Android

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Android

• Google

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AndroidAn Open Handset Alliance Project

• http//code.google.com/android 
• Write apps to run on mobile phones
• Will be released as open source
• Can download the SDK today!

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Android Features

• Application Framework
• Dalvik virtual machine
• Integrated (webkit) browser
• 2D and 3D graphics APIs with HW
• SQLite
• Video and audio codecs
• Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi
• Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer

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Android Architecture
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Challenges

• CPU typically runs 500-600 Mhz
• RAM available to an App may only be a few
  megabytes
• Disk (flash) access is very slow
• Lifecycle - apps must pause/quit often, and
  restore to give the illusion that they are always
  running
• UI design
• typical screen may be HVGA (320x480)
• may be in portrait or landscape
• very high DPI - small text may not be readable
• touch resolution is very low (25 pixel)
• Network access may be slow and (very) intermittent

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Opportunities

• 100s of millions of mobile phone users
• Very high growth, esp. in Asia
• "Wild wild west" of application development
• think 1985 on the desktop (if you were born by
  then)
• no dominant 3rd party developers.... yet
• what will the killer app categories be?
• what does it mean to have any app the internet
  in your pocket?
• You can develop for it today!

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Possibilities

• Web scraping
• news filters
• sport scores
• dook news eliminators
• Distributed computing?
• 10,000 phones all donating their idle time
• tiny terminal (phone) fast cpu/network (server)
• Shared whiteboard

• Augmented Campus Reality
• camera maps compass heads up info
• Games
• multi-player (bluetooth, wifi, cell)
• location-based (scavenger hunt)
• Custom overlays for maps
• weather, traffic, friends

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Project Suggestions

• Web Scrapers movies, weather, sports,
  news
• Find multiple web sources
• Scrape them for the relevant information
• Present in a custom UI on the phone
• Asynchronous games chess, poker, risk
• Develop an API for all games to communicate
  through
• Establish connections by phone number
• Send and receive game data
• Ability to reopen connections 
• Planner/To-do list with location data
• Decide route to next class, meeting, etc
• Find a order/route for non time-critical tasks
• Connect to campus directory to find
  teachers/classmates