Currently, Android apps run in the Dalvik virtual machine, but some developers may find this somewhat limited. With the new native development kit (NDK), content creators will have a few more option to create mobile programs.

The NDK could help some developers make better use of the data processing and signal processing, Google said. It also provides a set of tools used to generate native code libraries from C and C++ sources, as well as a set of headers and libraries that will be compatible with all future versions of Android.

Google warns that the NDK won’t be relevant for all developers, as it said there are “numerous” drawbacks.

“Your application will be more complicated, have reduced compatibility, have no access to framework APIs, and be harder to debug,” Google wrote on its Android developers’ blog. “That said, some applications that have self-contained, CPU-intensive operations that don’t allocate much memory may still benefit from increased performance and the ability to reuse existing code.”

The move shows that Google is making an increased effort to attract developers to its mobile, Linux-based platform. The search giant is also trying to attract content creators by making its vetting process for the Android Market more open than some of the competitors.

Apple’s App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch is unquestionably at the top of the mobile app market, as it has over 50,000 programs and over 1 billion downloads. Additionally, developers are drawn to the potential audience of the App Store, which can be accessed by more than 40 million users.

www.informationweek.com

The change will mean that the G60 will be the only device to use Garmin-ASUS’ home-grown Linux OS, the difficult development of which has been blamed for the GPS-centric handset’s delay.  The partnership’s other device, the nuvifone M20, runs the Windows Mobile OS.

According to Hektor Tung, Garmin’s regional director for Southeast-Asia sales, the long-overdue G60 will arrive in the second half of this year, and could launch as early as August for some markets.  However he failed to be more specific about which regions they might be.

www.androidcommunity.com

What makes oFono different?

oFono aims to provide an easy to use interface that can be used to create rich telephony applications without requiring one to have a deep understanding of the underlying technology and its limitations. To accomplish this, oFono provides language-independent D-Bus API that is extremely easy to use without generated bindings or other ‘messy’ steps typically required to use an IPC based API.

The API follows the following four basic principles:

• Consistent
• Minimal
• Easy to use
• Complete

Consistent

The API should be consistent. Functionality in oFono is broken up into Interfaces, each with well-defined set of Properties. Each interface has a GetProperties() and a SetProperty() method which is used to accomplish majority of the tasks. Naming conventions are also strictly enforced. This means that once you’re comfortable using one Interface, you should be able to easily orient yourself to use others.

Minimal

The API should be minimal; there shouldn’t be more than one way of accomplishing a task as this leads to confusion and API bloat. We also aim to maintain API compatibility whenever possible, from the very beginning. This means that oFono APIs wil generally focus on the most important use-cases. Other features will be carefully considered before being included in the APIs.

Complete

At the same time, the APIs must be rich and complete enough to enable the creation of feature complete mobile phones. Thus, APIs for all aspects of telephony are planned, incudling but not limited to Voice calls, SMS, Cell Broadcast, Supplementary Services and SIM Phonebooks.

Easy to use

oFono aims to make writing telephony applications as easy as possible. Thus oFono will take care of the core logic, including things necessary for standards compliance. This will allow application writers to focus on what they should be doing: presentation aspects and funky animated UIs.

www.ofono.org