I've made some improvements to the Application Database so that everyone can check out all the cool challenge apps as they are released. It is now MUCH easier to browse around and scope out the competition.

Remember, you can add your own app right here!

More improvements to come, this is just the start!

Someone going by wonderoid has posted some videos featuring his application that he is submitting to the challenge.

Now that i've submitted my project, i am finally confident enough to
post it in the forums. My submission was a gesture recognition
library, along with a sample app. built on it. I guess developing on
the emulator can not provide a convincing PoC but i tried my best
anyway. Any comments are appreciated.

2 very cool demo videos after the break! Nice job, looks very handy.

Opera Labs has posted their experience so far porting their popular mobile browser, Opera Mini, to the Android platform. Opera's Chris Mill's discusses the porting process:

How did we do it? We decided to use the existing Opera Mini code base (even the binary package) instead of creating a separate port, to save on resourses. We created a special wrapper that translates Java ME (mostly MIDP) API calls into Android API calls. The tool used was MicroEmulator - this is an open source (LGPL) implementation of Java ME that runs on top of Java SE. The lead Opera Mini Android developer is also the lead developer of MicroEmulator, so it was an inspired choice! The Android platform is similar to Java SE, with the exception of several libraries normally included in Java SE (like AWT/Swing - these are excluded because they would likely be too heavy to fit into the embedded environment.) It is therefore fairly simple to port MicroEmulator to run inside Android environment. The only major task was to replace the AWT/Swing graphics backend of MicroEmulator with Android specific APIs.

You can try it yourself by downloading the APK, or take a look at a screenshot and more details on its entry in the application db. I've tried it out, and it works, but it did crash on me and was overall a bit slow. I'm a die-hard Opera fan on the desktop, so look forward to them getting their popular mobile version tuned for Android!

In the last couple days there have been groups demonstrating Android on two great devices, one of them is even a phone! The phone I refer to is the HTC Vogue pictured to the right. Martin has posted his intructions on getting it working on the MSM 7500 based HTC Vogue, but has not posted any pictures of it in action. Of course the radio does work just yet, and the touchscreen *kind of* works, but of course you must crawl before you walk.

The second porting effort is for the Nokia N810 internet tablet. It is pictured below running an older SDK. eLinux.com has tremendous amount of detail on the porting effort there (may need to see the Google Cache, as the elinux.com server has recently crashed).

So the porting continues with or without the source!

Update: A source inside HTC has contacted us and told us that this rumor is incorrect. Sorry for the hype, we'll keep an eye out for this mysterious HTC Dream phone we keep hearing about.

Original story:

There are rumors flying around that Android Dream is all set to be launched on May 6 by HTC. Here's intomobile.com's Will Park's take on the HTC Rumor:

HTC sent out invitations for some sort of press event in London, UK that will "Witness the next wave of HTC Innovation." According to Vincent over at Slashphone, the event is slated to kick off on May 6, 2008 - which is perfectly in line with HTC's previous announcement that the Dream would go live in mid-2008.

Will Park also covers the well known device details:

At 5 inches long and 3 inches wide, the HTC Dream is purported to sport a full-body touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard, and be geared towards intuitive web-browsing.

Before burying this as a rumor, what piqued my interest is the May 6 date. Read more after the break.

Those of you planning on going to Google I/O May 28th and 29th can look forward to 8 different sessions dedicated to Android.

From the Android Developer's Blog:

But after the Challenge, what's next? Well, on the 28th and 29th of May we have Google I/O. This is the biggest Google developer event of the year, and you can bet that the Androids will be there in numbers.

Here are the sessions we've prepared on Android.

• Android 101: Building an Application
• Anatomy & Physiology of an Android
• Dalvik Internals
• Inside the Android Application Framework
• Building Great UIs with Android
• Internationalizing Android Applications
• Location, Location, Location
• Mobile Mashups

For more details on these sessions, visit the Google I/O site. Please do, in fact -- I'm really excited by some of these because we're going to go into a level of detail that we haven't before. Ever wanted to hear the tech lead on Dalvik talk about Dalvik? Ever wanted an exhaustive review of the i18n/resource system? Then don't miss this event.

Sounds like a great event, I wish I could go!

Bloomberg.com is reporting that AT&T is now "very interested" in the Android platform. It appears that initially AT&T was under the assumption that the Android platform would be limited to just using Google's products (such as GMail, Google Docs, etc), but has come to realize that the platform is very flexible and will be customizable enough to fulfill most users' requirements.

AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega says that he was afraid that Google's participation in the alliance was "self-serving", but seems to have changed his mind now that he is more familiar with Android. "I've gotten a lot more positive the more I see it," de la Vega said. "We're going to be able to take Android if we want and put it into our devices and be able to customize the experience for our customers."

AT&T is not a member of the Open Handset Alliance, but remember when the source comes out any carrier, handset manufacturer, or hobbyist will be able to do what they want with it free of charge.

(Now that it is no longer April 1st -- obviously this was a joke, good luck everyone entering the challenge!)

Earlier today a Google employee on the Android team revealed that the Android Developers Challenge will likely be canceled. The source says that the search giant was surprised by the lack of interest and feels that canceling the challenge would be in the company's best interest.

An official announcement from Google is expected Wednesday. No word on whether the challenge will be reintroduced at a later time. I can hear the screems on the mailing lists already...

Update: Looks like they already have taken down the ADC submit page:

I'd like to welcome Muthu Ramadoss to the Hello Android team. Muthu is the founder of the India based IntelliBitz Technologies and will be helping out posting news stories and giving his insight into the emerging Asian mobile market. His first article will tell you why "Android Rocks" in one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. Enjoy! - hobbs

2008 in India started pretty weak for the software industry, with TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) announcing the first ever layoff of 500 of its employees. With US economy under pressure more such layoff are expected this year in Indian software firms. So its only fair to say that the high flying, credit card spending, all night partying Indian software folks are a wee bit nervous.

Let me tell you our story.

We run a mobile development company in India. And we run Linux. We have downloaded tons and tons of free open source software to develop stuff. If you are not aware, running any sort of company in India is not easy. We are not funded like in the valley and so doing any development with upfront investment is considered suicide at its prime form.

The winners have been announced and Verizon and AT&T have picked up large sums of bandwidth in the 700 Mhz auction. Verizon won almost all of the 22 Mhz wide C-block except for the Alaska, Puerto Rico and Gulf of Mexico markets. Verizon shelled out $4.741 billion for this huge chunk of bandwidth. It appears that everyone was correct in assuming that Google was just bidding in the auction to make sure that the reserve was met and the airwaves would be open to its Android devices.

AT&T has picked up a good portion of the regional B-block of spectrum. It won 12Mhz in many of the 700 markets up for bid. The D block, which has been reserved for public safety and community purposes, did not make the $1.3 billion reserve. So if you're interesting Auction 76 will be held to sell off this remaining 10 Mhz of real estate.

So a big win for Verizon and AT&T. And even a big win for Google who can benifit from the open networks without having to spend a penny to buy them.