open platform

With Android being a semi-open platform, there are some pretty exciting possibilities for creative development to broaden user experience with the OS.

 Pictured above is an example of said creativity in the form of a program that lets you use Android apps right on your PC desktop, Bluestacks. Using some nifty Android emulation inside of a gadget, you can play and run premium Android applications as if your PC was an Android device.

Despite reassurances from Google that it will run Android as an open platform, some fear former partners will become rivals.

We've pointed out a few times that The Guardian newspaper in the UK is not just a believer in the value of keeping its content free online, but is also doing a lot of very interesting experiments.

As we hear daily about newspapers and organizations like the Associated Press threatening to sue blogs that repost some of their content (even for commentary purposes), The Guardian is going in the completely opposite direction.

ItRunsOnLinux: "At the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco (USA), several leading industry players announced the development of Google TV – an open platform that merges the web and TV.

It will be based on the Linux based Android platform and runs the Google Chrome web browser."

Linux Magazine: "The platform that has defined “cool” for years has not had a reputation for being an open platform, but that hasn’t discouraged a number of open source projects for iPhone/iPod Touch."

The platform that has defined "cool" for years has not had a reputation for being an open platform, but that hasn't discouraged a number of open source projects for iPhone/iPod Touch.