Google launches Android 1.0 SDK beta

August 26, 2008

Google has launched the first beta version of its software developer kit (SDK) for Android phones. This is a major step towards “open” phone technology. Google is leading the 34-company Open Handset Alliance in order to create the largely open-source Android software stack for mobile devices. Google developer advocate Dan Morrill said that since this is a beta release, applications developed with it may not be totally compatible with devices running the final Android 1.0.

The new SDK has a new home screen along with some new applications for controlling the camera, setting alarms, playing music, viewing pictures and dealing with SMS and MMS messages. The Android Developer Challenge is giving away an award of $10m to coders to encourage development efforts. Google announced that a second challenge would be declared later this year with the aim of giving developers a chance to build polished applications once proper hardware is available.

Google hopes that Android phones will be able to run numerous applications. To achieve this, SDK provides a software emulator that can run Android applications without the presence of an actual Android phone.

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