ANDROID ASoftware platform and operating system for mobile. Based on the Linux kernel.

l. Android was found way back in 2003. It was developed in Palo Alto, California. Android was developed by the Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White. Android was purchased by the GOOGLE in AUGUST, 2005 for 50 million $. Open handset alliance (oha) Its consortium of several companies. This group of companies is allowed to use source code of Android and develop applications. Reason for Nokia not to develop Android Mobiles is Nokia is not part of OHA. FEATURES OF ANDROID Android is not a single piece of hardware. Android supports wireless communication using: 3G Networks 4G Networks 802.11 Wi-Fi Networks Bluetooth Connectivity Android is a multi-process system, in which each application (and parts of the system) runs in its own process. Interface that is better than the previous touch screen mobiles. User gets millions of applications that user cannot get in any other mobile operating system. Android supports advanced audio/video/still media formats such as MPEG-4, H.264, MP3, and AAC, AMR, JPEG, PNG, GIF. Developing an android application is not tough using SDK (standard development kit) and java emulator we can easily develop applications that we want. VERSIONS OF ANDROID Android Beta First Version of Android. The focus of Android beta is testing incorporating usability. Android beta will generally have many more problems on speed and performance. Android Astro 1.0 First full version of android. Released on September 23, 2008. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. Quite slow in operating. Copy and paste feature in the web browser is not present. Android Cupcake 1.5 Released on April 30, 2009. Added auto-rotation option. Copy and Paste feature added in the web browser. Increased speed and performance but not up to required level. Android Donut 1.6 Released on September 15, 2009. Voice search and Search box were added. Faster OS boot times and fast web browsing experience. Typing is quite slower. Android clair 2.0/2.1 Released on October 26, 2009. Bluetooth 2.1 support. Improved typing speed on virtual keyboard, with smarter dictionary. No Adobe flash media support

Android Froyo 2.2 Released on May 20, 2010. Support for Adobe Flash 10.1 Improved Application launcher with better browser No internet calling. Android Gingerbread 2.3 Released on December 6, 2010. Updated User Interface with high efficiency and speed Internet calling One touches word selection and copy/paste. New keyboard for faster word input. More successful version of Android than previous versions. Android Honeycomb 3.0 Released on February 22, 2011. Support for multi-core processors Ability to encrypt all user data. This version of android is only available for tablets. Android IceCreamSandwich(ICS) 4.0 Released on November 14, 2011. Virtual button in the UI. A new typeface family for the UI, Roboto. Ability to shut down apps that are using data in the background. Android JellyBean 4.1 Released on June 27, 2012. Latest version of Android. Smoother user interface.

LIMITATIONS Making source code available to everyone inevitably invites the attention of hackers. Android operating system uses more amount of battery as compared to normal mobile phones. As there are so many user sometimes it becomes difficult to connect all the users. As we call Android is world of applications we continuously need to connected with the internet which is not possible for all the users. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE Android is now stepping up in next level of mobile internet. There are chances of Android Mobile sales becomes more then iPhone in next two years. Google may launch another version of android that starts K because Google is launching all the android versions in the alphabetical order. There are chances of Android may become the widely used operating system in world. The Android 4.4 KitKat is rumoured to feature low-memory requirements which will be optimised to most Android devices with low hardware components. According to AndroidCentral, Google has been working on Linux 3.8 kernel which includes lower memory footprint that will enable old Android phones and tablets to run it.

 Android 4.4 KitKat Features Google hasn't officially announced the features and specifications delivered by the upcoming Android 4.4 KitKat, however, the company hinted out several things which may appear on the next-generation of Android. Improved CPU-core support and management. Better screen orientation adjustment response. Android's own cloud storage system. Enhanced network coverage. Compatibility to more accessories. Better battery life. Improved system performance. More stable UI and system. Enhancement to overall security features.

Andy Rubin- Andrew Rubin is a technology pioneer, co-founder and former CEO of both Danger Inc. and Android. He is currently SVP of Mobile at Google, where he is reported to be overseeing the development of Android, an open-source operating system for smartphones. Rich Miner- Rich Miner is an investment partner on the Google Ventures team. Miner joined the
Google Ventures team in March, 2009 and is based out of Cambridge, MA

Nick Sears- Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile) was one of the founders Android Inc.Android was actually developed buy the company Android, Inc. in Palo Alto, California. Chris White-Silicon Valley Technologist - Technology - Co-founder of Android. Xoogler. Love creating
and using new technology.

Linux kernel-The Linux kernel is a Unix-like operating system kernel used by a

variety of operating systems based on it, which are usually in the form of Linux distributions.

The kernel is a program that constitutes the central core of a computer operating system. It has complete control over everything that occurs in the system.

operating system- An operating system (OS) is a collection of software that

manages computer hardware resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is the most important program that runs on a computer. Every general-purpose computer must have an operating system to run other programs. Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers. A mobile operating system (OS) is software that allows smartphones, tablet PCs and other devices to run applications and programs. A mobile OS typically starts up when a device powers on, presenting a screen with icons or tiles that present information and provide application access. Mobile operating systems also manage cellular and wireless network connectivity, as well as phone access. Examples of mobile device operating systems include Apple iOS, Google Android, Research in Motions BlackBerry OS, Nokias Symbian, HewlettPackards webOS (formerly Palm OS) and Microsofts Windows Phone OS. Some, such as Microsofts Windows 8, function as both a traditional desktop OS and a mobile operating system.

3G Networks-3G stands for 3rd-generation mobile technology. The services

associated with 3G provide the ability to transfer both voice data and non-voice data. 3G brings wireless transmission speeds, which allow full motion video, high-speed internet access and video-conferencing.
4G Networks-In telecommunication systems, 4G is the fourth generation of

mobile phone mobile communication technology standards. 4G is the term used to refer to the next wave of high-speed mobile technologies that will be used to replace current 3G networks. The two top contenders are LTE and WiMAX, both of which are IP based networks that are built from similar, yet incompatible, technologies.
802.11 Wi-Fi Networks-Wi-Fi, also spelled Wifi or WiFi, is a technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data or connect to the internet wirelessly using microwaves in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, Wi-Fi is the
name of a popular wireless networking technology that uses radio waves to provide wireless high-speed Internet and network connections. A common misconception is that the term Wi-Fi is short for "wireless fidelity," however this is not the case. Wi-Fi is simply a trademarked pharse that means IEEE 802.11x.,

Bluetooth Connectivity-a standard for the short-range wireless interconnection of cellular phones, computers, and other electronic devices, send (a photograph or other piece of data) from one electronic device to another via Bluetooth

Why you should use Android?

Android popularity is growing in size: Reason #1: Widgets Widgets are probably the thing separating iOS and Android regarding the overall experience of the devices. Instead of the iOS look, Android allows you to add little shortcuts to apps on the homescreen. Reason #2: Many options Samsung makes phones, LG makes phones, HTC makes phones, Sony makes phones, Motorola makes phones, all of these companies make phones running the exact same operating system, Android. Reason #3: Syncs with Google account Google account is most powerful asset. I keep apps, movies, magazines, emails, YouTube videos, contacts, google+ and maps all in my Google account. Reason #4: Third party integration If you dont like the particular skin, interface or overall look of your android device it is very easy to tinker with the aesthetics. You can root your device or install a launcher which can add many customisable functionalities. Several times I have installed third party services to suit my needs. I can also download apps from different app stores, which has its advantages! Reason #5: Socially integrated I almost fell on the floor when Apple released Facebook integration for iOS. Not only does Android have Facebook integration but Instagram, Google+ and pretty much every other social network you can think of! This integration is very helpful when wanting to transport images to your social profile or to a cloud storage service like Dropbox straight from the preinstalled gallery app. Disadvantage Android 1.Continuous Internet connection Yups, most Android phones require a simultaneous Internet connection alias continuously active. that means must be prepared to subscribe Agan GPRS packetthat suits your needs. 2.Advertising Application in the Android phones can indeed be obtained easily and for free, but the consequences in each of these applications, will always be ads on display, either the top or bottom of the application

Multi-Processing
Multi-processing refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor at the same time. Applications in a multi-processing system are broken to smaller routines that run independently. The operating system allocates these threads to the processors improving performance of the system.

User Interface
Your app's user interface is everything that the user can see and interact with. Android provides a variety of pre-build UI components such as structured layout objects and UI controls that allow you to build the graphical user interface for your app. Android also provides other UI modules for special interfaces such as dialogs, notifications, and menus.

MP4 is an abbreviation of MPEG-4 Part 14 i.e. software created by the Motion Picture Experts Group for transmitting data streams to a receiving device in real time. It is used to store digital video and digital audio streams. MP4 was created on the basis of the QuickTime format specification. H.264 is a new video codec standard which can achieve high quality video in relatively low bitrates. You can think it as the "successor" of the existing formats (MPEG2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, etc.) MP3 - a means of compressing a sound sequence into a very small file, to enable digital storage and transmission.

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding). is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. It usually achieved better sound quality than the most popular MP3 formats. AMR - AMR is a file conservatory that some cell phones save audio files in, it usually stands for Adaptive Multi-Rate. In digital audio, the letters AMR are short for Adaptive Multi-Rate and relate to the AMR audio format. This audio file format, which was first released in 1999, is especially efficient at compressing and storing voice recordings compared to common formats like MP3, WMA, and AAC for example. GIF (Graphics Interchange Format )is the format of pictures, generally small moving pictures, you should have seen them on Internet, mostly people attach the gif files (moving images) in comments or for downloads. JPG- files, also known as JPEG files, are a common file format for digital photos and other digital graphics. When JPG files are saved, they use "lossy" compression, meaning image quality is lost as file size decreases. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the committee that created the file type. PNG is an image file format that stands for Portable Network Graphics. It is a format for encoding a picture pixel by pixel for the purpose of sending it over the World Wide Web. PNG enable compression of bitmapped images without any loss of quality. SDK-Short for software development kit, a programming package that enables a programmer to develop applications for a specific platform. Java emulator - An emulator is an application that imitates a real device. Emulators enable developers to try out their applications on a virtual device without needing the actual device. For example, Android has an emulator that imitates mobile devices. The emulator can be used to represent a specific mobile phone to test Android applications on.Java is a programming language and computing platform. Adobe Flash (formerly called "Macromedia Flash") is a multimedia and software platform used for authoring of vector graphics, animation, games and rich Internet applications (RIAs) that can be viewed, played and executed in Adobe Flash Player. Flash is frequently used to add streamed video or audio players, advertisement and interactive multimedia content to web pages, although usage of Flash on websites is declining. A virtual keyboard is a form factor of the keyboard delivered logically through a software interface. It is used as an alternative to a traditional keyboard and can be accessed through various interfaces. A virtual keyboard may also be called an on-screen keyboard or soft keyboard.
A multi-core processor is a single computing component with two or more independent actual central processing units (called "cores"), which are the units that read and execute program instructions.