Android 3.0

allen175

Lets hope for 3.0 for Desire.

Reports on Gingerbread's specs--yanked from a Russian podcast--indicate that Android 3.0 will be released sometime in mid-October, and the first handsets with Gingerbread will begin to ship in November and/or December (maybe that 2 GHz Motorola Android phone??). This will also mean that Android will officially take two paths: v3.0 for high-end phones and v2.1/v2.2 for mainstream phones.

Source

heebusjeebus

Gingerbread will demand a 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM, and a 3.5-inch display or higher

Think the Desire qualifies but I just hope Gingerbread will not run like a dog on it.
3.0 sounds perfect for Android tablets though. I may wait till next year till I get one of them now.

thirtythirty

Supposedly it's gonna have a pretty significant UI overhaul, thanks to the Palm guy that joined.

justsomebloke

I think someone at google is holding a BIG red self destruct button and from the look of it they are going to be pressing it soon.

Google are denying that their is any fragmentation in the Android market, but if if there wasn't, this would pretty much make certain there is.

Currently some top end phones from the big companies e.g. SE x10 are still running 1.6, and aren't due an upgrade to till the end of the year at which point version 3 may have been revealed. This will cause phone manufacturers to get pissed off as they don't have a set standard to work on for any long period of time and they will also have a much greater support cost as they have to look at redoing a lot of code to upgrade the version of android on phones even after the most profitable point of the phones life cycle is over.

The other problem is that it is taking google FAR to long between announcing an update and then getting it to Market. How long ago was google I/O when froyo was revealed, yet the Nexus one has only started getting an OTA release, so how long will it be before anyone even gets a release to market, yet here are google letting slip that the next OS will be release in just over 3 months time???? Customers are just going to get very weary very quickly as rather then splash out the cash now they wait for a phone will an actual release of the new OS, and if customers are waiting phone companies are going to get anxious and might not see android as the most economical platform for them to use.

So I think Google actually need to start planning their releases better, and pushing their newer OS's out quicker and get some certainty in the market other then that people will just step back and android could be irrevocably damaged

JohnK

Splendid news yet I cant help but wonder if the min spec is set so the nexus will still qualify for it. Imagine if the min spec was just a bit higher and their own phone couldnt run the latest version of the OS only 10 months after release...

Atomic Pineapple

I wouldn't worry about it JTS, GingerBread wont be released in 3 months time.

Nothing in the link makes any sense. And it looks highly dubious at best.

Gingerbread will be announced at the end of the year I'd imagine and we'll not see it until sometime next year.

Froyo appeared on device's less than a month after shown, I dont see whats wrong with that? Manufacturers will have had there hands on it before this too giving them time to recode for their devices.

It's not Googles fault that HTC are dog slow at updating or that Sony Ericsson are incapable of making a decison on what version to target.

JohnK

draffodx wrote: »

Froyo appeared on device's less than a month after shown, I dont see whats wrong with that?

Only on a very limited number of devices though, most of those who had it before this week technically shouldnt have had it at all. Hell I'm still waiting for it on my nexus.

thisistimowen

http://gizmodo.com/5576478/rumor-android-30-gingerbread-out-october-for-higher+specced-phones

* Android 3.0 Gingerbread will be released in mid- October (around 15 -16th), 2010. First handsets shipping in November/December – for the Holiday Season.
* Minimum hardware requirements for Android 3.0 devices are: 1GHZ CPU, 512MB or RAM, displays from 3.5" and higher. We all of course heard that Android handsets with 2GHz CPU's are coming.
* New 1280×760 resolution available for the devices with displays of 4" and higher
* Completely revamped user interface. If you want to get a feeling of what Android 3.0 Gingerbread UX is like, check out the Gallery App on Nexus One. The same overall feel, light animated transitions,etc. Natively, through all the UI.
* Android's split into 2 branches becomes official. 3.0 for top of the line/high end devices. Cheap, low-end mass market handsets will keep Android 2.1/2.2



High end phones.... ouch. My netbook has that sort of spec....

Krusty_Clown

Joe the Santa wrote: »

I think someone at google is holding a BIG red self destruct button and from the look of it they are going to be pressing it soon.

It's the shift in consumer mentality that is causing the problem. I mean for 15 years mobile phones haven't had an OS upgrade path (I mean mainstream, I know Windows mobile / Palm / etc have all offered OS upgrades). Minor patches/fixes have become available, but that's it. Now with IOS/Android, Apple and Google have created an expectation among consumers that every mobile device in the line is entitled to the update, but also that every OS should run on every device without doing any kind of scaling, or suffer performance hits.

I reckon the way to move forward is for Google/Manufacturers to support their new releases of the OS'es on newer hand-sets only, and if there is demand the community will likely create/adapt ROMs for those willing to make performance sacrifices. Sure it means my Desire will be obsolete (from an OS upgrade perspective) early next year, but then I can either go and upgrade, or go the community / ROM route.

But complaints about whether a particular device will or will not support a free OS upgrade and when that free OS upgrade will be available just seem pointless and counter-productive.

justsomebloke

draffodx wrote: »

Froyo appeared on device's less than a month after shown, I dont see whats wrong with that? Manufacturers will have had there hands on it before this too giving them time to recode for their devices.

It's not Googles fault that HTC are dog slow at updating or that Sony Ericsson are incapable of making a decison on what version to target.

Yes froyo appeared on some handsets a month after but the offical OTA release only started happening last week for the nexus (google's own phone) and in some cases some nexus one users are still waiting on it. So to be truthful if google can't even do it on their own phone what chance do we have of other manufactures doing it, Just remember there is probably little to no profit in vendors like HTC or SE doing upgrades so they are never going to be overly active in doing it

youcancallmeal

What I don't understand is why don't the likes of HTC and Sony just release their phones with stock Froyo instead of taking months building their crappy mods(Sense,UX). Surely they are already paying licensing costs to Google but then they go and spend a load more modding the OS which generally perform worse the the original?

JohnK

The problem with that is what would differentiate their phone from the competition? Other than the look of the phone the only difference between most phones is the OS, and now with Android the interface to the OS, since the spec generally tends to be quite similar.

youcancallmeal

JohnK wrote: »

The problem with that is what would differentiate their phone from the competition? Other than the look of the phone the only difference between most phones is the OS, and now with Android the interface to the OS, since the spec generally tends to be quite similar.

Yeah I suppose your right. Its a pity Sony messed up the X10 software so bad as I would of easily gone for that phone over the desire based on looks alone!

AAAAAAAHHH

youcancallme>al wrote: »

What I don't understand is why don't the likes of HTC and Sony just release their phones with stock Froyo instead of taking months building their crappy mods(Sense,UX). Surely they are already paying licensing costs to Google but then they go and spend a load more modding the OS which generally perform worse the the original?

There are no licensing costs for Android.

Atomic Pineapple

Joe the Santa wrote: »

Yes froyo appeared on some handsets a month after but the offical OTA release only started happening last week for the nexus (google's own phone) and in some cases some nexus one users are still waiting on it. So to be truthful if google can't even do it on their own phone what chance do we have of other manufactures doing it, Just remember there is probably little to no profit in vendors like HTC or SE doing upgrades so they are never going to be overly active in doing it

Last week was just over a month since Google I/O.

Froyo was only showcased and not announced as being released then, how many games at E3 were show cased but wont be out for 6 months?

I dont see what the problem is with the wait.

I would have though a highly active upgrading structure from companies would boost sales and therefore lead to profit? If the Desire was guranteed swift updates I'm sure more people would buy it than waiting to see what phones come loaded with Froyo.

youcancallme>al wrote: »

What I don't understand is why don't the likes of HTC and Sony just release their phones with stock Froyo instead of taking months building their crappy mods(Sense,UX). Surely they are already paying licensing costs to Google but then they go and spend a load more modding the OS which generally perform worse the the original?

Android is free.

chrislad

Can we get 2.2 for most devices first!?

justsomebloke

draffodx wrote: »

Last week was just over a month since Google I/O.

Why the hell did I think it was in April and not May, My bad.

jimmycrackcorm

What I don't understand is why it takes so long to update the stock android versions with the manufacturer specific additions. Sense for example is on top of the stock functionality.

Its a bit like migrating through the various versions of windows. Your software still works afterwards and you generally do not have to wait months for an upgrade with the exception of some device drivers for example.

JohnK

I suppose its because while in theory it should work they'd still have to test everything again to make sure theres no ****ups

partyatmygaff

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

What I don't understand is why it takes so long to update the stock android versions with the manufacturer specific additions. Sense for example is on top of the stock functionality.

Its a bit like migrating through the various versions of windows. Your software still works afterwards and you generally do not have to wait months for an upgrade with the exception of some device drivers for example.

That's the rarely seen internal beauty of windows. It's very compatible and is designed to run on many many different combinations of hardware with few or no issues. Mac OS for example doesn't have this same level of hardware compatibility as it's designed to work only on Macs. Linux (Android is based on Linux) to a certain extent doesn't boast the same out of box hardware compatibility as does Windows.

Android's a bit like Windows when it comes to phones. It can run on many different hardware combinations. All that's different is that it still hasn't matured enough for it to be a fully portable OS.

The only reason Apple manage to pull off updates as they do is because they use their own hardware and do not need to worry about hardware compatbility to the extent that HTC/Google do.

Atomic Pineapple

partyatmygaff wrote: »

The only reason Apple manage to pull off updates as they do is because they use their own hardware and do not need to worry about hardware compatbility to the extent that HTC/Google do.

Exactly,

The trade off for having an open free system that isn't locked down and controlled by one man company is that it takes much more effort to keep things together while moving forward and evolving.

@jimmycrackcorm,

The Sense UI is actually built on top of HTC's own version of Android, they have changed more than just the UI of Android. They have implemented there own intents and calls within Android.

This is why its not a simple case of lob the UI on the new version of Android.

Sherifu

Dan Morrill on the Android team calls BS...

1 2 3

Atomic Pineapple

Sherifu wrote: »

Dan Morrill on the Android team calls BS...

1 2 3

Just as I thought

draffodx wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about it JTS, GingerBread wont be released in 3 months time.

Sherifu

All still a bit up in the air anyway;

The Android 3.0 Gingerbread was first said to require some quite powerful hardware to be built in the devices it is going to run on but today the same source, Eldar Murtazin (Mobile-review.com's editor in-chief), tweeted the following clarification:

"Yesterday have a very good conversation and some clarifications. 1 Ghz, 512 Mb etc its not minimal requirments but recommended one"

So, the new Android version will not lead to the platform splitting so all Android fans can now calm down. However, there is no word on the rest of the rumored details so we presume 3rd-party UIs won't be welcome anymore after all.

http://www.gsmarena.com/more_details_on_the_android_30_aka_gingerbread_requirements-news-1782.php