Google Announces Android Things Developers Preview 6
Almost like clockwork, Google’s released a developer preview for Android Things, its Internet of Things (IoT) platform, every couple of months. Each new version fixes bugs, adds new features, and generally improves the performance of projects built on it. On Friday, the company announced the newest: Android Things Developer Preview 6.
For the uninitiated, Android Things (formerly Brillo) is a lightweight operating system (OS) designed for home automation. It lays the foundation for Weave, a communication layer that allows smart home devices to communicate with each other regardless of whether or not they run the same OS. Google sees it as something of a solution to the fragmented smart home industry, where incompatible standards like Z-Wave, Z-Wave, and Bluetooth compete for market dominance.
Following on the heels of improved Chromecast integration, Android Things Developer Preview 6 adds an IoT launcher, new graphics acceleration defaults, and a command-line flashing tool. It’s based on the latest Android 8.1 Oreo Developer Preview, and it fully supports the newest Android API Level — Level 27 — and version 11.6 of the Google Play Services software development kit (SDK).
Android Things Developer Preview 6 also makes changes to the Android Things Console, which was released in June of this year. There’s a new partition scheme, a revamped user interface, and a safeguard that prevents you from compiling applications for older builds. On the hardware side of things, the OS now includes GPIO pin naming — the IoT launcher shows an I/O pinout at boot that exposes the labels of the individual pins.
That’s just scratching the surface. Google goes into more detail about Android Things Developer Preview 6 on the Android Developer Blog, so if you’re interested, you’ll definitely want to give it a read.
Source: Android Developers Blog
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