Google Gives Developers Preview of New Android SDK
Google has unleashed a preview version of its software development kit for Android 1.5 to give developers an early look at the new features and capabilities coming in the mobile platform’s refresh. The final SDK for Android 1.5 is expected to become available to software developers around the end of this month.
Android 1.5 integrates performance improvements such as faster camera startup and image capture, support for video recording and playback, smoother browser page scrolling, and speedier acquisition of the user’s GPS location. The SDK upgrade introduces APIs for on-screen keyboards and speech-recognition applications, said Android Open Source Project team member Xavier Ducrohet.
A Fully Baked Cupcake
Though Android is an evolving open-source product, some software development has been continuing in a private development branch. During the past few months, the Android Open Source Project began pushing these changes to a read-only mirror of the private Android branch called the cupcake.
Android 1.5 is expected to include all the changes previously featured in the cupcake, together with others not yet specified. “Cupcake is still very much a work in progress,” the Android Open Source Project team said. “It is a development branch, not a release.”
Android 1.5 comes bundled with several home-screen widgets such as an analog clock, calendar, music player, and picture frame. The new SDK offers developers a framework for building their own home-screen widgets as well as the ability to populate live folders with their creations.
The Android Open Source Project also has changed the structure of the SDK. “Future Android SDK releases will include multiple versions of the Android platform,” Ducrohet said. “For example, this early look includes Android platform versions 1.1 and 1.5.”
One benefit of this change, Ducrohet said, is that developers can target different Android platform versions from within a single SDK installation. “Another is that it enables…
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