Android VS Iphone

This is a nice conversation still going on in Android mailing list. I have put the offensive stuff brought forward by A.I. Sutton. That is not because I hate Android but there are people who love Iphone. In my case I need both.

Now before I start on the iPhone comparison I'm going to pre-empt the normal "But Android is open source....." response by saying lets be honest and admit it as it stands Android is not an open source project because the public "open source" repository is pretty worthless in its' current state.

The last time I tried to build the master branch it failed missing some Google internal API classes. The SDKs I've produce from the cupcake branch seem to be considered by Google employees as pretty useless with comments like "This is why we want to be clear it is "unofficial," because it is not actually a working SDK" being thrown around and networking in the emulator

still being broken a week after users started reporting the showstopper problem (And Romain did hint that Google have a fix, I read http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/msg/41fcefc36bd16d44 as "there is a version where this is fixed"). And as we all know you can't use it to build the exact versions of the open source parts of either of the two firmware versions that have shipped on the G1.

To me it seems little more than code dump which is aimed at ensuring Google can keep saying "But it is open source and not just a Google project"

Now, in the last week I had few conversations with iPhone developers so I could compare the Android developer experience to that of what is perceived as our nearest competitor and they are laughing at us (seriously, when I mentioned the G1 most of them responded by initially chuckling). The general consensus among them was;

- Yes, you pay $99 for the iPhone dev kit, but you get "free" external testing (i.e. at apple) and commercial quality support with many queries being turned around in hours or a couple of days at worst. Compare that to some of the support queries on b.android.com for basic problems things like a Android failing to connect to wireless lans with hidden SSID (http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1041) which, after *five and a half months* is still marked as "New" and doesn't have a single response from a Google employee.

- The most common cause of App Store listing rejections are things that users would complain about anyway. This includes things like performance characteristics, UI anomalies, and inconsistent behaviour. This is the type of stuff that is left for users to find out on Android and only comes to light when 1* or 2* comments are posted and even then you don't know if it's
a one off on the users device or possibly something specific to their region (http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2372).

- The normal amount of time from submission to app store listing is around 7 days. Some apps take months to go through the approval process, but that is because of intellectual property concerns, concerns over offensive content, or is because the app has to be re-reviewed a few times to meet the apples performance and behaviour guidelines. Yes it's not as fast as Android, but you know that once it's on the market it's of a quality where you're not going to get bombarded with user queries about problems straight off.

- Most of the developers actually feel valued by Apple and feel that Apple does what it can to make sure they get the tools they need to do their job and ensure they're apps. This has been re-enforced by allowing the developers to beta test the new firmware and develop against it.

Personally, it's made me shell out $99 for an iPhone SDK, dust off my Nokia N81, and spend $75 on eBay on a Blackberry so I can explore the alternatives.

This is a reply to that by Tom Gibara

I think my response might best have been posted to android-discuss, but I'll reply here anyway.

Pre-empting a debate about whether Android is open source with the argument "...let's be honest..." isn't adequate. I don't know whether there are established metrics for measuring a degree to which a project rates as being "open source", but here are some of mine:

(1) Can I make use of the code and do so freely?
(2) Can I distribute the code free of onerous conditions?
(3) Can I contribute?
(4) Can I be openly critical?

By all of these metrics I regard Android as open source.

(1) I regularly access the git repository to learn how various Android components work. I downloaded and successfully built an SDK based on cupcake for a preview of forthcoming IMF. On a few private scratch projects, I've copied widget code out of the android framework and tweaked it to make my own UI components. I neither sought nor needed permission from Google to do any of these things because the code was licensed so as to give me these freedoms.

(2) Since almost all of the source code is licensed under the Apache License I feel very comfortable distributing any software I derive from it since it's an extremely permissive and well understood license. I've seen a number of people post in this, and other groups, that the absence of some code from the repository disqualifies Android from being open source; even that the inability to create an installable phone image betrays a malign intent. I don't hold with these arguments - they would carry weight if Android was only operable on one model/brand of hardware but since that's demonstrably not the case I'm contemptuous of them.

(3) I have to-date made one very modest contribution to the Android code base, but intend to make more when time permits. My limited experience so far is that the Android engineers are extremely receptive to contributions pitched at a technical level and supportive of anyone trying to commit code. Perhaps others have had a different experience. I do anticipate that programmers who think they are going to sweep in and carve out whole new areas of functionality inside the core frameworks will probably be disappointed, but due to an inadequate understanding of how large projects need to operate rather than by intransigent Google staff.

(4) This is an important freedom that is not necessarily guaranteed by the preceding ones. I include a public bug reporting system as an element of this. Android has one and there is little evidence that Google engineers ignore the bugs filed there. It's clear that there is insufficient public visibility of the statuses of issues, but that's not the same thing. Reading the android related groups demonstrates that criticisms of Android, irrespective of how well founded they may be, are freely accommodated even though the groups are moderated by Google employees.

Given the personal observations above, I find the argument that Android is not an open source project simply misguided. Perhaps it arises in many instances from a lack of experience with open-source or alternatively large scale software development. I'm not denying that there are some key problems, especially concerning the state of the master branch. Nevertheless, having closely observed the progress of the android project since its first public announcement I believe that things have improved considerably and that they will continue to improve; both the core Android team and the community (as with your interim builds) will have a role to play

I'm not qualified to comment on the experience of releasing iPhone applications, and I'm inclined to believe what you report - that the experience of most iPhone developers is not as negative as many websites like to report. For companies and individuals who are looking to generate more revenue more quickly that they might with an Android application, I would do nothing to dissuade them from investigating other opportunities; the iPhone foremost.

Nevertheless, I regard it as almost inevitable that those with power will ultimately abuse it. As a consequence I believe that Apple will ultimately abuse their monopoly of the App Store. In contrast, I expect the open source nature of Android to protect its community of users from egregious abuses that could be countenanced by present or future management of Google or the OHA.

I regard the ceding of software to its related community via the process of "open sourcing" it as analogous to the establishment of a democracy which forces the government to be reasonable with those governed and thus protects against the worst excesses of its corruption. Companies that open source the software they produce are serving their users by protecting them against the potential actions of future management. Given the significant commitment that I must make to any new platform I adopt, I regard this as any extremely beneficial provision.

Here is again Sutton

My metric is simple; Can I build a working system from the public repository which represents what most users are using?, and the answer to that is currently no.

To me there are many products being labelled Android; There are the ones that are used on devices, there are the ports that people have made to new platforms, and there is the public repository, and although all these are different in their own way people seem to pick attributes from each and say that's what Android is.

As I see things, the answers to your metrics are;

(1) You can for the Android open source project, but not for the version of Android that's shipped on the G1, Magic, or ADP1. I will happily admit I am wrong if someone can give me the git revision numbers from the open source project which will build all the open source components of the "official" updates for these platforms.

(2) Again, yes for the open source repo, but again builds from the open
source repo are not what's in use by a majority of Android users.

(3) I've contributed code to "closed source" products before after the source code was made available to me under an NDA. I did not work for the company at the time and I did not get paid for the contribution, so I'm not sure it's a metric of an open source project. I've also had contributions to projects considered as open source sit in a review tree for 6 months and
then one another developer submit the same code and it gets integrated (this was a 1 line fix, and so the fix was *exactly* the same). Therefore I'd say this metric possibly isn't a charactistic that identifies an open source product

(4) I would again disagree that bugs are ignored, as I stated in my original email there are bugs that are still marked as new after five and a half months. This means they haven't even reached the "reviewed" stage even though many later bugs have. I would also disagree it's a metric of an open source product as there are numerous public criticisms of Windows, and the
developers complaining over problems submitting iPhone apps are well publicised, and both of these are closed source projects.

I think the main point of our differences is that you see Android as one thing, whereas I see Android as the basis for many things which are trading off a brand, and to me that's like saying IBMs HTTPD is open source because it has a codebase built on Apache (Thanks to Disconnect in
href="http://andblogs.net/2009/04/android-and-open-source/ for bringing the
IBM/Apache link up).

Train tracking and elephant catching

If my memory is in order, we started a train tracking project with the help ofDr. Kasun De Zoysa . Certainly it is not a complete project as our final year one but it was mini project for the subject of Wireless Adhoc and Sensor Networks. We used micaz s ensor equipments and Tiny OS as our hardware and software platforms. After getting the permission from the Railway Department, we carried out our first experiment as Fort railway station and the second one at Bambalapitiya station. Our team was Chamara, Dhanuska, Girisha, and I. Girisha was not a member of our group but he helped us a lot because he is the only person who has a LapTop with a serial port. Still we haven’t come into conclusion about the results of our experiments but the experiments were funny and interesting.

Today I got a chance to go to the Dehiwala Zoo because Girisha was going to record elephants’ infrasonic sound. It is his final year project and we recorder sounds of an African elephant as well as Asian elephants. We faced some unforgettable incidents when we setting up the equipments and I was never be such close to an elephant in my life. The results of the recording are not yet released and I hope the train experiment will be a success as well as I wish Girisha good luck.

What happend to the STF

Sri Lanka Army is heading towards the LTTE last bastion and the remain area is almost less than 40 square kilometers for today. Although the three Special Forces regiments were kept reserved during entire wanni humanitarian operations, 2 Commando regiments are operating in the front line. 1-commando regiment is heading toward Pudumathalan via chalai with Brigadier Prasanna Silva, commander 55 division and the 2-commando regiment is reaching the east of Puthukudierippu with Brigadier Shavendra Silva, commander of 58 division. Although they were kept reserver, the SF units were called upon to action when it was tough for regular infantry units to hold the defence line as well as special operation were required deep inside the enemy territory. Day by day, we hear heroic stories of these Commando and Special Forces units and they have become the immortal in the hearts of the every peace loving citizen in Sri Lanka. I think that they deserve that honor because until today, LTTE was not able to over run any defence line held by those Commando and SF units and almost all the assaults, operations, ambushes conducted by those units were a success.

But the problem is what happened to the nation's third elite unit, the Special Task Force. They were the nightmare of the LTTE decade ago and their ability was able to bring the fear to the heart of the enemy even for the heads of the LTTE. But today we are hearing the news of inability of STF and they have proven that they are not such deadly now as they were five or six years ago. Recently, a STF unit was assaulted by the LTTE while they gathered around a fire and couple of months ago, LTTE were operating 600m ahead of a STF camp in Trincomelie and those terrorist were gunned down by SF not STF. These people are the hub of VIP protection but I think that if a well planed ambush occurs for any VIP convoy, I am pretty sure that these STF people may not be able to overcome the situation.

I am not saying that these people are not talented but they did not show their colors when they get a chance to do so. Almost decade ago, we have no idea of commando and SF units but only elite units we knew was STF and I can not forget how they stopped the LTTE Rajagiriya attack. Finally we hope that the STF will keep their standards and will regain honor they lost couple of years ago

They came to kill them

I was shocked for the second time over yesterday’s terrorist attack on Sri Lanka cricket team because I tend to believe that the intention of terror team is not to harm players but to threaten the Pakistani government. But today morning I had a chance to read the live action as seen by Kumar Sangakkara on Cricinfo as well as on regular news papers of Sri Lanka. It is not just threatening but they have come to kill our players. The team escaped from with minimum damages just because the courage and braveness of the driver Kalil and the quick reaction to the situation of the SL team members.

The attack started by firing a RPG to the players’bus but it missed the target and hit the electricity tower. Then the terrorists fired gunshots to the tires of the bus and next they fired to the passenger area of the bus. SL players quickly reacted to the situation by jumping over seats and laid down to the deck of the bus. They were not panicked and they shouted to the driver to continue the driving the bus forward. As Kumar’s plot, when they lay on the bus, bullets were flying over their heads and hit the seats of the bus. Kalil the driver of the bus has heard someone shouting ‘go’ ‘go’ and he lowered his body to the driver seat and accelerated the bus towards the stadium in mids of heavy gun fire. Unless that brave act of the driver as well as intelligent reaction of players, we shall not have a chance to see our beloved players alive again. The terrorist threw a grenade to the beneath of the bus but it exploded after the bus passed it. If it exploded, the bus definitely caught up in fire because of the fuel tank. Quoting about the incident, Mahela has said that the terror experience of the Sri Lanka helped them to escape from the heavy gun fire. It is possible that Ajantha Mendis led the escape because in SL Army. He has been trained to do so.In the meantime Umpire Ahsan Raza in critical condition because he was traveling by a mini bus just behind the SL team coach.

On the other hand, if the terrorist wanted to threaten the players, they do not want to come with loads of weapons and actually they don’t want 12 people. They can do it by single gun and with one person. Because SL cricket team knows to play cricket but not to fight a war. Finally according to the Mahela, they were survived by some merits they have done in past lives.

Further details-
Live Action By Kumar

Mahela's comments
Assistance Coach on the seen
Narrow escape of Pakistan team
Dhoni commenting

Sri Lanka Cricket team attacked in Lahore by terroists

Sri Lanka cricket team was attacked by the terrorists today morning when they are arriving Lahore Gadafi stadium for the third day of second test match. I was really shocked when I got the news alert from DailyMirror and even the friends who are not known as cricket fans also shocked by sudden incident. Initially we didn’t have any information about the damage caused to the team but by means of couple of minutes, we got to know that the six team members are suffering from minor injuries. Mahela, Kumar, Ajantha, Thilan, Vass and the news opening batsman paranawithana who just took his debut in this series were among the wounded. More than ten terrorists (12) have come to the attack and they have came for the liberty circle by a white van. They have brought load of weapons including rocket loungers as well as graneds. They started the action with firing rocket and exploding grandes. The tyres of the bus which carried the players were initially shot and then they started to fire to the inside of the bus. However the driver has driven the bus to the safe location mid gun firing and the players laid down in the bus to prevent from bullets. The incident caused five lives of Pakistani policeman and the Sri Lanka team was evacuated from stadium by helicopters. While I am typing this, the cricket team is on their way to the Sri Lanka and all the players are safe except minor injuries.
Although nobody have claimed the responsibility of the attack there are some obvious reasons to such attack. Sri Lanka team went to Pakistan just because the Indian cricket team refused to go there. On the otherhand Pakistan is a closer friend of Sri Lanka with respect to the military because they provide us a lot of arms as well as training. In addition groups like Al-Quida want to attack Pakistan and stop its normal day to day life because Pakistan has deals with USA the rival of Al-Quida.

Anyway our team will be safe at home by tomorrow morning and this incident again proves that the terrorism is ruthless.

Cricket Situation Sri Lanka

Yes, cricket again because it is a hot topic these days.Mahela Jayawardena has decided to step down from the captaincy and the Sri Lanka cricket board have also accepted it. So who will be the next candidate for the captaincy ?. This is an interesting question to be asked from anybody who likes this amazing game. My view is the suitable person for the captaincy is obvious because Mahela also mentioned it when he was addressing the media after submitting his resignation later. He is non other than Kumar Sangakkara but who will be the next vice captain?. Kumar Sangakakara has great potential for the captaincy in every version of the game. It doesn’t matter whether it is Test cricket, Oneday international or 20-20, this man is capable of leading Sri Lanka. I am pretty confident about Sanga’s ability because I have seen it for long time.

My selection for the vice-captaincy is T.M Dilshan because non other player is experienced as him except Sanath, Vass and Murali of course. Kapugedara as well as other playes have to gain a lot of things from the international cricket rather than bothering with the vice-captaincy.

Meantime I am really happy over Mahela’s resignation because I strongly believe that this man will definitely return to his form soon and that will be the birth of next Aravinda de Silva. Mahela is an ideal batsmen for the middle order and I don’t think that there will be someone who don’t appreciate this world-class classic batsman’s skills. He has got strokes around the wicket and he is strong both side of the wicket. I hope and wish that Mahela could be succeeded in his carrier after his resignation.

Sri Lanka lost the Indian tour for 4-1 as well as we almost won the 20-20 match unless the bowling of Dilhara Ferbnando. Sanath-Dilshan combination started the Sri Lanka batting and this combination seems to be a better investment for the 2011 wolrd cup because they showed some partnership during the whole series. Jayasuriya made one centuary in the first macth but he didn’t show the performance I expected from him. However, he hit some massive sixes in 4th ODI and the 20-20 matcha nd those sixes cannot be forgotten for someone who loves big hits. They were really flat strokes and those strokes showed how much power still he posses. Finaly I hope that our players s specially Mahela and Sanath may back in their usual form by the time of IPL and then we can have hopes for the next world cup which will be hosted on our country as well.

Android

The Open Handset Alliance with collaboration of Google has introduced their latest mobile platform Android to market through T-Mobile G1 recently. the users can download applications as well as developers can uploads applicationsNow to the Android Market. Android is a complete mobile platform which contains an operating System, Middle ware and a powerfully API. But the most interesting thing is that, the total mobile platform is Open Source and purely based on free and open source software. Google has released a SDK for Android application development and for easy use, there is an Android plugin for eclipse which is already done by Google. Moreover there are couple of mailing lists and you can earn a lot money using Android Developer Challenge. I think it will be a nice experience to have a look at Android because it seems to be the next generation mobile platform.