Now that Google has essentially F'd us by withholding HC Source...

[bluewhite79]

Is there any possible way (maybe in CM7) for us to be able to trick the market into allowing us to download Tablet apps?

The most frustrating thing is not being able to use Tablet optimized apps on our Tablet!

Can anyone foresee a way we can do this? OR maybe there will be a work around to sideload them?

 

[chris30673]

I had no idea what you were talking about until I read this:

Android openness withering as Google withholds Honeycomb code

The lack of Honeycomb code availability is especially bad for enthusiasts who were hoping to be able to install custom firmware on their Android tablets. Without the code, it will be difficult for the modding community to produce custom builds that fix the software problems that plague the Xoom and other upcoming Android tablets. Users who were looking forward to better Honeycomb builds for the Nook Color and other budget devices are also going to have to wait.

 

[kabbie1882]

Maybe they are trying to fix a bug or two in it before they release it.

If they release it and it has bugs people will complain even more.

 

[J515OP]

Maybe they are trying to fix a bug or two in it before they release it.

If they release it and it has bugs people will complain even more.

According to the *Edit: BuinessWeek (not NYT)* article it isn't really a bug issue. Supposedly it's that the release is to be for tablets only and they didn't include any phone support in a rush to make it avaialble for tablet launches. They don't want developers to then go out and ROM it to phones which may lead to issues since they never prepared it to work with phones.

Now they are saying there probably won't be any public release until ice cream when they have had a chance to make it work for tablets and phones. So unless you are a major partner who has signed specific license agreements with google you can't have HC for your tablet or any other device you want to put it on.

 

[Jaxidian]

I've posted my opinion on this here and here. I don't think Google is intentionally screwing us but is making the right decision. It's just a bummer for us, unfortunately.

Perhaps with this announcement, more work will be done "hacking" the SDK-based HC that we have. I'd say this is good motivation for such effort.

 

[Ali Moazzam]

It wont be released at all, in my opinion. Google says that developers will immediately start to port it to phones, they dont want that to happen because many phones do not have the potential. Honeycom was only meant for tablets, u know.

Sent from my sdk using Android Tablet Forum App

 

[rico2001]

@OP

Well no not really. For many of us who have owned a Nook Color for awhile now, or I should say the beginning, Nov-Dec. 2010, we really were only looking forward to someday running Android 2.2. Fast forward to now and the development of Gingerbread 2.3 and Honeycomb 3.0 preview were considered a bonus and a welcomed surprise.

I know on the flip-side, many only purchased the Nook Color just for the opportunity to run Honeycomb and this news is a big shock.

All in all, I'm looking at this situation as just a delay and Google can't hold the OS back forever. Even if they do, if the full source code is available on other devices, it can always ported from those devices and be adapted to devices that don't have it. Just will take more time.

just my couple of pennies.

 

[J515OP]

I've posted my opinion on this here and here. I don't think Google is intentionally screwing us but is making the right decision. It's just a bummer for us, unfortunately.

Perhaps with this announcement, more work will be done "hacking" the SDK-based HC that we have. I'd say this is good motivation for such effort.

Interesting takes, but I am getting something different out of the articles than it is a qulaity issue. The linked article above makes a good point about how el goog has diverged from Linux and is creating its own walled garden to benefit itself as it sees fit not to hold to open source. Obviously this makes sense for a company to head down a path which will lead to control of its own software and profits. They started with open source, paid it lip service (and acted somewhat openly) until they got a foothold and blam-o pulled the rug out.

Apple had the same strategy once upon a time giving macs to schools to hook users early and build future customers. Ultimately the success of that effort is debatable and it certainly helped schools get computers. That is what companies do and google is no different. They will figure out a road map that will eventually lead to Android/Chrome that allows them to compete with Apple and MicroSoft at the expense of OSes like Linux.

I guess we'll see. Even if that is the end game if they make good software that we like and it becomes a 3rd major alternative then that is good in its own way.

 

[chmoto]

@J515OP I agree 100%. It was only a matter of time Before this happens.

 

[Cuzoe]

This is my first post, I've been lurking forever, lol. But I don't understand how google is screwing us NookColor owners. My Nook is rooted, running ADW daily, tried GB, HC on internal and external storage. But none of these things were ever supposed to work on our Nook. If I had bought a tablet I would feel "screwed" to a certain extent I suppose, but I bought an ereader that with the coming upgrade will gain some more tablet features. I use mine as a tablet as much as an ereader but that's a bonus. As for apps, we already have to trick the market/sideload some things. This delay has no effect on that.

I understand Google delaying the release of code that isn't ready or is missing key low level framework (for phones) because, as Ali Moazzam said, it will be ported to phones right away and then people will complain of how this or that doesn't work. This happens with every source code release, it always gets delayed (usually with no explanation) but then it always comes out. And before that, just as they already have with HC, developers port it from released devices.

 

[J515OP]

Welcome Cuzoe, I don't think you should take the title too literally. I think it is just disappointment is all. We would all like to think that google will make everything open and available as soon as possible and that we could run a true tablet OS on our Nooks tomorrow. The truth is that the devs have done an excellent job of porting ROMs to our little Nook and it is a very capable tablet. If everybody was satisfied with the status quo though then there would be no android and we'd all be using iOS (or worse, maybe stuck at WinMo). Sometimes we all just need to vent a little about the future that is just out of reach.

 

[kookahdoo]

I can never say nook a disappoint in the dame sentence. Wait.....

Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

 

[J515OP]

I can never say nook a disappoint in the dame sentence. Wait.....

Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

funny... I actully was saying google, honeycomb and disappointment in the same sentence. Nothing but appointment (reappointment, preappoinment?) for my little nook

 

[Morgue]

Frankly doesn't Google have to enforce some standard across these OS's and implementations to ensure success?

I may be wrong but having so much on the line for the name "android" to have it just a free for all really can do damage. I am unaware of any other mobile operating system that has worked liked that.

I think that they need to fraction a "G series" or some marketed name that Google is in complete control/partnership with and let the rest go as is. There has to be some difference to the average user between a Xoom and a SuperTabletRocPad from China without really spending days learning to differentiate. I hate to say it but this is where Apple gets their customers (ok and expensive trendy marketing). It is legitimate and viable, but I believe it is to a degree necessary.


It is a bummer for those of us that aren't really under the "average" user category though, but I can understand the hold up.


I am new here, but this is stuff that interests me, and you all appear to be my kind of people.

 

[J515OP]

Frankly doesn't Google have to enforce some standard across these OS's and implementations to ensure success?

I may be wrong but having so much on the line for the name "android" to have it just a free for all really can do damage. I am unaware of any other mobile operating system that has worked liked that.

I think that they need to fraction a "G series" or some marketed name that Google is in complete control/partnership with and let the rest go as is. There has to be some difference to the average user between a Xoom and a SuperTabletRocPad from China without really spending days learning to differentiate. I hate to say it but this is where Apple gets their customers (ok and expensive trendy marketing). It is legitimate and viable, but I believe it is to a degree necessary.


It is a bummer for those of us that aren't really under the "average" user category though, but I can understand the hold up.


I am new here, but this is stuff that interests me, and you all appear to be my kind of people.

Welcome Morgue, I think you will find "your kind of people" here. There are two schools of thought there, one completely open and the other locked down and highly refined. Most people thought and hoped that Google would be going completely open with Android and for the reasons you state above it isn't completely open. They could lock it down more or the could stay where they are. We'll see.

Linux has been able to succeed as open source with the better variations rising to the top but you could also make the argument that its openess and variation is the same reason it hasn't truly penetrated the market. It is a fine line to walk between allowing software to spin out in any direction people want to take it and offering a consistent user experience.