Google, mobile alliance partners provide 'early look' at Android SDK
Software development kit is released; $10M contest planned to entice developers
November 12, 2007 (Computerworld) -- The Open Handset Alliance today released an "early look" version of the software development kit for Android, the Linux-based mobile software stack that Google Inc. and its partners in the OHA detailed last week.
In addition to the SDK, Google today announced a contest with a total prize kitty of $10 million to try to encourage developers to build mobile applications based on the Android technology, which will provide an operating system, a user interface, middleware and applications for use in future smart phones.
Google said that as part of the Android Developer Challenge, a panel of judges chosen from among OHA members and "the industry in general" will award cash prizes ranging from $25,000 to $275,000. Half of the $10 million will be awarded for entries submitted between Jan. 2 and March 3 of next year, the company said. The other $5 million will be distributed in a second round that will start after the first Android-based phones appear in the second half of 2008.
A posting today by Google engineering director Steve Horowitz on The Official Google Blog includes links to a page that explains how the contest will work and to another where developers can download the early version of the Android SDK.
Through Google, the OHA has also set up a blog and a discussion group to enable developers to interact with one another and with Google engineers.
The OHA describes Android as "a complete mobile platform" built on a Linux 2.6 kernel, which supports a custom-built virtual machine called Dalvik virtual machine that was designed by Google to help maximize application performance and security in mobile devices. The full Android technology is scheduled to be released next year under a Version 2 of the open-source Apache Software License.
Touchscreen capabilities also will be supported in Android, according to a discussion thread among developers that was already fairly active shortly after the SDK's release. Synaptics Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif., announced today that will provide a software driver to enable touchscreen interfaces for the Android SDK.
The SDK includes tutorials and sample development code as well as a plug-in for integrating its tools with the Eclipse open-source development framework. One of the code samples, which have been posted on Google's Web site, is a "Lunar Lander" game that includes a mobile-device screenshot of a spaceship that can be controlled to land on a lunar landscape with a partial view of Earth in the distance.
Four variations of Android wallpaper are also available online for an assortment of screen sizes. The Android logo is a light green droid with legs, arms and a head that includes eyes and antennae but no mouth.