What is Android Operating System?

Introduction, features, latest versions, compatibility and how it is best?

Mobile operating systems have come a long way from their initial introduction to present day. It’s been a long road from Palm OS and its entry in 1996, to present day Android 4.0 and IOS 5. Devices have become quite more capable, and owning a smart phone is not something limited to high-level managers anymore – you, your kids and probably your parents own a smart phone. This facilitates a development of better and more capable phones, along with better and more capable operating systems for them. Such is the story of Android itself.

What is Android ? Introduction to one of the most prominent mobile operating systems :

Android, like many of you have already heard, is developed by Google, and is fully compliant with most of its services. Its core, so to speak, is built on top of a Linux-like kernel which facilitates its easy using of MIPS and ARM processors, popular on modern-day devices.

To execute and develop software, Android uses modified Java, using a virtual machine running Dalvik Code, the Android homebrew variation of Java made particularly for their phones.

The operating system’s interface is extremely based on an abstraction called an Activity , which is basically a separate screen from a mobile app and its functionality expressed in code. Now that we’ve talked about what Android is, let’s discuss its main features.

Features of Android :

As of its latest release, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Android supports :

• Easy input of text through many different ways:
  The classical on-screen keyboard comes with good spell-checking and auto correcting functionality. There is a way to connect a mobile Bluetooth keyboard if you prefer to actually feel the buttons pressing underneath your fingers. And when it comes to voice input, Android has that too, making it easy for people to dictate to the phone.

• Easily understandable user interface:
  The interface consists of a home screen that contains all your customizable icon shortcuts, along with widgets, which are front-end applications that do all sorts of tasks – from showing weather, calendars, incoming messages , turning Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on or off. You can even put folders here, and you have an improved favorites tray for your ultimate favorites. Later on, you have the app drawer, for all the applications you can’t start directly. Even the lock screen is modifiable to your needs. All of that is easy to use.Here are we have discussed the most essential android applications.

• USB tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot mode:
  This feature allows you to use your phone’s mobile broadband connection to provide your PC with internet. Just connect them via USB and you have what you need. There’s also the capability to have your phone become a Wi-Fi access point, and many devices can connect to it, essentially making it a router for other devices.

• Easy synchronization:
  Your contact list, your email, your pictures – all of that can be synchronized with existing Google services like Gmail, Picasa, Google Contacts and Calendar.

• Extendibility:
  We have listed Top 10 android application for you.There are over 600 000 applications in the Android market – an easy solution for any and all problems you might have.

• Good web browsing. The default android browser allows for one of the best experiences on the web.

• Multi-touch support:
  This means that the OS understands when there are two fingers placed on the touchscreen and interprets complex gestures, for easy zooming in and out and navigation.

Compatibility and version differences:

Let’s say you have found an app in Google , and you want to know which version of Android you need to run it. Here we’ll explain the differences and improvements of Android chronologically, highlighting the progress through time:

• Android 1.1 introduced the option to save from MMS, improved the layout and introduced API change.

• Android 1.5 came up with clever Bluetooth support for external devices and the option for you to upload videos to YouTube or pictures to Picasa, making it more powerful.

• Android 2.0 was out in October 2009 and it introduced HTML 5 support ,which is very important for web browsing, making it an incredibly smart system.

• Android 2.2 introduced USB tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot, features we mentioned above, as well as support for Adobe Flash 10.1, which made it quite better than the first iPhones back in the day.

• Android 2.3 had support for multi-touch, another key feature we mentioned above. It was very significant and became a great part of the system’s functionality later. Support for large screens, like on tablets came with this version as well.

• Android 3.0 had 3D desktop support, a major introduction back in the day, and advanced features for tablet support, making it the most often used technology there.

• Android 4.0 introduced the ability to unlock your phone with a picture of your face, a good anti-theft measure, improved multi-touch recognition and started developing voice input, making it the best system so far.

How is it better for me ?

The fact that Android is absolutely free to develop applications, with documentation readily available on the Internet, free of charge, means that many people develop applications for it. Therefore, there will be lots of good apps for you to enjoy on this platform.Many peoples are interested to develop android application. Freelance is the best way to find customer as well as to make money.Here we have added tips for freelance android app developer.

Nearly everything on Android is sync-capable, which means that there’s good interconnectivity between it and your pc.

And in general , devices that come with Android are far cheaper than Apple products, while still offering the same functionality.

Choosing Android is the best bet for most of us who don’t want to spend lots of money on Apple products, but want all the goodies of the modern phone market.