Introduction to Android

How Android started

Android is an operating system for mobile
devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. It is developed by the
Open Handset Alliance led by Google. It's is built on a Linux foundation.
Google purchased the initial developer of the software, Android Inc., in
2005. The unveiling of the Android distribution on November 5, 2007 was
announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of
84 hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to
advancing open standards for mobile devices.
This alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices
and giving consumers a far better user experience than much of what is
available on today's mobile platforms. By providing developers a new level of
openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android will
accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made
available to consumers. Android is often symbolized by the green robot to
the right.
Android has evolved rapidly since its launch. Google has named all projects
after a dessert. The main releases are listed below, this is nothing you have
to memorize, it's just to illustrate the rapid pace of development and all the
innovations. Android is developed "on Internet time", that is much faster
than the old style of development (for example Windows releases which are
typically several years apart).
Release Date Main features
1.5 Cupcake 04/2009 3rd party keyboards, Widgets, video recording
1.6 Donut 09/2009
Voice search, text to speech, higher screen
resolution, turn by turn navigation
2.0/2.1 Eclair
10/2009,
01/2010
Better sync, Exchange support, camera flash,
Bluetooth 2.1, improved Calendar, Browser
Support for more screen sizes
2.2 Froyo 05/2010
improved performance, WiFi hotspot, better
application launcher, apps on SD card, improved
Market and update process.
2.3
Gingerbread
12/2010
improved copy/paste, native VoIP calling,
improved input, NFC support, front-facing
camera, better power management
3.0, 3.1, 3.2
Honeycomb
02/2011,
05/2011,
07/2011
Tablet-only version, System/Action bars,
enhanced multi-tasking, better copy/paste, two-
pane Calendar/Gmail/Contacts, Gallery, HW
acceleration, multi-core CPU support. USB
hosting, joysticks, gamepads, UI refinements,
performance improvements, compatibility for
non-tablet apps
4.0 Ice
Cream
Sandwich
10/2011
Support for both phones & tablets, virtual
buttons, resizable widgets, easier-to-create
folders, customizable launcher, major UI
improvements, integrated screenshot capture,
better voice integration, face unlock, tabbed
browser, synch with Chrome, data usage
monitor, built-in photo editor, Android Beam,
People app
As you can see there have been around 2 major releases per year. An
interesting observation is that all releases have had codenames after
desserts in alphabetical order (Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo etc). The next
Android version after Ice Cream Sandwhich is rumored to be called "Jelly
Bean".
Flavors of Android
You saw above that the Android releases have been named after various
desserts. So it's only natural that there are several flavors of Android! The
Android platform is made available under developer-friendly open-source
licenses, which gives device manufacturers and mobile operators significant
freedom and flexibility to design products. That flexibility also means there
are several different "flavors" of Android. The biggest device manufacturers
often put their own "skin" on top of Android, which means the User
Interface on a phone or tablet from one manufacturer may be different
than the UI from another. Here are some examples:
Interface Phone/Manufacturer
"Vanilla" Nexus One, Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus
TouchWiz Samsung
Sense HTC
Blur/Motoblur Motorola
UX Sony Ericsson
"Vanilla" interface means it's an unmodified version of Google's Android. The
Nexus series (HTC made the Nexus One, Samsung made the Nexus S and
Galaxy Nexus) use this version, so if you get a Nexus phone you'll get
updates faster than for other phones which use some of the heavier
modifications. Some manufacturers, e.g. Huawei, ZTE, Acer and LG have
done some light additions to Android, often in the form of additional apps.
Arguably HTC's Sense is the version that has the largest additions to the
basic Android system.
If it's important for you to get timely updates then you may want to search
some of the many Android Forums and check the manufacturer's track-
record.
Below are examples of the home screens for the "vanilla" Android 2.3 and
4.0 as well as the most common "skins", TouchWiz and Sense. As you can
see, TouchWiz and Sense have put a lot of content on their home screens,
the "vanilla" versions are more plain and leave it to you to add apps, widgets
and shortcuts to your home screen. From Android 3.0 the navigation buttons
are actually part of the screen.
This variety and flexibility is certainly part of Android's strength, you're not
just staring with a static icon set. Even the wallpaper in Android can be live!
But this makes it more challenging to make a guide like this. So we'll mostly
stick to the "vanilla" layout when the operations are explained.
Android 2.3 Android 4.0
Samsung
TouchWiz
HTC Sense

Here is an example of the home screen for an Android tablet (Asus
Transformer):

Technical details
If you're not too
interested in the technical details, you can skip this section. Google released
most of the Android code under the Apache License, a free software
license.[14] The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is tasked with the
maintenance and further development of Android. Android consists of a
kernel based on the Linux kernel, with middleware, libraries and APIs written
in C and application software running on an application framework which
includes Java-compatible libraries based on Apache Harmony. Android uses
the Dalvik virtual machine with just-in-time compilation to run compiled Java
code. Android has a large community of developers writing applications
("apps") that extend the functionality of the devices. Developers write
primarily in a customized version of Java. There are currently more than
520,000 apps available for Android. Apps can be downloaded from third-
party sites or through online stores such as Android Market, the app store
run by Google.