In a trial format for AAS audio podcasts, in number 47 Rafe and Steve talk over some of the happenings in Symbian world this week, including the launch of the Nokia N82, the appearance of Nokia Audiobooks and they touch on Android.
Read on in the full article.
Thanks Rafe and Steve, I really enjoyed it. I downloaded it to my N95 and listened to you over toast, marmalade and coffee. Excellent!
Cheers.
s.
Hi,
Loved the format.
One thought on Android.
I agree that a year is a long time, and Symbian have a long lead in terms of how to develop within the constaints of a mobile phone. However, Android is based on Linux which is already on mobile phones and has been on resource limited devices (old PCs) for many years. As time progresses, mobile phones are becoming more and more like PCs in terms of capability and so the resource constraints will become less and less important. Thus, Symbian's experience/expertise in working within such constraints will become less important and Linux will be able to compete on a more even footing.
Of course Symbian does have a huge amount of experience generally, but so does the Linux community (including Google, of course).
Just my tuppence worth.
Max.
I will add to the thoughts in Android and Symbian, whilst Symbian is brilliant on resource constrained devices, the tricks that it uses to minimise battery drain and memory use are something of a learning curve for new developers. The Active Objects and Active Scheduler can feel awkward when you first encounter it.
As hardware progresses the requirement for an optimised architecture such as Symbian OS has will reduce. Nokia already has a stake in linux on the N770/N800. I wonder what the future is for tricky Symbian? I certainly have not bet all my time on Symbian alone. Apple are threatening to release iPhone SDK in Feb. I will have to learn iPhone and Android next year.
Unless Symbian pulls its finger out and offers something else special, I can see it slipping back when the resource constrained optimisation is less important.
Thanks for the feedback everyone.
I agree that resource constraints are becoming less important in some areas. However I don't think the power constraint is not going to go away any time soon - in fact it'll get worse as new hardware etc. is added in and the devices are expected to do more. The trouble is battery technology is just not developing that fast as everything else. I think all platforms will have to deal with this.
Linux certainly does have good resource management in terms of processor and memory, but power optimisation is less good (this is why one of the first things most mobile linux platforms do is patch the kernel to allow for better power management).
Yes completely agree about the learning curve for new developers. PIPs and Open C are meant to help address this, but it needs more work. I expect to see more on this in the forthcoming year. I'd also agree the sensible developer should, as a minimum, explore the options on unfamiliar / new platforms.
Hello. Enjoyed the chat in #47. No negative feedback here. More episodes without "show floor noise" would be nice. Listened on my Cowon and had a nice long walk. Any idea when I can update the podcasting app on my N80 to match the lovely N82?
As Rafe says, the power issue isn't going away at all, in fact it will get worse and worse for the foreseeable future. Battery lives are being squeezed because phone technology is advancing much more quickly than battery technology, and consumers are mostly demanding ever-smaller devices.
Just to give you an idea of how bad things are, I recently had a go on a Psion II organiser from the 1980s, and it has very very primitive computing features but is able to run for two weeks on a single square alkaline battery (not just on standby, you can actually use it for two weeks). Nowadays you'd be lucky if you could run a portable computing device for more than a few hours on a single charge.
Obviously a breakthrough in battery technology would change everything, not just for phones but laptops too. Unfortunately it hasn't happened so far.
The battery life problem means that even if you could miniaturise a cutting edge processor, you couldn't possibly run it at full speed. Sony underclocked the PSP's processor for a long time because of this problem.
Some people compare phones unfavourably to UMPCs because UMPCs have faster processors and more memory, but those people never seem to include battery life in their comparisons.
The point of a mobile OS is to make the most of very little: relatively little power, relatively slow processors, relatively little memory, relatively small physical space.
As I said in many other threads though, what may ultimately doom the OSes as major players is if mobile applications become browser-based, because that would make the OS insignificant.
I enjoyed this one, thanks, guys. I don't want to seem ungrateful or disrespectful, but this "chat" format is far more listenable than a Finnish bloke droning on and on and on and on and on about the inner workings of the OS or UI. I suppose that AAS is for developers as well as enthusiasts so you have to cover that ground, but I know which one I prefer.
Neil - that feedback is good. Its just as important to hear the 'good' and the 'bad'. And yes there is a different audience for different things. One thing we could do is have a seperate feed for the dicssuion based stuff.