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Motorola To Hire 300 Android Developers
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sat Oct 04, 2008 10:18 AM
from the robots-with-beards? dept.
from the robots-with-beards? dept.
ruphus13 writes "Google's Android is starting to see more industry support. Motorola recently announced plans, despite hardships within the company, to hire 300 Android developers. Quoting: 'A quick search of Motorola's job openings suggests that, indeed, Android is set to become a permanent fixture at Motorola, which has long built Linux-based phones but hitherto used MontaVista's Mobilinux. The goal? Move from an internal development pool of 50 Android-savvy developers to 350. Motorola, recognizing that most developers won't have deep experience with Google Android, is looking for a somewhat general skillset ... Java and Google Android programming experience is listed as 'highly desirable,' but not required.'"
T-Mobile has already made plans to use Android as well. Xconomy has a related interview with a member of the MIT team that won a $275,000 prize in the Android Developer Challenge by creating an application to automatically modify a phone's settings depending on its location, which they say "wouldn't even be possible on an iPhone." We've previously discussed the Challenge itself and some of the other winning apps.
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stoolpigeon writes to tell us that T-Mobile's upcoming phone will try to combine the best elements of many of the new smart phones, and will be using Google's Android software. "The HTC phone, which many gadget sites are calling the 'dream,' will have a touch screen, like the iPhone. But the screen also slides out to expose a full five-row keyboard. A video of the phone has been posted recently on YouTube. A person who has seen the HTC device said it matched the one in the video. The phone's release date depends on how soon the Federal Communications Commission certifies that the Google software and the HTC phone meet network standards. Executives at all three companies are hoping to announce the phone in September because they would benefit from holiday season sales."
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Technology: Google Awards Android Dev Prizes, Introduces App Store 52 comments
An anonymous reader writes "A group of Canadian engineering students was one of 10 teams to win a $275,000 prize from internet search giant Google Inc. Their program, Ecorio, gives users the ability to reduce their environmental footprint with tools that provide transit options for trips, invest in carbon reduction projects, and share their tips with other users. Other winners included a taxi location app, a price comparison app, and a settings manager than changes your settings based on your location."
Google has also started talking about their plans for Android Market, which is similar to the App store used for the iPhone. Ars Technica's coverage points out a blog post by Google's Eric Chu which notes that early handsets running Android will have a beta version of Android Market enabled.
[+]
Technology: Motorola Moving to Android, Windows Mobile for Smartphones 136 comments
nerdyH writes "Motorola will ditch its MotoMAGX Linux stack and UIQ Symbian stack in favor of Google's Android Linux/Java stack and Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7, it announced today. The news comes after five years selling millions of Linux phones in Asia, and after a year during which many of Motorola's top US phones used the homegrown Linux stack. Motorola's current Linux phones in the US include the RAZR2 v8, E8, EM30, U9, ZN4, and ZN5."
This also comes alongside news that Motorola's financial hardships are causing them to cut 3,000 jobs. It also puts into perspective their recent plans to hire hundreds of Android developers.
[+]
Technology: RIM Accuses Motorola of Blocking Job Offers 353 comments
theodp writes "Taking a page from the insanely-jealous-husband-playbook, Motorola management has adopted an if-I-can't-have-you-nobody-can stance on its fired employees, reportedly blocking RIM from offering jobs to laid-off workers. In a complaint filed in state court, Motorola is charged with improperly trying to expand a previous agreement 'to prevent the RIM entities from hiring any Motorola employees, including the thousands of employees Motorola has already fired or will fire.' Through its Compete America membership, Motorola has repeatedly warned Congress that failing to accommodate the lobbying group members' 'principled' demand for timely access to talent would not be in the United States' economic interest and would make the US second-rate in education and basic research."
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First it was outsourcing... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Is this [blogger.com]your office? I think it's in your best interest to start taking some precautions against those pesky androids...
Re:First it was outsourcing... (Score:5, Funny)
Android developer QQA2504?
Yes master.
Compute the value of pi to the final digit.
Computing...coommmpppuuutttinnggggg...coooooommmmmmmmmmpp...
*POP*
(Feet up on desk). And thus once again job security is ensured.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But... what happens if they actually DO IT? Disproving one of humanities eldest and most important mathematical precepts would just be the start of the revolution...
WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!!1111111
Every digit of pi... (Score:4, Funny)
Compute the value of pi to the final digit.
Easy, it's 10, base pi.
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Re:Every digit of pi... (Score:4, Informative)
Uh, it's been a while since I actually was in math class, but shouldn't it be:
1 base pi
Nope. 1 base X is 1, 10 base X is X, 100 base X is X*X, and so forth. Oh, and 0.1 base X is 1/X.
Many years ago, before the dawning of the age of calculators, I spent hours in school math classes converting numbers to base pi (or e or phi or gamma or other interesting number) by hand. I was one of the first to finish in-class assignments, which left me with lots of time to kill. Did you know that e base pi is approximately 2.20212010021 for instance?
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Ahhh... do no evil (Score:5, Interesting)
This is a clear technicality. They're hiring emotionless androids who will do no evil, but also no good. Simply because they won't know the difference.
From Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five:
"This, too, was the title of a book by Trout, The Gutless Wonder. It was about a robot who had bad breath, who became popular after his halitosis was cured. But what made the story remarkable, since it was written in 1932, was that it predicted the widespread use of burning jellied gasoline on human beings. It was dropped on them from airplanes. Robots did the dropping. They had no conscience, and no circuits which would allow them to imagine what happens to people on the ground. Trout's leading robot looked like a human being, and could talk and dance and so on, and go out with girls. And nobody held it against him that he dropped jellied gasoline on people. But they found his halitosis unforgivable. But then he cleared that up, and he was welcomed to the human race."
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I think your story is about a red herring... /joke
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You joke, but that was a pretty freaky weird headline to someone like me who had no idea what "Android" was. It took me a few seconds to come to the conclusion that "Android" must be some sort of platform or SDK, but before that my brain came up with a few pretty strange scenarios.
Location? (Score:2)
Lemme guess.... Pune?
Re: (Score:2)
Well, according to the job posting linked, Sunnyvale, CA.
Damn! (Score:2, Funny)
This could be very promising. (Score:5, Informative)
Same with Nokia and Qt (Score:3, Interesting)
This just happens when a company buys into an new technology. Same thing is happening with Nokia and Qt right now.
If you look at their job portal (http://nokia.taleo.net/careersection/10120/jobsearch.ftl) for "Qt", you will find that they are hiring people in 46 different Qt-related positions. Those could be well a lot more in total, since some positions will probably awarded to several persons.
Just count yourself lucky that open source related development arrived at the big companies and move along - or apply :-)
Re: (Score:2)
And I'm licking my lips in anticipation of the future Nokia Qt phones. The reason why I haven't got a Nokia smartphone is Symbian. Yes, they work good, have great specs, Nokia even gives away a development environment for them. But it's not Linux.
If I can't have a phone where I can apt-get install whatever I want, create my own applications in kdevelop, then I have no reason to get a smartphone, one of those the phone company gives away will do for me.
Watch out... (Score:3, Funny)
Just watch - they'll want "5 yrs exp." on Android hacking, in the manner of HR ads everywhere, and get only the fakes and posers applying...
Re: (Score:2)
They can hire 10 people with 6 months Android experience instead...
How will Google make money? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How will Google make money? (Score:5, Insightful)
From Google's perspective, if they didn't offer mobile and PC clients (i.e. Chrome) the alternatives are limited, and don't necessarily present Google apps in the best light, (especially if the world otherwise coded for Active-X).
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Re:How will Google make money? (Score:5, Insightful)
Google will make money by having its applications (and thus more chance for advertisement revenue) distributed on as many phones as possible.
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Ad-supported applications (Score:4, Interesting)
Google's Eric Schmidt has stated that they want most consumer (and some business) computing to move to ad-supported revenue.
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TPM on Android? (Score:3, Interesting)
HTC are using the OKL4 kernel on their phones, which is derived from the L4 kernel that provides the trusted computing base for a number of large-scale European projects based around mobile and embedded trust through the TPM.
I wonder what it all means?
Re:Good ol' Motorola (Score:5, Informative)
um... i really don't think their membership was motivated by "pure desperation" considering how many major industry players are a part of the Open Handset Alliance [openhandsetalliance.com]:
not to mention the more well-known members, such as: Spring Nextel, T-Mobile, Intel, Nvidia, Texas Instruments, Google, eBay, LG, and Samsung. given the purpose of the Open Handset Alliance, it wouldn't make sense for Motorola not to be a member. Microsoft and Apple are pretty much the only industry leaders for it not to make sense for them to join the OHA.
if you want to remain a relevant player in the mobile industry, wouldn't it make sense for you to be a part of the organization that is developing the open standards that are going to be used? unless you have an exclusive contract with Microsoft to only use Windows Mobile, or have your own mobile platform like the iPhone, and thus do not require interoperability with any other technologies.
Parent
Re:Thus begins the post-scarcity economy (Score:4, Funny)
> Unless the andriods form a union.
Androids don't unionize; they cluster into 'botnets.'
Parent