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So I'm an iPhone developer looking to start writing some Android apps. I know what I can get away with in terms of actual device testing in the iOS world, but not the Android world. I don't want a contract or monthly service (so no new phones). I'll initially be building apps targeted for mobile phones, but if possible, I would like to avoid owning a phone just for development, so if I can get away with a tablet, then that would be perfect because I can use it for other things.
With that said, is that a smart idea? I figure I need the following:
- Used, to keep costs down
- wifi since I won't have cellular service.
- 2.1-2.1 for development.
- Used Phone with no contract to save on price.
- hdpi screen for maximum compatibility testing (according to android dev site, looks like 75%+ phones in use are hdpi)
- Not too old, so that with some upgrades my phone doesn't become unbearable to use.
If I were to get a tablet, am I better getting something with 2.1 or 2.2? Or if I got something with 3.0, would I be able to test compatibility with apps targeted for 2.1 or 2.2? On an iPad for example, I can install iOS5, but build apps targeting iOS4 and test on an iOS 5 device.
I'd like to keep my purchase under $300 either way...obviously less would be even better if I can get away with it...
Anyways, any tips would be great!
I'm partially in your shoes, but going the other direction after a few projects (i.e. Android to iOS). I have a Droid X phone and will probably be getting an iPad...just need to sell a few more apps
Android runs on a multitude of devices and none of them are the same. I think the last app I published said it would be compatible with over 200 Android devices. A far cry from iPhone/iPad and just 2 devices.
I would think the phone would be the cheapest path to go....look on ebay. Luckily I have a friend with a xoom tablet and he can test stuff for me. If you're going to be in this (Android) for the long term, I might suggest a tablet as the better way to go
3.0 is only on tablets at this point and the Android SDK will let you set your release level down as required. Android phones should have just gotten an upgrade to 2.2.3
Objective C to JAVA and xml files....lucky you LOL
Is objective C harder?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Tablet. We need more tablet developers and tablet optimized apps.
Rootstonian said:
I'm partially in your shoes, but going the other direction after a few projects (i.e. Android to iOS). I have a Droid X phone and will probably be getting an iPad...just need to sell a few more apps
Android runs on a multitude of devices and none of them are the same. I think the last app I published said it would be compatible with over 200 Android devices. A far cry from iPhone/iPad and just 2 devices.
I would think the phone would be the cheapest path to go....look on ebay. Luckily I have a friend with a xoom tablet and he can test stuff for me. If you're going to be in this (Android) for the long term, I might suggest a tablet as the better way to go
3.0 is only on tablets at this point and the Android SDK will let you set your release level down as required. Android phones should have just gotten an upgrade to 2.2.3
Objective C to JAVA and xml files....lucky you LOL
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the feedback, it is much appreciated! I'm definitely leaning towards tablet, unless I hear of any reason why it's a bad idea! Again, coming from an iOS world, I'm worried about displays, and things looking their best, and acting properly...but as long as a tablet device can give me a reasonable enough device for testing that isn't an emulator, then I'll be happy...I figure the longer I do this, then much like my iOS development, I will build up a collection of test devices...fortunately for iOS developers, that collection doesn't have to be too big!
iynfynity said:
Is objective C harder?
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Click to collapse
As a former C# and Java developer, I will say that Objective C is generally "harder"...not necessarily because of the language...but because of the environment...Objective C has come a long way, and definitely is getting better, but I would guess that any C based language is generally harder to pick up successfully compared to more managed languages like C# or Java...
Now when it comes to device development, I can't tell you yet if writing Java for Android devices will be easier or harder...but give me a few months and I'll let you know!
SwiftLegend said:
Tablet. We need more tablet developers and tablet optimized apps.
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Click to collapse
I'll say this, I do love writing code for the iPad,...tablets are fun, and open up a world of opportunity...with that said, I'll initially be writing for mobile phones, but I'm sure that will expand eventually to tablets...
Well, I was in your situation just an year ago an I did:
1 - I bought an HTC Magic used from ebay, rooted at 2.2 (payed 150$ more or less)
2 - I used all the suggestions on the web to improve my java coding using Eclipse (i suggest you stackoverflow guys)
3 - Now, I'm looking for a tablet to enlarge the opportunities of my apps.
The emulator sucks, leave it as soon as you can for a device. You will boost your coding and debug.
If you know people with android phones, ask them to test your app. Unfortunately, it seems that the unique manner to be sure your app will work on all devices is to test it everywhere
I can confirm that emulator is ver slow, but as a last resort is ok.
If I were you a would have bought phone first. You don't want to develop applications that work perfectly on tablets that have 1% of a market share only to find out that after publishing they don't work on more popular devices.
Buy one of most popular phones (for example Samsung Galaxy S) and you will be in good shape.
get google development phone from google
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
Android tablet
Here is a cheep android tablet to start dev on http://conamee.com/products/wm8850-android-4-0-cortex-a9-1-2ghz-tablet-pc-7-inch-4gb-coffee
I can't seem to find much on this, so I thought I'd ask the question. I personally use a Samsung Galaxy Nexus and was a previous owner of a Galaxy S1. I also sport an Apple Macbook Pro and I love the computer.
There's been a constant "reminder" from various articles how developing for iOS appeals to the developer more than doing so for Android.
This topic has spawned countless of times, and with the recent intro of Instagram to Android, that topic has been re-written once more to show why iOS is "dominant" among developers compared to Android. Article HERE.
Thing is, with all this talk about developing for iOS being better, I find myself asking "if that were true, then why do developers still develop for Android? If that were true, Instagram wouldn't even bother coming to Android...especially since it's free."
So what would make developers for Instagram want to make an app for Android when according to these articles:
Developing on Android is "harder" because it has to adapt to countless hardwares
Android developers make less than iOS developers
Do you develop for both iOS and Android? What's your take? What actually entices you to want to work on the Android platform?
It would be nice if a developer who works on both platforms can give some insights. Please no fanboy or anti-apple talk here...I am sure many of you Android users like me, would have had your friends who are iPhone users bring up such a topic on how they've read that developing for iOS is better, and you can't explain to them why people still make apps for Android cause there's little material online to covers that topic. I'm genuinely curious to know from a developer's perspective
Developers want to get their program out to as many people as possible so they develop for platforms where the customers are at. The two biggest phone operating systems right now are iOS and Android.
Developers choose iOS first because their is a lot less device diversity with iOS devices so developing an app is probably easier. It has also been shown that there is more money to be made selling iOS apps than Android apps which could be due to the fact that people who are on a tight budget may see an Android device as a better deal or may have a carrier that doesn't even sell the iPhone. Piracy is an issue on both platforms but it could be argued that Android is easier to pirate on since apks can be sideloaded without rooting where as iPhones have to be jailbroken. But sideloading apks is used for legit reasons as well, like testing betas, nightlies and other apps that aren't distributed through App Stores.
Android apps have to account for multiple screen resolutions, ratios, and densities. Most regular apps scale just fine. Games seem to be where there are the most issues and I really wish Google would address the issues. It seems each GPU type needs its own support (PowerVR, Nvidia, Adreno, etc). I really wish Google would implement something like DirectX so games can be played on any GPU with enough power. iOS has the advantage here because only a single GPU type is used, PowerVR I believe, so all games can be optimized for it. Couple that with the fact that iOS tends to bring in more money and this is why the game developers usually favor it over Android.
Thanks for the insight. I figured gaming would be difficult for developers but didn't understand why, I just naturally assumed that "if the app seems more complicated, it naturally equates to more complications making it run on various hardwares".
Am I right to say then that when tech reviewers write about how Developers favor iOS to Android, it's mostly pertaining to gaming?
What about non-gaming apps? Is reaching as many people as possible the only incentive to go Android? Take Whatsapp, or Instagram that recently came out...it's free on Android, it also has to deal with multiple hardwares (though now I'm assuming it's actually not as tough as it sounds to accomplish if the app's fairly simple)...is there an incentive for developers to create an Android App...cause the guys at Instagram or Whatsapp could have gone "Well there's nothing here for me, I'll just stick to iOS"...because from what I see, it looks like opening it to the Android market meant having to stress their servers with a sudden influx of users, which mean spending more money to maintain them so it doesn't slow down too much...it seems like a lose-lose situation from where I'm standing. =\
I guess for some apps, google ads are what keeps them going...like Draw Something. I do wonder though how Whatsapp and Instagram manages its upkeep when it doesnt have ads...and if the answer is that they use the money earned from iOS to manage their expansion, is it really worth it if the goal is just branding purposes.
If there is a market to reach developers will develop. Web developers had to put up with the terrible non standard supporting ie6 for years. It was a real pain to develop for but had a large user base that couldnt just be ignored. Android is the same way, developers go where they can reach the consumer. Luckily android its nowhere near as bad as ie6 was.
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spunker88 said:
If there is a market to reach developers will develop. Web developers had to put up with the terrible non standard supporting ie6 for years. It was a real pain to develop for but had a large user base that couldnt just be ignored. Android is the same way, developers go where they can reach the consumer. Luckily android its nowhere near as bad as ie6 was.
Sent from my Touchpad using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the input! From your take, it seems like developers make apps for Android not because they want to, but they have to.
Do you or any of the developers reading this, can testify that there are some ups to developing on Android as compared to iOS.
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Moving to Q&A
lufc said:
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Moving to Q&A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, sorry the topic may be [Q] but it's meant to generate comments and thoughts pertaining to the Android platform as per the sub header for Android General
Could it please be sent back to Android General? The Q&A section seems to be a place for people to post technical questions they need help solving.
Anyway, anyone else able to share their thoughts? Do you develop for both iOS and Android? It seems so far that people prefer to develop for iOS and lesser for Android, but they do it cause they have to as a means of reaching to the masses, but not really because they want to.
Anyone beg to differ? Do you have a reason why you actually prefer developing for Android over iOS?
Hi,
I'm a web developer, and when I decided to try mobile development, I made the choice to develop only for Android, for various reasons, but mainly because I'm not a fan of the Apple ecosystem.
This is not fanboyism here, I'm not bashing Apple, they make great products. But I prefer a fragmented ecosystem, with various companies, various devices, various app markets, etc. because this is a great source of opportunities. I also like the fact that android is open-source, leaving the availability to study the source code and hack around.
As for the difficulty to develop for various devices, I'd say that I'm used to it, being a web developer. Web devs are used to cope with various browsers (some of them being pretty old) and different screen sizes. See for example the mediaqueri.es site (cannot post link since I'm a new user)
thibaultj said:
Hi,
I'm a web developer, and when I decided to try mobile development, I made the choice to develop only for Android, for various reasons, but mainly because I'm not a fan of the Apple ecosystem.
This is not fanboyism here, I'm not bashing Apple, they make great products. But I prefer a fragmented ecosystem, with various companies, various devices, various app markets, etc. because this is a great source of opportunities. I also like the fact that android is open-source, leaving the availability to study the source code and hack around.
As for the difficulty to develop for various devices, I'd say that I'm used to it, being a web developer. Web devs are used to cope with various browsers (some of them being pretty old) and different screen sizes. See for example the mediaqueri.es site (cannot post link since I'm a new user)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your 2 cents! Am I right to assume that in fact, having to deal with different hardwares and screen sizes are actually a norm among developers before iOS came along? In other words, yes, Apple is right to say criticize that other platforms are harder to work with compared to iOS but that's because iOS is the exception among developing platforms where it's system is easier to work with?
spunker88 said:
I really wish Google would implement something like DirectX so games can be played on any GPU with enough power.
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Click to collapse
But Android and iOS already have something like DirectX - OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0.
The_R said:
But Android and iOS already have something like DirectX - OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the additional input...if there always is a direct standard like Open GL in both iOS and Android, what's the difficult part about manufacturing games for Android?
iOS required Apple computer to install their development environment. And You must pay 99$ per year for being the official iOS developer..
ayen1234 said:
iOS required Apple computer to install their development environment. And You must pay 99$ per year for being the official iOS developer..
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Click to collapse
I'd actually say that it is worth it.
yeahyeahright said:
Thanks for the additional input...if there always is a direct standard like Open GL in both iOS and Android, what's the difficult part about manufacturing games for Android?
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Click to collapse
I think its large number of the types of Android devices. It really isn't as simple as just supporting different screen sizes. Doing that is actually a really simple task using OpenGL.
With my own games I've experienced that what generally works on my test device won't necessarily work the same way on someone else's. For example, some devices support textures of any size while some devices have a constraint of the texture size being a power of 2. On many of my games which need multitouch, I've experienced that it doesn't always work the same on all devices either. On some it is downright broken while on other it just works fine.
There are many such other issues which you'd be aware of only after experiencing them.
The reason for this is the different hardware and the different software implementations that each phone manufacturer brings in. Even if the game "works" on a wide range of devices, there is always a different feel that you get when playing on a different device because of the hardware variations. You might get a good frame rate on a high end phone but have you tried playing it on a low end one? I've seen games from even the big publishers working fine on a high end phone but it just is completely glitchy on a low end one.
Now for a small developer with limited resources it can get really hard to test on and support as many devices as possible. This is one of the main reasons I feel that it can get really hard to develop games on Android. It just requires more effort if the developer wants to guarantee a good experience on a wide range of devices.
The other factor as stated before is that the iOS platform is more uniform. And moreover there are more people who are apparently willing to pay for your game on iOS than on Android. With one of my own games I've experienced that I've made more money in the last 10 days by selling it on the iOS App store than on Android in the last one year with ad revenues.
I actually started developing games on Android initially and one of the really big disappointments for me has been that I am not able to sell my games on the market(now Google Play) because Google checkout for merchants is only available in a few countries. This was the main reason for me to consider moving over to iOS. I think I could sell on a different market like the Amazon App store if I really wanted though.
Inspite of all that I'd say that Android is a great platform.
Wow thanks a lot for the insight! It's great to understand it from a developer's POV, especially one who works on both platforms.
I realise people do comment a lot about Android users less committed to pay for an app, I wonder why...I don't think it's due to their budget, my guess is that their afraid it may not work well on their devices...to that I think Google could really push hard and promote it's 15 minutes refund policy which I think a lot of users are not aware of....I use the 15 minute window a lot and it helps me to decide if something is worth my time buying or not.
I guess the "openness" of Android has allowed phone manufacturers to get really creative with their products (Touchwiz, Sense, Dual Screens, Qwerty Keypads etc) but at the same time, makes it harder for a developer to create stuff, probably even harder than creating stuff on a Windows Desktop.
Do any of you think that having "game settings" like you get on a Windows PC will help change this experience? Either one where the user gets to tweak the graphics (low, med, high) and performance, or perhaps one where the game will adjust graphics to the "recommended setting based on your hardware"? Is this even possible on Android or it's more complicated than you'd get on Windows?
yeahyeahright said:
Do any of you think that having "game settings" like you get on a Windows PC will help change this experience? Either one where the user gets to tweak the graphics (low, med, high) and performance, or perhaps one where the game will adjust graphics to the "recommended setting based on your hardware"? Is this even possible on Android or it's more complicated than you'd get on Windows?
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I have actually seen a few games that do that, and it does help. But it also requires some extra time and effort on the developer's part.
In some of my games too, I've added some simple settings in order to change the control schemes, so that if one of them doesn't work for you, you could choose the other one. Graphically, though, my games are really simple.
yeahyeahright said:
Thanks for your 2 cents! Am I right to assume that in fact, having to deal with different hardwares and screen sizes are actually a norm among developers before iOS came along? In other words, yes, Apple is right to say criticize that other platforms are harder to work with compared to iOS but that's because iOS is the exception among developing platforms where it's system is easier to work with?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having to deal with different hardwares started to be a thing of the past, with the explosion of web apps. One platform for all, what a dream! Then came smartphones and tablets, and developing for a native platfrom became cool again.
Anyway, building for the web is still the only way to reach anyone with an internet access. The only problem with web apps is that it's harder to monetize. But the web's decentralized architecture is not a bug, it's a feature. That is what guarantees it's freedom and independance. You don't have such guarantees on a centralized market managed by a single company, whose first goal is profit.
Well, this post was slightly off-topic, sorry about that.
Thanks both of you for the really good insight. I guess Android is great as a supposedly "open" phone os, it certainly has a lot of hurdles to clear in order to please and entice developers the way iOS does, I'm not certain it can get there, but I do think they do make an effort, like the just upgraded emulator which shows Google's commitment to better developed apps (talk about timing!).
I'm certainly happy with my Android phone and from what I've read about the negative results developers gain from working on Android than on iOS, I take my hat off to those that stick around on this platform and try to make things happen. *clap*
=)
I choose Android for one reason. It's much cheaper. Only 25$ one time. iOS is 99$ every year
I usually do not start threads and hang in the shadows here on xda, but I love the site and all the awesome development.
With that said:
Please do not close this thread - This is not a question, or a discussion about a computer. The new Samsung Chromebook with the ARM chip is basically an Android tablet built like a laptop running chrome. It has a Samsung Exynos 5 Dual processor, so this falls under Android development and HACKING for devices that do not have a forum on XDA.
So I have this device and I have to say, it's very well built for the price. The only negative is that it runs Chrome. Now - I'm not here to bash on Chrome OS and I don't need a discussion on the pros and cons of it...
The point of starting this thread is to get Android ported over to this thing. I actually went out and purchased it at Best Buy because I knew that I could go to xda-developers a week later and someone will post instructions on how to install Android. Didn't happen. Not sure why.
So please chime in on ideas on how to get the ball rolling. Who do we have to buy a Chromebook for to make this happen? Do we start a bounty?
Let's keep the xda-developer community going strong! Thank you.
Like you, I did the same.
dalethefarmer said:
I usually do not start threads and hang in the shadows here on xda, but I love the site and all the awesome development.
With that said:
Please do not close this thread - This is not a question, or a discussion about a computer. The new Samsung Chromebook with the ARM chip is basically an Android tablet built like a laptop running chrome. It has a Samsung Exynos 5 Dual processor, so this falls under Android development and HACKING for devices that do not have a forum on XDA.
So I have this device and I have to say, it's very well built for the price. The only negative is that it runs Chrome. Now - I'm not here to bash on Chrome OS and I don't need a discussion on the pros and cons of it...
The point of starting this thread is to get Android ported over to this thing. I actually went out and purchased it at Best Buy because I knew that I could go to xda-developers a week later and someone will post instructions on how to install Android. Didn't happen. Not sure why.
So please chime in on ideas on how to get the ball rolling. Who do we have to buy a Chromebook for to make this happen? Do we start a bounty?
Let's keep the xda-developer community going strong! Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As this is arm based I thought for sure there would be an android build for it, a cheaper asus transformer.. its a perfect platform really for Android - I am surprised there isn't more discussion on getting JB ported to this chromebook. Is there any interest?
It has the same Exynos 5 SoC as the Nexus 10, so it seems like it should be possible to get something working for it if it can be hacked to boot another OS. Seems like a kernel based off the Nexus 10 source would be possible.
Google doesn't want Android to be a desktop style OS which is part of the reason they ended the Motorola lapdock after they took over Motorola. But if this thing had Android on it for $249 its a pretty good deal considering it has an Exynos 5.
Samsung Chromebook A15 Exynos
There has been much progress porting Ubuntu Raring Ringtail and Quantal Quetzal to this thing. I look forward to being able to choose between running stable Android and stable Ubuntu (or other distros, even).
With that said, I think that although this device is selling out I'm not sure that enough of these users will be aware of how close this device is to being a true, first Android laptop. From benchmarks I've seen on Phoronix.com the Exynos Dual in this Samsung Series 3 XE303 Chromebook is at least twice as fast as the Tegra 3 Quad in processing and graphics tasks.
Many people don't seem to see the value of Android as a fuller OS that would flourish within a laptop hardware suite. I argue that it is because they do not see the possibilities that software such as ParanoidAndroid would allow for with it's per-app DPI settings and ability to force a Phone, Phablet, or Tablet UI for every single app you run. These features are core to getting the most productivity out of a Samsung XE303 running Android.
I do enjoy the ChromeOS/ChromiumOS interface much because it is simple enough to have a low learning curve, yet it has enough options available to it to be somewhat powerful in the productivity department. It is indeed lacking in its offline capabilities, though. And Android would fix those and then some.
I guess I should also mention that the latest 4.2.1 Android ninja tweaked the native support for gamepads including Sixaxis controllers and Xbow controllers. Now you can game with them for apps that support the controllers. Neat.
Android can be kind of awkward with mouse/keyboard input only. But its the app compatibility of Android which is the biggest selling point. Since it contains a very capable ARM SoC this thing should run all of the latest games on Android no problem.
I'm fairly sure that there are a large number of ASUS Transformer + Dock users that would say they are quite happy with the touchpad/keyboard input on Android 4+.
As for the touchpad and and keyboard on the XE303, it is STELLAR under ChromeOS. Getting it to match under Android is simply a matter of hardware tweaking.
All the Android apps and games I've purchased deserve to be utilized on this device.
+1 for this idea - just got my chromebook today!
disynthetic said:
There has been much progress porting Ubuntu Raring Ringtail and Quantal Quetzal to this thing. I look forward to being able to choose between running stable Android and stable Ubuntu (or other distros, even).
With that said, I think that although this device is selling out I'm not sure that enough of these users will be aware of how close this device is to being a true, first Android laptop. From benchmarks I've seen on Phoronix.com the Exynos Dual in this Samsung Series 3 XE303 Chromebook is at least twice as fast as the Tegra 3 Quad in processing and graphics tasks.
Many people don't seem to see the value of Android as a fuller OS that would flourish within a laptop hardware suite. I argue that it is because they do not see the possibilities that software such as ParanoidAndroid would allow for with it's per-app DPI settings and ability to force a Phone, Phablet, or Tablet UI for every single app you run. These features are core to getting the most productivity out of a Samsung XE303 running Android.
I do enjoy the ChromeOS/ChromiumOS interface much because it is simple enough to have a low learning curve, yet it has enough options available to it to be somewhat powerful in the productivity department. It is indeed lacking in its offline capabilities, though. And Android would fix those and then some.
I guess I should also mention that the latest 4.2.1 Android ninja tweaked the native support for gamepads including Sixaxis controllers and Xbow controllers. Now you can game with them for apps that support the controllers. Neat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who exactly is making progress and how do I sign up. How do we get a dedicated forum fired up for this? Let's get this party started, my chrome book should be in in Monday!
---------- Post added at 09:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 AM ----------
OK I answered my own question. The Ubuntu port instructions can be found here... http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/04/chrubuntu-1204-now-with-double-bits.html
I'd still love to see a JB port.
dbdrop said:
Who exactly is making progress and how do I sign up. How do we get a dedicated forum fired up for this? Let's get this party started, my chrome book should be in in Monday!
---------- Post added at 09:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 AM ----------
OK I answered my own question. The Ubuntu port instructions can be found here... http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/04/chrubuntu-1204-now-with-double-bits.html
I'd still love to see a JB port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too... I was reading about the Chromebook and thought... ARM CPU needs Android. The games on ChromeOS look pretty damn awful and Android would also bring many emulators to life.. Amiga, Atari, DosBox, Nintendo... And you could do what ChromeOS does in Android but with all the Android extras.
If there was Android for the XE303 Chromebook I'd buy one tomorrow.. maybe two!
Texting
I do a lot of texting, hundreds and hundreds of messages a day.
The only tolerable way used to be Google Voice, but they recently lowered their daily sms limit (that limit is only imposed if you txt through a computer). So my new solution is this: tether my phone to a tablet that has TabletTalk and a keyboard and go at it from there. The Chromebook seemed like a good alternative to that route.
Please don't ignore the community that needs this.
I think JB on the chromebook would be beast. From the score ubuntu is beast! lol. I cant wait till its outta beta. I have had my CB for almost a week, Already bored with the OS. Cant do anything hardly. Time to flash already. Please keep the thread going as we keep it updated more will see and hopefully a dev will step up and tame this beast from the inside out. Thank you for starting this thread. :good::good:
Started working on this already seems the BOOT partition needs to be rewritten to work with UEFI...Anybody wanna help..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1951114&page=2
I wouldnt bet on a 12" ARM chromebook, rumors say some people at google are getting tired of the chromebook not getting enough traction and are thinking about axing the project, perhaps even the OS itself.
Personally I wouldn't care since they might finally realize the potential of android on laptops and launch a "Nexus 12"
Anyway, any news with the port?
MGREX said:
I wouldnt bet on a 12" ARM chromebook, rumors say some people at google are getting tired of the chromebook not getting enough traction and are thinking about axing the project, perhaps even the OS itself.
Personally I wouldn't care since they might finally realize the potential of android on laptops and launch a "Nexus 12"
Anyway, any news with the port?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think they would put Android on a laptop seeing as it's not optimized for that type of hardware, but don't get me wrong it would be sweet, however the OS might be able to take advantage of of certain Input controls such as Keyboard, Mouse, Flash Drives etc... most 3rd party apps wont support it or be optimized for it. However a Hybrid ChromeOS/Android may work very well where you have a Standard Chrome OS base with the Ability to run certain android Apps that have been written to take advantage of such input devices. As far as the OS itself it's actually Open source so in theory it should be possible to allow the running of android apps without Google them selves implementing it. it just might be a little challenging.
Figured I'd bump and share.
Got my CB a week or so ago and so far it's been a pretty good device for when I instantly need a new tab open in a desktop format so I can use a full site and keyboard. Today I loaded up the alpha Ubuntu 12.04 build and so far I'm thrilled that I got this full fledged desktop OS on a 250 dollar solid state machine. I might get another 1 or 2 lol
Android could make it even better, especially PA since it has the different layout settings.
Linux + Chrome + Android - $250 = dope laptop
theduce102 said:
Figured I'd bump and share.
Got my CB a week or so ago and so far it's been a pretty good device for when I instantly need a new tab open in a desktop format so I can use a full site and keyboard. Today I loaded up the alpha Ubuntu 12.04 build and so far I'm thrilled that I got this full fledged desktop OS on a 250 dollar solid state machine. I might get another 1 or 2 lol
Android could make it even better, especially PA since it has the different layout settings.
Linux + Chrome + Android - $250 = dope laptop
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I'm waiting for Ubuntu to come off of beta and then I'm there!!!! Lol. Its badass for 250.00
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Anyone fancy attempting to get RISC OS running on this, as an alternative desktop OS?
trevj said:
Anyone fancy attempting to get RISC OS running on this, as an alternative desktop OS?
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Would be nice....However got my hands full trying to get the N10 system image booting the CB..does look very interesting I might add.
rawtek said:
Would be nice....However got my hands full trying to get the N10 system image booting the CB..does look very interesting I might add.
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Less posting, more developing!!! Seriously though, waiting and watching patiently... Good luck!
rawtek said:
hands full trying to get the N10 system image booting the CB
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I expect you'll get there sooner or later - keep at it!
..does look very interesting I might add.
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It should fly on this thing, even only using a single core.
Finally Ubuntu for the tablets is here. That's Right!!! This Thursday for the nexus7 and 10. Here goes the official video http://youtu.be/h384z7Ph0gU
hit the thanks... been a while
Almost here ,.....
Sent from my HTC Droid Dna Venom Rom using Tapatalk 2
horatiob said:
Finally Ubuntu for the tablets is here. That's Right!!! This Thursday for the nexus7 and 10. Here goes the official video http://youtu.be/h384z7Ph0gU
hit the thanks... been a while
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Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
I think I'm going to wait a little bit, conceptually it seems great but I would initially like to "dual-boot" if that is in any way possible - does it actually install a grub like pre-loader where I could choose to boot to my SentinalROM instead? How about Google Play store integration, any news on that? The biggest hurdle for myself would be losing access to all my Play Store games/books.
Astriaal said:
Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
I think I'm going to wait a little bit, conceptually it seems great but I would initially like to "dual-boot" if that is in any way possible - does it actually install a grub like pre-loader where I could choose to boot to my SentinalROM instead? How about Google Play store integration, any news on that? The biggest hurdle for myself would be losing access to all my Play Store games/books.
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Oh absolutely. I plan on downloading it as soon as it goes live.
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Astriaal said:
Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
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Yep
Astriaal said:
Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
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I'm going to give it a try on my Nexus 7.. That's my entertainment/screw around with my own builds tablet.. I'm really not privvy to testing "development previews" of an alternate OS on a $500 tablet.. I'll at minimum wait a bit to feel it out on the Nexus 7 first and hear back from those who did try it on the Nexus 10.
Can this be dual booted?
I already backed up my tablet's data on pc. Ready to install it on both nexus 7 and 10!
tawfiqmp said:
Can this be dual booted?
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I haven't read detail on it yet, but I did see a note indicating that it can be set up with dual boot -- needs a custom recovery, but it appeared pretty straightforward when I glanced at the description. Dual boot would certainly make me more receptive to giving it a try.
I'm not much of a developer but I'm all over this. Been waiting for over a year for this.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Dual boot is mandatory for me to do this
SayWhat10 said:
Dual boot is mandatory for me to do this
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agreed. dual boot or no go!
if there is ubuntu for android where you have access to your android apps. Why cant we do that with our nexus 10?
I dont care for dualbooting if I can have access to android apps from within ubuntu.
horatiob said:
if there is ubuntu for android where you have access to your android apps. Why cant we do that with our nexus 10?
I dont care for dualbooting if I can have access to android apps from within ubuntu.
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As far as I know you do not have access to your android applications you simply have ubuntu.
Sent from a SGS3 GT-i9305
Loving this. You know they're turning this loose for the imaginative dev/hacker community to get great ideas for a full release on their own devices. It will benefit all in the long run. Google better embrace this as the future, I hope.
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fredphoesh said:
As far as I know you do not have access to your android applications you simply have ubuntu.
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well that sounds like............it sucks. smh
i mean all these people happy to that ubuntu is about here, that they would give up all their android apps? really????????????????
Recon Freak said:
Loving this. You know they're turning this loose for the imaginative dev/hacker community to get great ideas for a full release on their own devices. It will benefit all in the long run. Google better embrace this as the future, I hope.
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It's great seeing this kind of development, but I'm not yet clear that it's something that would help Google or necessarily benefit the majority of the user community...at least not in the near term. Google's been working hard at gaining market acceptance for Android, and a significant component of this will likely be, increasingly, the availability of Android as an internally consistent ecosystem that spans phone and tablets. Ubuntu is pushing the same idea, i.e., a single ecosystem that encompasses phones, tablets and PC's -- and that's great. But unless there's interoperability between OS's, it may be a while before the consumer market is ready to embrace yet another mobile OS in a big way, as appealing as Ubuntu may be.
My Android phone (Galaxy Nexus) and tablets (N10 and N7) work so well together these days that I really wouldn't want to replace any of them with a device running an OS and aps that didn't "connect" with my other devices as well and seamlessly as they all work together now. I'm also not about to replace all 3 devices right away, and start fresh finding apps that mimic the functionality of the 100+ Android apps that I have installed.
Android and Ubuntu are both based on Linux at the lowest levels, so they can take advantage of common hardware drivers. But at the app level, they're based on different languages and runtime systems - so far. At the moment, Android apps can't run on Ubuntu in any kind of native mode and vice versa. While Google is working to gain broad acceptance of Android, what incentive would they have to throw another OS in the mix at this stage of the game?
jonstrong said:
Android and Ubuntu are both based on Linux at the lowest levels, so they can take advantage of common hardware drivers. But at the app level, they're based on different languages and runtime systems - so far. At the moment, Android apps can't run on Ubuntu in any kind of native mode and vice versa. While Google is working to gain broad acceptance of Android, what incentive would they have to throw another OS in the mix at this stage of the game?
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Well I meant to quote and managed to thank you - While they are based on different levels I do recall hearing that there would be a dalvik vm built into ubuntu to allow for android applications to run inside the system as well - as long as you have the apk and such. Similar to BlueStacks for W8 and Windows desktop.
omac_ranger said:
Well I meant to quote and managed to thank you - While they are based on different levels I do recall hearing that there would be a dalvik vm built into ubuntu to allow for android applications to run inside the system as well - as long as you have the apk and such. Similar to BlueStacks for W8 and Windows desktop.
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Thanks for the thanks, however inadvertent
As far as I've read, Canonical doesn't plan on creating a Dalvik JVM for Ubuntu any time soon. The statement from them suggested that they recognize that native compiled apps (the dev ecosystem on Ubuntu is primarily HTML5, QML, C++) will run faster and more efficiently than code running within a JVM -- this was part of the comment when asked if they were planning to incorporate a Dalvik emulator in Ubuntu. There's nothing to prevent someone from developing one, but making this work properly will also require cooperation between the Dalvik implementation and the security framework in Ubuntu -- certainly possible, but I'm guessing it could be a year before anything comprehensive along those lines is likely to make it to market.
There's also another question nagging at me: how will Google evolve Android over the next couple of years? With an increasing number of apps rolling out for Android, it's conceivable that multiple windows (such as Samsung already offers) may become a regular feature, apps will become increasingly powerful -- and the distinction, at least for many people and many applications -- between PC and Android device -- will become vanishingly small for many purposes. If that happens, my guess is that this would further reduce any incentive for Google to somehow tie Ubuntu in with Android.
Of course I could be 100% wrong, and this just be the kind of thinking that happens after a 12 hour day without enough coffee... I personally love the evolution of hardware and software, and look forward to seeing how this all pans out. Fun to speculate in the meantime.
jonstrong said:
Thanks for the thanks, however inadvertent
As far as I've read, Canonical doesn't plan on creating a Dalvik JVM for Ubuntu any time soon. The statement from them suggested that they recognize that native compiled apps (the dev ecosystem on Ubuntu is primarily HTML5, QML, C++) will run faster and more efficiently than code running within a JVM -- this was part of the comment when asked if they were planning to incorporate a Dalvik emulator in Ubuntu. There's nothing to prevent someone from developing one, but making this work properly will also require cooperation between the Dalvik implementation and the security framework in Ubuntu -- certainly possible, but I'm guessing it could be a year before anything comprehensive along those lines is likely to make it to market.
There's also another question nagging at me: how will Google evolve Android over the next couple of years? With an increasing number of apps rolling out for Android, it's conceivable that multiple windows (such as Samsung already offers) may become a regular feature, apps will become increasingly powerful -- and the distinction, at least for many people and many applications -- between PC and Android device -- will become vanishingly small for many purposes. If that happens, my guess is that this would further reduce any incentive for Google to somehow tie Ubuntu in with Android.
Of course I could be 100% wrong, and this just be the kind of thinking that happens after a 12 hour day without enough coffee... I personally love the evolution of hardware and software, and look forward to seeing how this all pans out. Fun to speculate in the meantime.
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Why does Ubuntu have to do anything with Google?
The developer preview is being made for Nexus devices but that's only because they are readily available and open to hacking.
I don't think Canonical realistically thinks Ubuntu will be the lead platform for Phones and Tablets but that's okay. They're currently trying to fill a niche with their tablet OS which is the enterprise market. This is one place where Android hasn't made a ton of inroads and it happens to be where Canonical makes their money(albeit still not profitable).
Hello. Inspired by some blog posts I decided I'm going to try work from an Android tablet and make the city my office. I'm a web developer, the code editing I can handle with terminal emulator and vim. The problem is with the developer tools - there are simply none on Chrome for Android. Yes, I know I could try something like Surface Pro, but for some reason an Android tablet seems more appealing to me, and it's cheaper.
I saw some cases where people got working a Linux distro running on top of Android with chroot, and the graphical interface was made possible with VNC connection. It appeared a little laggy, but the video was from 2012. I imagine one of the most beefed up Android tablets of today should handle it better.
So if I bought one and rooted it successfully, would I be able to run Linux on top of it? Anyone has done it on this tablet? I didn't find anything on the, probably because it's a new one.
P.s. sorry for the strange username, I created this account some long time ago apparently.
I imagine it might be possible, but I presume that remote desktop would be a better, easier solution.
Also, there are more browsers than Chrome available on the Android platform. Firefox is really resource intensive on Android, but it is impressively desktop-like in its capabilities. And it runs OK on my 8.4" M5 (though I use Dolphin Express as my primary browser).
You are a web developer and would even consider Surface Pro? Man, Microsoft decided to self implode some time ago.
thref23 said:
I imagine it might be possible, but I presume that remote desktop would be a better, easier solution.
Also, there are more browsers than Chrome available on the Android platform. Firefox is really resource intensive on Android, but it is impressively desktop-like in its capabilities. And it runs OK on my 8.4" M5 (though I use Dolphin Express as my primary browser).
You are a web developer and would even consider Surface Pro? Man, Microsoft decided to self implode some time ago.
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Do you mean setting up Linux on a VPS? I think that a connection to a remote server miles away would result in a very bad performance, but I haven't really tried it, so it's just a guess.
As far as I know, Firefox for Android doesn't have dev tools either.
What's wrong with Surface Pro? I would seriously consider using it, but the price tag is really high compared to an Android device. The thing is also that Android tablet feels kinda more mobile, and I don't like Windows too much.
usernamenotavailabe said:
Do you mean setting up Linux on a VPS? I think that a connection to a remote server miles away would result in a very bad performance, but I haven't really tried it, so it's just a guess.
What's wrong with Surface Pro? I would seriously consider using it, but the price tag is really high compared to an Android device. The thing is also that Android tablet feels kinda more mobile, and I don't like Windows too much.
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Basically, you would have a PC set up at home, and you would access your PC via a remote desktop app like Teamviewer or Splashtop. I presume you have a PC at home?
Honestly, I am not that knowledgeable regarding Surface Pro. I'm just reluctant to trust anything Microsoft nowadays, and I don't look forward to the day I have to upgrade from Windows 7 (although I'm sure I could configure Windows 10 like Windows 7). And the whole Surface concept is a little gimmicky, bluetooth keyboards, mice, and tablet stands can be purchased cheap and will probably give you a better laptop/PC like experience (with any tablet) than Surface Pro will. My gut is that you are better off going for an Android tablet, or if you need better specs, a Windows laptop.
thref23 said:
Basically, you would have a PC set up at home, and you would access your PC via a remote desktop app like Teamviewer or Splashtop. I presume you have a PC at home?
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Not really one that could run 24h/7. But you know what, I will try to spin up a server on DigitalOcean server with a graphical interface and try to connect to it from my laptop, and then Android phone and I will see about the performance.
I have also found a detailed article on running Linux on Android: https://www.androidauthority.com/install-ubuntu-on-your-android-smartphone-765408/ so I might also give it a try if I get the tablet