An Android article Written by Trevsweb

Android description brief

Based on Linux, Android is an exciting venture for Google,  it has pushed out of the safe and comfy arena of search engines and maps to bring a new mobile operating system that might make even the Apple Iphone fans prick up their ears.

Heralding an era in open source software, Android plans to turn the market on its head. Having a freely available software development kit and a lot of resources backing it up, Google hopes to make a significant impact when it is released.

Android features

You cannot have a new mobile operating system without boasting about what it can do and Google has gone to a lot of trouble to push the software out into the market, even before it has even been commercially available. Late last year a contest was announced to create a storm with developers around the world. Entries have already been judged and winners announced, although a lot of map and internet reliant software shows that Google is looking for something remarkable for its software.

Progressively changing user interface has gone from a very simple design to an almighty beast, maybe enough to get a double take from passing Apple users. What is good in the eyes of Gizmondo users is that Android can function without a touch- screen, which is very good news to some of you touch-screen haters out there and our directional-padded Gizmondos.

Google promises all the support for the functions of what is expected of a mobile device these days: WIFI, Bluetooth, touch-screen, GPRS and 3G, the list goes on. You can read that list via the Google Android website. Google being Google wants to plug every single section of their business. It looks like updated versions of Google maps with street view and their ever-popular search engine will, without a doubt, make an appearance. One thing unresolved is the browser. The current browser is based on the open source programme, WebKit, although we may wonder whether Google will be giving us their interpretation of WebKit with their Chrome browser ? I’m sure they’re keeping a few secrets for shock value when the full version is available.

Gizmondo relation

Well what does this mean for our little Gizmondo? Rumours close to the top have surfaced saying development for an android version of the Gizmondo may already be in the works. Android’s flexibility and future development make Gizmondo’s choice to develop an Android Gizmondo a very clever move to return to the public eye.

“We are excited about the potential of Android and have been working on an Android version of the Giz…Android would be a TERRIFIC addition to the Gizmondo and enable a TON of open source development.“ - Rich Jenkins CEO Media Power Inc.

The first commercial Android Smartphone will be available by the end of the year. The HTC Dream under the T-mobile brand is highly anticipated but if Gizmondo can ride the wave of other hardware manufacturers then its reliability and power could attract a lot of attention. Gizmondo might even achieve notoriety for being the first gaming Android device in the world, which could give back some credit to a broken brand.

The likelihood of the Gizmondo commercial success just relying on Window’s Mobile or Window’s CE is very improbable as the development community is probably not as focused as that found on portable devices, like the Iphone or even the PSP and DS, which create interesting home-brew applications. Gizmondo needs this gimmick to show it’s still innovative in the market.

The upgrade of older Gizmondos is a tricky predicament. We have the availability of all the possible future developments on the Android platform, but this means we will lose our back catalogue of games. Destroying a semi-decent game library would be counter-productive for Gizmondo and also likely to annoy early adopters from the first Gizmondo? Gizmondo sadly don’t have the resources to get content on their device let alone exclusive titles anymore, Porting old titles would be an option, but not this early on.

Gizmondo hopes to push its open source commitments and Google’s Android can help it there. Let’s hope this is more than a pipe dream and aspirations can be soon realised.

Check out the following sites for more information on Android

http://code.google.com/android/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Android
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=google+android&search_type=&aq=f
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/
http://code.google.com/android/adc.html