Android SDK m5-rc14 now available
Google's Android mobile phone platform, announced in November 2007, has a lot to live up to.
So far however, the Linux-based operating system developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance has failed to truly impress, largely due to a noticeably dull interface.
That fortunately has become less of a problem with Android's latest SDK release, m5-rc14. Announced on the official Android Developers Blog, the latest release highlights the following key features as detailed by developer Jason Chen:
- New user interface - As I mentioned when we introduced the m3 version of the Android SDK, we're continuing to refine the UI that's available for Android. m5-rc14 replaces the previous placeholder with a new UI, but as before, work on it is still in-progress.
- Layout animations - Developers can now create layout animations for their applications using the capabilities introduced in the android.view.animation package. Check out the LayoutAnimation*.java files in the APIDemos sample code for examples of how this works.
- Geo-coding - android.location.Geocoder enables developers to forward and reverse geo-code (i.e. translate an address into a coordinate and vice-versa), and also search for businesses.
- New media codecs - The MediaPlayer class has added support for the OGG Vorbis, MIDI, XMF, iMelody, RTTL/RTX, and OTA audio file formats.
- Updated Eclipse plug-in - A new version of ADT is available and provides improvements to the Android developer experience. In particular, check out the new Android Manifest editor.
Despite the overhaul, the interface is still quite a long way from being completely polished. You can see the latest SDK in action in the video clip below and you'll no doubt agree, it isn't quite up to the smooth standards available on Apple's iPhone.
Whilst I appreciate that Android is an open source piece of software, I am starting to wonder if it will someday manage to compete with Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system or Apple's slimmed down OS X on the iPhone. Right now, Android seems like it has a long way to go, but seeing as it holds so much promise and Google continues to talk it up, I'll be watching the platform closely.
