Android using Java VM for apps — whatever!
I can’t be the only one who’s disappointed with Android using Java as its application layer environment, can I? I’d heard in advance they were doing this but kind of didn’t want to believe it. Sure, props to their team for deconstructing and redeveloping Java in a pared-down, supposedly extremely efficient environment they’re calling the “Dalvik Virtual Machine”, but Java as a technology is no less clunky and annoying today than it was before Android was announced. (You know what they say about lipstick and pigs…) And while it’s great Android’s got a lot more optimized frameworks than your average Java-capable device, a mobile multitasking Java VM app environment is never going to run as well as something coded native to the core OS; this is already visible in the video demo where some of the swipes, taps, and touch gestures present a far chunkier, less visually satisfying experience than the bar that’s been set by the iPhone / iPod touch. Yeah, I know, the software is early, but Google’s offering up $10m for developers to start working on Android apps, and before we get too entrenched in even MORE phones running Java I’m nominating the first significant Android app work be done on the redevelopment of a new, proper application layer.
