Google Android Programming Tools Released

It didn’t take Google long to release programming tools for Google Android, their new mobile phone handset software platform. They also are offering $10 million in prizes for programmers to further entice development.

The software development kit (SDK), an open-source package available for download for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X machines, shows that Java is indeed the programming language for software running on the Linux-based phones.

Accompanying the SDK is a raft of details that wasn’t available when Google and its partners announced the Open Handset Alliance a week ago. The Android software includes the Google-created Dalvik virtual machine for running Java programs, the WebKit browser, and support for many media and image file formats. And hardware abilities permitting, it also supports wireless communications using GSM mobile-phone technology, 3G, Edge, 802.11 Wi-Fi networks. Conspicuously missing from the list is the widely used CDMA mobile-phone technology developed by Qualcomm.

Undoubtedly this tactic should work quite well to get programmers to experiment with the software.

For more information on coding with Android: Android Code