The Android Open Source Project, a project aimed to expand the Android source code for developers for free, aims to distribute, establish and expand the platform to everybody.
Android, being the most popular mobile operating system with around 3.6 billion users worldwide, is a compelling operating system for mobile distributors (OEMs), and hobbyist developers, like James Gatt, a first year student in Computer Engineering in the University of Malta to make use of.
Background
James, a previous speaker at droidcon Berlin in 2022, developed his interest in the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) with custom ROM projects and device maintaining with the aim to keep using his older devices, which run out of support (beyond their "End of Life"), with the purpose to reduce e-waste.
James, with many opportunities to share his story with his projects in AOSP, initiated his journey in public conference speaking with GDG Malta's Google I/O Extended in 2022, where James delivered his first ever conference talk, "Android is open source, what does that mean for us" in 10 minutes.
Following this, James had the opportunity to take the international stage with droidcon Berlin 2022 and AndroidWorldwide October 2022.
It was time for a new idea
Call for speakers at droidcon Berlin 2023, which had just opened in February 2023, and James had to brainstorm a new talk for this year's event. Taking inspiration from the popular franchise, James Bond, James started writing down ideas for his new talk "Code AOSP: No time to EOL".
EOL, standing for End of Life is a popular term used with Android devices, for when a device is no longer supported and runs out of support. In this case, this situation is problematic for Agent Gatt, who works in an agent industry with his Google Pixel 2 XL, which lost support beyond December 2020. Having a restrictive budget, buying a new phone is out of the question, so surely there must be another way to still get the latest security updates, feature drops, and API levels for app support, right?
In this year's talk, James describes how he managed to get his 2017 phone up to date to the latest version in an easy to follow procedure to unlock your bootloader and sideload a custom ROM. Shortly after this mission's completion, James' talk was accepted for this year's event and James was on his way to CityCube Berlin, droidcon Berlin's conference venue!
Official banner for event
Opportunity to network with speakers
Prior to the event's first day, droidcon and fluttercon, invite all speakers to join the Speakers party in the opportunity to network with other speakers from the event at the Wolt Enterprise in Berlin. James said it was a very friendly and informal way to get to know new people from different backgrounds and expertise.
Amongst many fluttercon and droidcon speakers, Thomas KĂĽnneth, a Google Developer Expert at Snapp Mobile, who has been in touch with James since 2022, had finally met James in person for the first time!
Day 1
The first day of droidcon, James was able to pick out some interesting booths from the sponsors of the event, most interestingly being BMW Group and Paradox Cat, showcasing their Android Automotive projects with a fully functioning car in CityCube.
BMW cars on showcase
On day 1, James followed four talks of his interest:
Showing interest, James was able to learn a lot about rotary controllers, used in vehicles and machineries, automotive design, feature teams and even custom launchers!
Taha Malas
BMW talk
Danny Preussler
Day 2
On Day 2, James was intrigued by more talks of his interest which were:
- The New Modern Data Persistence on Android - Meet Jetpack Datastore by Madona Wambua
- 5 Easy steps to build a Compose API by Jossi Wolf
- Practical ADB usage to enhance your life! by Benjamin Kadel
- Build a Highly Customizable Theming Engine for Android Automotive using Jetpack Compose by Francisco Franco and Casper Kessels
- From Messy to Tidy: A Practical Guide to Writing Clean Kotlin Code by Jarosław Michalik
Day 2 proved to show the diversity of the speaker lineup from using ADB, customising the feel of Android Automotive OS, writing clean code in Kotlin via Jetpack compose, and APIs, there was a talk for every slot in the agenda!
Madona Wambua
Jossi Wolf
Benjamin Kadel
Snapp Automotive
Jaroslaw Michalik
Day 3
In the final slot in the agenda, James delivered his talk entitled "Code AOSP: No time to EOL".
Prior to that, James had time to listen to two talks:
Julien Salvi
From Users to Maintainers - Tales from the Open Source World by Nicola, cketti, Arnaud and Louis
Prior to James' talk, a few attendees from droidcon Berlin 2022, met James to support him throughout his final preparations for his talk. James told Newspoint that for this talk, James didn't prepare any script for this talk, instead he used his experience from his projects to adapt to the slides of his presentation. Once the stage preparations were complete, an audience of around 200 attendees were seated in the Liskov room to follow the talk.
James' Talk
After the 40 minute session presentation, attendees from the talk remained for questions, and as a sign of appreciation. James states that the continuous support and connection with the Android community is the reason why he feels the need to keep attending this conference on a yearly basis.
What's next for James?
After yet another amazing 3 day conference, James feels that droidcon Berlin 2024 is on his agenda if he is able to make it.
James plans on presenting this same talk in a future AndroidWorldwide
If you would like to hear James' talk, it will be uploaded on droidcon's website later this summer, or you can take a look at it now on James' YouTube channel!
Please note
Tampering with your device’s firmware and/or bootloader will void your warranty. Ensure that any of the software utilised is coming from a reputable source/developer before installing, making sure to follow the instructions given in a careful manner. Check with your device/s’ manufacturer regarding your warranty before proceeding. We are not responsible for any liabilities / damages caused to your device/s.
