What is Android?

What is Android?
Android is a software stack for mobile devices. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java programming language. Android delivers a complete set of software for mobile devices. The software includes an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications. Middleware is computer software that connects software components or applications.

The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact.

What is Android?
In July of 2005, Google acquired Android, Inc. a small company based in California, USA. When Google took over little was known about the function of Android, Inc. the only thing that was known was that they made software for mobile phones. Today we see that Google has been very busy incorporating the use of Android to create a new mobile phone which is now available through T-mobile and many others. The very first phone to run the Android Operating System was the HTC Dream, which was released on October 22, 2008.

Android history timeline

July 2005 Google purchased a little known company called Android Inc. November 12th, 2007 Early look SDK released August 28th, 2008 Android Market announced September 23rd, 2008 Android 1.0 SDK release Developers have access to first 1.0 compatible SDK.

November 5th, 2007 Open Handset Alliance announces Android

April 17th, 2008 Android Developer Challenge I. $5 million in total awarded to developers for great Android applications

September 23rd, 2008 T-Mobile G1 World's first Android-powered phone announced.

October 21st, 2008 Android Open Source Project Source code is released

Android Architecture
This diagram shows the major components of the Android operating system.

Android Platform Highlights

The Android platform introduces many features for users and developers. Below is a list of the new features which will make Android even better! Performance Improvements Faster Camera start-up and image capture Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS) Smoother page scrolling in Browser Speedier GMail conversation list scrolling

New Features On-screen soft keyboard Works in both portrait and landscape orientation Support for user installation of 3rd party keyboards User dictionary for custom words Home screen Widgets Bundled home screen widgets include: analog clock, calendar, music player, picture frame, and search Live folders Camera & Gallery Video recording Video playback (MPEG-4 & 3GP formats) Bluetooth Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles) Auto-pairing Improved hands free experience

Continued New Features

Browser Updated with latest Webkit browser JavaScript engines Copy 'n paste in browser Search within a page User-selectable text-encoding UI changes include: Unified Go and Search box Tabbed bookmarks/history/most-visited screen Contacts Shows user picture for Favorites Specific date/time stamp for events in call log One-touch access to a contact card from call log event System New Linux kernel SD card file system auto-checking and repair SIM Application Toolkit 1.0 Google applications (Android SDK) View Google Talk friends' status in Contacts, SMS, MMS, GMail, and Email applications Batch actions such as archive, delete, and label on Gmail messages Upload videos to YouTube Upload photos on Picasa

Getting Started with Android Apps

Android uses the java programming language and for anyone who has learned Java the Hello World example is a good reminder of that very first class or online tutoring session. First you will need to download the Android SDK kit and if you are using Eclipse install the ADT Plug-in, this is very easy and all of the information you need to do this can be found at http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html. Below is an example of the Hello World program. You will see that the coding is similar to that of java but not exactly the same. You can also see that it is fairly simple and this makes everyone happy package com.example.helloandroid; import android.app.Activity; import android.os.Bundle; public class HelloAndroid extends Activity { /** Called when the activity is first created. */ @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); } }

Running your application

Using Eclipse (probably your best choice) the ADT plug-in that you install makes it very easy and simple to run your applications. 1. Select run -> run 2. Select Android Application The Eclipse ADT will automatically create a new run configuration for your project and the Android Emulator will automatically launch. Once the emulator is booted up, your application will appear and should look like this:

Running your application

You can see that this process is very Simple, Quick, Convenient and Easy. This is one reason why Android is such a great Application development kit. If you prefer not to use Eclipse don't worry because the Android SDK includes a tool named "android" that can be used to create all the source code and directory stubs for your project, as well as an antcompatible build.xml file. This allows you to build your project from the command line, or integrate it with the IDE of your choice. So many Options!!!

Conclusion
In conclusion, Android seems to be the future of mobile OS's and mobile software Development. In today's increasingly complicated technology this OS just adds to all of the fun, making phones cooler and development easier. It also seems as though Android could easily move its way into the market from phones to netbooks and desktops as developers become more accustomed with it, and this will only create more business.

Currently there are about 20 Android phones available on the market with more than 75 million Android handsets forecasted by 2012. This statistic is very impressive and proves that there is indeed a bright future for Android.

Conclusion
Since Android is an open source (meaning it is available to anyone) developers and handset manufacturers have full access to it. This means that developers and manufacturers all over the world are taking advantage of the Android operating system. This also means that the Business should grow very rapidly!

Go Android Go!!!!!!!!

Bibliography
Below is a list of all of the websites I used in the making of this report: http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html http://www.android.com/about/timeline.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#History

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/19/android-galore-acomplete-list-of-the-android-phones-and-their-specs-droid-best/
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/wireless/TCH_WIR/ 597621-43529102