-Churchill Lightwriter
(my current day-job). But you won't like the prices!

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 19, 2010 11:43 UTC (Fri) by robbe (guest, #16131) [Link]

The subsidised phone is not a phenomenon specific to the US. Here in
Austria a new customer usually gets to select from a few models with no
upfront cost at all.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 5, 2010 21:57 UTC (Fri) by sdague (guest, #7731) [Link] (2 responses)

The ExtUSB plug that all the HTC phones use is fully backwards compatible to mini B, you can use a mini B cable to charge or do usb mounting. The extra pins are used to direct route audio. (Which can be taken advantage of by a dongle like this: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001QD3MQE/seasmen...)

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 5, 2010 22:00 UTC (Fri) by dumas (guest, #10467) [Link]

Nexus One uses a Micro-USB connector, not HTC's proprietary ExtUSB plug.

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 7, 2010 20:53 UTC (Sun) by PO8 (guest, #41661) [Link]

In my experience the mechanics are bad enough mini-B connectors don't reliably maintain their connection to the ExtUSB data pins. I haven't been able to use a mini-B connector for USB connectivity with my ADP G1. My mini-USB charger works fine, though.

If only there were an Android phone with

Posted Feb 6, 2010 13:55 UTC (Sat) by debacle (subscriber, #7114) [Link]

decent video telephony support available in Europe.

This a recent firmware update for Nexus One users.

Posted Feb 7, 2010 3:55 UTC (Sun) by leemgs (guest, #24528) [Link]

I got the Nexus One phone from a companion of korea android community free of charge. If you have a this phone. I suggest that you will update firmware with ver2.1-update1 to use multi-touch on android platform.
* download - http://android-group-korea.googlecode.com/files/nexusone-...

A fourth short story

Posted Feb 7, 2010 11:46 UTC (Sun) by mp (subscriber, #5615) [Link] (3 responses)

Guess who is using Android now?

A fourth short story

Posted Feb 8, 2010 14:39 UTC (Mon) by hudson (guest, #63235) [Link] (2 responses)

He also said that he isn't too worried about the out-of-tree Android development:

I don't worry about out-of-tree development for odd devices too much. I wish we could merge android, but I also accept it likely being a few years away. We had similar out-of-tree issues with the SGI extreme scalability stuff, and it took quite a while before the standard kernel merged all of that.

costs of using forked Linux

Posted Feb 11, 2010 6:41 UTC (Thu) by pjm (guest, #2080) [Link] (1 responses)

I think he's saying that mainly as Linux maintainer rather than as a user of such a forked kernel. For example, trying to develop software for a machine that uses ARM architecture and Linux 2.4 is *really painful* because both Linux and glibc ABIs have changed since those days, and it isn't practical to upgrade Linux to 2.6 on the machine because it uses a forked copy of Linux, and its special devices haven't continued to be updated along with mainline Linux.

If you want to upgrade Linux and GregKH always strongly encourages you to do so then you don't want to be using a forked copy.

misquote

Posted Feb 11, 2010 21:39 UTC (Thu) by pjm (guest, #2080) [Link]

I apologize for the out-of-context quote of GregKH. I said it more because I find humour in the understated strongly encouraged phrase (by contrast with the heated nature of the discussions that tend to follow it here on LWN) than because I think it the primary reason to avoid forks; and of course I wasn't trying to say that GregKH strongly encourages people not to use any device with a forked version of Linux.

(And nor do I wish, with this explanation, to trivialize the serious issues of how best to obtain security for computer users; though I do hope we can think about how to make such discussions more likely to lead to understanding & change, and less destructive.)

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 8, 2010 5:43 UTC (Mon) by bradfitz (subscriber, #4378) [Link]

Better idea: the open source community should write its own open source
Market app and maintain its own registry of open source apps. (without $25
developer registration fees, too).

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 8, 2010 11:10 UTC (Mon) by tykepenguin (guest, #4346) [Link] (1 responses)

Have you thought about registering awn.net ? This site seems to be turning into the Android Weekly News ;-)

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 9, 2010 7:21 UTC (Tue) by rsidd (guest, #2582) [Link]

I see very little about android on either the daily updates page or in the
recent weekly editions. Do silly/unfair comments become less silly/unfair
when a smiley is appended?

Three short stories, all about Android

Posted Feb 10, 2010 22:27 UTC (Wed) by 10SFLC023 (guest, #58567) [Link]

Hey, Jonathan. I've been working on a free market for Android. See my blog post at http://www.copiesofcopies.org/webl/?p=75. As I wrote there, I was going to wait to put any code up till it was a little more useful, but after reading your article I decided to just put up what I had and see if I could enlist a little help and prevent anyone duplicating my effort. Keep up the great work!

-Aaron Williamson