MIT Students Demonstrate Potential Power of Google's Android for Mobile Phones

Google is billing Android as “a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications.” Some may call it Google’s answer to the iPhone, and for a long time it was already billed as “the iPhone killer,” long before the software development kit was released.

The Android is going to be a very open platform, where anyone can affect changes. Whereas before, wireless companies had a large amount of control over the phone and its software, with the introduction of Apple’s iPhone, things have been shook up: Google plan to take that a lot further with Android.

Android’s openness has been put through the wringer over at MIT though, after Massachusetts Industry of Technology professor Hal Abelson asked his computer science student’s one question; what do you want your cell phone to be able to do?

Their task was to design a software program for mobile phones that will use the upcoming Android operating system, and though they didn’t have any phones to work on (they used a computer simulator to design their programs), the opportunities they glanced are mesmerizing.

Seven teams of students set to create a program that embodied what they thought a phone should do; and it appears that the general consensus is that it should lock in to your location. One project named GeoLife, is designed to send a message or buzz the user when they pass by a geographical location (a supermarket, chemist, etc) if a note on their to-do list requires them to enter. For example, if you need milk and it’s on your to-do list, then when you pass by your local supermarket… bzzzt!

Another project named Locale was designed to let users configure their phones to automatically adjust their settings upon arriving at a different geographical zone. For example, the phone would switch to vibrate mode in the office, silent mode at the theater, and ring everywhere else.

Locale was also advanced to the finals of a $10 million Android developers challenge that Google is running.

"'This class is a glimpse of the future, and what's nice, the not-so-distant future,'' Abelson said at a gathering where the students presented their final projects.

Posted by Josh Hill.

Source links:

http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/20765/?nlid=1069
http://code.google.com/android/what-is-android.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL0875110620080508?rpc=92&sp=true

Comments

[Fred Mulligan]

Ugh, dude....plurals just don't get apostrophes--period.

I'm starting to think all you bloggers misspell and use grammar like idiots on purpose. You aren't as bad as a majority of the others--especially considering your posts are enormous--but for someone who is constantly writing, how can you not show some experience with the English language?

I guess I'm completely alone here, but I would have a harder time writing something to thousands upon thousands of readers worldwide and throwing it up on the internet than sitting for 3 minutes longer and reading my work first.

[bishal]

kemchho rameshbhai?/