Twitter, a micro-blogging super site, has recently released a newly acquired security software for its Android platform. The new software is an open source platform that allows people to freely use, share and expand their thoughts on the site. The software, TextSecure, was developed by Whisper Systems. The new software works by encrypting each text message before they are sent to their respective recipients, thus adding an extra layer of protection for its users. Considering the fact that Twitter is among the widely used social networking sites in the world, it will sure give its users the confidence they need that their tweets will not be accessed by the wrong hands.

Apart from being used by mere individuals, there are also a number of businesses that use Twitter as part of its efforts in bridging their gap with their consumers. Knowing that the new software has this extra layer of protection, they sure can appreciate it more. And also because the app is now an open source software, these businesses will have a better way of marketing themselves in a more personal note.

Even though Android is also an open source program, it did not integrate the Twitter app into its website. Typically, companies who buy good software tend to pull it from their rival systems so they can attract more customers. But in this case, there is no direct benefit, except for a better reputation.

Many feel that this new step taken by Twitter is an initiation of being more than just a social networking site. People feel that the company is turning itself into a software company highly influenced by so many digital markets.

 ‘We’ve always been interested in the ability for individuals and organizations to communicate freely and securely. In the year and a half since Whisper Systems launched TextSecure, we’ve received an enormous amount of thanks, feedback, and encouraging stories from users who have employed TextSecure towards those ends. We hope that as an open source project, TextSecure will be able to reach even more people, with an even larger number of contributors working to make it a great product.’ said the team behind Whisper Systems.

It sure looks like the company has future plans of turning its other software programs into open source too. As they mentioned, they are planning to open source their code in an ‘iterative fashion.’ The only thing delaying this from actually happening is the many legal requirements they need to submit.

Twitter is just one of the many free and paid applications that allow people to encrypt files and manage their own passwords on their Android devices.

To get TextSecure source code, click here.

[Source: ZD Net]

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Android’s rapid growth can be contrasted with the weak performance of the iOS, which is down 20.8 percent from 28 percent in 2010. This can be blamed on the fact that no iPhone has been released recently. Apple’s annual cycle of booming when an iPhone is released gives it no staying power compared to Android.

Another factor to this growth is the breadth and quality of Android software and hardware that has been released this year. The Galaxy S2 and HTC Sensation can be favorably compared to the iPhone and both have stunning implementations of the OS and hardware which give Apple’s offering a run for its money.

The other factor is that Android can be found in more than just one product. A fantastic array of Android phones are available for cheap via packages from carriers and they have the latest software and can handle some of the things that the more expensive smartphones can do, like the lower-end Galaxy handsets and HTC’s Wildfire S.

Android dominance may take a hit though when the iPhone 5 is released. Another threat is the iPhone 4S, the budget version of the current iPhone, which can steal quite a bit of market share because of its knockdown prices.

However, Android’s open and cheap nature lets it find niches in the mobile market that other operating systems can’t get to. This means Android can be a pretty hard OS to beat when it comes to dominating the market.

Source: uSwitch.com

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This is pretty significant as it opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities for the platform and mobile computing in general. Android can now be easily ported to anything, from phones to GPS receivers, to in-car entertainment systems as well as other funky things nobody has thought of yet. It also allows companies to stop re-inventing the OS wheel and focus on building better hardware.

As long as Google can keep the project together, avoiding too many forks, everybody will win. Being open is Android’s killer feature and is why it will be remembered as a milestone in mobile computing.

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3. WebViews app source added to Apps-for-Android

Karl Rosaen over at the Android Developers Blog has posted about a new game he recently wrote and added to the open source apps-for-android project. Called Divide and Conquer, the game is based on the same premise as the old JezzBall game you might have played when you were younger: you navigate/draw a line to separate a bunch of bouncing balls without letting a ball touch the line as it is being drawn.

It’s no first person shooter or anything, but the source code might provide budding developers with some insight. You can download the source from the apps-for-android project here.

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The guys over at the Android Developers Blog have posted a new open source sample application for would-be Android developers to examine. Called Photostream, the application is basically a client for viewing pictures from the Flickr.com photo site.

The sample application source code demonstrates some basic programming methods for adding shortcuts to an Android smartphone’s home screen, the use of themes, and how to use the HttpClient class to connect to remote web servers, as well as demonstrating the use of animations and basic image manipulation.

The Apps for Android project doesn’t actually provide a link to the Photostream source code as of the moment I am writing this, but I figure it will appear soon since the developers blog has said to look for it there.

You’ll find more screen shots of Photostream below.

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So at least part of the edge in cost that Android would have had over the other smartphone operating systems on the market will disappear. Luckily for Android, though, while popular, the Symbian OS is often thought to be relatively difficult to develop for, which provides Android with a bit of an opportunity.

You can read more about today’s purchase of Symbian by Nokia at our parent site, MobileBurn.com.

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1. Google’s (semi-)open source plans for Android drawing criticism

Andy Rubin – Credit: Stephen Shankland, CNETNews.com

CNET has posted a lengthy look at how Google is dealing with the open source aspects of the Android platform, and how some open source advocates are less than pleased with Google’s actions so far. Google’s approach seems to be to develop everything in-house first, under controlled conditions, and then to release much of the code to the open source community once it is ready.

Andy Rubin, Google’s man heading the Android development project, said that about 8.6 million of 11 million total lines of code that make up Android will be made open source. CNET points out that the current Linux kernel is made up of roughly 8 million lines of code itself, so that seems to imply that most of the open source code in Android is likely to be from the kernel that is already freely available.

Another item that is causing Google to take some heat is its decision not to use the very popular GNU General Public License (GPL) for Android. Instead Google has gone with the Apache License, which will allow hardware manufacturers to keep any code they develop themselves strictly proprietary, whereas GPL would have required that all derivative works be given back to the community. As such, any UI extensions or applications developed by Samsung, as the story suggests, would not have to be made freely available to Samsung’s rival LG.

The article is lengthy, but certainly worth a read.

[via AndroidGuys]

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