FEATURES News Mobile News! Android Market Gets an Upgrade higyou, 123RF higyou, Developers should have an easier time loaded over the air the next time they’re at selling to more users via the Android Mar- their Android device. Additionally, users ket. Google has introduced a few major can share and recommend their favorite changes in the Android Market, including a apps to friends, which should boost sales web presence, price flexibility across inter- and downloads of popular applications via national markets, and in-application billing. the Market. The most visible change for users (and de- Another challenge for developers is the velopers) is that Google has rolled out an pricing of applications appropriately de- Android Market http://​­market.​­android.​­com/ pending on where users are accessing the client on the web. Users can now search market. Google has addressed this with the market via their preferred browser and Buyer’s Currency, a feature that allows de- ensure that applications will be down- velopers to price applications differently in the 32 countries in which Google operates the Android Market (still a little bit behind Nokia there). The feature might take a little time to catch on; Google estimated it would take about four months to roll it out entirely from the announcement date of February 2. Finally, Google is introducing in-app billing for applications published through the An- droid Market. Any application running on Android Market 2.3 (or higher) on Android 1.6 (API level 4) will be able to access in- app billing. This includes support for “try-and-buy,” application upgrades, virtual goods inside applications, and other types of billing models. In-app billing is only a framework for billing, though, and does not provide content delivery – which is up to the appli- cation developers to implement. The service was not live at the time of this writing, but should be live “by the end of the quarter” according to the Android De- velopers Blog. Check out http://android-de- velopers.blogspot.com/ to keep up on An- droid developments. 6 ISSUE 02 SMART-DEVELOPER.COM 006-008_news.indd 6 02.03.2011 15:28:29 Uhr FEATURES News VMware Demos Mobile Virtualization on Android As smartphones became more and more powerful, it was only a matter of time before virtualization started to hit the devices. VMware looks to be ahead of the pack in mobile virtualization, having demonstrated the Mobile Virtualization Plat- form (MVP) for Android at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. VMware CTO Stephen Herrod (right) showed off mobile virtualization software on an LG Optimus Black phone and said the company would be work- ing with LG on preloads. Unlike VMware on PCs and servers, MVP is not about running multiple OSs on the same hardware – it’s about having multiple profiles that are separate. Accord- ing to VMware, MVP will allow companies to load a “corporate profile” on em- ployee-owned devices and/ or simplify provisioning of corporate profiles on em- ployee phones. More employees are now bringing their own smartphones to work, which creates some security and management challenges for companies. VMware’s MVP will allow companies to manage and provision mobile end points and desktops from the same interface. Companies could turn off features on smartphones during work hours, such as cameras or copy/ paste features, to pre- vent data theft. VMware demonstrated the software on Android, but there was no word on when it would ship or whether MVP would be available for Windows Phone or iOS devices. Interested developers should see VMware’s http://​­www. vmware.​­com/​­products/​­mobile/ site for more information. Google: Renderscript for Nokia Embraces Microsoft 3D Rendering Mobile Strategy One of the most interesting developer tools in An- On February 11, Nokia rocked the mobile world by announcing a droid’s Honeycomb release is Renderscript – an API for strategic partnership with Microsoft around Microsoft’s Win- high-performance 3D rendering and compute opera- dows Phone platform. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer joined tions. Developers who want a lower level, high-perfor- Nokia CEO Stephen Elop on stage in London to announce the mance API that’s “closer to the metal” will want to take deal, which includes Nokia contributing to the Windows Phone a close look at Renderscript. platform and embracing Bing and adCenter and Microsoft inte- Apps are written in C99 (an updated version of C) with grating Nokia Maps into its Microsoft Bing search engine. extensions. Applications written for Renderscript are Previously, Nokia had been working jointly with Intel on the compiled into a device-agnostic format for deploy- MeeGo project to bring a new Linux-based mobile OS to ment, which is then compiled into machine code that’s phones, tablets, and in-vehicle systems. Nokia has pledged to optimized for the device when the application is run. continue working on MeeGo and bring a device to market by the Developers don’t have to decide whether code should end of year, but it called MeeGo a “learning experience” and put run on the CPU or GPU for 3D applications because most of its eggs in the Microsoft basket. Likewise, Nokia says it Renderscript abstracts this process. The decision to will continue selling Symbian devices while it develops new switch between CPU or GPU is made on the device handsets with Microsoft Phone 7. when the app is run. Generally, simpler scripts will run Another question is how Nokia will handle its Qt framework. on the GPU “when capable hardware is available,” and Nokia picked up the tools when it bought Trolltech and has in- more resource intensive scripts will run on device vested quite a bit in beefing up the development platform – CPUs. This approach also provides a fallback for de- which is also used by MeeGo and the popular open source desk- vices without a suitable GPU for 3D acceleration. top environment KDE. Going forward, Nokia will be standardiz- Apps using Renderscript are not widely deployed yet, ing on Windows Phone Developer Tools, which makes use of but Google has videos on the Android Developers Blog Visual Studio, Express 4, Silverlight, and the XNA Framework. http://​­android-developers.​­blogspot.​­com/​­2011/​­02/ Microsoft will gain access to Nokia’s operator relationships introducing-renderscript.​­html that demonstrate Ren- worldwide, which means that Microsoft applications can be pur- derscript handling physics simulations that interact chased directly through the users’ billing agreement with their with the device’s accelerometer to move balls around, provider, rather than having to sign up for the Microsoft app in a gravity simulation. Renderscript will also be used store. See Nokia’s official blog for more on the partnership: in the YouTube application for Honeycomb. http://​­conversations.​­nokia.​­com/​­nokia-strategy-2011/. SMART-DEVELOPER.COM ISSUE 02 7 006-008_news.indd 7 02.03.2011 15:28:32 Uhr FEATURES News Apple Takes a Big Dalvik Ported to MeeGo Bite Out of Subs Android developers who also want to target MeeGo could have an easier time of it, thanks to Myriad Group AG. The company, which packages Dalvik Apple is introducing a new subscription Turbo for speeding up Android apps, is working on a Dalvik port for MeeGo. framework in iOS for subscriptions that The company has demonstrated Android applications running on the Nokia may be easier for users but has many ser- N900 and says applications running on top of MeeGo perform “the same or vice providers thinking hard about their al- better” on Nokia handsets running MeeGo. According to materials from Myr- legiance to the iOS platform. Specifically, iad Group, Alien Dalvik – the name of the Dalvik port – only requires applica- Apple is looking for 30% of subscription tions to be repackaged, and most should run unmodified. For device-specific transactions that happen through an iOS applications, the company says that the process is “simple and straightfor- device – and the subscription feature is not ward” using the plugin for the Android SDK. Myriad also provides a plugin optional. for QTCreator for working with Dalvik applications. Apple’s iOS devices are home to a number Myriad seems to be using the MeeGo port in part as a reference platform for of applications – like Netflix, Amazon’s Kin- its development services and indicates that Alien Dalvik can support other dle app, Last.fm, Magnatune, Rhapsody, platforms “to be developed depending on customers needs.” Myriad Group and more – which require users to sign up AG is based in Switzerland and can be found at www.​­myriadgroup.​­com. outside of the App Store. This process can be a hassle for users, but what is motivat- ing Apple seems to be its cut of the take. Google Shows Off Honeycomb Apple already takes a 30% cut of applica- tion sales through the App Store, but the A number of companies have unveiled Android-based tablets, but the An- 30% of subscriptions and sales means that droid platform has only been designed for handsets – until now. At the end of vendors like Amazon and Barnes & Noble January, Google finally took the wraps off its “Honeycomb” release with a will be losing most of their profit after pro- preview of Android designed for large–form factor devices. Honeycomb (An- viding the cut to Apple and to the publish- droid 3.0) comes with a high-performance 2D/ 3D graphics framework, rich ing company that owns the content. media support, and support for multicore processors. Users will find a new Beginning on June 30, 2011, all applica- set of connectivity options, updated camera applications, improved contacts, tions that provide subscription and exter- a fully redesigned keyboard, and improved email with a two-pane user inter- nal content will have to enable Apple’s in- face.