1.2.4 ANDROID Operating System

One of the most widely used mobile OS these days is ANDROID. Android is a software bunch comprising not only operating system but also middleware and key applications. Android Inc was founded in Palo Alto of California, U.S. by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White in 2003. Later Android Inc. was acquired by Google in 2005. After original release there have been number of updates in the original version of Android.

ANDROID VERSIONS

Android Beta

ü  First Version of Android.

ü  The focus of Android beta is testing incorporating  usability.

ü  Android beta will generally have many more problems on speed and performance.

Android Astro 1.0

ü  First full version of android.

ü  Released on September 23, 2008.

ü  Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.

ü  Quite slow in operating.

ü  Copy and paste feature in the web browser is not present.

Android Cupcake 1.5

ü  Released on April 30, 2009.

ü  Added auto-rotation option.

ü  Copy and Paste feature added in the web browser.

ü  Increased speed and performance but not upto required level.

Android Donut 1.6

ü  Released on September 15, 2009.

ü  Voice search and Search box were added.

ü  Faster OS boot times and fast web browsing experience.

ü  Typing is quite slower.

Android Éclair 2.0/2.1

ü  Released on October 26, 2009.

ü  Bluetooth 2.1 support.

ü  Improved typing speed on virtual keyboard, with smarter dictionary.

ü  No Adobe flash media support.

Android Froyo 2.2

ü  Released on  May 20, 2010.

ü  Support for Adobe Flash 10.1

ü  Improved Application launcher with better browser

ü  No internet calling.

Android Gingerbread 2.3

ü  Released on  December 6, 2010.

ü  Updated User Interface with high efficiency and speed

ü  Internet calling

ü  One touch word selection and copy/paste.

ü  New keyboard for faster word input.

ü  More successful version of Android than previous versions.

ü  Not supports multi-core processors.

Android Honeycomb 3.0

ü  Released on February 22, 2011.

ü  Support for multi-core processors

ü  Ability to encrypt all user data.

ü  This version of android is only available for tablets.

Android IceCreamSandwich(ICS) 4.0

ü  Released on November 14, 2011.

ü  Virtual button in the UI.

ü  A new typeface family for the UI, Roboto.

ü  Ability to shut down apps that are using data in the background.

Android JellyBean 4.1

ü  Released on June 27, 2012.

ü  Latest version of Android.

ü  Smoother user interface.

Features & Specifications

Android is a powerful Operating System supporting a large number of applications in Smart Phones. These applications make life more comfortable and advanced for the users. Hardware that support Android are mainly based on ARM architecture platform. Some of the current features and specifications of android are:

Android is a Linux-based open source software stack  that comes along with operating system , middleware, native mobile applications, along with set of API libraries for building third party applications. It was designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and now its focus has spread wider across other embedded systems. Initially developed by Android Inc.,(founded in 2003 and is based in Palo Alto, California) which operated as subsidiary of Google and later purchased by Google in 2005.

Android was publically announced in 2007 and first phone was sold on October 2008.

 

 

Fig 37: Framework of Android Operating System

Android applications are written in java programming language. Android is available as open source for developers to develop applications which can be further used for selling in android market. There are around 200000 applications developed for android with over 3 billion+ downloads. Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core system services such as security, memory management, process management, network stack, and driver model. For software development, Android provides Android SDK (Software development kit).

 

Applications

These are the basics of Android applications:

•      Android applications are composed of one or more application components (activities, services, content providers, and broadcast receivers)

•      Each component performs a different role in the overall application behavior, and each one can be activated individually (even by other applications)

•      The manifest file must declare all components in the application and should also declare all application requirements, such as the minimum version of Android required and any hardware configurations required

•      Non-code application resources (images, strings, layout files, etc.) should include alternatives for different device configurations (such as different strings for different languages)