Three Percent

Posted by:     Tags:  , , , , , , , , ,     Posted date:  March 2, 2010  |  3 Comments


March 2, 2010


Convertcast
March 1
Episode 32

Guest: Michael Herald

Palm WebOS
memory leaks
1.4 update
video
screenshots
apps: WebOS and Android
speed

Resets – are they a think of the past?

App development

Windows Phone 7 Series (still a mouthful!)

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      • http://Website(optional) kieranEire

        Wow Ali, I was completely shocked when I heard this Podcast. Especially in regards to the claims about Android. That guy Michael really has no idea. First lets correct the Sat Nav thing, Igo 8, Copilot and several other turn by turn Sat Nav solutions are available on Android. IPhone games such as Homerun Battle 3d for example have been ported to Android. Just like the sat nav programs you can install files to the SD card and only the main app has to reside in memory. Hardware id the main reason for fragmentation on Android. The v2.0 and 2.1 to v 15/1.6 devices not the api. The later like the Nexus one and Droid are use ARMv7 (cortex) processors with 3d acceleration running between 800 and 1000mhz. This is happening on the iPhone, the 3GS has features and apis not supported on the 3G. Just try and get the compass app on a 3g.

        Please take of your iPhone glasses and at least either do some proper research or get someone who knows what they are talking about in regards to Android on the show.

      • http://Website(optional) Michael

        Ok, now that was a very harsh comment. However you do have me on the GPS software available for Android. I did state that I wasn’t sure on that since I don’t use GPS software that often on my mobile device anymore. The preinstalled TeleNav software is fine for most of my needs on a mobile device. Most of the time I just use my stand-alone GPS unit.

        It’s not just hardware that causes the fragmentation, it’s the OS versions as well. Android 1.5 lacks features that are available in the newer versions of Android. I would image to be able to use these new features, new application programming interfaces would need to be implemented into the SDK. Since older versions of Android may not be able to use these APIs, developers may have to limit some features of their apps so they can run on older versions of the platform (or create two different versions). One example would be creating an app that might want to use some of the newer features of Google Maps. Now you did hit the nail when you mentioned the hardware as a part of fragmentation. I see that currently on the webOS with the Pixi and Pre. The Pre and Pre Plus devices can run 3D accelerated games, while both the Pixi and Pixi Plus currently cannot.

        As far as installing apps on storage cards, I was referring to installing the main app on the storage card. I have not seen that as an option unless you root the device. I can understand installing files on the storage card that the app may use, ie GPS Maps, but I don’t believe it’s possible just yet to officially install apps on the storage card. Well at least I don’t see an option when I download apps in the Market on where I want to install them.

        I’ve used Android for a little over two months and was just talking about my experiences from switching from webOS to Android and then back to webOS. The device I am using is the HTC Hero on Sprint. I know it’s not the best hardware out there, especially comparing to the Nexus One or Droid. However the fact that it’s running Android 1.5 keeps it out of the loop of the true Google experience.

      • http://Website(optional) kieranEire

        The sat nav assertion was flawed, This is important because it shows that Android can install large parts of an application to a memory card. Installing the main app with a small footprint on the device memory results in not only better performance but less drain on a battery. So when your running your Pre apps installed on the memory card in the background they are having a much larger impact on the battery. this could be a contributing factor to the Pres poor battery life.

        Then you further reasoned that this was probably why iPhone games where not ported to Android or why there was a poor selection. However Homerun Battle 3D one of the iphones most graphically intensive and popular games was ported Android but not the Palm Pre. EA games are constantly releasing games for Android such as Monopoly and Tiger woods golf. Hopefully command and conquer next.

        Your example of Google Maps is flawed as Google maps is not part of Android its a third party application. The reason Google have not supported 1.6 with new features such as buzz is not because of of an api limitation but because they intend to roll out Android 2.1 for every device in the US meaning a G1 will support all new apis. Though you also contradicted yourself claiming its too late for a 2.1 update for the Hero as its old hardware. Even though the device you have the Hero was only released on sprint in October 2009. That’s a mere 5-6 months ago. Any person with a G1 will have next month a device with Android 2.1. Thats a device that will be able to use all Googles services and will be missing no hardware relevant to the OS and its apis. This cannot be said of the iphone where the 3gs adds a digital compass enabling improved navigation and compass apps. Auto focusing camera allowing barcode scanning, OCR and both together augmented reality apps. None of which will be possible on the iPhone. The Google experience is less fragmented that the iPhone and next month will be even less so. Google cannot win if you say they should update a device that is out of date can they.

        The other myth about Android and fragmentation is the screen resolutions. However Android uses fourth generation UI development in much the same way as XAML and the new Windows phone series 7 will. That is the UI is in a markup language with forms size and position using layouts etc rather than absolutes. Done properly this removes the screen resolution problem. Fragmentation on the basis in WM was due to bad development more than anything else.