Good question, and yes. The NDK has been available for Android circa v2.0 and beyond. Most Android games are coded in C/C++ as I understand it. In fact I believe it was game developers that persuaded this functionality.

I'm quite certain that GNU standard toolkits are not supported, but I suppose you can install any shared libs you deem useful, or statically compile the functionality into your code. The downside is that you have to be mindful of the Google Market size restrictions. Then again, Gameloft has gotten around this via their own app store.

The reviews are coming out. Here is Joshua Topolsky's

http://thisismynext.com/2011/04/13/b...aybook-review/

I find this product and RIM's defence of it to be very weird.

http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/04/1...-core-element/
"Among the major criticisms from reviewers was the lack of a native email client for the PlayBook — a strange omission from the company that made its name on secure email.

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said that people are “overplaying one aspect that really isn’t a core element that we’ve seen from our enterprise customers or webmail people.”

Did RIM’s CEO just say that email isn’t a core element of the BlackBerry PlayBook?"

and as regards its available software application range

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...pproaches.html
"Some critics suggested RIM rushed an unfinished device to market, a charge Balsillie refutes.

“I don’t think that’s fair,” said Balsillie, 50, in a television interview with Bloomberg News yesterday, pointing out that more than 60 million BlackBerry smartphone users can pair their phones and PlayBooks to read e-mail and connect to the Internet. “A lot of the people that want this want a secure and free extension of their BlackBerry.” "

I think I get it now, you need to be an existing Blackberry user and advocate in order to get real benefit from the Play Book. Otherwise it is a case of nice hardware but then what?

This is a great shame to have to write this device off as an option - for the foreseeable future anyway. We need to have a wide choice in the 7" tablet space and why would someone like me, not a Blackberry fan, want to buy this?

It is not surprising that RIM execs are being touchily defensive, witness the recent BBC walkout debacle. This is a company that is looking to the future with trepidation and is uncomfortably aware that it is losing its touch and floundering in trying to get it back.

Yes it has but read through the comments by the very developers that RIM needs to convince, and they do not appear to be particularly satisfied.

Although I have never been drawn to RIM's mobile phone products, personally I want to see a company of RIM's undoubted quality succeed and to produce a product that I want to own. So this is being written with a strong sense of disappointed expectations.

I think it pairs with phones other than Blackberries - you only need to pair with a Blackberry if you want to get that nice BB email experience.

I am looking at it as a possible replacement of my N8x0. Many of the deficiencies people are pointing to (not a standalone device, louse email support, incomplete software) are deficiencies I lived with before to get the right form factor. What I want (best-of-class browser, best audio playback, very good video plawback) is there.

So this will be interesting product to watch.

We share the experience of being N800 owners but we differ in our reaction to that experience.

I don't forgive Nokia for requiring me to live with deficiencies and I refuse to permit any company to do that do me again.

At that time the N800 was a unique product so what choice did i have? But now that is not so, 7" tablets are becoming more and more ubiquituous so, given choice, why would I pay for a device with such glaring deficiencies.

I agree it will be interesting to watch.

"said Balsillie. “It’s something we can run with a long, long time into the future."
But in the meantime it will be a long long time into the future before I part with my cash for it.

interesting comments here.

after using is for about 1 hour...there really isnt to much to it yet...it will efectively, for me, replace taking my booklet 3g around for presentations as it has all the office procucts pre-installed...so connecting to a projector will be easy...

i do not play games on the device...so no worries there,

the email think is bothersome, but i remember reading somewhere that that would be fixed in an update some time towards the summer...so i can go online to the email login...just fine...or continue with my n900.

the web-browser was the most important...i hate other platforms needing to use apps for everything killing the web experience...this is a fully working browser giving the same experience as my pc.

the multi-tasking is superior

the ux is simple and easy to figure out

I like using Ubuntu (and LXDE) and Windows 7 ... there is a very nice familiarity with that user interface. But I agree that it is not so finger friendly.

The iPad2 is an atrocity considering how dumbbed down the user interface is. This is not a large phone, this is meant to be a mobile computer (think laptop) where the primary input is via finger touch.

CM7 on tablets (Nook) looks decent but really is a large phone. It doesn't make it feel like a mobile computer as I would wish.

The Honeycomb UI tries to pack more than the iPad, which I applause. But it does it in a very awkward and confusing way... it really isn't intuitive or helpful for novice users. More importantly, it isn't built for quick navigation/usage as I would have hoped.

I can't remember the Touchpad's user interface ... ... I'll try to see some videos.

SO far, the RIM Playbook has the best tablet interface because it does real multitasking and switching between running applications is a breeze. Opening new ones are relatively easy too. Its a great blend of the two.

I wonder if an Android custom rom (CM8?) can be built that implements a "app switching" just like maemo (or even like the playbook). And one that can help stack two open applications side-by-side (like the Kyocera Echo). As well as support closing apps by holding the back button (not just pausing them=wasted ram) and run apps in the background instead of just pausing them.... comon I'm not eleven, I want to be able to harness the power inside.

The technology's there: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/20/i...i-for-android/
Even this is better than the iPad's UI: http://www.meegoexperts.com/2011/04/...-beijing-2011/

I'm pretty sure it can be. It would need to listen for touch events (in the background) that originate at the very edge, then provide an animation of transition between windows, as well as to switch UI contexts.

Another thing that might work, is a four finger gesture, to zoom out all running apps for a quick tap to select what you want. This is pretty common for desktop UIs and I think I would prefer it to cycling through a bunch of apps, especially considering that Android apps don't close like traditional apps do -- there is no user requirement to close an Android application.

In either of these schemes, though, you're going to be utilizing at least the same amount of clicks to get to what you're looking for. In fact, with the swipe-to-select, you can use far more on average.

The HC way of app selection is not terribly pretty, but it is very functional, and requires very little brains to understand how it works. It could have been implemented a little prettier, though.

I keep thinking about the 4-finger swipe ... but then I realize it can severely limit the device.

On a large (10") size, there are possibilities for some "fun" games that implements four players (like 4 player reactor) ... and if all four swipe in the same time it could accidentally trigger the app-pane and kill the buzz.
And that's one example, think of how many other things could possibly be limited.

I think a better management could be to smartly assign secondary functions to the "Android buttons". From left to right, we can have Back, Home, Menu.
Hit Back and it goes back a page/watever inside the App. However hold on it for 1.5seconds and it should kill the app (no ram wasting) and get you on the Home screen (MIUI Style).
Hit Home and it gets you back to the Home screen (MIUI Style). However, hold the Home button then it gets you to a listing of all the Apps you opened (background tasks stay hidden) just like in Maemo.
And then when you hit Menu it will open that App's contextual Menu, and it will also make the status bar appear if it was hidden (eg if your watching a video, hit Menu quickly see the time in notifbar, hit Menu again to hide it).
When you hold the Menu bar, it again brings the notification bar, but it should trigger the Search function, so the text box is also activated on the top, and the onscreen keyboard appears. Now this Search will only search through the app (ie a keyword in a message if your in sms) but you should have a little button on the side of the text box which opens a list for you to search (within the App, within the phone, Google Search, Maps etc).

Now this is dependent on the device to have the three buttons on the bezel. If they are missing then the same concept applies, except the notification bar becomes much thicker (Touch friendly) and it incorporates the "Android buttons". And so the Satus bar in the slate would need to be always on (like 100%) and placed on the left edge when in andscape mode, looking like this:
____
[l___] <Tablet
^Status bar

" 'Why RIM chose to ship the PlayBook in such a state is unfathomable"

http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-te...d-unusable-534