1.- Who are you and what is your relationship with Android?
My name is Raúl Romero, although many know me by my nickname [^ BgTA ^] and in the android world more for me bgAndroid ROM. I am a Senior Programmer Analyst at Ibermatica, SL Computer science and technology are my passions. Mac, GNU / Linux user and fan of Android, Free Software and I am an openSUSE ambassador.
2.- Why did you start creating your own Rom?
Worldwide presence Android, as I mentioned, I am known for the ROM that I do: bgAndroid. It is a modest ROM based on the one of the great «chef» Cyanogen, which seeks to solve a problem of adaptation of its ROM to the Spanish-speaking world. The first problem that many users of HTC Dream with Latin keyboard, is that the keyboard layout that brings CyanogenMod it does not correspond to that of our terminals. This and other problems like that, I began to solve them by informing me how to do it from here and there ... and little by little people were asking me for this modified ROM so as not to have to do it by hand in each update. From there was born bgAndroid.
If it is possible to improve the official rom "relatively easy", why do you think Google does not make those improvements that the user really demands?
Well, I think that Google for the end user (and by this I do not mean developers and Geeks) wants to offer a stable and serious product, and in my modest opinion, before including anything in the official version you must be sure that it is stable and its use is within the reach of the user. A great feature of cooked ROMs is the ability to install applications on the SD card and not on the internal memory. So Google wants to include this possibility officially, but it has a usability problem more than a technical problem: the creation of an extra partition on the SD in a totally transparent way for the user, without data loss and with the possibility to reverse. It costs us little to start all this, but to think of an elderly person, or a housewife, etc. to whom we have to say: oops! you have to make an ext2 partition on your SD card and then if you can, you can convert it to ext4 for better performance… is that understood?
Do you think that it is about time that Android implement the app installation on the SD?
I think my position is clear from the previous point. Yes, they should make it official, but it has to be usable.
3.- The Android Market I think we can agree if I say 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?
I think you are absolutely right, but I also think that we must think that Android is relatively young technically speaking. On the other hand, the Android Market of Google remember that it is a generic Market, and that part of what is intended with Android, is that each company adopts it with its differences and has its own Market. Some may think that this fragmentation of Markets is crazy, but remember that behind all this there are companies with interests, and if the only difference between the terminals is the power of their hardware, the market for Android phones would go to the garete ...
My opinion is that Google does not want to win in the mobile market, what it is trying to do is make this market advance so that the products it has in mind, which are not viable today, have their future assured.
4.- 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 think that the new policy that Google has of updating applications through the Market and leaving only the Kernel for OTAs is a good solution, although not a complete solution, and I don't think there is a complete solution either. As I have said before, each company will have its own Market and this fragmentation will be inevitable. This reminds me of the world of GNU / Linux where there are different distributions, with different packaging systems. Android is no different, it comes from the same philosophy, and although they will all have the same base, each one will have its particularities that will cause this fragmentation.
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?
Yes, I think it is. Not reaching the extremes of Apple, but some control is necessary. Let me explain: you must have a certain control over what is in the Market, to avoid Pishing issues, but without reaching Apple levels that border on the dictatorship. Ban an application because its origin is doubtful? Yes Ban an application because in the Market there is already another that does the same, or does not use the programming language that we want? No, that is a dictatorship.
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 seems more correct, the one proposed by Apple, the current Android one, or maybe WebOs?
I think that none is better or worse, but there are different solutions with their pros and cons each. What I don't see as correct is to say: "we have taken longer to implement multitasking to do it better than the others." As I say, there are no better or worse, each one has its pros and cons.
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 fast-paced Android tour? Is it not running too much? Looking at the SDK and the NDK, do you see it well developed or very lightly?
I don't think it is such an accelerated journey, simply that before opensource, companies were comfortable with what they had. It is what they say that if the pharmaceutical companies opened their developments as opensource, we would already have a cure for cancer. I suppose that the SDK can be improved in some aspects, but as I said before, Android is still young, and time has taught me that google does not develop things lightly ...
8.- Which SDK or system provides more functionalities or resources when developing an application, Android, Apple OS, Windows Mobile or WebOs?
Well, I have not developed with Apple OS, or Web OS, and for Windows Mobile I did something, but it was not very pleasant. As far as I know, both Android, like iPhone OS or WebOs are great development environments. The pity is that given the PalmOS sales results, WebOS may die in the attempt, and iPhone OS therefore also has limitations imposed that without them would allow more play with the OS and Hardware.
9.- Your roms are based on Cyano's, are they the best? Will we see one of yours?
I don't think they are the best or the worst. They are one more option. Everyone knows the great work that Cyanogen does, and since mine is a faithful modification of his, we could say that the result is usually quite good, but as I say, it is just one more option. You have to use what best suits your needs regardless of who does it.
You can never say I will not drink this water, but currently I do not have too much time to get into the level of source code and compilations when generating a ROM. But the truth is that I would like it, so who knows….
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.
I think of Android We have only seen the tip of the iceberg, the best is yet to come. And as I say, in my opinion Google has something very big prepared, but not for Android, but for Could Computing in general, and Android is just one more piece in the puzzle they need for their product to come to an end.
At Android application development It can be said that I have just started, together with a friend, in a calm but steady way, developing a FriendFeed client. This application will serve us as a learning platform. (http://code.google.com/p/android-friendfeed-client). Between work and personal family matters I am quite busy, but always open to any new experience.
Anyone who is interested in what I do, what worries me or who perhaps wants to ask me something, I think it is best to go to my profile website: , from where you can contact me or have the link to me Twitter, Facebook… .etc.