Last week Brian wrote about the loud rumor buzz concerning the first Android phone allegedly heading to T-Mobile. Now comes word another milestone has been reached with a new release of the Android SDK. Android is the product of the Open Handset Alliance--a consortium of 30 plus technology companies. That being said, it's like the "Coalition of the Willing" in Iraq. There are lots of names, but no one thinks of any participant beside Google.

Let's define terms. Android is "the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices." Whatever's in your cellphone now is probably proprietary. That's how Steve Jobs gets to supervise a "kill switch" in your iPhone without asking your permission. Android is "a fully integrated mobile "software stack" that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications." More importantly, it's open source.

SDK stands for "Software Development Kit," sometimes called a "devkit." This is a set of tools which allow programmers to create applications for Android phones even though the phones don't currently exist! There are devkits from lots of companies. Unlike Android, they usually have myriad restrictions. It's not that Android's SDK is restriction free--just less restrictive.

Monday's SDK release brings Android to version 0.9. That's usually (not always) the last step before a version 1.0 and a sign that further SDK changes will be less frequent and less radical. With this release comes:

First and most obviously, the new Home screen is included, along with a ton of UI changes for 1.0.
Some new applications are included: an Alarm Clock, Calculator, Camera, Music player, Picture viewer, and Messaging (for SMS/MMS conversations.)
Several new development tools were added, such as a graphical preview for XML layouts for users of Eclipse, and a tool for constructing 9-patch images.
Since we've got a new Home screen application now, we thought the now-obsolete version from the M5 early-look SDK might be helpful to developers, so its source is included as a sample.
A number of new APIs are fleshed out and improved, and others are now close to their final forms for 1.0.
Tons of bugs were fixed, of course. (If you had problems with the MediaPlayer, try it now!)

There has been a significant amount of grousing in the dev community recently that Android was neither friendly nor forthcoming. This SDK revision should go a long way toward quieting that. And, if the promised T-Mobile phone seems like a worthy iPhone competitor look for the developmental flood gates to open. The days of your cellphone being just what the carrier wants and nothing more may be coming to an end.