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Google IO 2009 was a very Android centric developer conference with day long Android sessions and access to Android engineers.
I was lucky to be invited to cover Google IO for GoogleAndBlog as I flew into San Francisco Wednesday May 27th and took a cab directly to the Moscone West Center.
Once there I arrived during the keynote session just before the discussion shifted to Android where they went over some items in the upcoming Donut release such as the phone talking back for turn by turn directions and language translations.
Also they FINALLY brought back the promised 2nd round of the Android Developer Challenge.
Then they dropped a bomb on the audience of approximately 4,000 people – each attendee will get a specially customized Google Android Ion phone plus a T-Mobile SIM card with 1,000 minutes and unlimited data for FREE.
I then went to several Android sessions and then spoke directly to the Android engineers who I have often only conversed with via email or Google Groups, such as those in the photo below: Brian Swetland, Jean-Baptistie Queru (JBQ), myself, San, & Romain Guy
The Android engineers were really friendly but cringed at anyone calling the next Android phone the G2, they prefer Magic or Sapphire.
They said they are including more Bluetooth improvements in Donut but couldn’t say what it was, but they all hope some other company in the Open Handset Alliance can help pick up the ball in driving Android as they don’t envision Google being front and center with Android too much longer.
Then in the press room I was able to ask Google founder Sergey Brin a question on Microsoft chronically changing the name of their search engine which he replied that he likes the name Google to the laughter of the room captured in video on TechCrunch.
I then went to the Android Developer Sandbox area to check out the showcasing of the latest Android apps such as the one from Zagat.
Finally at the end of the day there was an Android Fireside Chat.
I waited in line to ask the team a question after hearing many demands of when we will get what and why so and so wasn’t put in, so when it was my turn I prefaced that I wanted to thank the Android team for all their hard work and that I am appreciative of what they have done, which got the team a deserved loud applause.
I then asked the 2 questions I get the most here on GoogleAndBlog and that is whats the status of FLASH on Android and could running apps off the SD card be in the Donut release.
Their response was that FLASH is out of their hands, privately they told me its a nightmare and doubt the G1 has the hardware to ever handle the vast majority of FLASH out on the web.
They also provided a plethora of reasonable security reasons why its not good to have apps run off the SD card and they don’t plan to do so in the Donut release.
I then concluded with saying that my vote for the name after the Eclair release should be Fried Dough.
After this was the Google After Hours party and met with Taylor Wimberly and his brother Clark Wimberly of the excellent Android site AndroidAndMe and finally got the taste of CupCake
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Well sounds like it was a good time, I had a feeling that FLASH wouldn’t come to this phone. It looks good on paper but really it would be hard to do with this mobile phone. What’s this about Google and the fact they might not stay with Android?
Google will stay with Android just they hope in the coming years someone else can take the reins on it.
Ah I read ya, still is a bit of a let down with FLASH but in all reality it would be really heavy on the phone. Have you played with your new phone at all?
Nice to finally meet you. I thought it was really funny when you asked Sergey to take a 2nd picture. His response, “photoshop the one you got”. Lucky for you I snapped an ok photo.
It was a pleasure as well meeting you Taylor and your brother Clark.
I am a fan of your site and appreciate the work you do at AndroidAndMe.
Yup, I have to give you the photographer credit for that one with Sergey as he made that Photoshop response when the horde of people were coming at him after finally realizing who he was…I think his next words were, EXIT STAGE RIGHT EVEN.
Well I finally got the update today and I must say it really does rock, the auto rotatee feature isn’t slow at all for me. It was worth the wait!
This is the country that put the first man on the moon, and we can’t find even one person who knows how to crank out a Flash app for the G1?
@Estelle
Go on your computer and go to a flash heavy site and watch what happens to your Internet traffic and your processor and memory spikes. Hell I’d love flash on my phone but I could see it backfiring and shutting it off anyway because the phone overloads and freezes. Only time will tell and maybe Flash will come but for now I don’t see it happening.
Flash is cool, but let’s think about the battery life. If we can implement most of the effects with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript(which cost much lower CPU usage), why would we need Flash on web pages?
May be some web game still need it, but I do not think Flash would be the killer for Android anyway.
Why Flash… because of just what you said. The alternative is a hodgepodge of 3 different technologies cobbled together.
HTML, CSS, and JS.
This is irrevelant to this post, however, I’m just curious if you have a widget on the market for your site? I believe I have an AndroidAndMe widget made by a dev not associated with the site. It’s good. I love your site though, so it’d be nice to get a widget to get the news on the home screens.
try the hero rom out if u really want flash….i only tested it on two sites really….myspace n youp…hahaha ….it takes long to load up the pages on myspace…and it doesnt do it perfectly….but it does it… the vid on you… u could hear the audio but it was choppy and slow…..
but flash is out there…..the rom was too slow for me….so i went back to ion