About fucking time.
Lollipop unwrapped: Chromium WebView will update via Google Play
Android 5.0, codenamed Lollipop, has introduced a key change to the WebView component, used by app developers to display HTML 5 content within their apps, making new features more readily available. WebView — based on the open source Chromium project (Chrome without the proprietary bits) — will now be updateable via Google's …
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Thursday 23rd October 2014 20:03 GMT Spearchucker Jones
Re: PhoneGap and Cordova are the same thing
Depends. If you're doing something with a lot of features, or security, or on- and offline (store and forward messaging or sync), a better alternative for an HTML5 app is a native app.
If you're doing a basic create, read, update, delete app for a single-table with look-up data, then there is probably no better alternative than HTML because efficiency. Write once, deploy everywhere.
The native approach is a ton of work, and most people (manager types) don't appreciate that a relatively complex native mobile app often needs more effort than the equivalent desktop app written in Windows Forms or similar.
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Friday 24th October 2014 09:38 GMT Brewster's Angle Grinder
Re: PhoneGap and Cordova are the same thing
I was after an alternative to Cordova for HTML5 apps, not an alternative to HTML5.
HTML5 is a bit spotty but, with care, the same codebase can run on Windows' desktop (as a Chrome packaged app) and iOS and Android. And I can do that as one dev. I could never do that if I was writing native for each. There are some compromises, but we're broadly happy with them.
But writing for mobile is definitely harder than for the desktop. Your app could run 24/7 or be killed suddenly. And people expect extra functions and integration they wouldn't expect on a desktop, but less CPU, GPU and memory to handle it. And then there's the reach. 100,000 users? Mobile stretches my codebase way more than desktop. (Also, I miss C++. *sigh*)
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Thursday 23rd October 2014 16:05 GMT ThomH
If I dare suggest it: Google's vague, thin version of open source (we'll write it in private, according to our priorities, then show you when it's done: the cathedral model, but they'll sell the bibles over in the bazaar) served its purpose, of getting a certain kind of press for a certain audience when Android wasn't yet at critical mass, but is just no longer necessary. As the runaway winner in smartphones, with a mature and well-received product, Google no longer needs to play to that audience and doesn't otherwise desire to.
There's a bit of devil's advocacy to that statement; I'd love to hear the contrary viewpoint.
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Thursday 23rd October 2014 17:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
Amazon's problem
You buy your tablet or phone from Amazon, and it's upto them to support it with the latest updates. Given they dont give a crap, you have to wonder who buys Amazon bastardised Android products.
My Nexus devices are all bang upto date. My Nexus5 is running the latest 5.0 build and it's fantastic. Really smooth, looks fantastic. for a phone that's half the price of a Apple, and 10x better.
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Thursday 23rd October 2014 20:47 GMT petur
Now do this to the rest of the OS
Would be great if they would manage to only have the HW-specific bits fixed for the device (HAL, BSP, whatever you want to call it), and have the rest of the OS upgradable so that a security issue is the OS can get fixed.
By now it is clear that handset vendors are not the party to look at for updates.
Another reason why this gets urgent: just like happened with PC and laptop, the phone and tablet category is reaching a maturity where a current device will have enough horsepower for several iterations in the coming years. So more and more people will find out that their phone or tablet is just as usable in 5 years (if they have a user-upgradeable battery), and having them buy a new one just for the OS is bad for this planet.