ADC Semi-Finalists Getting “Bleeding Edge” SDK First
Written by AndroidGuys • May 20th, 2008 • Category: Developer Challenge News, Developer News, Leaks, Rumors, and Hacks, Recent NewsThe second round of the Android Developers Challenge is underway and there are 50 teams and individuals fighting for $100,000 or more in prizes. As they continue to tweak and enhance their applications, they’ll need to make sure they are taking advantage of the latest software development kit (SDK) for Android.
Our friends at HelloAndroid have posted the contents of an email saying that this latest SDK will be the same version that will be shipping with Android phones later this year. That’s right, they get to be guinea pigs.
As a Round 2 participant, we’ll be providing you with the most up-to-date Android SDK so that you can take advantage of the latest tools & platform capabilities that will be shipping in devices later this year…these releases are definitely “bleeding edge.” Approximately 3 weeks before the submission deadline, we will provide a final early access SDK. You will need to submit your entry using this version of the SDK.
Since these early access SDKs are not ready for the public, you need to execute a special SDK license. This is the same SDK license that governs the public SDK with the addition of a confidentiality clause.
It doesn’t look like the developers have a choice in the matter, but we don’t see any reason for complaints. With a confidentiality clause included, we’re thinking this is about as much information as we’ll get until the public version is made available over the next several months. As for the deadline of round two, it’s been pushed back 3 weeks to accommodate these changes.
Read the rest of the email over at HelloAndroid.
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Giving certain developers in the community access to the latest features and telling the rest that they will have to wait three months is a slap in the face to these other developers, particularly those participating in the ADC II. It also gives certain developers unfair advantage in delivering applications to the devices. This is typical of the industry but it goes against the openness Google promised the community.
I would tend to disagree with you shane. The fact that the contest is not yet over, i do not think the SDK should be released to everyone at this time because second round applications would have a development edge over first round ones and that wouldn’t be fair would it?
Well I guess the winners already have a pretty good head-start of $25K. At least for a small period they can work full time on their projects, compared to the rest who work overnight or out of their limited free time. That’s a fair development edge in my opinion.
Vamien: First, for many of us, this is not about the ADC contest; it’s about getting applications into users hands on real devices. I would have a problem with it if Google is going to stack the deck against the general community just to keep things fair for 50 ADC I winners (those poor disadvantaged souls with the power of Google marketing, prize money and access to the latest platform features). Frankly, I don’t think this is what Google is doing, as such reasoning doesn’t pass the simplest smell test.