Dual boot Android on N900?

via Engadget

Well, that spectacular, to say the least. Wondering if camera/opengl drivers would work.

Openness – Maemo vs Android

A great post from coll900 about comparative openness Maemo and Android for developers and users. Maemo designated as a clear win. The one point missing in the original post is a platform fragmentation. Android try to get around fragmentation using Java virtual machine (albeit with non-standard bytecodes). However native code will not be binary transferable between devices. That is especially relevant for augmented reality and other cpu-heavy apps. Here is a question – will Maemo be any better? For some mysterious reasons Nokia afflicted by irresistible drive to fragment it’s own software platform as much as possible. If Nokia manage to gather enough strength of will to keep Maemo on a single but mass-produced device line, like Apple with iPhone, Maemo could become developers dream and a serious competitor to iPhone. However if Nokia keeps its bad habit of producing zoo of semi-decent not-quite-compatible devices, with introduction of a new just-little-different device every quarter, just to break whatever compatibility still remaining, Maemo, with all its openess will not have practical advantage over Android.

PS. It looks like there will not be any Maemo fragmentation. Source at Nokia told Reuters that there will be one Maemo device, at least for next year. That a good news actually.

Augmented Reality on Android – now with NDK

With release of native code kit Android now looks more like a functional AR platform. NDK allow for native C/C++ libraries, and complete application seems need java wrapper still. It’s not clear to me still how accessible are video and OpenGL API from NDK – have to look into it.
On related note – there are rumors about pretty powerful 1Ghz phone for Android 2.0

Mobile OS for Augmented Reality

Which platform suit better for mobile AR ? Each has it pluses and minuses. I’m trying to make overall estimation, not only form prototype development pov.

1. iPhone
+ beautiful phone
+! no platform fragmentation
+ application store
+ growing market share
+ 3d accelerator, GPS, accelerometer
+ active developer community
-!! No official camera API for now, direct access to camera require undocumented API
– slow camera on the existing model (better in the next model ?)
– CPU underclocked to 412Mhz on existing model (better in the next model ?)

2. Android
+ Open sourced
+ good CPU for existing model (528Mhz for G1)
+ 3d accelerator, GPS, accelerometer for existing model
+ active developer community
+ application store
+ completely open model for developers available.
-! officially java only (10-100 more slow than native code for numerical tasks), installation of native code app require hack on the consumer model.
– low market penetration for now(will be better?)

3. Symbian
+! Big market share
+ some models have good CPU (up to 600Mhz)
+ some models have fast camera
+ some models have 3d accelerator, GPS, accelerometer and even electronic compass
+ application store coming soon for Nokia models
+ will be open source soon
+ situation with Symbian Signed may improve in the future.
-! platform fragmentation, different OS versions are only partially compatible.
– Symbian signed prevent access to GPS/accelerometer for early versions(S60 FP3) self-signed application
-! For signed app – each binary version should be paid and signed separately, require expensive Publisher ID
– No self-signed application allowed to app store.
– high learning curve
– Market share is shrinking now, eaten by iPhone

4. WinMobile
Not many specific pluses or minuses.
– Small market share

5. Other flavors of Linux – situation is not clear yet.