Android

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• Android is a Linux-based operating system designed
primarily for touch screen mobile devices such
as smart phones and tablet computers. Initially
developed by Android, Inc., which Google backed
financially and later purchased in 2005,[Android was
unveiled in 2007 along with the founding of the Open
Handset Alliance: a consortium
of hardware, software,
and telecommunication companies devoted to
advancing open standards for mobile devices. The
first Android-powered phone was sold in October
2008.


• Android is open source and Google releases the code
under the Apache License. This open source code and
permissive licensing allows the software to be freely
modified and distributed by device manufacturers,
wireless carriers and enthusiast developers.
Additionally, Android has a large community of
developers writing applications ("apps") that extend
the functionality of devices, written primarily in a
customized version of the Java programming
language. In October 2012, there were approximately
700,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated
number of applications downloaded from Google
Play, Android's primary app store, was 25 billion.

• These factors have allowed Android to become the
world's most widely used smart phone platform and the
software of choice for technology companies who require
a low-cost, customizable, lightweight operating system
for high tech devices without developing one from
scratch. As a result, despite being primarily designed for
phones and tablets, it has seen additional applications
on televisions, games consoles and other electronics.
Android's open nature has further encouraged a large
community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open
source code as a foundation for community-driven
projects, which add new features for advanced users or
bring Android to devices which were officially released
running other operating systems.

• Android had a worldwide smart phone market
share of 75% during the third quarter of
2012,with 500 million devices activated in
total and 1.3 million activations per day.


History
Of
ANDROID

Android, Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California in October 2003 by Andy Rubin (co-
founder of Danger), Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications,
Inc.),Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (headed design and
interface development at WebTV) to develop, in Rubin's words "smarter mobile
devices that are more aware of its owner's location and preferences". Despite the
past accomplishments of the founders and early employees, Android Inc.
operated secretly, revealing only that it was working on software for mobile
phones. That same year, Rubin ran out of money. Steve Perlman, a close friend of
Rubin, brought him $10,000 in cash in an envelope and refused a stake in the
company.
Google acquired Android Inc. on August 17, 2005, making it a wholly owned
subsidiary of Google. Key employees of Android Inc., including Rubin, Miner and
White, stayed at the company after the acquisition. Not much was known about
Android Inc. at the time, but many assumed that Google was planning to enter
the mobile phone market with this move. At Google, the team led by Rubin
developed a mobile device platform powered by the Linux kernel. Google
marketed the platform to handset makers and carriers on the promise of
providing a flexible, upgradable system. Google had lined up a series of hardware
component and software partners and signalled to carriers that it was open to
various degrees of cooperation on their part.

• Speculation about Google's intention to enter the mobile communications market continued to
build through December 2006.Reports from the BBC and the Wall Street Journal noted that
Google wanted its search and applications on mobile phones and it was working hard to deliver
that. Print and online media outlets soon reported rumors that Google was developing a Google-
branded handset. Some speculated that as Google was defining technical specifications, it was
showing prototypes to cell phone manufacturers and network operators. In September
2007,InformationWeek covered an Evalueserve study reporting that Google had filed
several patent applications in the area of mobile telephony.
• On November 5, 2007, the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of technology companies
including Google, device manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung, wireless carriers such as Sprint
Nextel and T-Mobile, and chipset makers such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, unveiled
itself, with a goal to develop open standards for mobile devices. That day, Android was unveiled
as its first product, a mobile device platform built on the Linux kernel version 2.6.[The first
commercially available phone to run Android was the HTC Dream, released on October 22, 2008.[
• Since 2008, Android has seen numerous updates which have incrementally improved the
operating system, adding new features and fixing bugs in previous releases. Each major release is
named in alphabetical order after a dessert or sugary treat; for example, version 1.5 Cupcake was
followed by 1.6 Donut. The latest release is 4.2 Jelly Bean. In 2010, Google launched
its Nexus series of devices—a line of smart phones and tablets running the Android operating
system, and built by a manufacturer partner. HTC collaborated with Google to release the first
Nexus smart phone, the Nexus One. The series has since been updated with newer devices, such
as the Nexus 4 phone and Nexus 10 tablet, made by LG and Samsung, respectively. Google
releases the Nexus phones and tablets to act as their flagship Android devices, demonstrating
Android's latest software and hardware features.


This is a list of features in
the Android operating system:

• Handset layouts
The platform is adaptable to larger, VGA, 2D graphics library, 3D graphics library based on OpenGL
ES 2.0 specifications, and traditional smart phone layouts.
• Storage
SQLite, a lightweight relational database, is used for data storage purposes.
• Connectivity
Android supports connectivity technologies including GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA, EV-
DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LTE, NFC and WiMAX.
• Messaging
SMS and MMS are available forms of messaging, including threaded text messaging and Android
Cloud To Device Messaging (C2DM) and now enhanced version of C2DM, Android Google Cloud
Messaging (GCM) is also a part of Android Push Messaging service.
• Multiple language support
Android supports multiple languages.
• Web browser
The web browser available in Android is based on the open-source WebKit layout engine, coupled
with Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. The browser scores 100/100 on the Acid3 test on Android
4.0.
• Java support
While most Android applications are written in Java, there is no Java Virtual Machine in the platform
and Java byte code is not executed. Java classes are compiled into Dalvik executables and run
on Dalvik, a specialized virtual machine designed specifically for Android and optimized for
battery-powered mobile devices with limited memory and CPU. J2ME support can be provided
via third-party applications.

• Media support
Android supports the following audio/video/still media formats: WebM, H.263, H.264, AAC, HE-
AAC (in 3GP or MP4 container), MPEG-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB (in 3GP container), MP3, MIDI,Ogg
Vorbis, FLAC, WAV, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, WebP.
• Streaming media support
RTP/RTSP streaming (3GPP PSS, ISMA), HTML progressive download (HTML5 <video> tag). Adobe Flash
Streaming (RTMP) and HTTP Dynamic Streaming are supported by the Flash plugin. Apple HTTP Live
Streaming is supported by RealPlayer for Android, and by the operating system in Android 3.0
(Honeycomb).[
• Additional hardware support
Android can use video/still
cameras, touchscreens, GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, barometers, magnetometers, dedicated
gaming controls, proximity and pressure sensors,thermometers, accelerated 2D bit blits (with hardware
orientation, scaling, pixel format conversion) and accelerated 3D graphics.
• Multi-touch
Android has native support for multi-touch which was initially made available in handsets such as the HTC
Hero. The feature was originally disabled at the kernel level (possibly to avoid infringing Apple's patents
on touch-screen technology at the time). Google has since released n update for the Nexus One and
the Motorola Droid which enables multi-touch natively.
• Bluetooth
Supports A2DP, AVRCP, sending files (OPP), accessing the phone book (PBAP), voice dialing and sending
contacts between phones. Keyboard, mouse and joystick (HID) support is available in Android 3.1+, and
in earlier versions through manufacturer customizations and third-party applications.

• Video calling
Android does not support native video calling, but some handsets have a customized version of
the operating system that supports it, either via the UMTS network (like the Samsung
Galaxy S) or over IP. Video calling through Google Talk is available in Android 2.3.4 and
later. Gingerbread allows Nexus S to place Internet calls with a SIP account. This allows for
enhanced VoIP dialing to other SIP accounts and even phone numbers. Skype 2.1 offers
video calling in Android 2.3, including front camera support. Users with the Google+
android app can video chat with other google+ users through hangouts.
• Multitasking
Multitasking of applications, with unique handling of memory allocation, is available.
• Accessibility
Built in text to speech is provided by Talk back for people with low or no vision. Enhancements
for people with hearing disabilities is available as is other aids.
• Voice based features
Google search through voice has been available since initial release. Voice actions for calling,
texting, navigation, etc. are supported on Android 2.2 onwards.
• Tethering
Android supports tethering, which allows a phone to be used as a wireless/wired Wi-Fi
hotspot.

• Screen capture
Android supports capturing a screenshot by pressing the power and
volume-down buttons at the same time. Prior to Android 4.0, the
only methods of capturing a screenshot were through
manufacturer and third-party customizations or otherwise by
using a PC connection (DDMS developer's tool). These alternative
methods are still available with the latest Android.
• External storage
Most Android devices include micro SD slot and can read micro SD
cards formatted with FAT32, Ext3 or Ext4 file system. To allow use
of high-capacity storage media such as USB flash drives and USB
HDDs, many Android tablets also include USB 'A' receptacle.

Usage share of Android versions

Usage share of the different versions as of
February 5, 2013. Most Android devices to
date still run the older OS version
2.3 Gingerbread that was released on
December 6, 2010, due to most lower-end
devices still being released with it.

• Development
Android is developed in private by Google until the
latest changes and updates are ready to be
released, at which point the source code is made
available publicly. This source code will only run
without modification on select devices, usually
the Nexus series of devices. With many devices,
there are proprietary components which have to
be provided by the manufacturer, in order for
Android to work.

• Applications
Android has a growing selection of third party applications, which can be
acquired by users either through an app store such as Google Play or
the Amazon Appstore, or by downloading and installing the
application's APK file from a third-party site. The Play Store application
allows users to browse, download and update apps published by Google
and third-party developers, and is pre-installed on devices that comply
with Google's compatibility requirements. The app filters the list of
available applications to those that are compatible with the user's
device, and developers may restrict their applications to particular
carriers or countries for business reasons. Purchases of unwanted
applications can be refunded within 15 minutes of the time of
download, and some carriers offer direct carrier billing for Google Play
application purchases, where the cost of the application is added to the
user's monthly bill. As of September 2012, there were more than
675,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number of
applications downloaded from the Play Store was 25 billion.

Applications are developed in the Java language using
the Android software development kit (SDK). The SDK
includes a comprehensive set of development tools,
including a debugger, software libraries, a
handset emulator based on QEMU, documentation,
sample code, and tutorials. The officially
supported integrated development environment (IDE)
is Eclipse using the Android Development Tools (ADT)
plug in. Other development tools are available,
including a Native Development Kit for applications or
extensions in C or C++, Google App Inventor, a visual
environment for novice programmers, and
various cross platform mobile web applications
frameworks.
In order to work around limitations on reaching Google
services due to Internet censorship in the People's
Republic of China, Android devices sold in the PRC are
generally customized to use state approved services
instead.

Respecfully submitted to:
Prof. Erwin M. Globio, MSIT

Android

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