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Android's next move: Unify phone and tablet OS

Here is the Latest on the Next update Ice cream sandwich:
Interesting update on what next to expect..........
From MSNBC:
By Wilson Rothman
Google has an ongoing problem: There are too many different versions of its software out there, running on too many different machines. Rather than rein in the number of possible devices — a tactic preferred by Apple and Microsoft, among others — Google is embarking on a much more challenging task: To create one OS that can drive 'em all.
I scream, you scream
Its nickname, Ice Cream Sandwich, belies the fact that it's software engineering ambition in its extreme. Google is promising the OS update by the year's end. Central to the task is writing software tools that do not require apps to work with specific screen resolution or power demands. And because the goal is to have this same OS run not just on phones and tablets, but set-top boxes and other systems, Google will be "adding a lot of UIs to accommodate Android devices of all shapes and sizes," according to tech site Ars Technica, reporting from Google's I/O event in San Francisco.
In spite of that, the core look and feel will resemble Android's 3.0 Honeycomb, now found on a handful of Android tablets including the Motorola Xoom and Asus EeePad Transformer. According to Cnet, Ice Cream Sandwich "will include all of Honeycomb's user interface features, too, and includes the 'holographic' user interface, application launcher, multitasking and richer widgets."
Tablet update coming soon
Speaking of those Honeycomb tablets, they're due to get an interim update with two very welcome additions. I have complained for a while that the Honeycomb home screen is ugly, because the "widgets" that give it an advantage over the iPad are still sized to fit phones, not spacious 10-inch tablets. In the Android 3.1 release (for tablets only), widgets will be resizable.
Many Honeycomb tablets come with USB ports, and now we know why: The release will also allow for device support via USB, a clear benefit that the iPad does not share. Not only will people be able to plug in cameras to off-load images, but they'll be able to use keyboards, game controllers, microphones and other input and control devices. (Here's more on the Open Accessory program.)
There will also be provisions in the new software for interaction with a wide range of accessories, from exercise machines to robots.
But will it update?
Ambitious as the path to Ice Cream Sandwich is, that's something that Google can handle mostly in-house. The other half of this fragmentation problem is that devices out there don't get updates to the new OS — even when they're technically compatible. To fix this problem, Google is enlisting the help of its partners, the biggest companies in the wireless world. "New devices from participating partners will receive the latest Android platform upgrades for 18 months after the device is first released, as long as the hardware allows."
Neither of these big moves is bound to solve the fragmentation for the 100 million or so active Android devices currently in the world, but it's a sign that Google cares about the future of its platform, and about making it a great OS for really cool software.

[Q] Android

I have been doing a little research between iOS and Android platforms. One major difference I have noticed is that Apple has a platform that is compatible across their devices. For applications it seems it would be easier to develop applications for the iOS. I might be wrong but, not finished with my research.
There is one concept that I have not been able to understand with the Android Platforms is the platforms that are available in the SDK. For example the Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 is available on the developer website and what makes this release not available to install onto a phone. How does this translate from hardware to hardware?
If anyone can direct me to some enlightenment on this topic it would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for your reply’s.

How About Android for Desktops...

Another discussion where I posted a version of this led me to thinking that this might make for an interesting topic all on its own.
How would you envision a port of android made specifically for Desktop/Laptop environments, and do you think such an OS would be appealing to the average user?
_______________________________
As I envision it, ChromeOS should be folded into Android 4.0 and Google should build a version of the combined OS for Desktops.
The idea would be to create a common ecosystem of apps and usage environment accross multiple device categories, ad have it all interconnected through Google products and other apps running in the background.
I envision something that boots instantly right into ChromeOS while the rest of the Android system boots up in the background, thus allowing you virtually immediate cloud based functionality on the desktop. You could even choose to ONLY boot into chrome, say if you needed to look up something quickly online and didn't want to fully turn on a computer that has been turned off.
The chrome side of things would be very similar to ICS for tablets and would be deeply linked to all things google as well as relying on versions of the same Google apps that run on mobile, but optimized for ICS and taking advantage of larger screen dimensions. I envision touch interface to be retained for those who have touch sensitive screens, but also better keyboard and touchpad/mouse controls than currently exist. Lastly I would bundle a Google fork of Libre office specifically designed to have deep automatic integration with Google docs and Google+, but allowing users to have local editing control.
I would love to have such a system and have a common ecosystem between my phone, tablet and desktop/laptop, much how Apple currently does with IOs devices and MacOS and how Microsoft is planning to do with Windows 8 and WP8. unlike those ecosystems, this would run variants of the same OS, as opposed to different OSs made to work together, thus being able to take advantage of current built up knowledge and the existing android market.
Imagine if Google did the entire thing open sourced and released it to desktop and laptop OEMs.
A guy can dream right? If only there was a way to have a bunch of people pitch it to Google.
What do you guys think and how would you envision such an OS?

Android is already going to be merged with the Linux kernel in version 3.3 (with improved power management in 3.4)

nejc121 said:
Android is already going to be merged with the Linux kernel in version 3.3 (with improved power management in 3.4)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you sure about that? From what I've read Android is going to provide it's drivers and both Android and linux are going to provide patches to each other's kernels (with Power management being addressed in later versions of the linux kernel (3.4?). The Android kernel will remain (at least for now) a fork of the linux kernel.
Still that doesn't really address the subject of this thread.

Santeno said:
As I envision it, ChromeOS should be folded into Android 4.0 and Google should build a version of the combined OS for Desktops.
I envision something that boots instantly right into ChromeOS while the rest of the Android system boots up in the background, thus allowing you virtually immediate cloud based functionality on the desktop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i too dream of Google using all the OS & games tech experience they have gained from Android to bootstrap a full desktop OS.
My personal fantasy is that the under no circumstances include any of the Chrome Cloud based nonsense. But focus quite heavily on games and multimedia, offer an OS that delivers content & gaming rather than try going head to head on productivity (where they would get owned).
Am not going to go into my objections to the cloud concept, lots of geeks my age & older well remember the mainframe model from the 70's and the cloud suffers many of the same inherent flaws IMHO.
I addition my fantasy involves ARM leveraging the experience with the multi-cores they have developed to produce an ARM desktop CPU arrays, as am a big fan or clusters and arrays, render farms etc.
I have to confess being serious i don't see either happening since both would be attempting to breaking into markets they are inexperienced in and where entrenched competitors already have a tough obstacle course laid out, plus pretty deep war chests.
But the main issue with a Google desktop OS, IMHO to succeed, i think it would have to be capable of some kind of half decent x86 emulation ........... But hey we are talking 'The Brothers Grimms Tales of Silicone Valley' here anyways.

Its possible to do so now, albeit not the same experince you get on your phone or tablet due to lack of driver support Its how i checked out 4.0 before I got it on my Asus Transformer Prime. Worth a try!
(Im new to XDA so I cannot post links, however google "android x86 download" and its the first link.)

There are ready is a port of android that works on desktops that these guys are working on over at http://www.android-x86.org/.

android 4.2??

will our device get android 4.2?? cause i really craving for the multi user function...

Well lets not jump the gun first let us get 4.1 then we can think about 4.2 none of the smartphone manufacturer have yet published their 4.2 road map for any of the devices but eventually we should get it may be 3 - 6 months down the line

Android 4.2 mostly brings new features to the table, rather than general system improvement.
Features like several users are rather hard to port to the tablet, and put such immense UI such as Touchwiz with all of it's features.

What for ?

Which platform is best for developing android apps, android studio or eclipse??

I am working on eclipse from 6 months but recently I downloaded android studio and i found it good too. So i am confused which platform should i keep using?
thanks.

Eclipse is d best i feel..developing on it since ice cream sandwich
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I've no problem with android studio except the fact that it is damn slow. I'm sure that it will improve in the future.
Eclipse is a very familiar tool. It feels like home when I use eclipse and a lot faster.

Androi Studio for sure
My personal favorite is android studio. Its much better then eclipse and it surely improves productivity in certain tasks.

Developers should be update, use Android Studio

Android Studio.. IDEA based software is best ever.. You guys must learn its featured and then you would say wow. From multiple selection to Floating Navigation Bar to Any File Go to lot and lot of features..... Extremely customisable... I don't know how many have used legendary code editor sublime text.
Buy this android studio.... Completely Brings all features of Sublime Text into an IDE. Learn the features of this ide... And u will hate all other ide altogether
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Also google positions Android Studio as the official development environment.

Eclipse is faster, but Android Studio has more features and is built for Android specifically (while Eclipse is built for Java generally). If your computer can run it smoothly, go with Studio.

I personally believe one should always use the one which is best and up-to-date. Saying that, Android Studio fits in best as this is the latest development platform with loaded features and easy to use.
The only factor that it takes time and effort for the developers to learn new things. For, developers who starts fresh doesn't make much difference to them as they need to learn either one of the platform and they can start with Android Studio. If one learns Eclipse first, they eventually need to learn Android Studio and upgrade themselves at some point.
Moreover, there are additional features on any new releases than the older version. Similarly, we see some of the well known features that are available on Android Studio and not present in Eclipse, mentioned here:
1. Maven-based build dependencies
2. Build variants and multiple-APK generation (great for Android Wear).
3. Advanced Android code completion and refactoring.
Finally, new and advanced features in these new released platforms helps developers to produce apps faster.
Happy Coding
Cheers!

For low performance laptop Android Studio wouldnt be as efficient, on the other hand it have a lot of advantage rather than eclips.

I'm looking to create an app for android (which I can eventually add to the play store), that contains buttons of a sort in the fact that if you tap on the screen in once place one thing will happen and in another place, something else. Can anyone recommend which I should use to create this app? Also, do they both use need java? (android studios or eclipse)
Thanks!

I've found the newer versions of Android Studio to be much more efficient as well as having less issues than they used to. I highly recommend using Android Studio, especially since Google is ending support for Eclipse by the end of the year.

intellij
Android Studio is a customized version of IntelliJ, which is a commercial IDE. So you're getting a $200 IDE for free!

And intellij is very polished
Sent from my XT1254

Android studio is pretty good, but it is very slow and takes a bit too much of the memory

I have only used Android Studio so far. Lot of support tutorials and ease of understanding / use. May be, one day I will explore other options. Not for now.

My vote is going for Android Studio.

I vote for Android Studio. eclipse is not support. but i am using visual studio to develop android app (cordova hybrid project).

Hi,
Android Studio is great.The framework is sleek and it is perfect platform to develop your apps.
If you are new to android programming i would suggest you can take courses from Udacity (Android Basics Nanodegree program by Google)Here you will be taught by the Google developers themselves and it's really cool and interactive.

Android Studio.. Thought based programming is best ever.. You all must take in its included and after that you would say stunning. From different choice to Floating Navigation Bar to Any File Go to parcel and part of features..... To a great degree customisable... I don't know what number of have utilized incredible code editorial manager radiant content.
Purchase this android studio.... Totally Brings all components of Sublime Text into an IDE. Take in the elements of this ide... What's more, u will despise all other ide by and large