ANDROID

OPERATING SYSTEM
Introduction
Android is a mobile operating system (OS) currently developed by Google,
based on the Linux kernel and designed primarily for touch screen mobile
devices such as smart phones and tablets. Android's user interface is mainly
based on direct manipulation, using touch gestures that loosely correspond
to real-world actions, such as swiping, tapping and pinching, to manipulate
on-screen objects, along with a virtual keyboard for text input.

History

Android, Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California in October 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears
and Chris White to develop, in Rubin's words, "smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its
owner's location and preferences". The early intentions of the company were to develop an advanced
operating system for digital cameras. Though, when it was realized that the market for the devices was
not large enough, the company diverted its efforts toward producing a smart phone operating system
that would rival Microsoft Windows Mobile.

Android has the largest installed base of all operating systems of any kind. That company was
subsequently acquired by Google in 2005. The development of the Android OS was a result of the
consortium of the initial members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) such as Google, HTC, Dell, Intel,
Motorola, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung, LG, T-Mobile, Nvidia, and Wind River Systems back in
November of 2007. The OHA is a business alliance of hardware, software and telecom companies
dedicated to advance the cause of open sourcing for mobile phones.

Based on the modified version of the Linux kernel version 2.6, the Android code was released by Google
under the Apache license which is also a free software and open source license.

Why Android?
Categories of Android Application
There are many android applications in the market. The top categories are:

Android Features

Following are some of the features of android:

Feature Description
Connectivity GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LTE, NFC and WiMAX.
Storage SQLite, a lightweight relational database, is used for data storage purposes.
H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB, AAC, HE-AAC, AAC 5.1, MP3, MIDI, WAV,
Media support
JPEG, PNG, GIF, and BMP
Messaging SMS and MMS
Based on the open-source WebKit layout engine, coupled with Chrome's V8
Web browser
JavaScript engine supporting HTML5 and CSS3.
Multi-touch Android has native support for multi-touch which was initially made available in
 handsets such as the HTC Hero.
User can jump from one task to another and same time various applications can
Multi-tasking
run simultaneously.
Widgets are resizable, so users can expand them to show more content or shrink
Resizable widgets
them to save space
Multi-Language Supports single direction and bi-directional text.
Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is a service that lets developers send short
GCM
message data to their users on Android devices.
A technology that lets apps discover and pair directly, over a high-bandwidth peer-
Wi-Fi Direct
to-peer connection.
A popular NFC-based technology that lets users instantly share, just by touching
Android Beam
two NFC-enabled phones together.

Androids Version

Android Beta

It is the first version of android. The focus of Android beta is testing incorporating usability.
Android beta will generally have many more problems on speed and performance.

Android Astro 1.0

It is the first full version of android. It was released on September 23, 2008. It has Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth support. It is quite slow in operating. It has copy and paste feature in the web browser
is not present.

Android Cupcake 1.5

It is released on April 30th 2009.An auto-rotation option, copy and paste feature was added in
the web browser. Increased speed and performance but not up to required level.

Android Donut 1.6

It was released on September 15, 2009.Voice search and Search box were added. Faster OS boot
times and fast web browsing was experienced but typing is quite slow.

Android clairs 2.0/2.1

It was released on October 26, 2009. It has Bluetooth 2.1 support. It has improved typing speed
on virtual keyboard, with smarter dictionary and had no Adobe flash media support.

Android Froyo 2.2

 It was released on May 20, 2010.It supported Adobe Flash 10.1. It had improved Application
launcher with better browser and no internet calling.

Android Gingerbread 2.3

It was released on December 6th 2010. It had an updated User Interface with high efficiency and
speed. It had an Internet calling feature. One touches word selection and copy/paste and it do
not support multi-core processors.

Android Honeycomb 3.0

It was released on October 26th 2009. It has Bluetooth 2.1 support. It has improved typing speed
on virtual keyboard, with smarter dictionary and no Adobe flash media support.

Android Ice cream Sandwich 4.0

It was released on November 14, 2011. It has virtual button in the UI. It has the ability to shut
down apps that are using data in the background.

Android Jelly bean 4.1

It was released on June 27, 2012. It has the latest version of Android and smoother user
interface.

Android Competition
Checking for the Version of Android

The steps to find the current Operating version vary by device. Below are general instructions that work
for most Android devices. To find out which Android OS is on your device:

1. Open your device's Settings.

2. Tap About Phone or About Device.

3. Tap Android Version to display your version information.

Security & Privacy

Android applications run in a sandbox, an isolated area of the system that does not have access to the
rest of the system's resources, unless access permissions
are explicitly granted by the user when the application is
installed. Before installing an application, Play Store
displays all required permissions: a game may need to
enable vibration or save data to an SD card . After
reviewing these permissions, the user can choose to
accept or refuse them, installing the application only if
they accept.

Limitations of Android System

Android operating system uses more amount of battery as
compared to normal mobile phones. As there are so many
users sometimes it becomes difficult to connect all the
users. As we call Android is world of applications we continuously need to connect with the internet
which is not possible for all the users.
Conclusion
Android provides access to a wide range of useful libraries and tools that can be used to build rich
applications. It includes a full set of tools that have been built from the ground up alongside the platform
providing developers with high productivity and deep insight into their applications. It is on top of the
mobile phone game and shows no signs of slowing down. Its rapid ascension to its current position as
the leading smart phone platform is undoubtedly due to its accessibility, user friendliness and unique
features. It is the newest contender on the smart phone market but its ability to tune into users
preferences and location make it the most popular mobile phone platform available today.