Google Not Releasing Honeycomb!!

[poofyhairguy]

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2011/tc20110324_269784_page_2.htm

Android lead Andy Rubin is quoted, stating that if Google were to release the source for Honeycomb, Google would be unable to prevent it from being installed on mobile phones and 'creating a really bad user experience.'"

Translation: "Motorola paid us out the ass for initial use of Honeycomb, and they are sacred that people will tweak and get it running on cell phones and Nook Colors better than it runs on the Xoom."

Grrrrrrrr I am angry!

 

[runawayprisoner]

My translation: "You just can't have it perfect on your Nook, okay? You. Can't. Have. It."

I think 10 months down the road, we'll be singing about how Google held back the progress of Android and how awesome the Nook, the Galaxy Tab, and the XOOM could have been if our favorite XDA developer could get their hands on AOSP Honeycomb.

Does this hint at Android's departure from the tablet race of 2011?

 

[poofyhairguy]

More telling quote:

"To make our schedule to ship the tablet, we made some design tradeoffs," says Andy Rubin, vice-president for engineering at Google and head of its Android group. "We didn't want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones. It would have required a lot of additional resources and extended our schedule beyond what we thought was reasonable. So we took a shortcut."

What is crazy about all this is that the final Honeycomb SDK was released, which has already led to SDK ports to a few phones. The only reason more releases based on the final SDK weren't made is because XDA developers expected a ASOP drop soon. Now that its not happening HC ports will still be made, they will be just of a much crappier quality than could be made.

I wonder if the real reason isn't to keep people from peeking in Honeycomb and seeing how bad of a hackjob version 1 really was.

Oh well, at least Gingerbread finally brought in GPU based composite which is what I originally wanted most from Honeycomb. The newest CM7 releases for the Nook Color are so nice that I almost don't care about Honeycomb as much.

 

[runawayprisoner]

I'm not sure if I'm following you right, because I haven't heard mention of GPU composition either as an enhancement to UI or as a feature for developers to implement.

The only GPU composition I have seen mentioned is on the list of features Honeycomb supports and even then, it's a lie. Honeycomb's homescreen doesn't support GPU composition. It's evident because live wallpapers still lag the homescreen.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

So basically as of now they have two separate versions of android. One for phones and one for tablets.

 

[runawayprisoner]

They have two flavors of Android is more like it. They still have many versions of Android. For instance, phones still have to struggle between Eclair, Froyo, and Gingerbread.

But tablets only have to struggle between Honeycomb and... Honeycomb. For devices that don't run Honeycomb, it's clear at this point that Google doesn't want to regard them as anything even if consumers and manufacturers would like to name them tablets.

 

[Mopetar]

So basically as of now they have two separate versions of android. One for phones and one for tablets.

They've already stated that the lines will be merged at some point in the future. Apple had different versions of iOS for the iPad and the iPhone when the iPad first launched.

Exactly when the code branches will merge is anyone's guess, but it will happen at some point.

 

[Bateluer]

The only GPU composition I have seen mentioned is on the list of features Honeycomb supports and even then, it's a lie. Honeycomb's homescreen doesn't support GPU composition. It's evident because live wallpapers still lag the homescreen.

Honeycomb has full GPU acceleration, I believe. Regardless, a number of Froyo and GB based phones run live wallpapers without lag, so you're statement holds no water. Heck, my OC'd Droid 1 can run quite a few live wallpapers without home screen lag.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Honeycomb has full GPU acceleration, I believe. Regardless, a number of Froyo and GB based phones run live wallpapers without lag, so you're statement holds no water. Heck, my OC'd Droid 1 can run quite a few live wallpapers without home screen lag.

You're misunderstanding something.

If Honeycomb is supposed to have full GPU acceleration, then something as silly as the homescreen should have it, which means regardless of the live wallpaper, it shouldn't lag the animation since the animation is the easiest to do in GPU compositing.

Judging from how the XOOM lags with certain live wallpapers when it shouldn't, it's fairly easy to see that at least the homescreen isn't GPU-accelerated. It just behaves like older Android versions, which... as you noted, doesn't lag with "some" live wallpapers.

"Some" being the key there. It still lags. GPU acceleration should get rid of that completely, but obviously not.

 

[Bateluer]

You're misunderstanding something.

If Honeycomb is supposed to have full GPU acceleration, then something as silly as the homescreen should have it, which means regardless of the live wallpaper, it shouldn't lag the animation since the animation is the easiest to do in GPU compositing.

Judging from how the XOOM lags with certain live wallpapers when it shouldn't, it's fairly easy to see that at least the homescreen isn't GPU-accelerated. It just behaves like older Android versions, which... as you noted, doesn't lag with "some" live wallpapers.

"Some" being the key there. It still lags. GPU acceleration should get rid of that completely, but obviously not.

I haven't looked up any youtube videos of the Xoom yet, and I cannot from here. Are these live wallpapers intensive or simple? My Droid 1 handles the simple ones, such as smoke, easily. Trying the Doom LW or flight sim LW lags it like crazy.

 

[JD50]

How can they get away with not releasing the source code?

 

[runawayprisoner]

They are simple. Go to your local Best Buy and see for yourself, I'd say.

You won't have much luck finding videos of it on Youtube. Who in their right mind would upload a video of a XOOM lagging just to rub it in?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7GH-nVHVnE

Oh wait...

Sarcasm aside, it's pretty bad. Even if the live wallpaper in that video seems really sophisticated, from what I saw in the store, almost any live wallpaper (that comes with Honeycomb) would lag it. The Galaxy Tab was definitely more resilient to lag than that.

 

[zerocool84]

They are simple. Go to your local Best Buy and see for yourself, I'd say.

You won't have much luck finding videos of it on Youtube. Who in their right mind would upload a video of a XOOM lagging just to rub it in?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7GH-nVHVnE

Oh wait...

Sarcasm aside, it's pretty bad. Even if the live wallpaper in that video seems really sophisticated, from what I saw in the store, almost any live wallpaper (that comes with Honeycomb) would lag it. The Galaxy Tab was definitely more resilient to lag than that.

Seriously, how could you expect that not to lag? Look at what's going on?

 

[Pliablemoose]

Welp, then I'm not going to be purchasing any HC tablets till they decide to release the source code.

 

[Zink]

I also cried.

 

[KDOG]

What the heck? Something isn't right with that. Looks like CM will be the top dog for the Nook for the time being.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Seriously, how could you expect that not to lag? Look at what's going on?

It wouldn't lag on my phone. Seriously. It wouldn't.

It's just a video on top of the homescreen.

There are wallpapers that more complex than that. Like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV0JKd3cTxM

It's hard to explain, but go play with a XOOM yourself and see. If you are used to a high-end Android phone like the Galaxy S or Atrix, it'll feel like a major step backwards in terms of performance.

 

[shabby]

Open source fail

 

[Mopetar]

How can they get away with not releasing the source code?

Only the kernel is under the GPL. The rest is under the Apache license, meaning that Google doesn't have the release those portions of the source. Android is exactly as open as Google chooses it to be.

 

[MagickMan]

So much for them bitching about iOS being a closed system.

 

[Mopetar]

Considering that both codebases have a similar license style, they're both about the same from that perspective. There's no denying, however, that from most others, Google is a lot more 'open' with Android.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

So apparently Google delaying the release of Honeycomb because of quality issues = HOLY SHIT GOOGLE IS LIKE APPLE. WHAT HAPPENED TO NOT BEING EVIL !!?!??!

Chill out, they're going to release it when it's ready.

 

[s44]

So apparently Google delaying the release of Honeycomb because of quality issues = HOLY SHIT GOOGLE IS LIKE APPLE. WHAT HAPPENED TO NOT BEING EVIL !!?!??!

Chill out, they're going to release it when it's ready.

People who want code and use the products thereof aren't hapless n00bs who need their hands held. They're folks who want bleeding edge and to *make it better*. Rough patches are fine -- that's just more glory for the devs to gain by fixing for their device.

This sucks, pure and simple.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Update: You can get it, but you have to sign a NDA:

http://mashable.com/2011/03/24/honeycomb-androidocalypse/

Jeez

 

[Glitchny]

Also, for developers, the Honeycomb SDK is still freely available for developing Android tablet apps. And the source code for Honeycomb is still available; it just isn’t publicly posted on the web for anyone to download.

Anyone in the Open Handset Alliance can get the source code for Android 3.0. And any person working with Android tablets can contact Google directly, sign a licensing agreement (no fees required), and get the source code that way, as well.

OH NO this is such a travesty! LOL

This is a non-issue for the majority of Android users, hell I'm more into the modding/rom scene than most and it is a non-issue to me.