Google Engineer Says Company Will Release Ice Cream Sandwich Source Code
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a delicious Ice Cream Sandwich? Not even smarmy owls know the answer to that question – yet. Android developers will have a leg up on Tootsie Pop-packing birds sometime soon, as a Google engineer has confirmed that the ICS code will be released once users are able to wrap their hands around Ice Cream Sandwich-enabled phones and tablets.
“We plan to release the source for the recently-announced Ice Cream Sandwich soon, once it’s available on devices,” Android engineer Dan Morrill wrote on the “Android Building” Google group. That sound you hear? An exasperated sigh of relief from the open source community. Earlier this year, Google refused to release the source code for the tablet-optimized Honeycomb version of Android over fears that clueless developers would shove it onto phones, too. Some were worried that it was the start of a new, proprietary trend for Android, but the release of the Ice Cream Sandwich source code (which was written for both tablets and smartphones) should lay those doubts to rest.
The recently unveiled ICS-packing Samsung Galaxy Nexus should hit the streets in November.
Comments
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RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
October 22, 2011 at 8:39pm
You guys really slobber over everything Google does. Not cool.
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twister753
October 21, 2011 at 2:01pm
I kinda wish they stuck with Nexus Prime, adding Galaxy in makes it sound too much like its part of the Galaxy line (even though it is already so similar to the Galaxy line) and the name doesn't really flow at all.
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blkpanthr
October 21, 2011 at 11:49am
Not sure why this is news
they always release the ASOP source for all android versions......
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athlon11
October 21, 2011 at 12:49pm
Apparently you didn't read teh article or you lack reading comprehension skills. Google did not release the source code from Honeycomb to AOSP. This was done to prevent people from porting it to phones or to tablets that Google didn't approve which would then run the risk of poor performance etc. and create bad impressions of Honeycomb.
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blkpanthr
October 23, 2011 at 4:33pm
That was known from the beginning.
Google announced honcomb was going to be a special version just for tablets and would not be releasing the source long before the first tablets with it were released.
it hasnt stopped people from porting 2.2 or 2.3 to tablets
perhaps i should have said except honeycomb.
They made no such claims for iceceam sandwich
The fact that there were rumors that google was trending towards not releasing future versions was just pure speculation and overraction by the do-it-yourself community.
There was no doubt in my mind honeycomb was a trial platform to work out bugs intruduced by a new form factor without phones and ill equipped tablets muddying the waters, and that all future versions would be released to ASOP.
I had this exact same discussion with more than one person on XDA when they announced honeycomb was not going ot ASOP, i was correct then as well.
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