1. A SEMINAR REPORT
ON
Android OS
SUBMITTED BY
Name : Ganesh Waghmare
University Exam No. : T3384333
UNDER GUIDANCE OF
Prof. Smt. Sukhada Bhingarkar
COMPUTER ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT,
MAEER’S MIT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, PUNE.
* 2009-2010 *
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2. MAHARASHTRA ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING AND EDUCATIONAL
RESEARCH’S
MIT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING,
PUNE
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER ENGINEERING
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Mr. Ganesh Waghmare of TE Computer, Roll No. T3274, has
successfully completed seminar on
Android OS
To my satisfaction and submitted the same during the academic year 2009-2010
towards the partial fulfillment of degree of Bachelor of Engineering under Pune University,
under the Department of Computer Engineering , MIT College of Engineering, Pune.
Prof. Sukhada Bhingarkar Prof. R. K. Bedi
Seminar Guide HOD (Computer Department)
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3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It gives me immense pleasure in presenting seminar on the topic Android
OS. I acknowledge the enormous assistance and excellent co-operation extended
to by my respected guide Prof. (Smt.) Sukhada Bhingarkar.
I would also like to thank the staff members for their valuable support.
Lastly I would like to express my heartfelt indebtedness towards all those who
have helped me directly or indirectly for the success of the seminar.
- Mr. Ganesh Waghmare
(Roll No. T3274)
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4. Table of Contents
Chapter 1
1.1 Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
Chapter 2
2.1 Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6
Chapter 3
3.1 Features of Android OS --------------------------------------------------------------
7
Chapter 4
4.1 Android Architecture ----------------------------------------------------------------- 8
4.1.1 Application Framework----------------------------------------------------- 9
4.1.2 Libraries----------------------------------------------------------------------10
4.1.3 Android Runtime-------------------------------------------------------------11
4.1.4 Linux Kernal------------------------------------------------------------------12
Chapter 5
5.1 Architecture for Secure Data storage------------------------------------------------13
Chapter 6
6.1 Execution Environment --------------------------------------------------------------16
6.2 The Dalvik Virtual Machine-----------------------------------------------------------19
Chapter 7
7.1 Lifecycle of an Android Application --------------------------------------------------20
7.2 Security and permissions in Android ------------------------------------------------22
7.3 Development Tools------------------------------------------------------------------ 23
Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------------------25
References --------------------------------------------------------------------------------26
Glossary -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------27
White Paper --------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------28
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5. Chapter 1
1. ABSTRACT
Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and
key applications. Android is a software platform and operating system for mobile devices based on the
Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to
write managed code in a Java-like language that utilizes Google-developed Java libraries, but does not
support programs developed in native code.
The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of
the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware, software and telecom companies devoted to
advancing open standards for mobile devices. When released in 2008, most of the Android platform will be
made available under the Apache free-software and open-source license.
1Open - Android allows to access core mobile device functionality through standard API calls. All
applications are equal - Android does not differentiate between the phone's basic and third-party
applications -- even the dialer or home screen can be replaced. Breaking down boundaries - Combine
information from the web with data on the phone -- such as contacts or geographic location -- to create new
user experiences. Fast and easy development - The SDK contains what need to build and run Android
applications, including a true device emulator and advanced debugging tools.
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6. Chapter 2
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and
key applications. Android is a software platform and operating system for mobile devices based on the
Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to
write managed code in a Java-like language that utilizes Google-developed Java libraries, but does not
support programs developed in native code.
The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of
the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware, software and telecom companies devoted to
advancing open standards for mobile devices. When released in 2008, most of the Android platform will be
made available under the Apache free-software and open-source license.
2.1.1 THE BIRTH OF ANDROID
Google Acquires Android Inc.
In July 2005, Google acquired Android Inc., a small startup company based in Palo Alto, CA.
Android's co-founders who went to work at Google included Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich
Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications, Inc), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White
(one of the first engineers at WebTV). At the time, little was known about the functions of Android Inc.
other than they made software for mobile phones.
2.1.2 Open Handset Alliance Founded
On 5 November 2007, the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of several companies which
include Google, HTC, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel and NVIDIA, was unveiled
with the goal to develop open standards for mobile devices. Along with the formation of the Open Handset
Alliance, the OHA also unveiled their first product, Android, an open source mobile device platform based
on the Linux operating system.
2.1.3 Hardware
Google has unveiled at least three prototypes for Android, at the Mobile World Congress on
February 12, 2008. One prototype at the ARM booth displayed several basic Google applications. A 'd-pad'
control zooming of items in the dock with a relatively quick response.
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7. Chapter 3
3.1 Features of Android OS
· Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components
· Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices
· Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine
· Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the
OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional)
· SQLite for structured data storage
· Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3,
AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
· GSM Telephony (hardware dependent)
· Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware dependent)
· Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer (hardware dependent)
· Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory
and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE
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8. • Chapter 4
4.1 Android Architecture
The following diagram shows the major components of Android
Figure 1: Architecture of Android OS
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9. 4.1.1 Application Framework
Developers have full access to the same framework APIs used by the core applications. The application
architecture is designed to simplify the reuse of components; any application can publish its capabilities
and any other application may then make use of those capabilities (subject to security constraints enforced
by the framework). This same mechanism allows components to be replaced by the user.
Underlying all applications is a set of services and systems, including:
· A rich and extensible set of Views that can be used to build an application, including lists, grids, text
boxes, buttons, and even an embeddable web browser
· Content Providers that enable applications to access data from other applications (such as Contacts),
or to share their own data
· A Resource Manager, providing access to non-code resources such as localized strings, graphics, and
lat files
· A Notification Manager that enables all applications to display custom alerts in the status bar
· An Activity Manager that manages the life cycle of applications and provides a common navigation
backstack
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10. 4.1.2 Libraries
Android includes a set of C/C++ libraries used by various components of the Android system. These
capabilities are exposed to developers through the Android application framework. Some of the core
libraries are listed below:
· System C library - a BSD-derived implementation of the standard C system library (libc), tuned for
embedded Linux-based devices
· Media Libraries - based on PacketVideo's Open CORE; the libraries support playback and recording
of many popular audio and video formats, as well as static image files, including MPEG4, H.264, MP3,
AAC, AMR, JPG, and PNG
· Surface Manager - manages access to the display subsystem and seamlessly composites 2D and 3D
graphic layers from multiple applications
· LibWebCore - a modern web browser engine which powers both the Android browser and an
embeddable web view
· SGL - the underlying 2D graphics engine
· 3D libraries - an implementation based on OpenGL ES 1.0 APIs; the libraries use either hardware
3D acceleration (where available) or the included, highly optimized 3D software rasterizer
· Free Type - bitmap and vector font rendering
SQLite - a powerful and lightweight relational database engine available to all applications.
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11. 4.1.3 Android Runtime
Android includes a set of core libraries that provides most of the functionality available in the core
libraries of the Java programming language. Every Android application runs in its own process, with its
own instance of the Dalvik virtual machine. Dalvik has been written so that a device can run multiple VMs
efficiently. The Dalvik VM executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format which is optimized for
minimal memory footprint. The VM is register-based, and runs classes compiled by a Java language
compiler that have been transformed into the .dex format by the included "dx" tool. The Dalvik VM relies
on the Linux kernel for underlying functionality such as threading and low-level memory management.
At the same level there is Android Runtime, where the main component Dalvik Virtual Machine is
located. It was designed specifically for Android running in limited environment, where the limited battery,
CPU, memory and data storage are the main issues. Android gives an integrated tool “dx”, which converts
generated byte code from .jar to .dex file, after this byte code becomes much more efficient to run on the
small processors.
Figure 2: Conversion from .java to .dex file
As the result, it is possible to have multiple instances of Dalvik virtual machine running on the
single device at the same time. The Core libraries are written in Java language and contains of the
collection classes, the utilities, IO and other tools.
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12. 4.1.4 Linux Kernal
Android Architecture is based on Linux 2.6 kernel. It helps to manage security, memory
management, process management, network stack and other important issues. Therefore, the user should
bring Linux in his mobile device as the main operating system and install all the drivers required in order to
run it. Android provides the support for the Qualcomm MSM7K chipset family. For instance, the current
kernel tree supports Qualcomm MSM 7200A chipsets, but in the second half of 2008 we should see mobile
devices with stable version Qualcomm MSM 7200, which includes major features:
1. WCDMA/HSUPA and EGPRS network support
2. Bluetooth 1.2 and Wi-Fi support
3. Digital audio support for mp3 and other formats
4. Support for Linux and other third-party operating systems
5. Java hardware acceleration and support for Java applications
6. Qcamera up to 6.0 megapixels
7. gpsOne – solution for GPS
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13. Chapter 5
5.1 Architecture for Secure Data Storage
Figure 3 Android and Secure Local Data Storage
Secure data storage solution that could potentially be deployed on Android. It is as shown in the
figure. However, many shortcomings of the design have been addressed. Additional security highlights will
be presented at the end of the section.
Using figure 3, we have the following workflow:
1. The user enters his credentials on the handset.
2. The credentials are not sent to the SSO service over the network. Instead, the credentials are used as
the passphrase to decrypt the local public/private key pair of the user. We define the public/private
key pair to be of type RSA and of at least 4096 bits in size. Already we gain the advantage that the
user’s password is not sent over the network.
3. The private key is used to decrypt the symmetric cipher key. The symmetric cipher key is used to
encrypt/decrypt any locally cached data. A strong symmetric cipher like 3DES is used.
4. All data found in the local cache is encrypted with the symmetric cipher key defined in step #3.
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14. 5. If the requested data is not locally cached or expired. We must communicate with the SSO service
again to be able to receive fresh data from the Restful web services. However, unlike the architecture
presented in section 2 of this document, we login to the SSO server using a hostile challenge based
on the private key of the user. As such, we login with the SSO system using public/private key
infrastructure. The user name and the password are never sent over the network. The SSO system
can identify the user based on this challenge and returns a 496 bit alpha numeric token.
6. The tokens generated by the SSO system are set to automatically expire after a given period of time.
7. On reception of the SSO token. The Android background application can now communicate with
any Restful web services that adhere to the same SSO federation. Public/private key infrastructure is
once again used to setup a secure communication channel between the phone and the server. The
certificates of the servers that host the web services are procured from the same certificate authority
that shipped with the phone.
8. On reception of a request, the SSO token is extracted from the request. The web service calls upon
the SSO system to authorize the operation.
9. On reception of the data, the symmetric cipher described in bullet #3 above is used to encrypt the
data before it reaches any local persistent storehouse.
10. Data is returned to the user facing application.
Additional security notes:
1. The public/private key pair of the user is generated directly on the handset at install time. As
such, the private key has never left the phone nor has it been transferred over any network.
2. The certificate of the user must at least be registered once in the SSO application. This could be
done at install time of the handset application.
3. “Man-in-the-middle”38 attacks are not possible since the application is deployed with the CA
certificate of the company that will be hosting the web services.
4. If the device is lost, all the locally cached data is completely unreadable. The symmetric key that
encrypted this data is also unreadable. The public/private keys that are central to the security architecture
are protected by a passphrase.
5. The passphrase is the weakest link in the chain. If the user enters an overly simple password,
access could be gained to the private key and hence the locally cached data.
6. That being said, it would be possible to further extend this architecture to store the encrypted
symmetric key on the server. This way, even if the passphrase of the private key is compromised, the
locally cached data still cannot be accessed. This is because the encrypted strong symmetric cipher key is
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15. stored on the server. By the time the passphrase has been cracked, there has been ample time to report the
stolen phone and revoke this key from this user account on the server. Furthermore, under this scheme, the
key stored on the server is still encrypted. Even if this key is intercepted in transit it is useless without the
user’s private key.
7. It is also possible to enforce a strong password policy directly from the handset application.
8. Even if this design is significantly more secure than the previous iteration, to the user, the
experience is the same. The user must enter a username and password to prove his identify.
9. We could augment the architecture in yet another direction. The local caching system could also
require an SSO token and subsequently request authorization from an SSO system. Such a design would
prevent terminated employees, i.e., an Individual who already knows what the local credentials are, from
accessing the locally cached data.
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18. Figures 4 and 5 represent the regular Java and Android execution paths respectively. It is interesting
to note here however is that the Android compilers do not operate on Java
language code. Instead, the Android translators work on the resulting Java bytecode emitted from a
traditional Java compiler.
As such, it is possible to reuse existing Java libraries, even if the original source code is not
available. Such libraries must meet stringent requirements however, they need to:
1. adhere to the Java SE 5 dialect
2. not use any Java classes or packages found in Java SE 5 not found in the Android platform
3. not use any packages or classes specific to the Sun Microsystems platform
4. still behave in a predictable manner under the Apache Harmony Java environment
Following these guidelines, it’s possible to integrate existing Java source code, packages and
libraries piecemeal. Special care will be needed in the integration phase of such code but the potential
savings offered by such integration far outweighs the cost of rewriting well-coded, well-documented and
well-tested libraries ready for use. Furthermore, it is expected that has Apache Harmony matures, more and
more compatibility issues will be resolved further increasing the pool of available Java code that will be
able to execute unmodified under the Android platform.
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19. 6.2 The Dalvik Virtual Machine
The Dalvik Virtual Machine
The Dalvik virtual machine is an interpreter only machine optimized for use on low powered, low
memory devices like phones. Notably, Dalvik does not make use of just in time (JIT) Compilation to
improve the performance of an application at runtime. Furthermore, Dalvik is not a Java virtual machine.
This is because Dalvik is unable to read Java bytecode34, instead it uses its own bytecode format called
“dex”. Google claims this format allows battery power to be better-conserved at all different stages of
execution of an application. This means that standard Java SE applications and libraries cannot be used
directly on the Android Dalvik virtual machine.
Dalvik however stands at the center of the Android value proposition. Its low electrical power
consumption, rich libraries, and unified, non-fragmented application programming interfaces make it stand
out, or so Google hopes, over the fragmented ecosystem that is Java ME35 today.
Furthermore, since Dalvik uses the Java programming language but not the Java execution
environment (JVM), Google is free to develop Android without the need to license or obtain certification
from Sun Microsystems Inc, the legal owner of the Java trademark and brands.
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20. Chapter 7
7.1 Lifecycle of an Android Application
In most cases, every Android application runs in its own Linux process. This process is created for
the application when some of its code needs to be run, and will remain running until it is no longer needed
and the system needs to reclaim its memory for use by other applications.
An important and unusual feature of Android is that an application process's lifetime is not directly
controlled by the application itself. Instead, it is determined by the system through a combination of the
parts of the application that the system knows are running, how important these things are to the user, and
how much overall memory is available in the system.
It is important that application developers understand how different application components (in
particular Activity, Service, and IntentReceiver) impact the lifetime of the application's process. Not using
these components correctly can result in the system killing the application's process while it is doing
important work.
A common example of a process life-cycle bug is an IntentReceiver that starts a thread when it
receives an Intent in its onReceiveIntent() method, and then returns from the function. Once it returns, the
system considers that IntentReceiver to be no longer active, and thus its hosting process no longer needed
(unless other application components are active in it). Thus, it may kill the process at any time to reclaim
memory, terminating the spawned thread that is running in it. The solution to this problem is to start a
Service from the IntentReceiver, so the system knows that there is still active work being done in the
process.
To determine which processes should be killed when low on memory, Android places them into an
"importance hierarchy" based on the components running in them and the state of those components. These
are, in order of importance:
1. A foreground process is one holding an Activity at the top of the screen that the user is
interacting with (its onResume () method has been called) or an IntentReceiver that is currently running (its
onReceiveIntent () method is executing). There will only ever be a few such processes in the system, and
these will only be killed as a last resort if memory is so low that not even these processes can continue to
run. Generally at this point the device has reached a memory paging state, so this action is required in order
to keep the user interface responsive.
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21. 2. A visible process is one holding an Activity that is visible to the user on-screen but not in the
foreground (its onPause() method has been called). This may occur, for example, if the foreground activity
has been displayed with a dialog appearance that allows the previous activity to be seen behind it. Such a
process is considered extremely important and will not be killed unless doing so is required to keep all
foreground processes running.
3. A service process is one holding a Service that has been started with the startService() method.
Though these processes are not directly visible to the user, they are generally doing things that the user
cares about (such as background mp3 playback or background network data upload or download), so the
system will always keep such processes running unless there is not enough memory to retain all foreground
and visible process.
4. A background process is one holding an Activity that is not currently visible to the user (its
onStop() method has been called). These processes have no direct impact on the user experience. Provided
they implement their activity life cycle correctly (see Activity for more details), the system can kill such
processes at any time to reclaim memory for one of the three previous processes types. Usually there are
many of these processes running, so they are kept in an LRU list to ensure the process that was most
recently seen by the user is the last to be killed when running low on memory.
5. An empty process is one that doesn't hold any active application components. The only reason
to keep such a process around is as a cache to improve startup time the next time a component of its
application needs to run. As such, the system will often kill these processes in order to balance overall
system resources between these empty cached processes and the underlying kernel caches.
When deciding how to classify a process, the system picks the most important level of all the
components currently active in the process.
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22. 7.2 Security and Permissions in Android
Android is a multi-process system, where each application (and parts of the system) runs in its own
process. Most security between applications and the system is enforced at the process level through
standard Linux facilities, such as user and group IDs that are assigned to applications. Additional finer-
grained security features are provided through a "permission" mechanism that enforces restrictions on the
specific operations that a particular process can perform.
Android mobile phone platform is going to be more secure than Apple’s iPhone or any other device
in the long run. There are several solutions nowadays to protect Google phone from various attacks. One of
them is security vendor McAfee, a member of Linux Mobile (LiMo) Foundation. This foundation joins
particular companies to develop an open mobile-device software platform. Many of the companies listed in
the LiMo Foundation have also become members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA).
As a result, Linux secure coding practice should successfully be built into the Android development
process. However, open platform has its own disadvantages, such as source code vulnerability for black-hat
hackers. In parallel with great opportunities for mobile application developers, there is an expectation for
exploitation and harm. Stealthy Trojans hidden in animated images, particular viruses passed from friend to
friend, used for spying and identity theft, all these threats will be active for a long run.
Another solution for such attacks is SMobile Systems mobile package. Security Shield –an
integrated application that includes anti-virus, anti-spam, firewall and other mobile protection is up and
ready to run on the Android operating system. Currently, the main problem is availability for viruses to
pose as an application and do things like dial phone numbers, send text messages or multi-media messages
or make connections to the Internet during normal device use. It is possible for somebody to use the GPS
feature to track a person’s location without their knowledge. Hence SMobile Systems is ready to notify and
block these secure alerts. But the truth is that it is not possible to secure r mobile device or personal
computer completely, as it connects to the internet. And neither the Android phone nor other devices will
prove to be the exception.
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23. 7.3 Development Tools
The Android SDK includes a variety of custom tools that help develop mobile applications on the
Android platform. The most important of these are the Android Emulator and the Android Development
Tools plugin for Eclipse, but the SDK also includes a variety of other tools for debugging, packaging, and
installing r applications on the emulator.
Android Emulator
A virtual mobile device that runs on computer use the emulator to design, debug, and test r
applications in an actual Android run-time environment.
Android Development Tools Plugin for the Eclipse IDE
The ADT plugin adds powerful extensions to the Eclipse integrated environment, making creating
and debugging r Android applications easier and faster. If use Eclipse, the ADT plugin gives an incredible
boost in developing Android applications:
It gives access to other Android development tools from inside the Eclipse IDE. For example,
ADT lets access the many capabilities of the DDMS tool — taking screenshots, managing port-
forwarding, setting breakpoints, and viewing thread and process information — directly from Eclipse.
It provides a New Project Wizard, which helps quickly create and set up all of the basic files’ll
need for a new Android application.
It automates and simplifies the process of building r Android application.
It provides an Android code editor that helps write valid XML for r Android manifest and
resource files.
Dalvik Debug Monitor Service (ddms)
Integrated with Dalvik, the Android platform's custom VM, this tool lets manage processes on an
emulator or device and assists in debugging. can use it to kill processes, select a specific process to debug,
generate trace data, view heap and thread information, take screenshots of the emulator or device, and
more.
Android Debug Bridge (adb)
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24. The adb tool lets install application's .apk files on an emulator or device and access the emulator or
device from a command line. can also use it to link a standard debugger to application code running on an
Android emulator or device.
Android Asset Packaging Tool (aapt)
The aapt tool lets create .apk files containing the binaries and resources of Android applications.
Android Interface Description Language (aidl)
Aidl Lets generate code for an interprocess interface, such as what a service might use.
sqlite3
Included as a convenience, this tool lets access the SQLite data files created and used by Android
applications.
Trace view
This tool produces graphical analysis views of trace log data that can generate from r Android
application.
mksdcard
Helps create a disk image that can use with the emulator, to simulate the presence of an external
storage card (such as an SD card).
dx
The dx tool rewrites .class bytecode into Android bytecode (stored in .dex files.)
activityCreator
A script that generates Ant build files that can use to compile r Android applications. If are
developing on Eclipse with the ADT plugin, won't need to use this script.
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25. Conclusion
Android is a truly open, free development platform based on Linux and open source. Handset
makers can use and customize the platform without paying a royalty.
A component-based architecture inspired by Internet mash-ups. Parts of one application can be used
in another in ways not originally envisioned by the developer. can even replace built-in components with
own improved versions. This will unleash a new round of creativity in the mobile space.
• Android is open to all: industry, developers and users
• Participating in many of the successful open source projects
• Aims to be as easy to build for as the web.
• Google Android is stepping into the next level of Mobile Internet
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26. References
1. White paper for “A Spectrum White Paper: Thoughts on Google Android” from Spectrum data
Technology. http://www.spectrumdt.com
2. http://code.google.com/android/ - Google Android official webpage
3. http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/ - Open Handset Alliance webpage
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(mobile_phone_platform)–Wikipedia information
5. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ - Official Google Blog
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27. Glossary
SDK - Software Development Kit
APIs - Application Program Interfaces
GUI - Graphical User Interface
OHA - Open Handset Alliance
GPS – Global Positioning system
LRU – Last Recently Used
MHTML – Mobile HTML
QoS – Quality of Service
WAP – Web Application Protocol
CSD – Circuit Switched Data
OTA – Over-the-Air
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