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Nov

Breaking: Android 4.2 Released To AOSP

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Jelly Bean 4.2, News

Last Updated: November 14th, 2012

The new Nexus devices just went live, and, as promised, Google has simultaneously started pushing the code for the latest iteration of our favorite mobile OS - Android 4.2 Jelly Bean - to the Android Open Source Project. Jean-Baptiste Queru, chief Android release engineer, announced the news via a post to the Android Building group.

Update 11:22am: Android 4.2 source just finished replicating to AOSP. "The platform source files for 4.2 have finished replicating, you can now sync." -JBQ

The build number is JOP40C, while the AOSP tags is android-4.2_r1.

The Nexus 10 is now the most compatible AOSP device with everything but the GPU code open sourced.

Oct

There Is Hope For AOSP Support Of Sprint's Galaxy Nexus After All As Google Releases "Experimental" Binaries

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Galaxy Nexus, News, Sprint

The Galaxy Nexus variant on Sprint might actually have a chance of being officially supported by Google in AOSP after all, which would be a big step in the right direction for carrier-branded Nexus devices.

If you remember, neither Verizon's nor Sprint's Galaxy Nexus was supported by the Android Open Source Project at launch, with the Verizon's version joining the program over half a year after its release. Even though the Nexus S 4G is fully supported, Sprint's GNex variant remained absent from the Nexus Binaries page and was therefore completely unsupported by the Android team.

When the Android 4.1.2 binaries (i.e.

Oct

Google Announces The Android 4.1.2 Update - Being Released To AOSP Today

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, Development, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

Last Updated: October 10th, 2012

Google's chief release engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru just announced via the Android Building group that version 4.1.2 of Android is being released to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) today.

The release follows Android 4.1.1, which was the final version of Jelly Bean, and is marked as minor. The build number, which we spotted in the logs yesterday, is JZO54K, while the AOSP tags are android-4.1.2_r1 and jb-mr0-release.

It's also a good time to bring up the fact that the LG Nexus prototype that we saw yesterday was also running 4.1.2. Today's announcement seems to add further credibility to that story.

Oct

Motorola And Google Open Source And Merge Key Parts Of MOTODEV Studio Into AOSP

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Development, Motorola, News

For some time, Motorola Mobility has offered its MOTODEV Studio for Android suite as a standalone alternative build on Eclipse. A lot of developers seemed to like the additional tools Moto built into Studio, but weren't exactly keen on dropping Eclipse in exchange for Moto's less open solution.

Now that Motorola is a part of Google, it seems that state of affairs just won't do. Earlier today, on the official Motorola blog, the company announced it was open sourcing key parts of MOTODEV Studio and merging them into the Android Open Source Project. Looking at the commits (here), head of the ADT/Tools team at Google, Xavier Ducrohet, seems to have been involved extensively in the process.

Aug

Sony Xperia S Added To Android Open Source Project As First Experimental Device

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in News, Sony, Xperia S (Nozomi)

The head of Google's Android Open Source Project (AOSP), Jean-Baptiste Queru, made an interesting proposal recently. He added a new device to the AOSP repository, but this is no Nexus variant. Queru created an empty git project for the Sony Xperia S, but he needs the community to get behind the initiative. This will be the first device not designed under Google's supervision to be supported under AOSP, and that could be a big deal.

AOSP has been getting more robust as time drags on. Back in the pre-Froyo days there was only a little usable code posted for hardware targets, but more recent Android releases have included exact source files.

Jul

Multiple User Accounts Are Coming To Android: Miles Of Code Is Already In AOSP, And Some Of It Is Quietly Working On Devices Right Now

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Android OS, APK Teardown, News

Last Updated: October 8th, 2012

Multi-user support is one of the few remaining things a desktop OS can do that Android can't. The "coffee table tablet" use case would greatly benefit from a multi-user setup, as would an enterprise user who wants to keep work and home separate. It's been a top 20 item on the Android bug tracker since the debut of Honeycomb, so there is certainly demand for it.

As we've seen from my previous experiments in sticking my nose where it doesn't belong, Google likes to leave breadcrumbs in shipping products for the astute observer to find, and the multi-user situation is no different.

Jul

Sprint Had This To Say About AOSP Support For Galaxy Nexus

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Samsung, Sprint

Last Updated: October 22nd, 2012

OK, OK, that's actually Linus Torvalds expressing his feelings about NVIDIA, but there's no better way to articulate the continued frustration with the complete lack of Sprint Galaxy Nexus support in AOSP. Verizon is [almost] there. Sprint, however, is not. Try finding it (hint: its codename is toroplus) - specifically, the CDMA/LTE binaries.

If you still have doubts about the above notion so eloquently conveyed by Linus' gesture, Jean-Baptiste Queru's comment confirms:

As far as toroplus, the situation is unchanged: there are no plans to support it as a target device for custom AOSP builds.
JBQ

Sprint and Samsung, it's time to pony up those drivers.

Jul

Verizon Galaxy Nexus Is Closer Than Ever To Full AOSP Support - But It's Not There Yet

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Samsung, Verizon Wireless

Earlier today, the Jelly Bean source code rolled into AOSP (Android Open Source Project). This is a big deal - one we've been waiting for since the great Google I/O unveiling. What does it mean exactly?

It means that ROMs that are built from AOSP, like CyanogenMod, can now start integrating the Jelly Bean code and release the first true JB nightlies. Not broken ports from the Galaxy Nexus builds - real ROMs. They can also work out bugs because they can see the source code.

Manufacturers can now start working on updating their devices to the actual Jelly Bean release - remember, Google was still working on the final touches to JB when they released the preview, so even OEMs didn't have what rolled out today.

Jul

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Being Released To AOSP Right Now

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Android OS, Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Nexus 7, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), XOOM

Jelly Bean was announced at Google I/O just recently, but a posting from Google's Android open source guru, Jean-Baptiste Queru has confirmed that Android 4.1 is hitting the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) repository right now. Time for the developers among you to update your clients to get all the official bits.

This release will be tagged as android-4.1.1_r1 in AOSP. While the source is going live now, the full proprietary binaries for Google-blessed devices won't be rolled out until later. Google plans to directly support the Nexus 7, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, and Xoom through AOSP. Be aware that the addition of the Jelly Bean code to AOSP doesn't mean any OTA updates are on the way.

Jul

Nexus S 4G Now "Fully Supported In AOSP, With No Restrictions"

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g)

In a post to the Android Building group earlier today, Jean-Baptiste Queru announced that Samsung's Nexus S 4G has officially and fully been brought into the AOSP fold. The device is now fully supported by AOSP, meaning its CDMA – and WiMax – binaries can now be "properly" distributed. Here's the full text of the announcement:

We've been able to resolve the issues around Nexus S 4G, and we can now properly distribute its CDMA and WiMAX binaries. That allows Nexus S 4G to work with AOSP just as well as Nexus S.
As a result, we now consider Nexus S 4G to be fully supported in AOSP, with no restrictions.