An android is an open Source middleware architecture and software stack for mobile applications. It’s an operating system based on the Linux kernel and designed primarily for touch screen mobile devices; including smart phones and tablets. It was conceived and developed by Android Inc. Android Inc was incorporated in Palo Alto-California in October 2003 and financially supported by Google and later bought by them. Android was unveiled in 2007 along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA): a consortium of hardware software and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. With the implementation of Android Operating system Users can fully customize their mobile phones to their interests. HTC Dream was the first mobile phone that had used android operating system, released on 22 October 2008.
Native developers of Android are
- Andy Rubin
- Nick Sears
- Chris White
- Rubin's
Android Versions
Cupcake.
Donuts.
Éclair.
Frozen Yoghurt (Froyo)
Gingerbread.
Honeycomb.
Ice Cream Sandwich.
jeally bean
kit kat (Latest)
The latest version 4.4 KitKat, was released for commercial devices on 22 November 2013.
The features of this latest 4.4 KitKat version of android o/s are:
1- Better Memory management.
2- Hangouts app upgraded.
3- Smarter Caller I.D.
4- Immersive Mode.
5- Integration with cloud storage.
6- Printing on the Go.
7- Built-In Sensors.
8- System Wide Closed Captioning.
9- Lock Screen Art.
Features
- Layout: A layout is basically defines the visual structure of UI. It is mainly based on VGA, 2D graphics library and 3D graphics library based on OpenGL ES 2.0.
- Storage: SQLite is used for data storage in android based operating systems.
- Connectivity: Android supports various technologies like GSM, CDMA,EDGE, IDEN, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, WI-Fi, LTE, NFC and WiMAX.
- Multi Lingual Support: This operating system supports multiple languages.
- Messaging: Android supports SMS and MMS including threaded text messaging and Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM).
- DVM: DVM stands here for Dalvik Virtual Machine. It is basically the integral part of android which is mainly used for mobile devices. This software runs the apps on android devices.
- Media Support: Android supports various media formats like WebM, H.263, H.264, MPEG-4SP, WebP , BMP,GIF,PNG,JPEG,WAV,FLAC,OGGVORBIS ,MIDI, MP3,HE-AAC, AMR-WB, AMR .
- Hardware Support: It may support variety of hardware including Accelerate 3D graphics, accelerated 2d bit bilts, pressure sensors, dedicated, touch screen, video camera and many more.
- Multitasking: Android supports multi tasking Android phones are powered to run multiple applications at a time, it means you can browse, Face book while enjoying your favorite song.
- Ease of Notification– For each new SMS, email, or even the latest articles from an RSS Reader, there is always a notification on the home screen; hence you do not lose even a single message.
- There are number of applications available for Android which can be downloaded from Google Play Store, formerly Android Market, for no charge.
- Modify ROM– If you are not satisfied with the standard view of your phone, don’t worry there are many custom ROMs that can be used in your android mobile phones to improve its view.
- Google Maniac– If you are a regular user of Google services ranging from Gmail to Google Reader , the Android phones have been integrated with Google services, so you can quickly log on to Google’s services.
- External Support: Now the number of Android based devices support External port like microSD slot and can read microSD card formatted with Ext3fs or Ext4fs and FAT32 file system.