A brief about android

Introduction

Android is a Linux-based, open-source operating system designed for use on cell phones, e-readers, tablet PCs, and other mobile devices. For users of smart phones, Android provides easy access to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and smooth integration with Google products like Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar. While it is owned by Google, it should not be confused with Google’s Chrome OS, a web-resident, thin-client operating system designed primarily for netbooks and tablets rather than for mobile devices. Android has been adopted by a number of manufacturers, including Motorola, Samsung, HTC, and Sony Ericsson. The expanding assortment of applications available on this platform suggests that Android based phones will continue to be strong competitors in the smart-phone market.

Working

As a mobile platform, Android has grown in popularity among hardware manufacturers and the general public alike in recent years. Its open market model allows registered software developers to create applications for Android mobile devices in Java and list them in Android Market without undergoing review and waiting for approval. Users can download from a growing store of smart-phone applications at Google Market, many of which connect with existing Google services. They can also download compatible Android apps from other locations. Flexible and adaptable, Android’s facility in supporting screen-based interfaces has also made it the OS of choice for many industrial and consumer electronics, including navigation devices, set-top boxes, kiosks, self checkout stands, medical equipment, netbooks, tablets, and e-readers.

Popularity

Computer science departments at numerous colleges and universities are embracing development for the Android platform. A grant from Qualcomm and Vodafone this year, for example, funded a student contest for the best learning-focused application built on the Android platform at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. Engineering doctoral students from the University of Washington work at Google’s Seattle o_ ces to refi ne the Open Data Kit that they created. This free data-collection platform, built on Android, is designed for use with mobile devices in the developing world, where data collection equipment is in short supply and is often too costly for practical use. In Europe, a student team at the University of Applied Sciences, Northwest Switzerland, wrote a technical report called “Using Android in Industrial Automation,” which details the custom hardware front end the students built for Android and explains its use in mobile technology.