Guest post by It was recently announced at the Android project website that the said mobile system would be receiving an update bringing to light many new features and various bug fixes. The Android team has already begun putting the new code on the public repositories under the “cupcake” branch. Some of the more notable new features and fixes include plentiful email and browser fixes, new video support, and even “basic x86 support,” though we’re not quite sure just where they’re headed with that one.
how could you not be sure where basic x86 suport is going? Atom and Nano, and the evolutions of those branches. common sense for the win
IMHO you’d have to be a complete fool to design a cell phone around an Intel CPU. An Atom chip uses more power when it’s in sleep mode than an ARM chip does running full tilt. Sure, Nano will be more efficient than Atom, but they’ll still require at least 5x the power of an equivalent ARM.
Maybe one may wish to consider running Android on a netbook, but there are numerous reports that ARM will soon be making inroads in that market.
Seems to me that this x86 port may be more for use in an Android simulator, much like Apple’s dev tools have a simulator for the iPhone.
yes but you are looking at the present as far as power consumption. I dont know if the Atom roadmap is published so i wont say any numbers but in 2 years there is going ot be a huge! difference. same with Via’s nano (though I don’t know their secret roadmap, but their dual core nano that is almost ready is very impressive).
Google is thinking ahead with Android, and while x86 isnt ready now, and good company knows to plan for the future and keep a few “just in case” cards in their pocket. just like apple’s x86 “just in case card” worked out for them. business 101
I do hope it is a DESKTOP x86 Android “emulator”. During development, Android apps can already be run on a PC with a complete ARM-phone emulator, but having them running natively on the PC desktop would be really, really nice. When Android takes off, there will be all sorts of neat and inexpensive or free apps and games that surely many people would like to download from a store and use on their PC as regular programs.
This should not be too difficult; after all, Android programs and libraries are written in Java, and the system is far from being as bloated as the whole JRE. At long last, Java would live up to its unfulfilled promise of “write-once, execute-anywhere”.
I am hoping they added an option to the dialer to stay open for a settable time. The way it currently hides drives me crazy. A simple word processor would also be nice. And though I hate to say it, I need Flash video too so I can pretend I am paying attention in meetings while I watch the commedy channel.
and even “basic x86 support,” though we’re not quite sure just where they’re headed with that one.
If you’re not sure, re-read my article on Google posted several weeks ago on OSNews 😛
That was predicting Google release of Android for Windows if certain business conditions were met 😛