AN OPEN HANDSET ALLIANCE PROJECT

Meaning of the term : (in science fiction) A robot with a human appearance Android is one of the most widely used mobile OS Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. It is an open-source platform developed under the Open Handset Alliance to enable faster development of mobile applications and provision of services to the user.

No name 1.0 and 1.1 versions

An update of Android, version 1.1, was released in February 2009 based on the Linux kernel, to be used by the Open Handset Alliance, a group of 65 different hardware maker, carriers, and other mobile-related companies.

Android 1.5, i.e. Cupcake

Google decided to make it a major revision and made it 1.5 instead, and gave it the dessert name "cupcake"

Android 1.6, i.e. Donut

Android V1.6, codename Donut, was released in September 2009. It fixed reboot errors in the OS as well as revamped photo and video features (i.e. camera interface) and better search integration. It also added support for larger screen size, and is the first version to offer Google turn-by-turn navigation feature.

Android 2.0 / 2.1, Eclair

Android 2.0 was released in October 2009, with a bugfix version 2.0.1 in December 2009. Android 2.1 was released January of 2010. Most people consider them a single release. Added features include Bluetooth 2.1 support, flash and digital zoom for the camera, multi-touch support, live wallpapers, and more.

Android 2.2, i.e. Froyo

Android 2.2 mainly improved speed by adopting the Javascript "just-in-time" compiler engine from the Google browser "Chrome", as well as improved browser support by adding animated GIF support, Flash 10.1 plug-in support, along with USB tethering and Wi-Fi Hotspot capability Android 1.6,

Android 2.3/ 2.4, GingerBread

Gingerbread features support for SIP internet calling, NFC wireless transaction capability (if hardware is present), support for more than one camera, support for gyroscope and other sensors (barometer, gravimeter, and others are possible), download manager, some tweaks to

allow usage on Tablets, and other system level weaks for programmers.

Android 3.0/3.1/3.2 HoneyComb

Honeycomb was released in February 2011, and was rapidly followed by 3.1 and 3.2 which only came out in July / August 2011. Which was mainly for Android Tablets.

Android 4.0, IceCream Sandwich

The SDK for Android 4.0.1 was publicly released on 19 October 2011. Enhanced speed and performance , Easier-to-create folders, with a drag-and-drop style , Improved visual voicemail , Ability to shut down apps that are using data in the background etc.

Android 4.0, IceCream Sandwich

The SDK for Android 4.0.1 was publicly released on 19 October 2011. Enhanced speed and performance , Easier-to-create folders, with a drag-and-drop style , Improved visual voicemail , Ability to shut down apps that are using data in the background etc.

Android 4.0, IceCream Sandwich

The SDK for Android 4.0.1 was publicly released on 19 October 2011. Enhanced speed and performance , Easier-to-create folders, with a drag-and-drop style , Improved visual voicemail , Ability to shut down apps that are using data in the background etc.

Next Releases
Jelly Bean Key Lime Pie

Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices Integrated browser based on the open source Webkit engine Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional) SQLite for structured data storage Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF) GSM Telephony (hardware dependent) Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware dependent) Camera, GPS Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE

Developers are free to take advantage of the device hardware, access location information, run background services, set alarms, add notifications to the status bar, and much, much more. 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 lifecycle of applications and provides a common navigation backstack

The Activity class takes care of creating a window for you in which you can place your UI with setContentView(View). While activities are often presented to the user as full-screen windows, they can also be used in other ways: as floating windows (via a theme withwindowIsFloating set) or embedded inside of another activity (using ActivityGroup). There are two methods almost all subclasses of Activity will implement: onCreate(Bundle) is where you initialize your activity. Most importantly, here you will usually callsetContentView(int) with a layout resource defining your UI, and using findViewById(int) to retrieve the widgets in that UI that you need to interact with programmatically. onPause() is where you deal with the user leaving your activity. Most importantly, any changes made by the user should at this point be committed (usually to the ContentProvider holding the data). To be of use with Context.startActivity(), all activity classes must have a corresponding <activity> declaration in their package's AndroidManifest.xml.

A set of C/C++ libraries used by various components of the Android system. System C library - a BSD-derived implementation of the standard C system library (libc), tuned for embedded Linux-based devices Media Libraries - 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 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.

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.

Eclipse Galileo

http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/release/galileo/r The Eclipse SDK consists of the Eclipse Platform, Java development tools and the Plug-in Development Environment. The Eclipse Platform is a multi-language software development environment comprising an integrated development environment (IDE) and an extensible plug-in system.

http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html

Android Development Toolkit (ADT) https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/