ANDROID

SUBMITTED BY
RESMY BABY
1ST YEAR M-TECH
REG NO 08DI005
NIE
 ABSTRACT

Android is a software platform and operating system for mobile devices, based on
the Linux kernel, developed by Google and later the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to
write managed code in the Java language, controlling the phone via Google-developed Java libraries,
but does not support programs developed in native code.

The unveiling of the android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced with
the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware, software, and telecom
companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices Google has made most of the
Android platform available under the Apache free-software and open source license.

More speculation that Google would be entering the mobile-phone market came in
December 2006. Reports from the BBC and The Wall Street Journal noted that Google wanted its
search and applications on mobile phones and it was working hard to deliver that. Print and online
media outlets soon reported rumors that Google was developing a Google-branded handset.[14] More
speculation followed reporting that as Google was defining technical specifications, it was showing
prototypes to cell phone manufacturers and network operators. As many as 30 prototype phones are
reported to be operating "in the wild."

HISTORY

In July 2005, Google acquired Android, Inc., a small startup company based in Palo Alto,
CA. Android's co-founders who went to work at Google included Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger),
Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications, Inc.), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile, and
Chris White (one of the first engineers at WebTV. At the time, little was known about the functions of
Android, Inc. other than they made software for mobile phones. This began rumors that Google was
planning to enter the mobile phone market, although it was unclear what function it might perform in
that market

At Google, the team, led by Rubin, developed a Linux-based mobile device OS which
they marketed to handset makers and carriers on the premise of providing a flexible, upgradeable
system. It was reported that Google had already lined up a series of hardware component and software
partners and signaled to carriers that it was open to various degrees of cooperation on their part.

More speculation that Google would be entering the mobile-phone market came in
December 2006. Reports from the BBC and The Wall Street Journal noted that Google wanted its
search and applications on mobile phones and it was working hard to deliver that. Print and online
media outlets soon reported rumors that Google was developing a Google-branded handset.[14] More
speculation followed reporting that as Google was defining technical specifications, it was showing
prototypes to cell phone manufacturers and network operators. As many as 30 prototype phones are
reported to be operating "in the wild."

OPEN HANDSET ALLIANCE FOUNDED

On 5 November 2007, the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of several companies

which include Google, HTC, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel and NVIDIA, was
unveiled with the goal to develop open standards for mobile devices. Along with the formation of the
Open Handset Alliance, the OHA also unveiled their first product, Android, a mobile device platform
built on the Linux kernel.

Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt took a moment in the official press release to
dispel all previous rumors and speculation about the existence of a stand-alone Google phone.

FEATURES

Current features and specifications:

Handset layouts

The platform is adaptable to both larger, VGA, 2D graphics library, 3D graphics library
based on OpenGL ES 1.0 specifications, and traditional smartphone layouts.

Storage

The Database Software SQLite is used for data storage purposes

Connectivity

Android supports a wide variety of connectivity technologies including GSM/EDGE,

CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.
Messaging

SMS, MMS, and XMPP are available forms of messaging including threaded text
messaging. The XMPP implementation is based on Jive Software's Smack

Java virtual machine

Software written in Java can be compiled into Dalvik bytecodes and executed in the Dalvik
virtual machine, which is a specialized VM implementation designed for mobile device use,
although not technically a standard Java Virtual Machine.

Media support

Android will support advanced audio/video/still media formats such as MPEG-4, H.264,
MP3, AAC, OGG, AMR, JPEG, PNG, GIF.

Additional hardware support

Android is fully capable of utilizing video/still cameras, touchscreens, GPS,

accelerometers, and accelerated 3D graphics.

Development environment

Includes a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance profiling, a
plugin for the Eclipse IDE.

HARDWARE PRODUCTS RUNNING ANDROID

Several manufacturers have expressed interest in implementing the Android platform.

Prototypes

Google has unveiled at least three prototypes for Android at the Mobile World Congress on
12 February 2008. One prototype at the ARM booth displayed several basic Google applications. A 'd-
pad' controls zooming of items in the dock with a relatively quick response.

A prototype at the Google IO conference on May 28, 2008 had a 528 MHz Qualcomm processor and a
Synaptics capacitive touchscreen and used the UMTS cellular standard. It had a 128 MB of RAM and
256 MB of flash. The demo was carried out using a 3.6 Mbit/s HSDPA connection.

T-Mobile G1 smartphone

T-Mobile announced in August 2008 that they would deliver the first production
smartphone — the HTC Dream (now known as the G1) — to use Google's Android software.[28] The
device received FCC approval in August 2008. The android-powered smartphone was available to
consumers from 22 October 2008 onwards, with a price tag of $179, subject to a two year contract.

The website for the G1, the name of the first Google Android phone running on T-
Mobile, went live on September 23, 2008.

Software development kit

 The Android SDK includes a comprehensive set of development tools. These include a
debugger, libraries, a handset emulator (based on QEMU), documentation, sample code, and tutorials).
Currently supported development platforms include x86-based computers running Linux (any Linux
Distribution), Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later, Windows XP or Vista. Requirements also include Java
Development Kit, Apache Ant, and Python 2.2 or later. The officially supported integrated
development environment (IDE) is Eclipse (3.2 or later) using the Android Development Tools (ADT)
Plugin, though developers may use any text editor to edit Java and XML files then use command line
tools to create, build and debug Android applications.

A preview release of the Android software development kit (SDK) was released on 12
November 2007. On 15 July 2008, the Android Developer Challenge Team accidentally sent an email
to all entrants in the Android Developer Challenge announcing that a new release of the SDK was
available in a "private" download area. The email was intended for winners of the first round of the
Android Developer Challenge. The revelation that Google was supplying new SDK releases to some
developers and not others (and keeping this arrangement private) has led to widely reported frustration
within the Android developer community.

On 18 August 2008 the Android 0.9 SDK beta was released. This release provides an
updated and extended API, improved development tools and an updated design for the home screen.
Detailed instructions for upgrading are available to those already working with an earlier release. On
23 September 2008 the Android 1.0 SDK (Release 1) was released. According to the release notes, it
included "mainly bug fixes, although some smaller features were added". It also included several API
changes from the 0.9 version.

Android Developer Challenge

The Android Developer Challenge was a competition for the most innovative
application for Android. Google offered prizes totaling 10 million US dollars, distributed between two
phases of the competition. The first phase accepted submissions from 2 January to 14 April 2008. The
50 most promising entries, announced on 12 May 2008, each received a $25,000 award to fund further
development. The second phase ended in early September with the announcement of ten teams that
received $275,000 each, and ten teams that received $100,000 each.

Open source

Since 21 Oct 2008, Android is available as open source. Certain parts that relate to
a specific hardware can't be made open and are not considered part of the Android
platform. With Apache License, vendors are free to add proprietary extensions
without submitting those back to the open source community. While Google's
contributions to this platform are expected to remain open-sourced, the branches
could explode using varieties of licenses.

CRITICISM

Android had been criticized for not being all open-source software despite what was
announced by Google. Parts of the SDK are proprietary and closed source and some believe this is so
that Google can control the platform. The Android Software Development Kit License Agreement
states that:
 You agree that Google (or Google's licensors) own all legal right, title and interest in and
to the SDK, including any intellectual property rights which subsist in the SDK. Use, reproduction and
distribution of components of the SDK licensed under an open source software license are governed
solely by the terms of that open source software license and not by this License Agreement. Until the
SDK is released under an open source license, you may not extract the source code or create a
derivative work of the SDK.

However, Google has since announced that all parts of the OS will be released under the
Apache License where applicable and under the GPL elsewhere. Google's applications that interact
with Google's systems, such as their email service, are not open source.

One day before T-Mobile G1 went on sale, on 21st Oct 2008, Google threw open the entire source code
(including network and telephony stacks) that were not available previously under a Apache license.

Also, at least for now, software installed by users must be written in Java and will not have
access to lower level device APIs. This provides end-users with less control over their phone's
functionality than other free and open source phone platforms, such as Openmoko.

Another issue is related to Android's disregard of established Java standards, i.e. Java SE and ME. This
prevents compatibility among Java applications written for those platforms and those for the Android
platform. Android only reuses the Java language syntax, but does not provide the full-class libraries
and APIs bundled with Java SE or ME, instead using the Apache Harmony Java implementation.

It has also come to light that some functionality will be reserved for approved applicationsmaking it
impossible for 3rd parties to develop some types of application to compete with pre-install applications
such as Marketplace.

ANDROID ARCHITECTURE
The following diagram shows the major components of the Android operating system. Each
section is described in more detail below.

APPLICATIONS
Android will ship with a set of core applications including an email client, SMS program,
calendar, maps, browser, contacts, and others. All applications are written using the Java programming
language.
APPLICATION FRAMEWORK
Developers have full access to the same framework APIs used by the core applications.
The application architecture is designed to simplify the reuse of components; any application can
publish its capabilities and any other application may then make use of those capabilities (subject to
security constraints enforced by the framework). This same mechanism allows components to be
replaced by the user.
Underlying all applications is a set of services and systems, including:
• A rich and extensible set of Views that can be used to build an
application, including lists, grids, text boxes, buttons, and even an
embeddable web browser
• Content Providers that enable applications to access data from
other applications (such as Contacts), or to share their own data
• A Resource Manager, providing access to non-code resources
such as localized strings, graphics, and layout files
• A Notification Manager that enables all applications to display
custom alerts in the status bar
• An Activity Manager that manages the life cycle of applications
and provides a common navigation backstack
LIBRARIES
Android includes a set of C/C++ libraries used by various components of the Android
system. These capabilities are exposed to developers through the Android application framework.
Some of the core libraries are listed below:
• System C library - a BSD-derived implementation of the standard C system library (libc),
tuned for embedded Linux-based devices
• Media Libraries - based on PacketVideo's OpenCORE; the libraries support playback and
recording of many popular audio and video formats, as well as static image files, including
MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, and PNG
• Surface Manager - manages access to the display subsystem and seamlessly composites 2D
and 3D graphic layers from multiple applications
• LibWebCore - a modern web browser engine which powers both the Android browser and an
embeddable web view
• SGL - the underlying 2D graphics engine
• 3D libraries - an implementation based on OpenGL ES 1.0 APIs; the libraries use either
hardware 3D acceleration (where available) or the included, highly optimized 3D software
rasterizer
• FreeType - bitmap and vector font rendering
• SQLite - a powerful and lightweight relational database engine available to all applications.

ANDROID RUNTIME
Android includes a set of core libraries that provides most of the functionality available in
the core libraries of the Java programming language.
Every Android application runs in its own process, with its own instance of the Dalvik virtual machine.
Dalvik has been written so that a device can run multiple VMs efficiently. The Dalvik VM executes
files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format which is optimized for minimal memory footprint. The

VM is register-based, and runs classes compiled by a Java language compiler that have
been transformed into the .dex format by the included "dx" tool.The Dalvik VM relies on the Linux
kernel for underlying functionality such as threading and low-level memory management.
LINUX KERNAL
Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core system services such as security, memory
management, process management, network stack, and driver model. The kernel also acts as an
abstraction layer between the hardware and the rest of the software stack.
ANDROID SDK
Android software development kit (SDK) version 1.0 was released on September 24, 2008.
This is the first stable release of the Android platform and should allow developers to prepare
applications for commercially available handsets. The Android SDK is available for Windows, Mac
OS X, and Linux and includes tools as well as an Android emulator to run applications.
 Previously released Android SDK introduced many of the features of the new version. Some
features, e.g. Bluetooth and GTalk APIs, were dropped from Android SDK 1.0. Android itself is based
on a Linux 2.6.25 kernel, with a Dalvik virtual machine to run Java applications, the development
language for Android applications. The open source release of the Android operating system code is,
according to Dan Morrill, Android Developer Advocate, due from the Open Handset Alliance by the
end of the year.

The emulator is standalone and can be run in order to give users and developers a chance to
interact with the operating system found on Android handsets. To try the emulator, download the
Android SDK, open a terminal or command line, go to the tools directory, and run the emulator
application. The emulator may give an error saying a data directory does not exist. If it does, create the
directory mentioned in the error and run the emulator again.

It should be noted that applications prepared with beta versions of the Android SDK cannot
be installed on handsets. Such applications need to be adapted to Android SDK 1.0.
CONCLUSION
The Android Developer Challenge was a competition for the most innovative application
for Android. Google offered prizes totaling 10 million US dollars, distributed between two phases of
the competition. The first phase accepted submissions from 2 January to 14 April 2008. The 50 most
promising entries, announced on 12 May 2008, each received a $25,000 award to fund further
development. The second phase ended in early September with the announcement of ten teams that
received $275,000 each, and ten teams that received $100,000 each.