Yesterday, Google released an upgrade to the Android software development kit (SDK), as promised. Android is the search giants Linux-based open platform for cell phones and smartphones.
Google says the updated SDK , called version m5-rc14, provides new and improved Android APIs and developer tools. So you've got a new user interface, the ability for developers to create layout animations for their applications, and an updated Eclipse plug-in all in the name of improving the experience of developing software for Android.
The addition of geo-coding to the SDK allows developers to translate an address into a coordinate and vice-versa, as well as search for businesses.
New media codecs in the SDK means Android developers can now add support for more audio file formats, including OGG Vorbis, MIDI, XMF, iMelody, RTTL/RTX, and OTA, to their applications than before.
Google has posted a couple of helpful documents related to the Android SDK upgrade. One offers an API Changes Overview, while the second document goes into far more detail about what's changed between m5-rc14 and the original Android SDK, called m3-rc37.
There are also instructions on how to upgrade your Android developer environment and a place developers can go, called the Android Issue Tracker, to provide feedback, and instructions on how to upgrade from the old to the new Android SDK.
According to a posting on the official Android Developers blog, the Android APIs and the tools introduced in the new SDK were based, in part, on the great feedback and suggestions developers have been giving Google.
Google says it expects keep making changes and updates to the SDK as Android evolves toward a production-level release.
Android, as a platform for mobile development and an operating system, falls under the auspices of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), which is mostly composed of major mobile telephony, semiconductoer, and mobile handset players, in addition to Google, of course.
The OHA asserts Android will make it easier and less costly to develop applications for mobile phones by removing the often complicated pre-qualification regimens and hoops mobile operators make developers jump through today while giving these wireless carriers and phone manufacturers a great deal more flexibility in the devices the former supports and the latter creates.
In theory, all of this (more freedom, less cost, greater flexibility) should be experienced by consumers as a result of Android as well. How? By making more advanced cell phones, smartphones and (even) applications cheaper to buy and easier to use, and giving consumers a greater say in the mobile handset they choose to buy and use on their carrier's wireless network.
Attendees at the giant Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain got a chance to see a number of different Android prototypes this week.
Google has also extended the deadline to receive submissions for the first part of its $10 million Android Developers Challenge by over a month to April 14th. That way developers can use the new SDK to create their application submissions.
SmartPhoneToday
