The Next Big Thing: Small
Over 80 technical sessions on OpenSocial, Google App Engine, Android, Google Maps API, Google Web Toolkit, and more were featured at Google I/O, the company’s largest developer event.
Engadget says the oft-rumored HTC Dream was demoed with Android at the conference in San Francisco. PhoneMag has photos and a nice demo video, at the Googleplex.
The 3-inch by 5-inch touchscreen phone with a slider keyboard has an accelerometer so you to tilt and pan the device and Google Maps or Street View will track its orientation.
Although Android supported the touch screen, there was no support yet for multitouch, which permits two-finger controls such as pinching, says CNet.
However, Android could accommodate that technology if handset makers use multitouch-capable screens, said Andy Rubin, the Android project leader, in a press meeting after the speech.
“The amazing app has yet to be invented for mobile,” says Scott Jenson, manager for mobile user interface design at Google. People are still trying to figure out what people want to do with their mobile phones and how they want to use the mobile Web.
Developers at Mobile Portland got an update on Firefox for Mobile Devices last night from Dietrich Ayala, a developer for Mozilla’s Firefox. Firefox for Mobile Devices is not your father’s Minimo (Mini Mozilla).
Ruby on Rails is a free web application framework designed to make web development faster, simpler and more efficient. The annual RailsConf starts this week. Here’s the latest.
According to J.D. Powers, smartphones have climbed from 1.7% to 6.3% in market share over the last year. Smartphone users spend an average of 4.6 hours per month browsing the mobile web in the US and nearly 2.5 hours per month in Britain, reports M:Metrics (which is being bought by ComScore).
Developers like the Android Community are waking up and discovering 3.3 Billion people — half the population on Earth — with phones. They now have an open conduit. It’s The Next Big Thing. Small.
[get this widget]
