By A special press-only Q&A session with the Android Leadership Team took place at Google IO that gave us inside access to the thoughts and ideas of those making the important decisions when it comes to Android. While I live-blogged the event a few days ago, I also promised video – so here it is:
The people on the panel are (left to right) Andy Rubin (VP of Engineering, Founder), Mario Queiroz (VP of Product Management), Hiroshi Lockheimer (Director of Engineering), and Vic Gundotra (VP of Engineering) who joins the team on stage just a couple minutes into the panel.
Although no earth shattering announcements or ground breaking secrets were revealed, I think anyone who loves Android will truly enjoy this behind the scenes look at the people who make Android come to life.
UPDATE: If you want a good laugh, fast forward to about 41:25 and listen through about 41:55. Andy Rubin is hilarious.
indeed !!!!!!!
is that thse same talk i saw on android central?
what did he say? i can’t understand his words
I also cannot understand what he says…
Grrr…not happy with their discription of “legacy” and how that is a good thing.
He mentions that he has several versions of Windows at his house.
Ok, but if he wants to upgrade Windows to run a program that is not compatible with his current version HE CAN.
I have a Backflip running Android 1.5 and have NO option to upgrade my OS to run TONS of apps which are not compatible.
What? He was mumbling. Maybe my laptop speakers suck, but I couldn’t understand what he said.
@Zapper- Blame Motorola. They sold you an outdated OS (Legacy). If you want the latest OS, just like Apple, there is only one choice. The one from the entity that creates the OS. For Android, that is the Nexus One. It’s available on AT&T, but you chose the Backflip. I’m not sure why AT&T gimps their Android phones, but all of the Android phones are getting OS upgrades in less time than other phones updates theirs. I had a G1 and the 2nd guy in the video was right. I had 4 updates in the span of 9 months with the phone, while my iPhone and Blackberry Storm friends had 1 and my Palm Pre friends only had 2. After the 4th update, my G1 couldn’t take anymore. The hardware couldn’t keep up (Legacy). So now I bought the Nexus One to avoid that problem from happening again.If you buy a phone other than the Nexus One, be prepared to get updates with timing closer to the iPhone. Although don’t forget, the Eris, Droid, Hero, and Moment are still getting updates FASTER than other OS owners, between 3-9 months. The only problem here is that you ARE AWARE of other Android phones having those updates before you get them, even though you will still get the updates faster than any other OS in the market (no pun intended). Here are your solutions:
1)Let AT&T know that the lag is unacceptable and that you might go to Verizon or T-Mobile who have faster update cycles.
2)Root your phone: http://www.androidspin.com/2010/03/28/rooting-backflip-style/
3)If you don’t want to get political or technical- just buy a Nexus One.
unlistenable. Can we get some summary comments?
Thanks for posting, wish I could hear this better.
Are you guys deaf? I had no problem hearing all of the comments, questions and answers and I didn’t even have the volume higher than normal.
Great video, thanks for posting it.
Crap audio
Would it have been so hard to record the audio of this video through the line-in rather than recording the echos throughout the room? It’s very hard to hear anything.
A transcript would be good. Audio quality is poor.
Wapreview.com
Yes the audio is very poor especially at the indicated time during the hilarious moment. Can someone transcribe for the rest of us?
@Khalid
Instead of insulting everyone else, how about posting the transcript of that time interval? Nearly everyone except you is obviously having SOME trouble hearing that bit. You’d be helping everyone out! :)
Hey everyone, I just found this on Phandroid’s live blog of the Q&A..
” (10) Andy just asked a questioner to repeat their publication. “WAPreview.com”… to which Andy says, “I think you may want to think about renaming your publication.”……. “Yeah”. Everyone laughs. That was funny as hell. “
@Zapper
Good luck trying to upgrade a computer running Windows ME to Windows 7. The point they were trying to make is HARDWARE. Similar to how an older computer may not be fit to run a newer OS, an older phone may not be fit, hardware-wise, to run 2.2.
Also, as the panel described, the update has to go through proper channels for an update. The carriers usually have to test the update first before they roll it out.
@eid3tic @Ratnok You guys are missing the point. At some time, it will be expected and resonable to stop backward support. Right now, it is way to early to say “it is out of our control”.
Yes I know android is free, so they do not have as much control as other OS Smartphone OS vendors, but if leaked specs are to be believed, the Dell Aero(only other announced Android coming to AT&T soon) will ship with 1.5 and a 600mhz processor. Google is doing themselves a service to allow someone to ship a “legacy” phone on launch date.
They seem to be able to limit Tablet manufacturers from being able to use the Android Market, so they do have some control.
Yes, I know that I could drop $500 on a Nexus 1…not going to happen. I could also buy out my contract at AT&T for $150 or so and go elsewhere, also not going to happen.
I was just saying that they are WAY to early in this battle to more or less say, “Sorry, take it our leave it”