Any plans for Moto Droid or other Android phones ?

[nerdrunner]

Since the new Moto Droid runs on the open source Android OS, I would imagine that porting the top levels of Rockbox would be straightforward.

The Droid supports USB & uSD cards up to 32GB, as well as 3.5mm wired headsets and Bluetooth headsets.

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Also, has anyone looked at the Garmin phone's mp3 capabilities?

[saratoga]

See http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/NewPort

However, as most people would probably not want to give up the ability to make phone calls, you'd probably want to port rockbox as an application in andriod, which would be quite a lot of work.

[psycho_maniac]

i dont understand......rockbox is usually on mp3 players. why would you want to port it to a phone? this is just like the port that is wanted to make rockbox an app on winmo phones.

[Davide-NYC]

CODECs. It's all about codecs.
I use my palm pre for all of my playback needs but it only reads limited codecs.
It would be absolutely incredible (and unlikely) to have Rockbox as an app on a mobile platform like WinMo or (better) Android or WebOS.
For context: I use my rockbox target (H1x0) primarily for recording.
Cheers.

[Sportster]

Running it as a app would be a great idea. What the Droid needs badly is a EQ. I've got quite a bit of music on mine and love RB on my iPod but am finding I'm using the Droid alot more now than the Pod, mainly just because of convenience. It's always with me. But what it lacks terribly is the ability to adjust sound at all. No treble,bass...nothing! So the biggest reason to Rockbox the Droid is it NEEDS it!! Oh,and the key thing is...did I mention I'd be willing to pay for this? And believe me...I'm not alone. There's alot of folks out there searching for a working EQ setup for their phones. Porting RB as a resident App that would work with Pandora/Slacker/3 the music player,etc......that would be the ticket!!!!

[Llorean]

Google sponsors summer of code, which comes out to something like USD4500 for students working on open source projects.

We've been accepted to it a few times in the past already, and had students work on things. $4500 has not been enough to get someone willing to complete this project.

I mean no offense, but when you say "there's a lot of us willing to pay" it can seem to say a lot of things. Some people won't take it seriously, some people will look at it and think "yeah, but not enough" and some will see it and think "well, now I'm offended - I put in plenty of hours of my own time, but since I've already done my share of the work, nobody's offering to give *me* money."

Just sayin', be careful when you talk about "paying" for such a thing. Generally most of the existing devs would rather see you donate for what's already been done out of thanks, rather than saying "I'm not giving money until you meet my needs, and then only to the person who takes the last steps and stands on the shoulders of the rest of the giants here."


Rockbox as an app is going to happen when someone really dedicated to the idea puts in a lot of work, and that generally comes from someone who wants it done for personal reasons beyond just money.

[gottahavit]

While it is possible to port rockbox to a desktop or winmo app, it's much more effort and while I never say impossible, nearly impossible on android.

On winmo you can compile native C/C++ app, but on android that option is EXTREMELY limited at the moment.  Porting the entire thing to Java and the android API would be an icredible amount of work.  That doesn't even acknowledge the need for processor optimized assembly code for power conservation.

On winmo you can create custom DirectShow Codecs for many of the players or just cusotm plugins for a lot of the rest, again Android doesn't really allow for the development of custom 3rd party codecs without writing a custom version of the OS, and flashing your phone.

Even for winmo you're better off just porting the codecs you want to the player you want as this would be far simpler than creating a user friendly version of rockbox for a phone or desktop.

For Winmo there are not may audio codecs that are not supported by one or more players out there already.

and yes if you are really looking to convince a pro developer to code something they have little to no interest in then $4500 won't get you much.  You are right on that most of these applications get coded because someone had an interest AND the skills.

[saratoga]

On winmo you can compile native C/C++ app, but on android that option is EXTREMELY limited at the moment.  Porting the entire thing to Java and the android API would be an icredible amount of work.  That doesn't even acknowledge the need for processor optimized assembly code for power conservation.

Whats wrong with the current SDL libraries for Android?

[gottahavit]

I don't claim to be an android developer, last time I looked(when the droid came out) the only supported way to code C/C++ on the android(at least for the phones) was use the NDK which does not allow full c/C++ app development and due to the jump back and forth from Java to native is rarley of any real value in development on applications like this.

If someone has managed to get SDL ported to android phones successfully then that is great news for android developers.
Is this built in or some homebrew port?

This was the main reason I avoided android for my latest phone(that and I expect more integration with my PC).  I can code just about anything I need for my WinMo phone and didn't want to lose that.

[saratoga]

I don't claim to be an android developer, last time I looked(when the droid came out) the only supported way to code C/C++ on the android(at least for the phones) was use the NDK which does not allow full c/C++ app development and due to the jump back and forth from Java to native is rarley of any real value in development on applications like this.

If someone has managed to get SDL ported to android phones successfully then that is great news for android developers.
Is this built in or some homebrew port?

If you haven't looked into this in a few years then you're probably a little out of date.  SDL has been available for native c applications on android for a while now.  It does audio, video and simple controls, apparently well enough for some games to be ported.  Not sure how much JNI is really needed, but thats also an option (SCUMMVM uses it).