Pretty cool

[Douglas Roberts-2]

I'm interested in seeing how this develops.

http://apcmag.com/7726/google_powered_mobile_phones_to_make_a_february_debut

--
Doug Roberts, RTI International
droberts at rti.org
doug at parrot-farm.net
505-455-7333 - Office
505-670-8195 - Cell
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[Roger Critchlow-2]

If you have any interest in programming at all, download the Android SDK
from Google.  It's a very neat package, everything you need to build, test,
and debug a mobile phone application, and a clean window/event/application
model as well.

It's rare that someone gets to build an API that has no legacy
responsibilities at all.

-- rec --

On Dec 26, 2007 9:17 AM, Douglas Roberts <doug at parrot-farm.net> wrote:

> I'm interested in seeing how this develops.
>
>
> http://apcmag.com/7726/google_powered_mobile_phones_to_make_a_february_debut
>
> --
> Doug Roberts, RTI International
> droberts at rti.org
> doug at parrot-farm.net
> 505-455-7333 - Office
> 505-670-8195 - Cell
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>

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[Pamela McCorduck]

Why are engineering and beautiful design incompatible?  Google, of  
all folks, ought to know better.  But anyway, I wait breathlessly  
until February.

P.


On Dec 26, 2007, at 9:17 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:

> I'm interested in seeing how this develops.
>
> http://apcmag.com/7726/ 
> google_powered_mobile_phones_to_make_a_february_debut
>
> --
> Doug Roberts, RTI International
> droberts at rti.org
> doug at parrot-farm.net
> 505-455-7333 - Office
> 505-670-8195 - Cell
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

And now what will become of us without barbarians?   These  people  
were some sort of a solution.

                Kavafis, Waiting for the Barbarians



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[Douglas Roberts-2]

I'm a big fan of butt-ugly, myself.  As long as it's *functional* butt-ugly.

--Doug

--
Doug Roberts, RTI International
droberts at rti.org
doug at parrot-farm.net
505-455-7333 - Office
505-670-8195 - Cell

On Dec 26, 2007 10:26 AM, Pamela McCorduck <pamela at well.com> wrote:

> Why are engineering and beautiful design incompatible?  Google, of all
> folks, ought to know better.  But anyway, I wait breathlessly until
> February.
> P.
>
>
> On Dec 26, 2007, at 9:17 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
>
> I'm interested in seeing how this develops.
>
>
> http://apcmag.com/7726/google_powered_mobile_phones_to_make_a_february_debut
>
> --
> Doug Roberts, RTI International
> droberts at rti.org
> doug at parrot-farm.net
> 505-455-7333 - Office
> 505-670-8195 - Cell
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>
> And now what will become of us without barbarians?   These  people were
> some sort of a solution.
>
> Kavafis, Waiting for the Barbarians
>
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>

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[Steve Smith]

On Dec 26, 2007, at 10:26 AM, Pamela McCorduck wrote:

> Why are engineering and beautiful design incompatible?  Google, of  
> all folks, ought to know better.  But anyway, I wait breathlessly  
> until February.
>
Yes, very cool... thanks Doug... and Pamela for the comment.

As I read the article, I don't think Google is done with the design.

I think what we see in the article is an engineering prototype and  
very likely
there is a very high paid team of product designers out there kicking  
ass
on the final form-factor.

Apple (and NeXT)  set a very high standard a long time ago in this  
domain which they still hold the lead in.

I suspect Google will not try to trump Jobs at his own game, but  
rather follow his  lead and carefully develop their own "branding by  
design".

I believe this will be the first Google physical consumer-market  
device (though I could be asleep at the switch.  It is in their best  
interest (IMO) to strike out in a new direction.   Apple will always  
be the Armani or Lamborghini of computer/media/consumer products (I  
suspect).   But what can Google be(come)?  They are not without a  
sense of minimalism and elegance of their own.

- Steve

[Steve Smith]

On Dec 26, 2007, at 10:35 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:

> I'm a big fan of butt-ugly, myself.  As long as it's functional butt-
> ugly.
>
> --Doug
>

There is a design aesthetic in the engineering prototype world which  
is a mix of high-function design and "loose wiring", "exposed welds"  
and "rough materials" that is quite appealing (at least to nerds).    
We like the look of "I coulda built this myself" with nothing hidden  
under chrome or black-plastic covers... not unlike anatomical drawings  
or rough carpentry with the measure and cut marks still showing.


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[Roger Critchlow-2]

> On Dec 26, 2007 10:26 AM, Pamela McCorduck <pamela at well.com> wrote:
>
> >  Why are engineering and beautiful design incompatible?  Google, of all
> > folks, ought to know better.  But anyway, I wait breathlessly until
> > February.
> >
>
Someone who bought a Kindle should talk about beautiful design?  Voting with
your wallet?

Actually, I think it's just a matter of sensitivities.  Painters make
superficially ugly pictures that are beautiful within the constraints they
set for themselves; engineers can make thousands of beautiful design
decisions which are invisible unless you crack open the case, review the
code, or look at the profits.

-- rec --
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[Owen Densmore]

Sleeping under all this is a very, very important boost for Linux:  
drivers and libraries for commercial devices.

It took YEARS before Linux could be run on laptops.  Why?  Because  
all the drivers (the interface between the Linux software and the  
devices) -- mainly peripherals like disk drives, keyboard/mouse,  
audio, and displays -- were unique to the laptop, giving it an edge  
in the laptop market.  Very bleeding edge.  This led to the drivers  
being only for Windows, and indeed, only for the version of Windows  
they supported for that device.

This lack of Linux support has diminished somewhat, mainly due to a  
few manufacturers trying to build linux laptops, but is still a  
problem with really new devices.

Phones are also an area where Linux had no foothold.  Apple uses a  
kernel that is basically a *nix (linux/unix) hybrid called Darwin.  
It decided to build a phone around this technology, the iPhone.  Boy  
did it impress, especially first time "smart-phone" users.

Google is doing something even more interesting: trying to build a  
universal software architecture for phones.  Sun did part of that  
job, building a subset of Java for phones, and it is quite successful  
for phones, especially games, but also for very sophisticated phone  
applications like email readers, web browsers, and a google maps  
edition.  But Google's effort is even more ambitious: build an entire  
phone "stack" .. ALL of the software needed for the phone, with the  
manufacturers providing the glue (mainly drivers and screen/keyboard  
interfaces) needed to adapt the Google Android system to their phones.

This is HUGE!  Phones are communications devices with applications  
not even dreamed of, or at least not even attempted by the horrid  
carrier/manufacturer lock currently in place.

As a first example: Apple's iPhone has a wonderful "visual voicemail"  
feature, bringing the voicemail your phone carrier provides (very  
bad, generally) to a very swift scrolling interface without annoying  
"push 1 for delete, 2 for save, 3 for blow up you phone" and further  
idiotic-nesses.

We're now on the verge of an open phone.  Google IS still a bad-guy,  
but less so than either Apple or Microsoft, and they will likely do  
horrid things.  And it will take the idiotic manufacturers years to  
catch up with the iPhone, which believe me is not resting on its  
laurels.  But this could be way, way cool.  And I bet Google will  
have lock-downs that the community will spend HUGE amounts of time  
breaking, also just like the iPhone.

Should be fun!

    -- Owen

[Owen Densmore]

On Dec 26, 2007, at 9:17 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
> I'm interested in seeing how this develops.
>
> http://apcmag.com/7726/ 
> google_powered_mobile_phones_to_make_a_february_debut

Drilling down a bit, looking at the handset alliance and the actual  
software kit, I'm a bit surprised to see that Java is the development  
system.  I'm surprised there's not a version of either Python, or  
Jython, on the device.  Some folks much prefer the python syntax and  
"agile" semantics.

I've asked the JRuby and Jython lists if they plan to port.  JRuby is  
interested, but no response from Jython.

    -- Owen