Abhinav Doomra 108335 IT-2 3rd year

Introduction
Android is an operating system for mobile devices such as cellular phones, tablet computers and netbooks. It was initially developed by Android Inc. which was later purchased by Google. Google further formed the open handset alliance

Open Handset Alliance

o The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is a business alliance of 78 firms for developing open standards for mobile devices o Technically the term OPEN STANDARDS refers to a specification whose description is freely available .

oThis means that developers are free to create applications which are valid according to the specification and which will therefore work with software designed for it.

Some major names in OHA

HTC SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS MOTOROLA GOOGLE NVIDIA ELECTRONICS INTEL CORP EBAY SONY ERRICSON

Android is open source.

The source code of the android os is freely available to anyone. Being an open source it has the following advantages
Support Cost Flexibility

ANDROID ARCHITECTURE

LINUX KERNEL

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 LIBRARIES

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. The Dalvik VM relies on the Linux kernel for underlying functionality such as threading and low-level memory management.

LIBRARIES
System C library Media Libraries Surface Manager

1
A BSD-derived implementation of the standard C system library (libc), tuned for embedded Linuxbased devices

It is based on Packet Videos Open CORE; 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

Manages access to the display subsystem and seamlessly composites 2D and 3D graphic layers from multiple applications

LIBRARIES
LibWebCore SGL 3D libraries Free Type SQLite

2
A modern web browser engine which powers both the Android browser and an embeddable web view

The underlying 2D graphics engine

An implementation based on OpenGL ES 1.0 APIs

Bitmap and vector font rendering

A powerful and lightweight relational database engine available to all applications

APPLICATIONS

This is where we find the basic functions of the device such as making phone calls, accessing the Web browser and accessing contacts list ,etc 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.

Dalvik Virtual Machine

The Dalvik VM takes the generated Java class files and combines them into one or more Dalvik Executable (.dex) files. It reuses duplicate information from multiple class files, effectively reducing the space requirement (uncompressed) by half from a traditional .jar file. For example, the .dex file of the web browser app in Android is about 200K, whereas the equivalent uncompressed .jar version is about 500K.

Second, Google has fine-tuned the garbage collection in the Dalvik VM. Finally, the Dalvik VM uses a different kind of assembly-code generation, in which it uses registers as the primary units of data storage instead of the stack.30 % fewer instructions are accomplished as a result. We should point out that the final executable code in Android, as a result of the Dalvik VM, is based not on Java byte code but on .dex files instead.

Android 2.2 FROYO

Released may 2010, the Froyo was the most awaited and rumored edition of the android till date.
The latest Froyo home screen

Data Storage
SQLite, a lightweight relational database, is used for data storage purposes

Android provides a standard way for a application to expose its private data to other applications through content providers Content providers implement a standard syntax for requesting and modifying data, and a standard mechanism for reading the returned data. All the interfaces, classes required for database operations are available in the package android.database.sqlite

Security:
Multiprocess system Linux security Finer security
Android is a multi-process system, in which each application runs in its own process

Most security is enforced at the process level through standard Linux facilities, such as user and group IDs that are assigned to application

Additional finer-grained security features are provided through a "permission" mechanism that enforces restrictions on the specific operations that a particular process can perform (by default no application can perform tasks that impact other applications)

Connectivity

GSM,EDGE,IDEN,CDMA,UMTS,Bluetooth,Wi-Fi,WiMAX

Messaging

SMS and MMS are available forms of messaging, including threaded text messaging and now Android Cloud to Device Messaging Framework (C2DM) is also a part of Android Push Messaging service.

Hardware support Voice Based Features

Android can use video/still cameras, touchscreens, GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, proximity and pressure sensors, thermometers, accelerated 2D bit blits (with hardware orientation, scaling, pixel format conversion) and accelerated 3D graphics.

Google search through Voice is available as Search Input Voice actions supported on Android 2.2 onwards.

Upgradations :

Adobe Flash: Android 2.2 comes bundled with Adobe Flash 10.1, the latest and greatest version of Flash. Handsets running Android 2.2 will have full access to the webs flash content, including websites like PopCap games and Farmville.

Just In Time compiler:

Android 2.2 comes packaged with a little piece of code called the just in time (JIT) compiler. A JIT compiler will increase the speed of Android and its applications by translating their code into a form thats much faster for your phone to run.

BROWSER BOOST UP !!
Froyos browser supports latest adobe flash. A new javascript engine dubbed as V8 renders executions of javascript upto two to three times faster

New Developer Services

CLOUD TO DEVICE COMPUTING : Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) makes it easier for mobile applications to sync data with servers. Many of the Google applications on Android already use push to keep their data fresh, for example Gmail, Contacts, and Calendar. Starting with Android 2.2, C2DM allows third-party developers to use the same service.

To enable C2DM, an application on the device registers with Google and get a registration ID, and sends the ID to its server. When the server needs to push a message to the app on the device, it posts the message via HTTP to Googles C2DM servers. The C2DM servers route the message to the device, and an Intent broadcast is sent to the app. The app is woken up to process the message in its Intent Receiver.

Future Aspects

Google android operating system can be used in netbooks : Netbooks are now the fastest growing segment of the PC market, they are portable, functional and comparatively inexpensive. It would make easier for users of Android powered phones to share information between pc.

SONY

Sony Ericsson to introduce Android 3.0 gaming platform and PSP like smartphone

SONY

Contd.

Will have a 1GHz CPU It's a landscape slider with game controls in place of the typical QWERTY keyboard. The device will be running Gingerbread (Android 3.0) with a phone-specific skin. There will be a new area of the Android Market specifically for the games.

Some interesting APPS

LETS TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF INNOVATIVE APPLICATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED FOR THE ANDROID

Virtual qwerty with SWYPE technology

This application produces a virtual qwerty for the user It has an additional feature that you dont have to lift your finger from the screen inorder to type a word The word is automatically guessed, based upon the characters travelled across

WI-FI HOTSPOT

An application lets you turn your phone into a wi-fi hotspot. It enables sharing of your high speed 3g data network over upto five devices

LAYAR REALITY BROWSER

The Layar Reality Browser shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of the real world as seen through the camera of your mobile phone Layar works by using a combination of the mobile phones camera, compass and GPS data to identify the users location and field of view, retrieve data based on those geographical coordinates, and overlay that data over the camera view.

Conclusion
Android is a big revolution in the field of operating system. Its custom virtual machine optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment.; it can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. The open source platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications

Refer www.google.com :P