Rabidgremlin's
Soapbox

Well things seem to be heating up in the Android world…

First off the new version of the SDK (0.9) became available. The APIs have undergone some rather radical changes since m15 but apparently they should be mostly stable now. Its going to take some serious work to get Bubbles! up and running again.

Next all sorts of leaks about the first Android handset (the HTC Dream) starting popping up on the Internet. Gizmodo have some spy pictures of the phone, it looks good but not iPhone sexy. I think the slide out qwerty keyboard is a good idea but it doesn’t help the devices looks.

Google also posted some information about their content distribution system which will be the Android equivalent of the iPhone’s App Store.

“Developers will be able to make their content available on an open service hosted by Google that features a feedback and rating system similar to YouTube. We chose the term “market” rather than “store” because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available. Similar to YouTube, content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it.”

It certainly seems that getting an Android application out into the wild will be far easier (and less expensive) then an iPhone application.

And lastly, today the Android team posted the Android Developer Challenge Winners gallery showcasing the final 50 apps and the winning apps. Some pretty interesting application here.

Its going to be interesting to see how Android and the HTC Dream do against the iPhone tsunami.