Google has released the latest developer preview of their IoT platform, Android Things today with Dev Preview 5 now available.
The major change is the move to Android O as the basis for Android Things, a decent update for the platform with previous versions based on Android N says Google Developer Advocate Wayne Piekarski. The change to Android O allows developers to target API level 26 and their additional support libraries for future applications for the platform.
Included in Dev Preview 5 is support for the new NXP SprIoT i.MX6UL developer board, while removing support for the now discontinued Intel Edison and Joule hardware designs. The Edison and Joule hardware will continue to be able to access the Android Things 4.1 system images, with no future support for Dev Preview 5. Google is also looking to support scalable production ready hardware, while still allowing developers to play with prototype boards as well.
Tinkerers using the Raspberry Pi 3 will also find that Android Things Dev Preview 5 also now supports OpenGL ES 2.0 and WebView, a much requested feature.
Google has updates the newly launched Android Things Developer Console, but won’t be pushing updates automatically. Instead, developers can choose to update their devices at will.
As usual there are bound to be a number of bugs included in this preview, if you find any, report them, or request features if you find there’s something you want but still isn’t included.
