The Open Handset Alliance, the mobile technology industry coalition spearheaded by Google, announced the availability of the Android Software Development Kit, which promises to enable developers to create applications for the search giant's fledgling mobile platform. The SDK includes advanced development and debugging tools, a rich set of libraries, a true device emulator, in-depth documentation, sample projects, tutorials and FAQs and more, including an Eclipse plug-in that integrates the toolset with the Eclipse integrated development environment. The OHA site will also offer a blog and discussion groups--the association adds developers may contribute feedback throughout the development process. The OHA will make available the entire Android platform under the Apache v2 open-source license next year.
After downloading the Android SDK to an x86-based computer running Windows XP or Vista; Mac OS 10.4.8 or later; or Linux Ubuntu Dapper Drake or later, developers will also need Eclipse 3.2 or later, with Java Development Tools and the Android SDK's plug-in, or Java and Javac 1.5 or 1.6; Apache Ant; an integrated development environment; and Python 2.2 or later. For more information or to download the SDK, click here.
In addition, Google announced the Android Developer Challenge, which will dole out $10 million in awards for innovative mobile applications created for Android. Suggested application subjects include social networking, media consumption and management, productivity solutions, gaming and location-based services. Google will distribute the award money equally between two Android Developer Challenges, accepting submissions for the first contest between January 2 and March 3, with a second competition planned for the second half of 2008, following the commercial launch of the first Android-based handsets. During the first phase the contest, Google will award $25,000 each to the 50 most promising entries--from within that pool of finalists, the company will later hand out ten $275,000 prizes and ten $100,000 awards.
For more on the Android SDK:
-read this release
- see the first video demos of the SDK released by Google
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