DIGITALLIFE111407

On the homepage

Health care

Health care bill stuck on Democrats' infighting

Out There

Crimefighting

Video advances are a big crime-solving aid

Mental health

A 'national crisis' of student suicide

Home | Science + Technology

Freedom-loving Android

By Rob Pegoraro, Washington Post

Last update: November 13, 2007 - 4:57 PM

Google might save the cell phone from its miserable self. In a year. If wireless carriers stop acting like, well, wireless carriers.

This technological salvation won't come from the Google Phone, a near-mythic handset that Google's mad scientists were supposedly cooking up in the lab.

Instead, it could come from software called Android that Google has developed with outside help. The company plans to give it to manufacturers for use on hundreds of different phones -- then let users tinker with the software all they want.

That last bit makes Android special. With this operating system, Google aims to give wireless users three freedoms routinely denied in the United States.

The most basic one is the freedom to use the Web as you want. We take this for granted on personal computers, in most cases.

Not so on phones, which may keep you from going where you want on the Web. A carrier's terms of use may ban entire classes of Internet applications, such as Web radio or videos.

Then comes the freedom to add the programs you want. Palm OS and Windows Mobile phones allow this choice, but most don't. For example, T-Mobile's Sidekick and Verizon's Get It Now restrict you to applications in an online catalog. Others don't allow any add-on software.

The last freedom is the liberty to change your phone's underlying software to add new capabilities, change unwanted behaviors or fix flaws. Name-brand cell phones don't allow this flexibility. If you dislike something about the phone -- the way the iPhone is locked to AT&T's network, for example -- you can only hope that the manufacturer fixes it in the next version.

Android will be open

Google and the 33 other companies that make up a new group called the Open Handset Alliance want to advance those three freedoms.

These firms say the Android software will include features found in the iPhone, the BlackBerry and Palm and Windows Mobile devices, such as Web browsing, e-mail, music and video playback.

But unlike the software code those competitors use, Android's won't be a secret. Anybody will be able to inspect, edit and use the software free. You might not want to bother, but many programmers will. So you could use their software to customize an Android phone, from simple changes like replacing ring tones to such upgrades as redoing its interface.

That's not how most commercial software has been developed in the past. But some of the most popular programs around, such as the Firefox Web browser, are open-source products.

Must keep it simple

For Android to succeed, though, it can't just please programmers. It must be at least as simple and stable as any other phone's software.

Google's past success at making simple but powerful interfaces for things like e-mail and maps bodes well. But it may be as important that this company has brought firms into the Android project with long experience in the phone business, including such manufacturers as Intel, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Qualcomm and wireless carriers T-Mobile, Sprint, China Mobile and Japan's NTT DoCoMo.

Google and its partners have also shown a promising willingness to adopt outside software when appropriate. Android's Web browser, for example, runs on the open-source software inside the iPhone's browser.

On Monday, Google announced a contest with cash prizes for people who develop innovative software applications for Android.

But open-source carries the risk of this project's own undoing. Companies that build and sell Android phones, which are expected to appear in the second half of next year, could always choose to revise it to lock out any tinkering by their customers.

Google thinks no one company would risk alienating customers who could turn to a competitor selling open, unlocked Android phones. But many of the corporations that have signed up as Android partners have been happy to sell locked-down phones that treat customers more like servants.

Those firms need to see Android as more than just a free operating system. They need to realize it could help them make powerful, flexible phones that people will enjoy using -- and which, in turn, will lead them to spend more time on the air and online, to the benefit of both the carrier and Google.

Recent Science + Technology stories

Microsoft to start charging for access to cloud computing system Windows Azure in February - November 13, 2007

Microsoft to start charging for access to cloud computing system Windows Azure in February - Microsoft Corp. leads its industry in part because a vast army of outside computer programmers design software that only runs on its Windows operating system. More

Comments are temporarily unavailable

Our reader comments feature is currently undergoing maintenance. Please check back to comment on this story and join the discussion. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Blog: Patent Pending

Lights out at U energy conference. Irony police notified.

Just as Lawrence Kazmerski, a top official at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, was about to give the keynote address at the University of Minnesota's annual E3 conference at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, the lights went out, bathing the audience in darkness and a deep sense of irony.