Good news for Android developers, the challenge’s deadlines have just been extended. The first ADC submission deadline is April 14, 2008. There will be another major SDK update according to the blog post Quang Nguyen, Android Developer Advocate, mentionned also perviously by Dan Morill. There is no further information at this time about the upcoming SDK, but you will have more time now to get familiar with the next SDK edition.

Based on the great feedback you’ve given us, we’ve made significant updates to the SDK that we’ll be releasing in several weeks. In order to give you extra time to take advantage of these forthcoming UI and API enhancements, we’ve decided to extend the submission deadline. In addition, a fair number of developers have also asked for more time to build and polish their applications.

Below the updated timeline :

• April 14, 2008: Deadline to submit applications for judging
• May 5, 2008: Announcement of the 50 first round winners, who will be eligible for the final round
• June 30, 2008: Deadline for the 50 winners of the first round to submit for the final round
• July 21, 2008: Announcement of the grand prize winner and runner-up

Google is offering $10 millions to create amazing new applications for its new Android mobile platform, and today is the first day to submit your application for the challenge. So if you decided to develop an excellent application for Android, here is where you have to go next : ADC submission page. Pick one of the three available forms based on whether you’re working alone, in a team, or for an organized company. Then attach your .apk application file, add documentation file in PDF or text format, and everything should be in english even if you are planning to develop for other languages.

Be sure to read carefully the terms and conditions for the challenge, which explain also how the challenge is going to happen. There are some important details in the terms and conditions concerning the qualifications, four important points that you have to focus on while creating your application :

1. Originality of Concept – Does the application introduce a great new idea; for example, a new angle on social applications?
2. Effective Use of the Android Platform – Does the application take advantage of Android’s unique and compelling features, such as built-in location-based services, accelerometer, and always-on networking?
3. Polish and Appeal – Is the application easy to use and aesthetically appealing?
4. Indispensability – Is the application compelling and essential, such as a game the user just can’t put down or a utility she can’t live without?

So let’s the game begin and good luck for everyone.

In the latest interview, Brendan mentioned that SDK releases have slowed down and here is today the official Android blog announcing the immediate availability of the new release m3-rc37a. Highlited features in this release :

• The ability to inject SMS messages into the emulator, which will allow you to more easily test IntentReceivers for incoming SMS messages (Telnet to Android then run: sms senderPhoneNumber senderPhoneNumber)
• Android Debug Bridge (ADB) supports multiple emulators on one host computer
• The audio problem with the emulator on Windows should be fixed
• There’s a new emulator control panel that you can use to control network events like radio state changes and incoming calls.
• The Eclipse plugin now does color syntax highlighting on the XML files, such as AndroidManifest.xml
• The new default skin for the emulator is HVGA, portrait mode. That’s the one you should focus on for your submissions for the Android Developer Challenge.

It seems there are problems with com.google.android.providers.media in this release, others are reporting that many applications are not running such contacts, maps, browser and even Xmpp settings. Here all applications are working fine and I’m able to emulate phone call, but not sending sms. We’ll try to update you as we get more information on the subject.

More changes on the release notes, and you can download the latest Android SDK release from Google code. Be sure to update the ADT Eclipse Plugin as usual, instructions available for upgrading the SDK.

Some of the very cool tools that popped out from Android developers, a Java applet called DroidDraw, which aims to provide a complete GUI creation tool for developers. OHM had an interview with Brendan Burns, who is behind the DroidDraw and Android-GL projects.

OHM : Can we know a little about yourself ?

Brendan : I’m a professor of computer science at Union College in Schenectady, NY. I just graduated a year and a half ago from the University of Massachusetts with a PhD in Robotics. Before grad. school, I worked in the software industry for a couple of years; mostly web-apps. I’ve done a bunch of different development over the years.

OHM : So you have a PhD in robotics, and you are interested into mobile development also ?

Brendan : I like to code. My term ended in the middle of November, and I wanted a project to keep me busy.

I had just taught graphics as my fall course and so I thought I’d play around and port some of the code from the class over to Android. Since I’d never done OpenGL on an embedded device, then I was thinking about building an app for the Challenge and I realized it was really annoying to build a GUI in XML. So I wrote the GUI builder.

OHM : Are you entering the challenge alone or in a team ?

Brendan : I’m not sure, probably by myself. I’m not 100% committed to entering. I have to come up with a really good idea, and so far my ideas are only ok.

OHM : So what about Android-GL, are you planning to build something with it ?

Brendan : I was thinking about it, but the renderer still has some bugs in it. While I was working on that I found a reported and number of them and I’ve seen reports from other people as well.

Also, I’m not 100% convinced that 3D plus mobile is the best solution, since most devices still don’t have accelerated graphics

OHM : how did you find coding on Android platform ?

Brendan : Its pretty easy I think. Its very similar to J2SE, more similar than J2ME which I did a little coding for.

There are some major differences between the OpenGL ES API and the regular OpenGL API – no glBegin(…)/glVertex(…)/glEnd() – that took some getting used to, but that’s the direction that the regular OpenGL API is headed also as far as I’ve heard. I think OpenGL 3.0 does away with that style of 3D coding. So it wasn’t a bad thing to learn more about.

OHM : so Java before Android was not much different than after Android ?

Brendan : Yeah, I think so, because I’m not in the mobile industry, and I don’t have a strong sense for the use of Java in that market. So I don’t really know if Android will mark a major shift toward Java or not.

One thing that is interesting about Android is that after two quick SDK releases, its slowed down !

You can tell that there are internal releases being developed, because the release stamp on the bottom of the docs pages keeps changing (Today its: Build m3-rc31 – 04 Dec 2007 17:47). So I’m curious about Google’s SDK release plans/schedule.

OHM : Which feature are you waiting for in the next release ?

Brendan : I’m waiting for Bluetooth support to be activated, So I can drive my Lego NXT Robot from Android !

Thanks Brendan for your time.

While talking about Android challenge, unfortunately, it seems that it is not open for everyone. It’s very normal that some countries are not allowed due to US laws, the case of Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, and Myanmar, but from the challenge FAQ you can read also resident of Italy and Quebec are not allowed to participate due to local restrictions. So if you are Italian and live for example in Swizerland you can participate in the challenge. I’m just wondering what kind of local restriction can limit someone from participating in an international challenge.

Otherwise what’s more interesting is that the Android Developer Challenge is open to individuals, teams of individuals, and business entities. You just have to be of legal age in your country of residence and not working with Google, members of the Open Handset Alliance, or affiliated companies. In total there is $10 millions to win during the whole year, so if you are eligible take your chance read the FAQs then get the SDK and start coding. This is not Google summer of code, but Google winter of code !!

Update : Fabrizio Giudici posted over his blog some clarifications on local restrictions in Italy :

• prizes must be assigned in presence of a notary public and a representative from an acknowledged consumer association;
• prizes that are not delivered (for any reason, including recipient not picking them) must be donated to some non-profit organizations, explicitly listed in the contest rules;
• there are some papers to fill in and the contest must be registered to two different Ministries (you know, in Italy there are a lot of Ministries, sometimes it’s hard to understand who’s doing what) and to the State Monopoly Administration.

But above all:

• the entity which is organizing the contest must guarantee in advance a security deposit covering the whole value of prizes.