Android : Popular Operating System An Overview
Android was built and developed by the Google and invented by Andy Rubin, Nick Sears, Rich Minor. It is the operating system which is based on the Linux Kernel enable the developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. It was primarily designed for the touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.It includes everything a manufacturer or operator needs to build a mobile phone.
Google has developed the many Android system like Android TV for television, Android Wear for Watches, Android Auto for Cars and some other variants of Android are also used on notebooks, game consoles, digital camera and other electronics. The user interface of Android is based on direct manipulation of data, using touch gestures like swiping , tapping, pinching and also the virtual keyboard for text input.
Android was initially developed by the Android Inc. and in 2005 it was bought by the Google but it was unveiled in 2007. The first commercial Android device was launched in 2008 after that it has been updated many times and the current version is 7.0 Nougat which is recently released in 2016. Nowadays Android has 2.7 million apps which can be easily downloaded from the Google Play Store. It for this reason Android is the best selling operating system and runs on the vast variety of smartphones and tablets.Currently Android had 1.4 billion monthly active users and it is the largest installed base of any operating system.
Android is popular with technology companies that requires low cost and customizable operating system for high-tech devices. Google released the Android’s source code under the open source licence and the shipment of most of its devices is done with the combination of free and open source software. .By the open nature has encouraged a large community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open-source code for delivering updates to older devices, add new features for advanced users. Previously Android devices has issues with the security hence majority of devices did not receive security patches but due to recent developments Android has made it a target for patent and copyright litigation as part of the so-called success of smartphone wars between technology companies.
Features Of Android
Interface
By default the Android has a friendly user interface that is based on the direct manipulation and it accepts the touch inputs hence it allows the real time functions such as tapping, pinching and swiping through the virtual keyboard. .This type of user interface is designed to provide touch facility , vibrations capabilities of the device to provide hap tic feedback to the user. Accelerometers, proximity sensors and gyroscopes are some of the hardware applications that are used by the users, for example adjusting the screen from portrait to landscape depending on how the device is oriented it also allow the user to steer a vehicle in a racing game by rotating the device.
Android devices are analogous to the desktop found on personal computers. Android homescreen are typically made up of app icons and widgets, app icons are used to launch the associated app whereas widget are used to display live and auto update such as weather forecast, user’s email box. etc. A homescreen may be made up of several pages, between which the user can swipe back and froth. Apps available on Google Play and other app stores can extensively re-theme the homescreen and even mimic the look of operating systems such as Windows Phone.At the top of screen is a status bar which shows the information about the device and its connectivity and user can check the notification that apps displays.
With the beginning of ‘Android 4.1 Jelly Bean’ expandable notifications enables the user to tap icon on the notification in order to expand and display more information and possible app actions right from the notification. On the App screen all installed applications are listed and from there users can drag an app from the list onto the home screen.An the users can check or switch between recently used apps from the recent screen.
Android Applications
In order to Write the Android application Android Software development Kit (SDK) is used which uses the Java programming sometime it is combined with the C/C++.It includes the set of some development tools which includes a debugger, software, libraries, a handset emulator based on QEMU, documentation, sample code, and tutorials. Google releases the Android studio based on the IntelliJ IDEA as its primary IDE for Android application development. Other development tools includes the Google App Inventor a visual environment for novice programmers, and various cross platform mobile web application frameworks. Google developed a framework based on Apache Cordova for porting ChromeHTML 5 web application to Android.
Android allows the access of third party applications which can be acquired by the user to download and install the appliacation by using app store it also allows the users to install, update and remove applications from their devices. Google Play Store is compatible with Android devices and allows the users to browse, download and update applications published by Google and third-party developers. There are more than one million applications available for Android in Play Store. As the Android is open to all hence a number of third party application marketplaces also exists for Android. They provide substitute for devices that are not allowed to ship with the Google Play Stores as some of them offend the privacy policy of Google. Some of the third party store are Amazon Appstore, Getjar and SlideMe. For those who seeks to provide application that are distributed under free and open source licences their is another alternative marketplace, F-Droid.
Equal Access To All Types Of Applications
Android provide Broad spectrum of applications and services to the users as in this all the phone’s core application and other third party application are equally well accessible by the user.The devices which are maintained in the Android Platform users are able to fully explore their phone according to their interest. They also able to give command to their Android devices to use their favorite photo viewing applications.
Access Of Application Is Easy & Fast and Beyond The Boundaries
Android provides the fast access to wide range of useful libraries and tools that are used to build the large number of applications. For example Android enables the developers to obtain the location of devices and allow them to communicate with one another enabling rich peer–to–peer social applications.Android provides the built in tools which enables the developers to provide high productivity and deep insight into their application.Android breaks down all the barriers and allows to build new and innovative applications. For example a developer can obtain information from the web and combine them to their mobile phone’s data like user’s contacts, calendar, geographic location etc. It provides a more user relevant experience.With this the user can view location of their friends and get notification when they are in the close vicinity of their friends.
Memory management & Virtual reality
Android automatically manages the application stored in memory , if their is less memory the system will begin invisibly and automatically closes the inactive processes starting with those that have been inactive for the longest. Lifehacker reported in 2011 that third party task killers were doing more harm than good. Android devices are powered by the battery and designed to manages processes to keep power consumption at a minimum.
Google announced Daydream, a virtual reality platform at the Google I/O on May 2016. It relies on a smartphone and provides VR capabilities through a virtual reality headset and controller designed by Google itself.The platform is built into Android starting with Android Nougat differentiating from standalone support for VR capabilities. The software is available for developers, and was released in 2016.
