1.- Who are you and what is your relationship with Android?
I am Israel Ferrer and together with Luis Moreno we are part of the bubiloop and and.roid.es team, Android blog and community. In addition, we organize the monthly meetings of Barcelona Androids, the group of Android users of Barcelona. Our relationship is professional as a developer but we also love their philosophy.
2.- From the point of view of an application developer, what advantages and disadvantages can be found in Android compared to other systems?
The good of Android is your opening. Openness that does not set limits and encourages creativity. In addition, the opensource philosophy makes a product advance faster, as has been demonstrated in projects such as memcache, linux or any Google opensource library.
An example: this week developing the bubiloop Android app I had a problem that I solved by looking for examples in the operating system code. Without that code it might have taken weeks to solve the problem.
3.- The Android Market many of us agree that it needs an update and a notable improvement in terms of the search system and its management of application charges and maybe something else. Seeing it as someone who has or will have applications on it, both paid and free, what is your opinion of the current Android Market?
El Android Market needs improvements, but will have them in the next version of Android without hesitation. Google does not care about the market because it knows that right now it is more important to polish the operating system. There are also other alternatives to Android Market. Still since Bubiloop We are creating a recommendation system to avoid the problems of saturation of applications in the markets.
4.- What is Bubiloop and when was its creation forged? When will we see that desired Bubiloop application for our Android, it is expected like May water, well this year of water we are already well.
bubiloop born from and.roid.es. After two years living the revolution Android We realized the problem to find the necessary app. There is a lot of app, but what is your app?
We are programming from 0 bubiloopBy totally changing the current concept, it will be more social, more fun, more informative. Regarding the Android application we are finishing a widget for android, which will be the outpost of an application to recommend, receive recommendations ... I hope to have the complete application in June, at the moment this next week we launch the widget 😉 stay tuned!
5.- Apple is always accused of being very rigorous with the acceptance of applications in the Apps Store, something that does not happen in the Android Market, but do you think it would be convenient to put some kind of control when uploading the app?
Android not fourth the creativity of the developer, that is why there is no control. Trust more in the know-how of users, trusting them to report spam and malicious apps. Android It is designed in such a way that each app runs in its own box which does not access the system so that it cannot damage it. However, it is possible to make an application that copies all your data and sends it to a server. The best thing is to look at the permissions that the application asks for and if you notice something strange, be wary of unknown applications from unknown developers.
6.- One thing that is very fashionable nowadays is to talk about multitasking, multitasking, running applications in the background, etc. All motivated by Apple's announcement regarding its iPhone OS 4. Do you think the how Android handles this task? Would you change something by either adding or removing? Which one do you think is more correct, the one proposed by Apple, the current Android one, or maybe WebOs?
The best management of multitasking is Webos where at any moment you know which application you have in the background visually. Android It has a self-management in the background and it is up to the developer to define well the services, the threads.
On the other hand, the iPhone os 4 is the same as everyone else, we will have to wait to see it. However, it doesn't matter right? all apple fanboys bragged that they didn't need that multitasking so they won't use it 😛
7.- Android is a young, new operating system that is growing really fast. If we look at the beginning of Android and compare it with the current one, there are many changes that we can find in its functionalities and in its core. How do you see this accelerated tour of Android? Is it not running too much? Looking at the SDK and the NDK, do you see it well developed or very lightly? What is your opinion of the so-called fragmentation of the Android system? Do you think that in the long run it is an inevitable thing?
I said from the beginning that we are living the Android revolution. Android is a free operating system that can be licensed by any hardware manufacturer as well as 100% modifiable, it breaks the value chain. It is the panacea for the manufacturer for that reason it will be the dominant one.
Fragmentation is well fixed in Android, as long as the developer is aware and wants to program following the guidelines of Android. For example, Java ME folks will remember having to compile an application for each different version of Java, instead Android With a single apk you get (if you create the layouts correctly and texts) applications for all languages, various types of screens and different Android versions. Sounds good right?
The quality of SDK and NDK from Android 2.0 it's excellent. Although let's say that it is so flexible that it supports any development garbage and any type of interface, that is why there are applications with a regrettable user experience. But to see the potential of Android You just have to see developments like bliquo, seesmic, layar or any of Google.
8.- Which SDK or system provides more functionalities or resources when developing an application, Android, Apple OS, Windows Mobile or WebOs? I ask this because after almost three weeks using an iPhone, the applications are this are richer in details, options and aesthetics than those of Android.
Webos is the best without a doubt with Ares the quality of the IDE is surprising. The iPhone SDK has the interface ballot very solved, they are created easy and uniform, as I mentioned in the previous question, Android gives freedom for that, that's why there are incredible apps and others that ahem ...
9.- Which API do you think is the most innovative or that offers more possibilities when creating an app?
Android It lets you do everything with any component of the mobile, even accessing the hardware directly.
10.- How do you see the future of this system in the short and long term? Tell us about your projects, applications created, websites, how to follow you either by twitter, facebook, etc.
Android is going to improve user experience, I am sure it will surprise us with unique revolutionary applications for Android as we saw in the past MWC (Google translate integrated in Google goggles). I'm sure that Google will close version 1 of Android and will only receive updates and new applications from 2.0 onwards. In the medium term Android it will become the operating system most used by mobile manufacturers and it will be the operating system with the most users.
Thanks for participating.