GOC

Google on Wednesday released a new version of the software developer kit, dubbed m5-rc14, for its Android (News - Alert) mobile open development platform.

 

The new version features a new user interface. According to developers’ blog, m5-rc14, replaces the previous placeholder with a new UI, but as before, work on it is still in-progress.

 

Also, the latest release features a change in layout animations, which will enable developers to create layout animations for their applications using the capabilities introduced in the android view animation package.

 

In addition, the version features geo-coding. The blog states that geocoder enables developers to forward and reverse geo-code, translate an address into a coordinate and vice-versa, and also search for businesses.

 

Other new additions are new media codecs, the MediaPlayer class has added support for the OGG Vorbis, MIDI, XMF, iMelody, RTTL/RTX, and OTA audio file formats. Also, the latest version features updated Eclipse plug-in, a new version of ADT is available and provides improvements to the Android developer experience.

 

One developer commented on the Android Developer discussion on Google (News - Alert) Groups on the lack of change to the telephony package with the new offering.

 

“This is very disappointing, especially because we were told in the Android coding day in Israel that the telephony package will be updated soon,” the developer wrote. “We still cannot detect the ingoing/outgoing call number or send DTMF tones properly.”

 

Google launched Android in November along with and the Open Handset Alliance (News - Alert), a consortium of 34 handset manufacturers, carriers and chipmakers that have said they plan to support Android products and services.

 

Four chipmakers, including Qualcomm and Texas Instruments (TI), demonstrated prototypes that support Android this week in Barcelona at the annual Mobile World Congress (News - Alert).