Of the many things HTC announced this year better support for the developer community was one of the most interesting. This would come in the form of web portal, complete with all the resources needed to work with their devices. This promise came alongside their agreement to offer users tools to unlock their bootloaders, an issue that caused significant controversy within the modder community. Today, that promise has come true with the website HTCDev.com. HTC touts the website as being a “central, online location to host content while also serving as an outlet for developer engagement and growth”, so we decided to take a quick look at their initial offerings.HTCDev.com is, at first glance, everything you could ever want from HTC if you are a developer, modder, hacker, or just mobile geek. The very first things you see on the website are the three big items the community has been clamoring for: great big buttons for Open Sense SDK, Unlock Bootloader, and Kernel Source code. The homepage also has links to upcoming developer events, as well as quick access to site resources and a link to HTCPro, the service offered by HTC for enterprise solutions management, app development, and educational tools for developers participating in the enterprise arena. HTC had some pretty large targets to hit based on the promises made earlier in the year, and the homepage of HTCDev.com seems to address each of them pretty clearly.
Open Sense SDK
As pretty as HTC’s SenseUI is, and clearly the favorite of all the Android UI “enhancements”, developers have been routinely frustrated with trying to interact with it. While workarounds have been discovered, recent popular devices like the HTC Flyer and the HTC EVO 3D use some pretty custom hardware compared to your run-of-the-mill phone or tablet.
The Flyer has been widely hailed as one of the best Android tablets, but significantly hindered by the fact that no one can include support for the impressive Scribe pen in their apps. The same goes for the EVO 3D–what good is a cool 3D phone if you can’t make 3D apps to support it? The Open Sense SDK has been made to fix this, by providing support for these proprietary pieces of hardware in an open source software developers kit. Also included in this SDK is the “common controls API”, allowing developers make the menus in their apps look and feel like the rest of the phone.
Unlock Bootloader
This little bit comes at less of a surprise to those who have been following HTC’s Facebook page. While not yet active, HTC plans to make this button deliver a web tool that will grant your device the ability to unlock the bootloader. This is a vital part of the process of installing custom OS’ on your phone, but if you use HTC’s tool, there’s a catch. Unlocking your bootloader the HTC way will probably be quick, but the second you hit submit your sub $600-800 smartphone no longer has a manufacturers warranty. On top of that, you’re required to log some personal information, such as an email address and your name, in order to have access to the tool.
This tool hasn’t been met with the roaring applause that HTC was hoping for when they first announced that “they were listening”, but at this point all parties involved seem to have agreed to move on. Personally, I find that HTC acknowledged, responded, and took action is stunning evidence of just how large and how loud the Android modder community is, and what they are capable of.
Kernel Source Code
It seems like this is a repository of every HTC device running Android since the HTC Dream (G1) with download links for the kernel code of each of these devices, up to and including their brand new HTC ChaCha (Status on AT&T). Much of this had already been available, just buried in a difficult to navigate and graphically unsatisfying webpage at HTC. HTC assures us that this page will be kept up to date at all times, and new Source will arrive on this page as per GPL requirements. There’s s simple download link for each of the devices, and clicking the link presents you with either a Liscense Agreement in the case of the HTC Desire manual update, or just begins the download of a tar.gz file. These Kernels are incomplete, meaning they can’t compile in their current state, as they are missing the HTC proprietary bits.
Access and Final Notes
All of this is just what you can access by just travelling to the website. If you have registered on the website and login, you are presented with a whole different world that HTC has assembled for the developer community. Rather, that’s what I expected when I filled out the registration form and created an account. Once I logged in, though, the site looked exactly the same, and I didn’t have any additional access to forums or anything like that, which I kind of expected since HTC described the site as being “an outlet for developer engagement and growth”, but its possible those are simply features that will be “coming soon”.
As pretty as HTC’s SenseUI is, and clearly the favorite of all the Android UI “enhancements”, developers have been routinely frustrated with trying to interact with it. While workarounds have been discovered, recent popular devices like the HTC Flyer and the HTC EVO 3D use some pretty custom hardware compared to your run-of-the-mill phone or tablet.
The Flyer has been widely hailed as one of the best Android tablets, but significantly hindered by the fact that no one can include support for the impressive Scribe pen in their apps. The same goes for the EVO 3D–what good is a cool 3D phone if you can’t make 3D apps to support it? The Open Sense SDK has been made to fix this, by providing support for these proprietary pieces of hardware in an open source software developers kit. Also included in this SDK is the “common controls API”, allowing developers make the menus in their apps look and feel like the rest of the phone.
Unlock Bootloader
This little bit comes at less of a surprise to those who have been following HTC’s Facebook page. While not yet active, HTC plans to make this button deliver a web tool that will grant your device the ability to unlock the bootloader. This is a vital part of the process of installing custom OS’ on your phone, but if you use HTC’s tool, there’s a catch. Unlocking your bootloader the HTC way will probably be quick, but the second you hit submit your sub $600-800 smartphone no longer has a manufacturers warranty. On top of that, you’re required to log some personal information, such as an email address and your name, in order to have access to the tool.
This tool hasn’t been met with the roaring applause that HTC was hoping for when they first announced that “they were listening”, but at this point all parties involved seem to have agreed to move on. Personally, I find that HTC acknowledged, responded, and took action is stunning evidence of just how large and how loud the Android modder community is, and what they are capable of.
Kernel Source Code
It seems like this is a repository of every HTC device running Android since the HTC Dream (G1) with download links for the kernel code of each of these devices, up to and including their brand new HTC ChaCha (Status on AT&T). Much of this had already been available, just buried in a difficult to navigate and graphically unsatisfying webpage at HTC. HTC assures us that this page will be kept up to date at all times, and new Source will arrive on this page as per GPL requirements. There’s s simple download link for each of the devices, and clicking the link presents you with either a Liscense Agreement in the case of the HTC Desire manual update, or just begins the download of a tar.gz file. These Kernels are incomplete, meaning they can’t compile in their current state, as they are missing the HTC proprietary bits.
Access and Final Notes
All of this is just what you can access by just travelling to the website. If you have registered on the website and login, you are presented with a whole different world that HTC has assembled for the developer community. Rather, that’s what I expected when I filled out the registration form and created an account. Once I logged in, though, the site looked exactly the same, and I didn’t have any additional access to forums or anything like that, which I kind of expected since HTC described the site as being “an outlet for developer engagement and growth”, but its possible those are simply features that will be “coming soon”.
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