Google Still Committed to the Open Handset Alliance

"I think I'm having a Gene Amdahl moment," Andy Rubin, Google VP of Engineering, wrote in a blog post today. With Android 3.1 still being months away to prove that Android remains open, the Android chief clearly felt the need to make a statement regarding certain rumors of late.

"Recently, there's been a lot of misinformation in the press about Android and Google's role in supporting the ecosystem. I'm writing in the spirit of transparency and in an attempt to set the record straight," he wrote.

The misinformation he refers to is primarily related to Android 3.0 (recently released with the Motorola XOOM), a version of Android that'll not be released to the open-source community.

"The Android team is still hard at work to bring all the new Honeycomb features to phones. As soon as this work is completed, we'll publish the code. This temporary delay does not represent a change in strategy. We remain firmly committed to providing Android as an open source platform across many device types," Rubin wrote.

This code should be released as Android 3.1 later this year. Speaking of rumors, Android 3.1 is currently rumored to run on tablets, smartphones as well as TVs. Those looking to get rid of HTC Sense, TouchWIZ and Motoblur on Android 3.1 will still need to do it the hard way though, and carriers will still be able to push a device's memory to the limit with helpful apps such as Turn On/Off 4G (of the kind that drains battery faster than the other kind) if they should feel the need for it.

Read more: http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/cell-phones/google-still-committed-to-the-open-handset-alliance/11917.html