Related
This is rather an interesting topic/thought. Right now they are at 2.3 gingerbread for Android on the phones, and ice cream sandwich 2.4 is in the works. Soon after that there will be 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, etc... but.. what happens when they finally hit 3.0? Because 3.0 is honeycomb and is designed specifically for tablets only. I would assume it would not be the same 3.0 as the tablets. They would be completely different releases for sure, they would have to be. For sure the Android 3.0 on the phone would have to be named something else, and would share zero in common with the tablet 3.0 release.
Betcha didn't think about that one. Or maybe you already did? Thoughts on this?
That a good point an the 3.0 is not really a firmware cuz phones are first then tablets are a second thought, I think at least, but I hope they become as seemless as ISO like a little easyer to use but **** what would be the fun in it then
Sent from my CBW Blaze and ipod 3g using XDA Premium App
Google has said that the next version of Android will be Gingerbread mixed with Honeycomb and they will include all the key features from 3.0 to our lovely phones
Oh cool. That sounds pretty awesome!
Honeycomb released on tablets is as stated above....for tablets. The reason they developed 3.0 for tablets initiallt is because tablets have more cpu, ram, essentially way more features. 98%of phones dont have all of these features. If they skipped to 3.0 in phones right now98% of phones would be without support. The smaller incrimental updates of phones will support the life cycle of phones. Old phones slowly dying off from no updates rather than large leaps that would leave them without any updates because of older hardware.
3.0 does have provisioning for phones though. Developers have already stated this. And thats how they are already porting it to some phones
Sent from my HD2 using XDA Premium App
I've read that 2.4 or Ice Cream Sandwich will attempt to merge 2.3 and 3.0 into phone form and then they'll go from there.
That's what I've heard before as well. But actually I meant what happens in the distant future when they reach the number 3.0 on the phones. Eventually after every new official build of Android, the version number for phones will have to cross into the 3.0 area, but that is already called honeycomb, and is for tablets only. The question is... what the heck are they going to call it or do about it when this happens. This won't happen for a long time though as 2.4 isn't even out yet. You see what I'm saying right? We are waiting for Android 2.4 ice cream sandwich to come out on our phones sometime soon, then we will be waiting for 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, then 3.0. It's kind of confusing to explain I know this, but its an excellent topic. If that doesn't make sense I will have to try harder I suppose.
They'll probably reserve evens (2.x, 4.x) for phones and odds (3.x, 5.x) for tablets. After everything settles down maybe a year from now and they're looking for the next overly huge release they'll probably switch phones from 2 to 4 and tablets from 3 to 5 at roughly the same time.
All speculation. It's what I would do at least.
Who says Ice Cream will be 2.4? I've read 2.4 will be Gingerbread just how 2.0 and 2.1 were both Eclair.
Plus they jumped straight from 1.6 to 2.0
I bet Ice Cream is 3.1 or 3.5 or something.
They probably won't continue with 2 different versions of Android and just release one version that scales the layout depending on screen size/resolution.
They want to be standard, as much as they can ... so yes.. it would make "sense" to have one OS and scale it for all platforms, however all platforms would have to be of similar high spec .
But look at windows 7 , there are 6 versions of it... all with bits taken out, all with bits added.
You can go from Windows 7 starter up to Ultimate / Enterprise the server 2008 ..all have the same " shell " , and this is what I think Google is wants.. a common shell / look .
Its just a version number...
All software is version-ed. For instance, Android OS for smart phones is version-ed as 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 etc. Generally for any software, a major release will have a version change like 1.5 to 2.0. And, any subsequent minor revisions will have version changes such as 2.2 to 2.3.
Android for tablets is version-ed 3.0. But, I think it doesn't necessarily have to mean that Android OS for phones will culminate into the Android OS for tablets over a few revisions.
For all we know, Android OS for smart phones could be version-ed 2.3,2.4...2.9,2.10,2.11... Only Google knows
Software Versioning & Android OS
First a couple info tidbits:
@MWC2011 Keynote info provided:
A. Gingerbread & Honeycomb to be combined into "I" release.
B. Fragments UI likely incorporated into "I" along with prior release compatibility
C. Six-Month Release Cycle to commence with "I"
As for the versioning of G-A OS.....
It has typically followed the external scheme
Major.Minor.Revision
If you, as a SW Dev Corp, follow typical software versioning practices then combining the 2.x and 3.x could be considered Major warranting the next numbering sequence 4.x
If, however, you are not actually adding new functionality nor testing the version at the production level (new major version) then you usually use Minor and might use, for example, 3.1 (presuming the H release at 3.0).
Of course Software Versioning is arbitrary in that there are no hard and fast rules exactly defining what a SW Dev Company "must" follow regarding versioning.
They could also use the "dot 5" schema sometimes used when it isn't quite considered a totally new production level version. MS did this with NT 3.5; more or less.
I wouldn"t lay odds either way except maybe to say I would expect the 2.x versioning sequence to end at the "I" release.
My "guess" going forward would be:
J-Jelly Bean as Android 4.0 instead of "I" [Hopefully utilizing full multitasking along with SMP advancement....an engineer can dream] which would likely mean just two 3.x releases...H and I
JMHO
joeyklatzko said:
Who says Ice Cream will be 2.4? I've read 2.4 will be Gingerbread just how 2.0 and 2.1 were both Eclair.
Plus they jumped straight from 1.6 to 2.0
I bet Ice Cream is 3.1 or 3.5 or something.
They probably won't continue with 2 different versions of Android and just release one version that scales the layout depending on screen size/resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point. I remember when they decided that 2.0/2.1 Eclair will not have a name change, so that is very possible what you are saying because it's been done before in this situation. That's a valid point.
Everyone is saying that Google will want to release one version of Android for both phone and tablet. I thought about that, but wasn't so sure. But, now it seems like the best choice by far when you think about it and have lots of good valid points from others. I'm on you guys side for sure! Good stuff, good stuff.
hi! i am new here!
macbill said:
hi! i am new here!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey! Welcome.
Just read this on MyTabletLife.com...
Another big rumor hitting the interwebs over the past few days is that Android tablets that are currently running Android 2.x will not see Honeycomb upgrades. According to Eldar Murtazin, writing for Mobile-Review, Google has licensing agreements specifically preventing manufactures from upgrading to Android 3.0 on their devices. This will come as bad news for those with the current Samsung Galaxy Tab.
NotionInk has stated several times that they will be upgrading their Android 2.2 tablet to Honeycomb, so maybe the smaller manufactures did not have these agreements in place. The HYC Flyer hasn’t even released yet, and it comes with Android 2.3, and a tablet version of their Sense UI. If this announcement is true I could see many consumers skipping the Flyer as it will never see the tablet version of Android.
I just thought this was interesting... seems like Google is starting to become the same type of ogerish beast that resembles MS, Apple, RIM and so on… and so on… and so on… how disappointing!
I highly doubt this is true. Android is an open source project and can be compiled to run on anything someone wishes to run it on (including manufactures). Google can't stop them unless they change their open source licence for 3.0 which I don't see them doing.
Unless, they scrap Honeycomb entirely...I still have hope that HC will come to the gtablet officially or not officially.
HYC FLYER?
I doubt the validity of this article for several reasons. The first and most important being that the writer can not even spell "HTC" and I quote "The HYC Flyer hasn’t even released yet..."
Seriously though, if they can get honeycomb on the nook color, officially or not the g tablet should see a version of 3.0 eventually. With the many new woot users and growing popularity of the device I am very confident this is will happen in the next 90 days. Just my opinion.
Google says that Ice Cream Sandwich will defragment the Android OS. Obviously it will defragment in terms of bringing together phones, tablets & google TV but an iDevice level of defragmentation? I.E, all devices having the ability to upgrade to the latest version of the OS immediately or even eventually? It seems possible but it doesn't seem probable, but that is where I think Android needs to eventually end up.
Obviously if your hardware didn't warrant the software upgrade they could lock you out of a certain upgrade or warn you that it may cause significant issues with your device.
I can't wait to find out more about this =]
IMO, the defragmentation comes from the individual phone manufacturer, and different phone specs, less so than the different medium.
What they really need is something like the windows phone 7 has in terms of minimum hardware specs, certain buttons required, certain hardware, etc. That still allows a wide range of devices but allows for some conaistency. Google also needs to start taking over the updating of the phones which will help as well. Relying on manufacturers and carriers does not bode well for upgrades.
Tapped from my CherryPi Atrix
termleech said:
What they really need is something like the windows phone 7 has in terms of minimum hardware specs, certain buttons required, certain hardware, etc. That still allows a wide range of devices but allows for some conaistency. Google also needs to start taking over the updating of the phones which will help as well. Relying on manufacturers and carriers does not bode well for upgrades.
Tapped from my CherryPi Atrix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're one step closer if ICS devices will no longer have physical buttons.
Does this mean Icecream cannot be installed on current Android phones?
SaqibArif said:
Does this mean Icecream cannot be installed on current Android phones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It means that Devs will need to port it to older hardware, especially the phones that came out w/o 1GHz cores Single cores...Like the Legend, G1, Aria, Droid 1, hero, X10, etc...But phones with Sense or Touchwiz, or Timescape, or LG UI, will be waiting longer for a official update instead. ICS will most likely be intensive on the older phones that are weaker, Gingerbread kills many older phones already, so imagine ICS on them.
Ace42 said:
It means that Devs will need to port it to older hardware, especially the phones that came out w/o 1GHz cores Single cores...Like the Legend, G1, Aria, Droid 1, hero, X10, etc...But phones with Sense or Touchwiz, or Timescape, or LG UI, will be waiting longer for a official update instead. ICS will most likely be intensive on the older phones that are weaker, Gingerbread kills many older phones already, so imagine ICS on them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're actually correct except the fact that google said themselves at google IO before showing the digital zoom based on vocal recognition that ICS would have -no- hardware requirements so I think that it would be more intensive, but still optimized for the phones. Kind of like how you can run Linux on damn near anything.
Indirect said:
You're actually correct except the fact that google said themselves at google IO before showing the digital zoom based on vocal recognition that ICS would have -no- hardware requirements so I think that it would be more intensive, but still optimized for the phones. Kind of like how you can run Linux on damn near anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't know they stated that, well I guess that's good news for everyone then. But the performance on older phones is still questionable.
With the number of different devices utilizing different hardware sets, it will be damn near impossible to establish one version to fit all devices unless they take the windows approach on desktops and allow the user to apply driver updates separately from their device manufacturers.
Also there is the other issue with app fragmentation where folks like nvidia are paying the developers to use device specific codes to make the apps not compatible with other devices instead of utilizing standard openGL which is nearly identical.
I think that standardizing the android 'experience' with a standard set of buttons or hardware requirements is ultimately an exercise in futility. People still see the smartphone world in terms of manufacturers, not in terms of operating systems, and no amount of standardization is going to change the fact that when you look at your phone, you see Samsung or HTC, not android.
I think the question is more, do consumers really need to know or care whether their device runs android or something else? I think not. Your average consumer makes choices of phone based on hardware reliability, cost, carrier availability, aesthetic, popularity, and many other factors. I'm not completely discounting user experience, but I don't think it's as prominent in the decision making process as the enthusiasts assume (the decision making process of the general populace that is). When you consider this, fragmentation of the operating system across many different manufacturers really doesn't make much of a difference to the image of the OS itself.
The only reason that android fragmentation is even an issue/concept whose consequences need to be pondered is because on the other side of the fence we have Apple making consistent hardware that runs on the same OS, and making boatloads of money off it. On the other hand, android is doing fine (and exceeding the iOS market share in many markets) even though it has this market fragmented across many different manufacturers.
Google needs to fix the fragmentation!!!
Niksko said:
I think that standardizing the android 'experience' with a standard set of buttons or hardware requirements is ultimately an exercise in futility. People still see the smartphone world in terms of manufacturers, not in terms of operating systems, and no amount of standardization is going to change the fact that when you look at your phone, you see Samsung or HTC, not android.
I think the question is more, do consumers really need to know or care whether their device runs android or something else? I think not. Your average consumer makes choices of phone based on hardware reliability, cost, carrier availability, aesthetic, popularity, and many other factors. I'm not completely discounting user experience, but I don't think it's as prominent in the decision making process as the enthusiasts assume (the decision making process of the general populace that is). When you consider this, fragmentation of the operating system across many different manufacturers really doesn't make much of a difference to the image of the OS itself.
The only reason that android fragmentation is even an issue/concept whose consequences need to be pondered is because on the other side of the fence we have Apple making consistent hardware that runs on the same OS, and making boatloads of money off it. On the other hand, android is doing fine (and exceeding the iOS market share in many markets) even though it has this market fragmented across many different manufacturers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very well said!
I'm sure there will be plenty of ICS support for older devices from the dev community. I'd expect most, if not all of the devices currently supported by
Cyanogenmod to see an ICS upgrade when the time comes.
looks like i should wait a bit more longer b4 i upgrade some of my hardware
Lots of life left in the the super HTC Desire yet then....
Nice, I will enjoy seeing ICS hit retail, if for nothing else the conversations on this forum, lol.
yes of course...
it'll be 3 main pockets
all the hardware that was on 2.3.x GB are automatically compatible with ICS 4.x, so all those automatically will join the 4.x cloud
but we have all the 2.2 Froyo and 2.1 Eclair hardware that are too old for ICS both of those becomes 1 cloud, most 2.1 devices are already on 2.2 anyways.
so the last cloud are those super old 1.5 devices
so in reality we are better off now than before
if you imagine a pie chart it'll be like 1% AOSP 1.5.x devices 49% 2.2 AOSP devices, and 50% ICE 4.x devices
iLiberate said:
Google says that Ice Cream Sandwich will defragment the Android OS. Obviously it will defragment in terms of bringing together phones, tablets & google TV but an iDevice level of defragmentation? I.E, all devices having the ability to upgrade to the latest version of the OS immediately or even eventually? It seems possible but it doesn't seem probable, but that is where I think Android needs to eventually end up.
Obviously if your hardware didn't warrant the software upgrade they could lock you out of a certain upgrade or warn you that it may cause significant issues with your device.
I can't wait to find out more about this =]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
amaliapika said:
yes of course...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, love that you bumped a 6 month old thread with "yes of course". Struggling to reach 10 posts eh?
I'm just curious but since ICS is coming, what does that mean for us? All I've heard is another UI overhaul for phones to give them more honeycomb, but what do we get? If Hardware Acceleration is in then I would be happy, but there doesn't seem to be anything in it for us tablet users.
Unless I'm missing something.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393797,00.asp#fbid=eHhpmAndRdICant really say kinda early..heres something I found but still unsure
I hope it means an update and AOSP!!
Not sure what the link was for...... Didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Sorry. But I'm just not sure if I would be excited about ics on my Xoom.
Imma say that it will be on the original Xoom's without a doubt. I read in an article that ICS will be able to run on older devices, thus it's almost a guarantee the Xoom will see it officially. Annnnd for some reason it does not... have no fear, as the devs will be here to solve that problem! The OG Droid was left out of the update loop awhile back because newer models replaced it, but we still have the most current updates on it thanks to the brilliant devs. Just gotta have some faith in your XDA community, and they will figure something out.
But again, I think the OP wants to know (...like I also do) what's the big improvement gonna be?
As I stated on another recent post, the big deal for me as I see it is that (presumably) the SC for HC will be released and then the ROM goodness will follow. But if it's anything like what happened with Froyo, etc, the Honeycomb custom ROMs will kick the stock Icecream Sandwichs' ass.
-No?
Psychokitty said:
But again, I think the OP wants to know (...like I also do) what's the big improvement gonna be?
As I stated on another recent post, the big deal for me as I see it is that (presumably) the SC for HC will be released and then the ROM goodness will follow. But if it's anything like what happened with Froyo, etc, the Honeycomb custom ROMs will kick the stock Icecream Sandwichs' ass.
-No?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for being the only reply actually related to my post, but Google had stated a long time ago that the SC for hc will never be released as the SC for ics will be released instead. But since phones will get more hc goodness, what do we get?(which is the main question in the topic)
I think at this point, it's a wait-and-see kind of thing.
But I think finally having the source code is the biggest news here. I think it will be the dawning of a golden age for the XOOM, so to speak.
Also, one advantage to the phone side getting lumped in to the same OS is that we will see a boost in apps that are tablet optimized since the devs will be able to work all of it into one .apk instead of focusing on two separate projects.
These are the two things I'm personally looking forward to the most as far as the tablet side goes.
Of course, it would be nice to be surprised, too.
kenfly said:
Thanks for being the only reply actually related to my post, but Google had stated a long time ago that the SC for hc will never be released as the SC for ics will be released instead. But since phones will get more hc goodness, what do we get?(which is the main question in the topic)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I think, since ICS will be open source, we will get additional development for the Xoom, beyond the wonderful feature additions and enhancements we have gotten with the limited HC.
Don't you think so?
From my understanding, Ice Cream Sandwich is an over haul for phones to bring out an honeycomb interface while allowing for tablet support as well and it will be more controlled by the king them self, Google.
What this means? All android devices will now be updated at the same time as it'll be more tightly integrated which means developers will need to start just making widgets for there own devices instead of a completely different interfaces like they do today. In a way, it'll be exactly what Honeycomb tablets are today (if you look at all the honeycomb tablets that's out, the interface is the same, only differences is that others will have widgets and/or wallpapers designed just for there tablets (i.e., samsung has the touchwiz) but can be upgraded all the same).
This is supposed to be more more uniform support and faster updates.
Will this go into effect right away? Probably not since the manufacturers will still need to make to update go through but we should also expect to see faster updates as well (there's still a lot of users out there still waiting on Gingerbread releases for there devices so with this making it more uniformed should allow for faster releases).
This is only from what I've heard, though.
This is from a PC World article this morning:
Although Google has kept its cards close to its vest about ICS, a number of things have been reported about it.
Widgets will be richer and resizable, as they are in the tablet version of Android.
More multitasking will be added to the system and the OS will be open source.
The system will be tailored to take advantage of devices that use the Texas Instrument's OMAP chip.
As with any Android upgrade, what Android devices will be eligible for the new system will remain with the manufacturers, but two good bets for the upgraded OS are the Samsung Nexus S and the Motorola Xoom.
---
I think it is important to understand one thing about ICS. It is intended to reunify the OS on all device types (like iOS). What this means for tablet (and conversely smartphone) users is that app development will improve and we will get better apps. These apps will make it easier to share functions between your tablet and your smartphone.
We would have found out more next Tuesday, but the announcements for ICS have been postponed. The postponement was for a good reason though. We still don't know what the reschedule date will be, other than sometime this month.
What do you think when someone asks you about the worst part about Android? Chances are, Android fragmentation is one of the first things that flies through your head. But I've been thinking about it and I haven't noticed anything to suggest that I am not alone.
It is well known that Android owns the smartphone market globally. It has done this by being open source. This has become it's greatest strength and it greatest weakness. For the first point, it is currently on over a billion devices all over the world. As for the second, I think you can guess: fragmentation. God knows how many different companies have taken Android and twisted it to their laggy and unsupported preference. I would really like to point towards the manufacturers that basically releases a new phone every month to three months. These include Samsung, Blu, and countless others. Here looks like a good place to say that I HATE THOSE LITTLE COMPANIES WITH THEIR CRAP TABLETS ON AMAZON. Anyway, Samsung probably is the worst right? With their big fancy skin and slow updates....well look at Blu! They have at least two dozen phones, tablets, and everything in between, most of which don't get a single update (to the next large update like 5.0, 5.1, etc. This doesn't include small patches, though I'm sure that they don't give many of those). Now I know that this is starting to turn into a rant, but that's OK. I'm almost ready to point out my...point. :l
If any of your friends, co-workers, acquaintances have iPhones, you might have heard the "why does my iPhone 4 on iOS 6 not support this app" complaint (or something similar). I've found that most apps work with Android Jelly Bean, ICS, or even Gingerbread, all of which are as old or older than iOS 6. Android apps support older versions of Android better than iOS does, which has very few fragmentation problems. Quick note: Some people haven't updated their iDevices to the newest version, so please don't give me crap for it. So that is my first supporting argument, which is a little harder to go against than my final point.
Quick recap: there to many different skinned versions of Android. This might seem to contradict my rage about "THOSE LITTLE COMPANIES WITH THEIR CRAP TABLETS ON AMAZON", but no one cares since most people probably agree with me on that. We should all calm down about the slow updates on our devices. Don't get angry at me and say that I must have a Nexus or a Motorola and I've never known the struggle; I have the LG Optimus G AT&T version and it hasn't gotten the official Kitkat release. Actually, I haven't even gotten an official update since 4.1.2. Thanks to custom ROMs, I'm on Lollipop right now. But that isn't the point. Maybe we shouldn't think of Android as "be together, not he same", but more like "be not the same, not together." That didn't quite work the way I hoped...
So I'm starting to think of Android a only a base and that we should think of skinned versions of Android more like Linux and it's distros. Ubuntu is based off Linux, but it isn't Linux (not actually sure if there is a pure Linux...would it be text based?). It rather another creation of it. The candied named Android versions are just new standards and aren't really necessary. I'm pretty sure that Samsung could take the current version and just add the security and new features in as they need it. Well, maybe some dev could correct me on that? Anyway, I'd like to end this summing up this thread (b/c it isn't very organized to my eyes) by saying that it's OK that you don't have the newest update and that Samsung really should add in the new features if not update the whole OS.
:silly: