Google phone no longer just a rumour
Can now write programs to test it out
By Jon Fernquest |
Rumours have been circulating for some time about the Google phone, a mobile phone operating system project by the search engine company Google.
When will mobile phones penetrate the internet in a big way?
That's the question people have been asking for a long time.
The rumours started with Google's acquisition of Android Inc. a mobile phone software company in July 2005. Andy Rubin, co-founder of Android and the subject of a Bangkok Post article today, starting working at Google with his team of developers.
Rumours intensified last month when in September 2007 when Google filed a whole series of mobile phone patents. Then again on November 5th when Google announced the launch of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium and partnership with several other mobile phone technology companies including Google, HTC, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, and NVIDIA.
Finally, on November 12th the consortium announced the release of a set of development tools that enable software developers to start developing programs for the so-called Google phone. Check out the development tools at Google.
Android has the following features:
- Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components
- Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices
- Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine
- Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional)
- SQLite for structured data storage
- Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
- GSM Telephony (hardware dependent)
- Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware dependent)
- Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer (hardware dependent)
- Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE
Vocabulary:
rumours - things that people say informally about something
rumours circulating - people are spreading a rumour
an operating system - Windows XP or Vista, Apple's operating systems, Nokia's Symbian, Linux (the software that other software runs on top of, the software infrastructure)
penetrate the internet - more people in a group use the internet
rumours intensified - more and more rumours
open - visible and usable to everyone
a handset - the actual physical phone that you hold in your hand
an alliance - joining with other purpose to achieve a goal
development tools - software helping a programmer to write more sofware in a computer programming language
application framework - a software that makes it easy to write complicated software applications or programs
reuse - using again (to avoid waste)
components - the parts that something is made of
virtual machine - software that works like a machine (you can write a program once for this virtual machine and then move then move the program and the virtual machine to different hardware platforms)
optimized for x - specially made to work fast with x
an integrated browser - a browser specially made to fit the small phone
3D graphics - three dimensional graphics, images of things on a computer screen that look like the real thing, that have volume and fill up space
2D graphics - flat pictures on a computer screen, like you draw with a pencil
hardware acceleration - hardware working faster
SQLite - a relational database (See Wikipedia)
GSM - the mobile phone technology used in Thailand
GPS - a Global Positioning System, small device that allows you determine your position on a map, mobile phones often have this device nowadays (See Wikipedia)
device emulator - software that works like hardware (used to test on your computer before you move program to hardware)
performance profiling - measuring how fast a computer program (and whether it has problems in certain places)
a plugin - software that you add (plug in) to your internet browser or other software to display additional types of content or add functions (See Wikipedia)
IDE - Integrated Development Environment, (See Wikipedia)
