On Dec 26 2010, 11:48*am, Darryl Ramm wrote:
The Galaxy is interesting but does not run Honeycomb (the upcoming
Android release aimed at tablets) and personally I would hold off on
buying an Android tablet until they do. Once Honeycomb is out you will
likely see a more interesting tablets and market for software. How
many tablets will be a form factor suitable for cockpits well see.
I'm not too sure that Honeycomb is going to make a difference here.
Honeycomb's not going to really change the kernel or operating system,
it's basically just UI optimizations for larger screens --
optimizations that make no difference at all when you're running a
full-screen app. Most of Honeycomb is still secret, so we could both
end up being wrong.
The only significant soaring software folks publicly playing with
Android seem to be XCSoar. They have a (free of course) version on the
Android Market, I've not played with it and I don't know what devices
it works on (and the only Android device I have is an old G1 phone I
use for testing web content).
XCSoar was built to be an Open Source (Free as in Free Speech as well
as in Free Beer) solution for WinCE/Mo devices, and at that it was
great. It's now undergoing a "port" to run on Linux, which will
include both MeeGo (formerly known as Maemo, the Linux OS from Nokia)
and Android. Because this is a stable WinCE/Mo application, a port to
Linux is fraught with difficult challenges and is a significant
technical undertaking. The internal design of the application will
have been architected based on Windows philosophies, and I've had
nothing but terrible experiences with other Windows applications
ported to Linux.
That being said, I wish nothing but success to those heroes that are
investing their time, talents and energies in this effort.
Four years ago, I gave up on Windows CE/Mobile because every single
interaction with the hardware and operating system cranked up my blood
pressure. As a 12-year Linux professional, I just couldn't take it,
flying was supposed to be for fun.
So I got a Nokia N800 running Maemo (now called MeeGo), and I
installed the Cumulus application from
http://kflog.org/cumulus/ --
and I gotta say, that was WAY BETTER than using Windows. I've found
that this solution is incredibly rare in North America, but there are
a few.
As soon as Cumulus was working on Android, I started shopping for an
Android device. I went out in December and bought an HTC Desire Z
(same as a T-Mobile G2, but with a different cellular radio chip).
Because Cumulus was designed and written for Linux from Day 1, it
didn't really have to be ported to Android, just recompiled. I
haven't tried it in the air yet, but it seems to be working great for
me on the ground.
XCSoar is by no means the only game in town for Android, and I've no
doubt that XCSoar on Android might even get better than Cumulus on
Android in 6-24 months because of their current userbase and momentum,
I'm mostly just delighted to see two open-source soaring applications
on an almost-open platform.
You can read about the Android version of Cumulus at
http://www.draisberghof.de/android/cumulus/
I just installed XCSoar 5 minutes ago on my Desire Z to check it out.
My first impressions are that it's clunky and slow, putting extra
horsepower in to emulating windows buttons instead of using android
buttons/menus in the UI. That being said, I'm going to load up the
maps and airspaces in a few weeks and give it a fair shot at winning
me over from Cumulus -- but that won't be easy.
Windows Mobile and Windows CE need a mercy killing. Now if we just get
a real daylight visible Android tablet...
I hear the Dell Streak tablet is great in sun, and at 5", it might be
a better fit for the cockpit than a 7" or 11" tablet. The Coby tablet
can be had for $150 if you hunt around enough.