Google releasing public Android SDK today? [Confirmed]

August 18, 2008 | Matthaus Krzykowski | Comments | |

It appears that Google is currently releasing the public Android software development kit (SDK), which lets developers and manufactures build on its operating system for upcoming phones.

[Update: This is confirmed. The code has now been released.]

The move comes as HTC prepares to release the first Google Android phone. HTC also just won approval from the FCC for the phone.

We found out about the new SDK, because Google is changing and updating several files and permissions within the SDK that didn’t sync everything correctly from the older version to the new. The SDK uses a code for a Linux kernel, on which the operating system is based. Under its license, Google is required to update the existing kernel to any newer one. Google’s move to update is significant, because an update of the kernel strongly suggests that the new SDK is being launched. Here’s what we know: A user (see screenshot below) was able to download a file which is requiring the new SDK. But because the user who downloaded the file still had the old SDK, an error message appeared in the development environment Eclipse.

Similarly, Google is updating its GIT, which are instructions on how to manage code revisions. The update itself is nothing special, but since you don’t see anything updated yet — which will surely happen given the above indications — this suggests that something is in progress.

Images of revisions below.

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About the Author, Matthaus Krzykowski

Matthäus is a freelance writer for VentureBeat covering the mobile space. He is also a startup founder, consultant, conference organiser and regular speaker on the global circuit. At VentureBeat, Matthaus writes many of the analysis and trend pieces on various mobile themes. For example he broke the news that MySpace and Facebook had overtaken mobile-only social networks in terms of traffic. Also, he was part of the team which ported Android on a netbook. In addition he was coordinating the MobileBeat conference in San Francisco for the second year running. He is either to be found in San Francisco or Maastricht, the Netherlands. Follow him on Twitter at @matthausk, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • git user
    The author has no idea about the topic he is talking about. The screenshots are of a wrong branch, all he needed to do is to go down the page to see the actual branches that were updated today (2.6.25) and the actual changes that were submitted. There is nothing special about it either, they have been updated on the regular basis for the last couple of months for sure. And anybody who has an idea about git could see that from looking at the history.
    Move along, nothing to see here.
  • matthaus
    Hi git user,
    Admittedly, I'm not a developer. But I've been involved in development projects playing around with the Android SDK and know where my limits of knowledge are. As a product manager (I'm a freelancer with Venturebeat) I live on knowing where I do not know much and clearly expressing it. I frequently ask developer friends to check my articles and educate me. For this post, my current know-how on Android seems to have been enough to see that couple of hours ago that the new release is coming out.
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