Google Demos Android Mobile OS
At Google's I/O developer conference in San Francisco this week, Android engineering director Steve Horowitz demonstrated the new mobile OS.
"Google bills Android as an 'entirely open source world-class mobile stack,'" notes The Register's Cade Metz. "But at the moment, it's not open source. Google is privately developing the platform in tandem with more than 30 mobile-industry partners, and it won't open things to outside developers until version 1.0 is released 'in the second half of this year.' No, Google wouldn't get more specific than that – even when pressed. So the demo from Horowitz provided a rare glimpse of the Android stack, designed to give you 'everything you need to build a mobile phone from the ground up.'"
"The bells and whistles unveiled Wednesday included: a way to unlock phones by drawing a specific shape on the touchscreen instead of entering a password; bookmarks for favorite Web sites on the device's home page; a 'compass' tool that automatically roams with the phone while a user looks at photographic images of a city map; a magnifying tool to zoom in on Web content; and a mobile version of the video game 'Pac Man,'" writes the AP's Michael Liedtke.
More here from InfoWorld … more here from InternetNews … more here from CNET News … more here from ReadWriteWeb … more here from eWeek … and a video of the presentation is here.