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HTC Developer site goes live: OpenSense SDK and kernel source offered

48 points by Suraj-Sun 15y ago

vladikoff 15y ago
Nice to see HTC invest some time and money into this dev site, I'm also excited to see how the bootloader unlocking tool will function. Looking Good!
drivebyacct2 15y ago
On a cooler note, they're releasing kernel source (as they should (have been/be) doing, but also will be launching a bootloader unlock tool, so that we can actually make use of the kernel source!
- darklajid 15y ago
  Which, according to what I've read, will require that you give up your warranty, at least partially..
StavrosK 15y ago
I was thinking of getting a Samsung Galaxy S II next, but maybe I'll just go with HTC again... Hopefully the custom ROMs will have even better support for HTC phones now.
- nuclear_eclipse 15y ago
  Considering that Samsung sent a batch of Galaxy SII phones directly to the Cyanogenmod development team makes me think that the SII will have even better support...
  - StavrosK 15y ago
    Isn't code/drivers more valuable than the actual devices, though?
dlikhten 15y ago
I am actually against this. Regardless of how nice this is, this goes against the OS nature of Android. HTC is treating android as a free (beer) operating system (bla bla bla microsoft/apple). But when they realize that their phones are not top notch, they still want to proceed like MS did, with vendor-lock-in. The point of Android is that its open. If you feel its missing 4g, send your impl to the team and it will be open sourced with everything else, if you feel it's missing stylus support, send that too. Etc. This way any phone supporting the hardware reqs will be able to take advantage of it. Instead HTC is taking many many months to port their POS software to the new Android version. In the end their software sucks and any benefit it has is diluted in the shit. However they could have easily contributed any benefits to the main project and just helped out which is the goal of OS.
- mrich 15y ago
  Why would they help out the other, competing Android manufacturers by giving their pretty good UI for free to them?
- darklajid 15y ago
  I totally agree. Not only is Sense trying to create a different Android environment (visually), it's also not really useful most of the time. I heard that this improved a lot in the last versions (my last Sense phone was a HTC Hero and no, I'll certainly won't buy from them again). My brother is satisfied. Still - this adds to the fragmentation. Trying to make it available (in a poor form imo, with these code drops) is just a try to strengthen the self-made split in the Android UI world. "Please use this SDK to support our branding". What?
- 2muchcoffeeman 15y ago
  The point of Android is to pursue a different product strategy to Apple/MS that will also make loads of money.
plaes 15y ago
I wish these big manufacturers actually start offering the source code from git trees and keep updating them.. These tarballs are usually code drops that happen when device reaches market and are mostly never updated afterwards :(
- pilif 15y ago
  > These tarballs are usually code drops that happen when device reaches market and are mostly never updated afterwards :( considering how often these devices get updates after reaching the market, I'm inclined to say that you don't miss much :(
baconner 15y ago
I know this is a bit of a nitpick but am I the only one who cringes every time a new developer site like this requires logging in to look at a code sample or download an sdk? If you want developers to spend time and money enhancing the value of your platform you ought to make it a low friction process.

48 points by Suraj-Sun 15y ago

Nice to see HTC invest some time and money into this dev site, I'm also excited to see how the bootloader unlocking tool will function. Looking Good!

drivebyacct2 15y ago

On a cooler note, they're releasing kernel source (as they should (have been/be) doing, but also will be launching a bootloader unlock tool, so that we can actually make use of the kernel source!

darklajid 15y ago
Which, according to what I've read, will require that you give up your warranty, at least partially..

StavrosK 15y ago

I was thinking of getting a Samsung Galaxy S II next, but maybe I'll just go with HTC again... Hopefully the custom ROMs will have even better support for HTC phones now.

nuclear_eclipse 15y ago
Considering that Samsung sent a batch of Galaxy SII phones directly to the Cyanogenmod development team makes me think that the SII will have even better support...
- StavrosK 15y ago
  Isn't code/drivers more valuable than the actual devices, though?

dlikhten 15y ago

I am actually against this. Regardless of how nice this is, this goes against the OS nature of Android. HTC is treating android as a free (beer) operating system (bla bla bla microsoft/apple). But when they realize that their phones are not top notch, they still want to proceed like MS did, with vendor-lock-in. The point of Android is that its open. If you feel its missing 4g, send your impl to the team and it will be open sourced with everything else, if you feel it's missing stylus support, send that too. Etc. This way any phone supporting the hardware reqs will be able to take advantage of it. Instead HTC is taking many many months to port their POS software to the new Android version. In the end their software sucks and any benefit it has is diluted in the shit. However they could have easily contributed any benefits to the main project and just helped out which is the goal of OS.

mrich 15y ago
Why would they help out the other, competing Android manufacturers by giving their pretty good UI for free to them?
darklajid 15y ago
I totally agree. Not only is Sense trying to create a different Android environment (visually), it's also not really useful most of the time. I heard that this improved a lot in the last versions (my last Sense phone was a HTC Hero and no, I'll certainly won't buy from them again). My brother is satisfied. Still - this adds to the fragmentation. Trying to make it available (in a poor form imo, with these code drops) is just a try to strengthen the self-made split in the Android UI world. "Please use this SDK to support our branding". What?
2muchcoffeeman 15y ago
The point of Android is to pursue a different product strategy to Apple/MS that will also make loads of money.

plaes 15y ago

I wish these big manufacturers actually start offering the source code from git trees and keep updating them.. These tarballs are usually code drops that happen when device reaches market and are mostly never updated afterwards :(

pilif 15y ago
> These tarballs are usually code drops that happen when device reaches market and are mostly never updated afterwards :( considering how often these devices get updates after reaching the market, I'm inclined to say that you don't miss much :(

baconner 15y ago

I know this is a bit of a nitpick but am I the only one who cringes every time a new developer site like this requires logging in to look at a code sample or download an sdk? If you want developers to spend time and money enhancing the value of your platform you ought to make it a low friction process.