macnn/electronista

03/13/2008, 11:55pm, EDT

Thursday, March 13th

Google lauds, chastises iPhone, promotes Android

Rich Miner, group manager for mobile platforms at Google, recently spoke at the eComm conference, showing both praise and disdain for the iPhone. According to Yahoo, Miner said that while Apple "did a number of things right first time, first device", the lack of a background environment for applications is a major limitation. He also cited that interpreted languages and multiprocessing apps are not supported, summarizing that "there's a lot of restrictions."

Miner spoke about Google's upcoming Android OS platform, saying its openness well help shift power in the industry to the software developers.

Last November, Google announced the Open Handset Alliance – a conglomeration of developers, hardware manufacturers, and wireless providers – nicknamed "Android". The Linux-based platform provides an open-source software developer's kit, available from Google itself.


Filed under: iPhone, software, developer
Other story tags: Google, mobile, Android

, , 8comments, del.icio.us, slashdot, digg, buzz
8 comments
Reader Reactions (Please use <i></i> for italic text)

subscribe to comments
for this article




Expand All   Global Settings
No Background Apps
0
03/14, 12:26am, EDT
Is a major drawback to the iPhone platform. Interpreted languages are not as important if you have a stable, robust and complete set of tools (which you do in XCode - Cocoa Touch).

As to Android being able to shift power to developers, that will also depend on the devices it runs on. This will have have it's own set of security and stability issues as well.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jul 2004
User is offline
oh wait.. linux software?
0
03/14, 2:31am, EDT
that means we'll get superbly named apps like:

YAAPG, XEmeraldia, Kazehakase, YanC42, sl, SSIP-GST, and the ever popular yeanpypa!

geez, i sure wish i could have yeanpypa running in the background on my iphone.. of course, the iphone does run a version of Unix, so...
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jan 2006
User is offline
multiprocessor apps?
0
03/14, 4:28am, EDT
Background apps do run, my email still collects in the background, and I have ssh and AFP daemons installed.

Why is he insisting on multiprocessor apps? Am I going to be encoding on the iPhone?
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Dec 1999
User is offline
background apps
0
03/14, 7:58am, EDT
Allowing developers to freely develop apps that run in the background might make the iPhone slow and frustratingly irresponsive. This is very important because the iPhone is a *users* product, you need the processor to respond quickly to important tasks such as picking-up a call, or navigating to your address-book during a call, with background apps running, such tasks would be frustrating and annoying. Android, on the other hand, is more of a developers product, It's like Linux allowing you to do everything under the sun, and therefore holds no responsibility for user experience.

Having said that, I'm sure Apple will allow some specific developers to access background functionality when absolutely necessary.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Aug 2007
User is offline
Re: multiprocessor apps
0
03/14, 8:03am, EDT
But he has a point. It has always pissed me off that apple just made an arbitrary decision to ban multiprocessor applications from my iBook.

I kept trying to get a real answer from those people, too, but they refused, just sticking to their lame-ass "We don't support multiprocessor apps on single-processor systems" excuse.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Aug 2001
User is offline
LOL
0
03/14, 10:45am, EDT
To be fair on this point, many smart phones are *dual core* which, in essence, appears as a multi-proc machine to the underlying OS. The AT&T Tilt is one such example which uses the Qualcomm MSM 7200 CPU.

To obtain the greatest benefit, you have to code your app to take advantage of this. However, there is usually some speed benefit from multi-core irregardless.

But, let's face facts, the dude is really grasping by pointing these out as shortcomings. The truth is that the industry was just *totally blown away* by what Apple demo'ed and they are looking at Google for a response.What do you think of their response so far? LOL

Google wants to do to the smart phone market what Microsoft did to the PC market (and tried to do with Win Mobile). Develop an OS and license it and dominate the landscape. Apple is still going closed platform no license.. Who will win out?
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jan 2006
User is offline
I love it
0
03/14, 10:47am, EDT
When people compare an successful existing product with one that should be out "soon".
Senior User
Joined Aug 2002
User is offline
more accurately
0
03/14, 1:32pm, EDT
If you want an excellent analysis of the multiple app 'issue,' Daniel Eran Dilger does his usual top-notch job here:

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/03/13/iphone-20-sdk-the-no-multitasking-myth/
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Dec 2005
User is offline
Your Comments

In order to post comments: If you are a registered member, please login with your MacNN Forums username and password otherwise please uncheck the checkbox below.


Registered Member?
macnn forums login:

macnn forums password:

Not a member of the MacNN forums? Register now for free.

AT&T Cell Phones: Get your next AT&T phone at 1800mobiles.com

Convert PDF to Word for Mac: Easily Convert PDF to Word Doc, Excel, and More. Fast and Accurate. No Registration Trial

Check Out the VIERA from Panasonic!: Enter a New Visual Era with Panasonic VIERA HDTVs. An Enhanced Experience.

Richmond Mac Specialist: Need help on your Macintosh? Contact our apple specialists today.

Orlando Creative Agency: Call For Creative Print Services To Bring Your Advertising To Life!

Buy from The Apple Store, iTunes.com, Amazon.com, TechDepot, OfficeDepot, Computers4Sure, or donate.