JBQ - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

[Achievement Unlocked] Google: Nexus 4 And Nexus 7 Are The First Ever AOSP Devices That Have 100% Of The Proprietary Binaries Available

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Google, News, Nexus 4, Nexus 7

As an addendum to the announcement of Google completing AOSP rollout for Android 4.2.2, I wanted to highlight a big milestone for the Nexus program - something that has never been the case before today.

After asking JBQ (not to be confused with JDQ39) a follow-up question, I was able to get some clarity on his earlier post and confirm that as of today, with the release of Android 4.2.2 binaries, we have for the first time ever Nexus devices that have 100% of proprietary binaries available. These devices are the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 7.

Previously, even Nexuses marked as AOSP-supported were missing at least one driver that needed to be ripped out of live devices in order to build a fully working ROM.

Nov

Android 4.2.1 (JOP40D) Live In AOSP [Updated]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, Development, Jelly Bean 4.2, News

Last Updated: February 12th, 2013

Earlier today, both the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 10 started receiving small ~1MB OTAs to Android 4.2.1 with fixes to the missing month of December in the People app, among other things. The corresponding open source files are being pushed by Google to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) as we speak, Android release engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru just announced in the Android Building group.

The build number is JOP40D and the tag is android-4.2.1_r1. From what I can tell, a lot of the code is already up - here are some links to get you started:

The source code for 4.2.1 is being pushed into AOSP right now.

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.

Sep

A History of Pre-Cupcake Android Codenames

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Android OS, News

You know the Android codenames, right? Starting with Android 1.5, they're alphabetical snacks - Cupcake, Donut, Éclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean. But what about before 1.5? What were those called? And why did they start with C? We've got real answers from real Googlers.

Wikipedia's Android Version History is a pretty awesome article, but, as of a few days ago, it was erroneously calling 1.0 and 1.1 "Astro" and "Bender." We had never heard of this, and there wasn't a good source attached to it, so we took to G+ to set the record straight.

Sep

Sony Releases Xperia S Binaries For Use In AOSP Support, Will Get Devs Far Enough 'To Boot Up And Reach The Homescreen'

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, News, Sony, Xperia S (Nozomi)

Last Updated: September 4th, 2012

In a gesture of good faith, Sony, on its developer blog, has announced the company is releasing the software binaries for the Xperia S. It has done so explicitly in support of Android developer JBQ's "experimental" support for the device in AOSP (found here). If you're unfamiliar with the project, we covered it earlier this month when it was announced.

Download: Xperia S software binaries

The software binaries Sony released consist mainly of drivers for the hardware on the Xperia S's chipset. These binaries allow developers to get that hardware to function with non-OEM software. Manufacturers are generally under no obligation to make these binaries public, because they typically fall under the "proprietary" umbrella.

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

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.

Apr

Key Android Engineer Weighs In On Manufacturer Contributions To AOSP And Update Rollouts - You Might Be Surprised Who's On Top

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

If you follow AOSP code drops long enough, you're eventually going to hear about JBQ (as well as a ton more acronyms). Jean-Baptiste Queru, Technical Lead of the Android Open-Source Project took to Google+ today to talk about Android update rollouts, as well as to praise one of the manufacturers that he sees as leading the pack in aiding the AOSP: Sony.

It took Sony only about 5 months to ship this [Android 4.0 for the Sony Tablet S] after I released the code in the Android Open Source Project at the very end of last year. This is actually a very reasonable time, since under the hood Ice Cream Sandwich is quite different from Honeycomb (and upgrades from Gingerbread are likely to take longer as those differences are huge).

Apr

Nexus S 4G Factory Image (4.0.4) Now Available Straight From Google, In Case You're Feeling ROM Remorse

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g)

Thanks again to the venerable JBQ of Google, the unmodified factory image of Android 4.0.4 for the Nexus S 4G (sojus, Android 4.0.4 IMM76D) is now available here. As JBQ states on Google+, this image is for those among you who have flashed to custom versions of AOSP and want to get back to factory state. No, by the way, there's still no word on an OTA update yet.

Download

As with all the others, the factory images are available on the Factory Images for Nexus Devices page.

More Info

To get started, head to JBQ's Google+ post on the subject, where he has more info on a known bug where the device reports an incorrect radio version number.