Android is the operating system of today smartphone. Android is the number one leading OS of cellphone from the year 2011. Android is the open platform OS build from the kernel of Linux which is also the open platform OS for computers.
Google took over android at the year of 2005. Distribution process started in the year 2007 in different gadgets like different kind of mobile of different company and in some tablet too. According to Apache licenses Google releases android as a open source OS. For the future development of Android and for its maintenance android have started AOSP which stands for Android Open Source Project. Android has a very large amount of developers for creating different kinds of application which improves and extend the functionality of different kind of devices. They create and develop the application in the customized version of Java. The application are available in the Android Market which runs by Google and also can be downloaded from different android related websites. There are many free applications that can be downloaded and also paid application which requires Master Card to purchases. According to the data recorded from the month of October 2011, more than 400,000 android application were available and number of downloads have exceeded 10 billion. In the forth quarter of the year 2010 android was listed as the best selling Smartphone OS by Canalys with over 200 million use of Android devices by November 2011 and according to Andy Rubin of Google there will be more than 700,00 android devices active in few months.
There are many releases of Android
Google took over android at the year of 2005. Distribution process started in the year 2007 in different gadgets like different kind of mobile of different company and in some tablet too. According to Apache licenses Google releases android as a open source OS. For the future development of Android and for its maintenance android have started AOSP which stands for Android Open Source Project. Android has a very large amount of developers for creating different kinds of application which improves and extend the functionality of different kind of devices. They create and develop the application in the customized version of Java. The application are available in the Android Market which runs by Google and also can be downloaded from different android related websites. There are many free applications that can be downloaded and also paid application which requires Master Card to purchases. According to the data recorded from the month of October 2011, more than 400,000 android application were available and number of downloads have exceeded 10 billion. In the forth quarter of the year 2010 android was listed as the best selling Smartphone OS by Canalys with over 200 million use of Android devices by November 2011 and according to Andy Rubin of Google there will be more than 700,00 android devices active in few months.
There are many releases of Android
- Recent releases
- 2.3 Gingerbread refined the user interface, improved the soft keyboard and copy/paste features, improved gaming performance, added SIP support (VOIP calls), and added support for Near Field Communication.
- 3.0 Honeycomb was a tablet-oriented release which supports larger screen devices and introduces many new user interface features, support for multi-core processors, hardware acceleration for graphics and full system encryption. The first device featuring this version, the Motorola Xoom tablet, went on sale in February 2011.
- 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, announced on October 19, 2011, brought Honeycomb features to smartphones and added new features including facial recognition unlock, network data usage monitoring and control, unified social networking contacts, photography enhancements, offline email searching, app folders, and information sharing using NFC. Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich is the latest Android version that is available to phones. The source code of Android 4.0.1 was released on November 14, 2011.
Features
Current features and specifications:- Handset layouts
- The platform is adaptable to larger, VGA, 2D graphic library, 3D graphics library based on OpenGL ES 2.0 specifications, and traditional smartphone layouts.
- Storage
- SQLite, a lightweight relation 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 now Android Cloud To Device Messaging(C2DM) 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 executable 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(in 3GP or MP4 container), MPEG-4 SP, AMR-WB (in 3GP container), AAC, HE-AAC (in MP4 or 3GP container), MP3, MIDI, OGG VORBIS, FLAC, WAV, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP.
- Streaming media support
- RTP/RTSP streaming (3SPP PSS, ISMA), HTML progressive download. 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 an 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.
- Multitasking
- Multitasking of applications is available.
- 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. Before Android 2.2 this was supported by third-party applications or manufacturer customizations.
- 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 microSD slot and can read microSD cards formatted with FAT32, Ext3fs or Ext4fs 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. Storage formatted with FAT32 is handled by Linux Kernel VFAT driver, while 3rd party solutions are required to handle other popular file systems such as NTFS, HFS Plus and exFAT.
Thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment