Android

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 device via Google-developed Java libraries. Applications
written in C and other languages can be compiled to ARM native codeand
run, but this development path isn't officially supported by Google.

The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced

with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of
48 hardware, software, and telecom companies devoted to advancing open
standards for mobile devices. Google released most of the Android code
under the Apache license, a free-software and open source license.

History

In July 2005, Google acquired Android, Inc., a small startup company based
in Palo Alto, CA.[9] Android's co-founders who went to work at Google
included Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger [10]), Rich Miner (co-founder of
Wildfire Communications, Inc.[11]), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile[citation needed]),
and Chris White (one of the first engineers at WebTV[citation needed]). At the time,
little was known about the functions of Android, Inc. other than they made
software for mobile phones.[9] 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.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed] 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.[12][13][14]
More speculation that Google would be entering the mobile-phone market
came in December 2006.[15]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.[16] 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."[17]

In September 2007, InformationWeek covered an Evalueserve study

reporting that Google has filed several patent applications in the area of
mobile telephony. [18][19]

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 andNVIDIA, was unveiled with the goal to develop open
standards for mobile devices.[2]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 version 2.6.[2]

On 9 December 2008, it was announced that 14 new members would be

joining the Android project including: Sony Ericsson, Vodafone Group
Plc, ARM Holdings Plc,Asustek Computer Inc, Toshiba Corp and Garmin Ltd [20]
[21]

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[2].

Open source
Since 21 Oct 2008, Android is available as open source. Google threw open
the entire source code (including network and telephony stacks[22]) that were
not available previously, under an Apache license.[23] Certain parts that relate
to a specific hardware can't be made open and are not considered part of the
Android platform.[citation needed] 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, thebranches could explode using varieties of licenses.

Android had been criticized for not being all open-source software despite
what was announced by Google. Parts of the SDK are proprietary andclosed
source and some believe this is so that Google can control the platform.[24][25]
[26][27]
The Android Software Development Kit License Agreement[28] states
that:

.2 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.

Features

Current features and specifications:[29][30]

Handset layouts
The platform is adaptable to 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 connectivity technologies
including GSM/EDGE, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.
Messaging
 SMS and MMS are available forms of messaging including
threaded text messaging.
Web browser
Main article: WebKit
The web browser available in Android is based on the open-
source WebKit application framework.
Dalvik 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 audio/video/still media formats such as MPEG-
4, H.264, MP3, AAC, OGG, AMR, JPEG, PNG, GIF.
Additional hardware support
Android can utilize 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.
Market
Similar to the App Store on the iPhone, The Android Market is a catalog
of applications that can be downloaded and installed to target
hardware over-the-air, without the use of a PC. Currently only freeware
applications are supported, although Google has announced plans to
allow developers to offer paid applications as well.

Hardware products running Android

Several manufacturers have expressed interest in implementing the Android

platform.
Early prototypes

At least three prototypes were unveiled 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.[citation needed]

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.
[citation needed]

Released
HTC Dream
Main article: HTC Dream

T-Mobile G1

The HTC Dream (also marketed as T-Mobile G1, Era G1 in Poland) is

the first phone to the market that uses the Android platform.[31][32] The
phone is part of an open standards effort of the Open Handset Alliance.
[33]
It was released in the US on October 22, 2008, in the UK on October
30, 2008,[34] in the Netherlands on January 31, 2009,[35] and will be
available in other countries including Singapore, Australia, Germany,
Poland and the Czech Republic in early 2009.[36][37][38][39]

Forthcoming

 In September 2008, Motorola confirmed that it was working on

hardware products that would run Android. [40]

 Huawei Technologies is planning to launch smartphones that

would run Android in Q1 2009.[41]

 Archos is planning to launch a new device, which would combine

significant media capabilities with an Android operating system.[42]
  Lenovo is working on an Android-based mobile phone that
supports the Chinese 3G TD-SCDMA standard.[43]

 HTC is planning a "portfolio" of Android based phones to be

released summer of 2009,[44] including the HTC Magic, unveiled on
17th February 2009 at the 2009 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,
Spain.[45]

 Sony Ericsson is planning to release an Android based handset in

the summer of 2009.[46]

 Samsung plans to offer a phone based on Google's Android

operating system in the second quarter of 2009.[47]

 GiiNii Movit Mini is a Internet device based on Google's Android

operating system.[48]

Postponed

 Kogan Technologies, an Australian technology manufacturer, has

announced Android-compatible handsets: the Kogan Agora and Kogan
Agora Pro. These handsets were scheduled to be released on 29
January 2009. In mid-January 2009, Kogan announced that the release
of the Agora handsets has been delayed indefinitely.[49]

Aftermarket installations

Some users have been able (with some amount of hacking, and with
limited functionality) to install Android on mobile devices shipped with
other OSes:

 The Openmoko phones (Neo FreeRunner and Neo 1973) have

limited support since Google's release of the Android source code on
21 October 2008.[50] As of 4 November 2008, the whole source stack
compiles, with the kernel, user interface and most applications
working, but telephony, SMS, suspend/resume and wifi, which rely on
lower level hardware features, are not fully working.[51][52]

 Motorola A1200 Ming [53]

 HTC Vogue [54]

  Nokia N810 [55][56]

 Nokia n770 [57]

 Asus EEEPC 701[58]

 Asus EEEPC 1000H [59]

Software development

The early feedback on developing applications for the Android platform was
mixed.[60] Issues cited include bugs, lack of documentation, inadequate QA
infrastructure, and no public issue-tracking system. (Google announced an
issue tracker on 18 January 2008.)[61] In December 2007, MergeLab mobile
startup founder Adam MacBeth stated, "Functionality is not there, is poorly
documented or just doesn't work... It's clearly not ready for prime
time."[62] Despite this, Android-targeted applications began to appear already
the week after the platform was announced. The first publicly available
application was the Snake game.[63][64]
[edit]Software development kit

The Android SDK includes a comprehensive set of development tools.

[65]
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
modern desktopLinux 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.[66]

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 [67] 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.[68] 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.
[edit]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. [69][70] 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.[71][72] 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.[73]
[edit]Native code

The ADB debugger gives a root shell under the Android Emulator which
allows native ARM code to be uploaded and executed. ARM code can be
compiled using GCC on a standard PC.[5] Running native code is complicated
by the fact that Android uses a non-standard C library (known as Bionic). The
underlying graphics device is available as a framebuffer at /dev/graphics/fb0.
[74]
The graphics library that Android uses to arbitrate and control access to
this device is called the Skia Graphics Library (SGL), and it has been released
under an open source license.[75]Skia has backends for both win32 and Cairo,
allowing the development of cross-platform applications, and it is the
graphics engine underlying the Google Chrome web browser.[76]
Native classes can be called from Java code running under the Dalvik VM
using the System.loadLibrary call, which is part of the standard Android Java
classes.[77][78]

Elements Interactive B.V. have ported their Edgelib C++ library to Android,
and native code executables of their S-Tris2 game (a Tetris clone) and
Animate3D technology demo are available for download.[79]
[edit]Native code on the T-Mobile G1

Native code can be executed using the ADB debugger, which is run as a
background daemon on the T-Mobile G1.[80] The shell will run with the user ID
of the "shell" user rather than root. When the G1 was first released, it was
quickly discovered that the telnet daemon on the phone is given a uid of 0
(root) when it runs, giving the end user complete access to the device. This
security hole has since been fixed in build RC30 of Android and was pushed
to all devices via an OTA update[81] However, it is still possible
to downgrade to the old firmware in order to exploit the bug and gain root
access to the G1.[82]

The G1 firmware can be updated by flashing from an image stored on

the microSD card.[83] These images are cryptographically signed by either the
phone manufacturer or network carrier.[84]

The G1 Developer Edition allows native code and custom kernels to be run
without any special hacks.

Following the disclosure of a root exploit, Jay Freeman released details of

how to run Android and ARM Debian Linux together on the G1.[85]

Criticism

 Software installed by users must be written in Java utilizing Android's

specific API.

 Compared with Openmoko Linux, which runs the common and

standard X11/Qt/GTK/Glib/Linux, Android runs a customized Linux stack
with no support for GUI libraries other than Skia. Non-GUI libraries are
available pre-compiled as part of the ARM Debian Linux distribution, which
 can be run without modification on the G1. This includes the possibility of
linking to the GNU C library rather than the default Bionic C library.

 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.[86]

TECHNICAL SEMINAR

TOPIC: ANDROID

ABSRACT:
 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 device via Google-
developed Java libraries. Applications written in C and other languages can
be compiled to ARM native codeand run, but this development path isn't
officially supported by Google.
The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was
announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance,a consortium of
48 hardware, software, and telecom companies devoted to advancing open
standards for mobile devices. Google released most of the Android code under
the Apache license, a free-software and open source license