
Android 2.3 Platform - mcxx
http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.3.html
======
brown9-2
Description of a new developer feature named Strict Mode from Brad Fitzpatrick
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Fitzpatrick>):
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/eh2jf/gingerbread_a...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/eh2jf/gingerbread_aka_android_23_is_out/c181i0o)

Really neat how they are dogfooding and collecting metrics on performance from
all the employees walking around with dev builds.

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tshtf
The integrated SIP stack look excellent, but from
<http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.3-highlights.html>:

"Support for the platform's SIP and internet calling features on specific
devices is determined by their manufacturers and associated carriers."

This is disappointing, but not unexpected.

~~~
lwhi
Well - Google have to be friendly with the networks. It's in their interest.

A phone OS which allows the networks to be totally supplanted wouldn't be
marketed positively (by the networks).

~~~
trezor
> A phone OS which allows the networks to be totally supplanted wouldn't be
> marketed positively (by the networks).

This is so backwards that it hurts. A Network which _wont_ support the latest
and greatest phones with the most awesome features will lose out customers.

Around here where I live (Europe) you chose the phone you want and you chose
the plan which fits your needs. Two entirely different and disconnected
things.

I can't believe you Americans let the telcos boss you around like that. Didn't
you believe in freedom of choice, and all that? Why do you put up with this?
Vote with your wallets. Pay whoever gives you choice. Don't let Apple's (or
Google's) latest shiny toy fool you into choosing serfdom, just because it's
(currently) only available on a few (or one) carrier.

Where I live, the iPhone was launched (US-style) exclusive to one operator.
This is totally Alien here, with a capitol-A. People had to go to a lower-
quality network operator to get the first iPhone 3G. The market didn't like
this, data heavy users didn't like going to a network with a reputation for
being sucky on data. They waited it out.

Voila. More operators got it, because Apple figured they could sell more by
not being exclusive. It's not that hard.

~~~
cookiecaper
Americans allow this because in general it's much cheaper to buy a phone
subsidized over contract. Only one carrier here (T-Mobile) provides a monthly
discount for unsubsidized phones. Most people don't just have $500+ to drop
when they want or need a new phone, so it's much easier for people to go on
contract and spread out that cost, even if it costs more in the long run
(which it usually doesn't since most networks don't make any distinction in
monthly cost).

The carrier exclusivity, restrictions, and crapware are annoying, but in most
cases it's not irritating enough to convince someone to pay $300 more for the
same thing.

~~~
bad_user
> _Americans allow this because in general it's much cheaper to buy a phone
> subsidized over contract_

Subsidized phones are very popular in Europe, but the phone doesn't really
enter the equation when choosing a network.

I actually think Europeans are cheaper than Americans ... over here people
choose networks based on reliability and monthly bill, which is influenced by
included minutes or bandwidth / area or demographic popularity (since voice
minutes in the same network are cheaper).

I also have an iPhone, and in my country iPhones are still exclusive to a
single carrier. But I did what every one of my acquaintances did ... bought
one with a cheap monthly contract for 199 EUR; then unlocked it. And I didn't
even pay my last 2 monthly bill (haven't used it, so I felt like it was
unneeded); so they can sue me, but I don't really care because lock-in is not
seen favorably in Europe and they've got customers with actual debts to worry
about.

Of course, I wouldn't give this advice to other people ... just saying that
the phone doesn't enter the equation; and the marketing campaigns are
reflecting that.

~~~
McP
My brother skipped paying a tiny amount like that - he received a letter from
a debt collection agency demanding payment of the £20 bill, plus £100 payment
for the cost of hiring a debt collection agency. He then payed immediately
before it got any worse but his credit rating is still poor many years on.

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JonnieCache
The new audio support is the most exciting thing to me here. Multitouch
interfaces have such enormous potential for musical applications that have not
even begun to be explored.

iPhones and such have long had the ability to drive PC-based instruments by
sending MIDI or OSC signals through bluetooth or wifi, I have been to many
gigs in the last year and seen people using iPads running touchOSC in their
performance setups; however the high specs seen in current devices are easily
enough to run fullblown synths, samplers etc on their own. This will open up
the burgeoning art of musicians creating their own instruments to a much wider
audience.

We're going to be hearing some pretty fun noises over the next year :)

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rquirk
The new NDK lets you write an application entirely in C, no need to get your
hands dirty with Java at all. Of course this only works with android-9 (2.3),
so if you want to write a game that people can actually play you'll still need
a Java wrapper, but going forward you can bet that a lot more game ports will
be Gingerbread-only.

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keltex
This page discusses the highlights over 2.2:

<http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.3-highlights.html>

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SingAlong
Here's a quick summary from the SDK release notes:

* Alarm clock APIs

* ability to detect first install time and last update time of an app

* Download manager API

* Mixable audio effects API

* A lot more locales (including indic language support)

* SIP VOIP support

* Front camera support

* 5-point multi-touch API

* Barometer

* Gyroscope

* NFC support (near field comminucation) - can interact using high frequency wireless communication with other stuff with NFC chips. Wikipedia has a pic of a phone interacting with a smart poster.

Can anyone throw some more light on NFC stuff and also why does a phone need a
barometer?

~~~
jason
Barometer = Altitude.

~~~
FooBarWidget
Or it just senses when it's going to rain.

~~~
jrockway
Indeed. The reason that pressure altimeters work on airplanes is because your
starting altitude is known and you calibrate the barometer at that point. As
the flight progresses, you keep it updated depending on weather readings on
the ground.

But I guess the phone can just get this information from the Internet. (Or it
can just set itself to 29.92 if the GPS says you're above 18,000 feet!)

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martythemaniak
Here's a great reddit post from the author of StrictMode:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/eh2jf/gingerbread_a...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/eh2jf/gingerbread_aka_android_23_is_out/c181i0o)

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charlesdm
FUCKING FINALLY, Audio access from native code. This is going to be awesome.

~~~
wzdd
In general it looks like they are moving closer to pure-native app support --
native life cycle and more access to Surfaces as well. This is interesting as
even quite recently the official position was apps would be written in Java
with JNI portions to accelerate the slow parts. It's a good shift imo.

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nkassis
Sensor API now supports a barometer? Are they paying their dues to Gene
Roddenberry descendent's yet?

------
pdx

        SIP-based VOIP
    

Good. Let's get some competition to the adware SIP apps that are out now (I'm
looking at you, SIPDroid).

~~~
jancona
Are you saying the original open source Sipdroid
(<http://code.google.com/p/sipdroid/>) is adware? If so, why don't you remove
the ad code and publish a clean version? You can, it's open source.

Or are you talking about the many clones that re-sell it in the Market--which
they can do because it's open source?

~~~
pdx
Yes, it seems to be becoming an ad for PBXes, which is now on the very front
page when you open it.

I am aware that it's open source, which is what makes it so frustrating that
this has happened to it.

I hope that somebody does do as you suggest, but it won't be me, at least not
in the next several months. That doesn't mean I'm happy with the current state
of things.

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crocowhile
I wish they added partition encryption through the kernel (LUKS / dm_crypt).

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barmstrong
So...any word on when Android 2.3 will be available over the wire for Nexus 1?
Surprised this wasn't mentioned.

~~~
orangecat
A few weeks according to a "Developer Advocate" at Google:
<http://twitter.com/retomeier/status/11830023140937728#> . Probably shortly
after the Nexus S hits stores.

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portman
Wait, the NFC implementation is _receive-only_?

Doesn't this preclude using your phone as an NFC payment device (which would
be transmit, not receive)?

Can someone confirm if I'm parsing this correctly:

"An NFC Reader application lets the user read and interact with near-field
communication (NFC) tags. For example, the user can “touch” or “swipe” an NFC
tag that might be embedded in a poster, sticker, or advertisement, then act on
the data read from the tag. A typical use would be to read a tag at a
restaurant, store, or event and then rate or register by jumping to a web site
whose URL is included in the tag data. NFC communication relies on wireless
technology in the device hardware, so support for the platform's NFC features
on specific devices is determined by their manufacturers."

~~~
naner
Yes, an NFC Reader application only supports reading. The chip on the Nexus S
supports reading and writing[1] so, assuming the OS allows it, you can write
an application to swap contacts or whatever.

1: <http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/06/google-nexus-s-review/>

------
orangecat
Any details on WebM support? I see it listed as a feature, but no specific API
for it. I have an app where it would be very useful to turn a bunch of images
into a video file, but I haven't found a reasonable way to do that and was
hoping WebM would help.

~~~
wmf
There are APIs to play video and capture video from a camera, but for general
encoding you may have to do it yourself.

------
kgutteridge
I remember discussing gestures and NFC back at Motorolas conference the day
the iPhone 2g launched in the UK and back then all of us thought NFC would
happen in the next 12 months! Glad to see its finally arriving, though this
patent is going to prove interesting
[http://www.nearfieldcommunicationsworld.com/2010/12/03/35337...](http://www.nearfieldcommunicationsworld.com/2010/12/03/35337/patent-
application-hints-at-nokia-business-model-for-nfc/)

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Locke1689
<http://developer.android.com/sdk/images/2.3/selection.png>

This looks familiar...

[http://www.christian-kalmar.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/06/i...](http://www.christian-kalmar.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/06/iphone-copy-cut-paste.jpg)

~~~
ljf
or rather... it doesn't.

~~~
Locke1689
The draggable copy points seem to work exactly like the iPhone version. I
never said that was bad, but it definitely seems familiar.

~~~
chrisbroadfoot
It works better, actually. The anchors are much larger, so there is less room
for error (I have fat fingers!)

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bni
Still no GPU accel for the GUI?

------
martythemaniak
Bouncy scrolling too. Yay.

------
jonursenbach
Finally I no longer need to use my clunky Nexus One trackball to pick text to
copy/paste. Finally!

------
thinkcomp
Anyone want to help us integrate NFC into our Android app?

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tocomment
What's a SIP account?

~~~
tocomment
Why downvoted? I truly didn't know, and a Google search didn't turn up
anything.

~~~
jodrellblank
A google search for "sip account" turns up "Easy to use VoIP phone system.
Complete web-based telephony system" as the first advert, and the SIP page on
Wikipedia as the second link and a bunch of tutorials and howtos.

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gcb
Finally. Google waited until the telcos told so to enable voip.

Remember most telcos a while ago removing the unlimited data plan? And apple
forcing skipe to only using wifi on all platforms.

Truth that google allowed work arounds for being evil this time... you could
use sip with the buggy sip app. And you could even get free sip from google
voice if you had an old gizmoproject account.

~~~
jrockway
_Truth that google allowed work arounds for being evil this time_

I doubt this is some conspiracy between Google and the telcos. It's more of a
collection of unrelated events that happened to occur around the same time.
AT&T wanted more money (around iPad launch), so they capped the data plan.
Apple said, "sure, OK", so AT&T didn't risk losing any customers. The other
carriers noticed the lack of backlash, and here we are...

------
gcb
Love how you can't read the android site in a android phone

Unless you send a android user agent, then it changes most of the css to
enable it. Really a dumb move

~~~
nkurz
Just tried it, and yes, this is sad. Gmail is another Google site that fails
in the same unscrollable way, although at least there you can get around it by
falling back on the HTML version. Do you suppose this is due to sniffing the
particular User Agent being sent, or is it a general shortcoming of Webkit?

~~~
gcb
it's the general shortcoming of the site designers. they COPIED MICROSOFT MSDN
website! that's enought to know it's no good :)

and that's even bad while viewing in the desktop. if you increase the font, if
increase the header, to the point the header uses most of the screen space!!!
how wants to see the header?!?

just don't use the header/sidebar fixed like that. it just _breaks_ the
browser scroll functionality. in every browsers.

