What is Android

What is Android Application

One of the most widely used mobile OS these days is ANDROID. Android is a software bunch comprising not only operating system but also middleware and key applications. Android Inc was founded in Palo Alto of California, U.S. by Andy Rubin, Rich miner, Nick sears and Chris White in 2003. Later Android Inc. was acquired by Google in 2005. After original release there have been number of updates in the original version of Android.

Android is a powerful Operating System supporting a large number of applications in Smart Phones. These applications make life more comfortable and advanced for the users. Hardwares that support Android are mainly based on ARM architecture platform.

Applications

These are the basics of Android applications:

• Android applications are composed of one or more application components (activities, services, content providers, and broadcast receivers)

• Each component performs a different role in the overall application behavior, and each one can be activated individually (even by other applications)

• The manifest file must declare all components in the application and should also declare all application requirements, such as the minimum version of Android required and any hardware configurations required

• Non-code application resources (images, strings, layout files, etc.) should include alternatives for different device configurations (such as different strings for different languages)

Google, for software development and application development, had launched two competitions ADC1 and ADC2 for the most innovative applications for Android. It offered prizes of USD 10 million combined in ADC1 and 2. ADC1 was launched in January 2008 and ADC 2 was launched in May 2009. These competitions helped Google a lot in making Android better, more user friendly, advanced and interactive.

Particulars		Description
Android 1.1		Support for saving attachments for MMS, Marquee in layouts, API changes
Android 1.5 cupcake		Bluetooth A2DP and AVRCP support, uploading videos to You Tube and pictures to Picasa
Android 1.6 Donut		WVGA screen resolution support, Google free turn by turn support
Android 2.0/1 Eclair		HTML 5 File support, Microsoft Exchange server, Bluetooth 2.1
Android 2.2 Froyo		USB Tethering,Wi-Fi hotspot functionality, Adobe Flash 10.1 Support
Android 2.3 Gingerbird		Multi touch software keyboard, Support for extra large screen sizes and resolution
Android 3.0 Honeycomb		Optimized Table support with new User Interface, 3D Desktop, Video Chat and Gtalk support
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich		Separation of widgets in a new tab, listed in a similar manner to apps, Ability to access apps directly from lock screen, Android VPN Framework (AVF), and TUN (but not TAP) kernel module. Prior to 4.0, VPN software required rooted Android.
Android 4.1 JellyBean		Bi-directional text and other language support, Bluetooth data transfer for Android Beam, Abillity for other launchers to add widgets from the app drawer without requiring root access, Stock Android browser is replaced with the Android mobile version of Google Chrome in devices with Android 4.1 preinstalled
Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie		No detail available, Expected version, Unconfirmed