wawi

The OpenMoko project sort of fizzog'ed, but you can get a good kick out of the OpenPandora (and new: OpenPyra) projects, which the GTA04/neo guys have helped along a bit, I think ..

http://openpandora.org/

Time of entry is the canonical index.

I don't personally think this can be blamed on Linux - Audio works on Linux as well as OSX does, when the hardware is selected and configured, as it is on OSX. Linux has alternative and competing - and thriving - audio subsystems, and this means that systems integration has to pay attention to what its doing. This didn't happen in Androids' case; where other Linux distros had rock-solid and professional-quality audio subsystems and software integration, Android had an NIH implementation that ended up having to re-invent the wheel, to boot.

It is really an interesting aspect of the whole Android versus iOS "war", that indeed Google did not up-front plan to make the OS actually useful for realtime Audio/synthesis/processing; but instead, Android has had more of a 'data-center'-like design, wherein the kernel and its onboard assets is more of a 'managed host' than it is 'realtime embedded' sort of system ..

That the Android designers are having to play catchup with this speaks a lot, I think, of how significant design-decisions were influenced by the territory from which the originated - the web, managed systems - and the realm which they hoped to capture - the embedded system in your pocket. Android was not designed up-front to be an amazing media system; iOS, was. Thus, iOS has more synth-plugins and a vibrant, thriving Audio-Application eco-system (seriously, its million-dollar) whereas Android has a lot of new players, but so far: not such a great playground, really, for "Musicians".

In fact, while iOS has really impinged upon the Music-Instrument (Digital) industry, Android has yet to make a dent.

So it is an interesting time to be having new solutions to what have been, relatively, frustrating and troublesome aspects of Android realtime Audio, as a developer.

On the one hand, I wish to concede defeat in this argument, that indeed this is a very British argument being made, one that is, essentially, "an excuse for class", whereby a subject requiring high-order adept facilities is available only to "a select few", 'because class system'.

On the other hand, beyond the borders of the colonial-imperial mindset, we have kids in the slums who - precisely because they were not given the 'golden ticket' of opportunity presented to a select few - had to actually .. you know .. do the work of becoming a very good developer.

Good developers are not limited by class.

(disclaimer; have lived and worked with many good developers around the world, and it has nothing to do with education and everything to do with spirit..)