Cupcake is catastrophe, claims Big in Japan dev

[happyandyv]

That's pretty rich coming from a person who capitalizes every word.

By not allowing developers adequate time between an SDK release and a user release, Google is all but guaranteeing applications will not function properly on 1.5. There are already questions about WebViews bringing up the page in a browser instead of the application window, applications breaking when referencing other projects, button sizes being different across releases, etc.

Every other software company in existence releases OS/API upgrades to developers and allows them time to update their applications. Two-three weeks is hardly adequate time, and the SDK has only been finalized for, what, a day? Another company, perhaps you're familiar with them, has given developers at least three months to get ready for a v3.0 OS release.

Also, some companies were working on their apps as long as a year before apples market first opened... Other "regular" devs were given the SDK for OS 2.o and iP 3G MONTHS before (funny thing is the whole changeover was still a fail whale)... hard to wonder what the dealio - Google knows they need to grasp market share right now.. maybe they have given up on their first round of followers... and figure that if they can properly cater to the eee market, then we don;t matter.. who knows.

[LazyGenius]

No offense but your list sounds pretty specific to you. Cupcake is bringing a wealth of new and enhanced features many of which better the entire community.

As for your list -

Data transfer by Bluetooth; (needed it this weekend) - Very small percentage of users "must" have this feature. Therefore, should Google really make it a priority?

Functioning wifi; (need it 90% of the time) - What's wrong with your Wifi? Mine works 100% of the time.

Email that works for IMAP and POP3; (need all the time) - Have you tried K-9? Excellent app and is the open sourced version of Android's Mail app.

Ability to receive and download ALL attachments on the phone (email). (Need often) - Yes, this should be fixed. Business folk cannot be slowed by their tech.

Ability to stop ALL data roaming and keep apps from over riding. (When traveling, need all the time). Agreed, there are enough users to justify the fix. Although, from what I've read, this is a much bigger issue. Google is based on "cloud computing" and is dependent on connectivity.

Fortunately Google will continue to better the OS. We'll have updates passed 1.5

*shields eyes*

my god! plz dont ever type in yellow again!

It's crossed my mind WELL more than a few times... but.. Not really all to sure about the chin slider style.. will have to have a hands on.

thats my only beef with it was well. i really like the landscape kb but i be it would be nice for one hand typing...

[vitriolix]

You've been able to build the 1.5 SDK yourself from the cupcake repository for over a month according to traffic on the mailing lists...

[ickyfehmleh]

You've been able to build the 1.5 SDK yourself from the cupcake repository for over a month according to traffic on the mailing lists...

Being able to build a sort-of working SDK is nowhere near the same as Google releasing a final version.

It's the equivalent of building a house when the owner changes the blueprints every day versus waiting until after the owner agrees not to make any more modifications to the blueprints.

[konzern]

I have to say I'm blessed that my app didn't have any compatibility problems, but that's because it's a very simple app. The bigger concern for me is that I can't take advantage of the new features within Cupcake without breaking compatibility on the old app. I'm going to re-release my app under a different name so I can maintain the old rc33 version and the new cupcake version. Ugh...

i think this is a great idea, i know it would mean a flood of apps being re-released but its plausible

just like the flashlight for cupcake

[Ed Burnette]

Alexander is right; the development, release, and ultimate deployment of 1.5 is not being handled well. Two weeks from "early look" to "production" is not helpful. Most of the planning and development went on without any community feedback. As a book writer trying to help developers get on board with Android I felt particularly in the dark about what was going on.

For next time, I'd like to see a real early look and a few beta versions. I'd like to see a plan and a rhythm to development that programmers and authors can count on. I'd like to know 6, 9, or even 12 months in advance when the next major version is going to be. The Eclipse project proved this kind of planning is doable, not to mention very valuable, in nurturing an open commercial ecosystem. It would be great if Google could lead the Android community in the same direction.

[kolbysoft]

From a developer's perspective, Cupcake breaks things in my app, and now I have to rush a release just to fix the incompatibilities, which delays working on fixing other issues and new features, or deal with those comments on top of the usual "it broke auto-rotate", "needs flash" stuff. Thanks.

Way to go google, alienating developers all the way.
"Weed out the lame apps?". Actually, most lame apps won't need re-writing. And developers will move to other platforms.

My .02,
Michael

[Andrewoid.Solutions]

I agree, the swift 1.5 update is going to cause a lot of headaches. However a few things to keep in mind.

1. We don't know when the OTA update is going to be. "A few days" is just a rumor as far as I'm concerned. I'll believe it when I hear it's actually being pushed out. Let's not forget how long the other OTA updates took to get out and they were MUCH smaller than 1.5 Until then I'm OK with some people in Spain not having some apps. But as far as the rest of the Vodaphone rollout, I agree we should've gotten an SDK a LONG time ago.

2. Big In Japan doesn't say what in 1.5 broke their app. I suspect a large part of that has to do with them using the Skyhook package. I know that they were enabling and disabling settings at will, now they won't be able to do that so easily so I'm sure that becomes a headache for them. However, in Google's own defense as far as that is concerned they were using APIs that Google said was going to change.

I myself am going to be hit big by this and 100,000 of my active installs are going to disappear overnight, with no way of getting them back.

3. We should get used to this. The original G1 was very rushed. The first release wasn't nearly as complete as it should've been any the current state of Android is not as complete as it should be.

4. A lot of this may not have been under Google's control. They have external contracts to consider. The rollout of Vodaphone was finalized months in advance. To put it simply. There weren't ready for this. Simple rock and a hard place. Should they have said to these companies, "We can't roll out the phone because the community hasn't had time to test the SDK?" I don't think so. There is much more at stake for Vodaphone and Google than there is for ShopSavvy and some dollar app companies.

[xdavidn88]

Even if some apps aren't immediately accessible, I'm pretty stoked for Android 1.5

[ickyfehmleh]

...
4. A lot of this may not have been under Google's control. They have external contracts to consider. The rollout of Vodaphone was finalized months in advance. To put it simply. There weren't ready for this. Simple rock and a hard place. Should they have said to these companies, "We can't roll out the phone because the community hasn't had time to test the SDK?" I don't think so. There is much more at stake for Vodaphone and Google than there is for ShopSavvy and some dollar app companies.

Vodafone faces the possibility of having to deal with a bunch of users having horrendous user experiences due to applications crashing or not functioning on their newly hyped device. Invariably some of those very users will end up ditching the phone (and consequently the platform), possibly going elsewhere for their mobile service.

It'd be even more loloworthy if Mr. Sharkey's application was found to be incompatible with 1.5.