Introduction to Android

How Android started

Android is an operating system for mobile

devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. It is developed by the
Open Handset Alliance led by Google. It's is built on a Linux foundation.
Google purchased the initial developer of the software, Android Inc., in
2005. The unveiling of the Android distribution on November 5, 2007 was
announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium
of 84 hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to
advancing open standards for mobile devices.
This alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile
devices and giving consumers a far better user experience than much of
what is available on today's mobile platforms. By providing developers a
new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively,
Android will accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile
services are made available to consumers. Android is often symbolized by
the green robot to the right.
Android has evolved rapidly since its launch. Google has named all
projects after a dessert. The main releases are listed below, this is
nothing you have to memorize, it's just to illustrate the rapid pace of
development and all the innovations. Android is developed "on Internet
time", that is much faster than the old style of development (for example
Windows releases which are typically several years apart).
Release

Date

Main features

1.5 Cupcake

04/2009

3rd party keyboards, Widgets, video recording

1.6 Donut

09/2009

Voice search, text to speech, higher screen resolution, turn by

turn navigation

2.0/2.1 Eclair

10/2009,
01/2010

Better sync, Exchange support, camera flash, Bluetooth 2.1,

improved Calendar, Browser Support for more screen sizes

2.2 Froyo

05/2010

improved performance, WiFi hotspot, better application

launcher, apps on SD card, improved Market and update process.

2.3
Gingerbread

12/2010

improved copy/paste, native VoIP calling, improved input, NFC

support, front-facing camera, better power management

3.0, 3.1, 3.2

Honeycomb

02/2011,
05/2011,
07/2011

Tablet-only version, System/Action bars, enhanced multitasking, better copy/paste, two-pane Calendar/Gmail/Contacts,
Gallery, HW acceleration, multi-core CPU support. USB
hosting, joysticks, gamepads, UI refinements, performance
improvements, compatibility for non-tablet apps

4.0 Ice Cream

10/2011
Sandwich

Support for both phones & tablets, virtual buttons, resizable

widgets, easier-to-create folders, customizable launcher, major
UI improvements, integrated screenshot capture, better voice
integration, face unlock, tabbed browser, synch with Chrome,
data usage monitor, built-in photo editor, Android Beam, People
app

As you can see there have been around 2 major releases per year. An
interesting observation is that all releases have had codenames after
desserts in alphabetical order (Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo etc). The
next Android version after Ice Cream Sandwhich is rumored to be called
"Jelly Bean".

Flavors of Android
You saw above that the Android releases have been named after various
desserts. So it's only natural that there are several flavors of Android! The
Android platform is made available under developer-friendly open-source
licenses, which gives device manufacturers and mobile operators
significant freedom and flexibility to design products. That flexibility also
means there are several different "flavors" of Android. The biggest device
manufacturers often put their own "skin" on top of Android, which means
the User Interface on a phone or tablet from one manufacturer may be
different than the UI from another. Here are some examples:
Interface
Phone/Manufacturer
"Vanilla"

Nexus One, Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus

TouchWiz

Samsung

Sense

HTC

Blur/Motoblur Motorola
UX

Sony Ericsson

"Vanilla" interface means it's an unmodified version of Google's Android.

The Nexus series (HTC made the Nexus One, Samsung made the Nexus S
and Galaxy Nexus) use this version, so if you get a Nexus phone you'll get
updates faster than for other phones which use some of the heavier

modifications. Some manufacturers, e.g. Huawei, ZTE, Acer and LG have

done some light additions to Android, often in the form of additional apps.
Arguably HTC's Sense is the version that has the largest additions to the
basic Android system.
If it's important for you to get timely updates then you may want to
search some of the many Android Forums and check the manufacturer's
track-record.
Below are examples of the home screens for the "vanilla" Android 2.3 and
4.0 as well as the most common "skins", TouchWiz and Sense. As you can
see, TouchWiz and Sense have put a lot of content on their home screens,
the "vanilla" versions are more plain and leave it to you to add apps,
widgets and shortcuts to your home screen. From Android 3.0 the
navigation buttons are actually part of the screen.
This variety and flexibility is certainly part of Android's strength, you're
not just staring with a static icon set. Even the wallpaper in Android can
be live! But this makes it more challenging to make a guide like this. So
we'll mostly stick to the "vanilla" layout when the operations are
explained.

Technical details

If you're not
too interested in the technical details, you can skip this section. Google
released most of the Android code under the Apache License, a free
software license.[14] The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is tasked

with the maintenance and further development of Android. Android

consists of a kernel based on the Linux kernel, with middleware, libraries
and APIs written in C and application software running on an application
framework which includes Java-compatible libraries based on Apache
Harmony. Android uses the Dalvik virtual machine with just-in-time
compilation to run compiled Java code. Android has a large community of
developers writing applications ("apps") that extend the functionality of
the devices. Developers write primarily in a customized version of Java.
There are currently more than 520,000 apps available for Android. Apps
can be downloaded from third-party sites or through online stores such as
Android Market, the app store run by Google

How is Android different from iPhone, Symbian, or

Blackberry?
In two words: flexibility & diversity! Android is a more open system
than most other phone systems, which means you can tweak and
customize to your heart's content. Apple's iPhone is a closed system, in
which Apple develops and sells both the software (iOS) and the hardware
(iPhones and iPads). Apple has to approve each and every app that is
published for their system. The Android software is developed by Google,
which then releases the open-source to device manufacturers (e.g.
Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Sony, LG, Huawei, ZTE etc) who develop the
phones and tablets and tailor the basic Android software from Google to
their devices. That means there is much more device diversity. You can
find Android phones and tablets with many different screen sizes, with or
without keyboard, budget-friendly and super phones.

That power and flexibility also means its a bit more complex. Like iOS,
Android is centered around applications, most often called apps. So
Android phones feature app icons prominently. The home screen is
simple, all the app icons can be moved or deleted, except for three
unmovable icons: the Dialer, the Application Tray (a drawer that show
all the apps installed) and the Web app (an earth icon). The drawer looks
quite similar to the home screen of an iPhone.

As shipped by Google, Android includes five built-in home-screens,

including the main home screen. Some other versions have up to 7
screens. You can move among them by either sliding your finger to the
left or right, or by touching a dot at the bottom of the screen that
represents one of the screens. Each of these screens can be customized
by adding widgets, shortcuts and files. So, for example, you can devote
one screen to social networking apps and communications, another to
news and feeds, another to entertainment and so on.

Navigation Buttons

There are four buttons across the bottom of most Android devices for
navigation.
Your phone may have slightly different symbols, even the order of the
buttons may vary from one phone to the other. Some older Android
phones have more buttons, some new ones fewer.

If you have a phone or tablet with Android 4 or later, then there are 3
buttons on the screen itself, so if you rotate the phone the buttons will
move too. Thus, with Android you have more power at your fingertips to
navigate and performs tasks.

Notification Bar
Android has a very useful Notification system, Its the top line of your
screen for phones and at the bottom right for tablets. it will normally be
visible all the time. It may look something like this:

Here you can see the time, battery state, and network state icons.
Android will also show icons in this bar when there is an update that may
need your attention, for example a new text message, or email. Android
will not give you any nasty pop-up messages in the middle of the screen.
You will see a notification on top, then whenever youre ready you just
swipe your finger down and the notification bar will roll down like a

curtain and cover your screen. Any messages will be displayed there and
you can click on them one by one or dismiss all. You can learn more in
the Notification Bar chapter.

Multitasking
Android 2.3

Android 4.0

Android has always been very strong in multitasking. It means you can
e.g. listen to music at the same time as you surf the web, or download
updates while you do other things. To get a list of your running apps in
Android 4 you press the Running apps button, as shown above. You'll
see a snapshot of how the screen looks like for that app. In older versions
of Android you long press (press the button for a few seconds) the Home
button. Then you'll see a list of the icons of the recent applications.

Widgets
A key feature of Android is Widgets. You can think of a widget as a small
program thats running and showing you live information. By using
widgets you don't have to click on an icon to start an application, in order
to get the info. Instead the widget will display that info right away when
you unlock the phone. Examples of widgets include:

weather
calendar
stock market
switches to turn on/off WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth
etc

Customization
There are many ways for you to customize your Android phone to make
your phone suit your needs. Most users change which apps are on the
main home-screen and the other screens, they add widgets, you can have
live wallpapers, you can have your favorite photos rotate as your
wallpaper, etc You can even replace the interface with a custom launcher,
for example LauncherPro, ADW Launcher, and Go Launcher EX. Some
very technical people even replace the entire Android OS with a custom
ROM.

How to Provide Input for Android devices

Basic Operations
Android phones and tablets use touch screens. Most have no physical
keyboard, but you can also find a fair number with a slide-out keyboard.
You just have to press the screen gently, no need to push hard when you
operate the device. As you explore your device, there are a few basic
finger gestures: Some gestures use one finger, and some use two.
Gesture

Action

Tapping

Press lightly on the screen in a single spot for a short amount of time.

Longpress

Hold your finger in place on the screen for a few seconds until a pop-up appears.

Swiping

Take one finger, press on the screen, and move it along the screen without losing
contact.

Pinching

Bring two fingers together in a pinching motion. This is generally used to zoom
out and make everything appear smaller.

Expanding

Take those two fingers and move them apart. This is used to expand something
and make it bigger.

Using the Onscreen Keyboard

Before we go into the setup process you will need to learn how to enter
information. Although there are Android phones with a physical keyboard,
most phones use an on-screen keyboard. When you go through Setup in
the next chapter the onscreen keyboard will pop-up and appear. In case it
doesn't pop-up, then you just tap the field where you need to enter data,
then the keyboard will appear and you just use it in the same way as a
physical keyboard. You don't need to tap the buttons hard at all. A very
nice feature with on-screen keyboards is that the key layout can change

dynamically. Here is an example. At the first the keyboard shows lowercase letters. Tap the upper-case key:
Then the upper-case keyboard will appear. Tap the same key again, then
you're back to where you started, with lower-case letters.

How to use Android's Home Screens

Physical layout of an Android Device
Android devices use touch screens. Most have no physical keyboard, but
you can also find a number of models with a slide-out keyboard or an
attachable keyboard dock for tablets. Around your device you'll find the
ususal physical buttons for power on/off, volume on/off, audio connector,
micro-USB (for charging, connecting to a PC and in some devices
connecting to HDMI using an adapter). You'll typically have both backand front-facing cameras.

Home Screen Layout and Operations

You just have to press the screen gently, no need to push hard, when you
operate the device. After you've unlocked the device as described in the
previous chapter then you'll be presented with the home screen. In
Android you have actually 3-7 home screens, depending on your Android
device model. You move between them by sweeping the screen to the
right or to the left. The one in the middle is often THE Home screen.
Remember, Android is highly customizable, many manufactureres start by
putting a "skin" on top of "vanilla" Android. You're not just watching a set
of static icons, like on some other phones. The user can change many
things, for example add widgets with live data (for example: weather,
stocks, news), live wallpapers, apps, folders, etc. So what you'll see here
are examples of home screens, but the general layout principles holds
across all of them. Each home screen has a number of columns and rows,
depending on the screen size and resolution. For a phone the grid may be
4*4, a tablet may have its home screens divided into a grid with 8
columns and 7 rows.

Galaxy Nexus Layout (Android 4)

Let's start by looking at the Galaxy Nexus, which is a Google-designed
phone using "vanilla" Android 4. On the top of the screen you'll find the
Notification & Status Bar. This is where your phone can give you
information about new emails, SMS, missed calls, as well as status
information, e.g. the time, battery level etc. You can see the details by
sweeping the Notification Bar downwards, like a drop down curtain. When

you scroll to the left or right among the home screens, the Notification
Bar is always there at the top. The Notification Bar is described in more
detail in the next chapter.
Below that is the Google Search Box. Just tap it and an on-screen
keyboard will pop-up and you can enter searches. The middle portion is
where you can place widgets, shortcuts to apps and folders. In this
example we have a widget for a transparent analog clock, then an app
icon (serving as a shortcut) to the camera app. To the right of that you
have a folder with a number of Google apps that comes pre-loaded with
your device.
Below the main part of the screen comes the Apps Dock. You can think
of it as a Favorites tray. When you scroll left or right to other home
screens, the Apps Dock will remain in place (just like the Notification bar)
since it usually points to the most commonly used apps. In this example
we have 5 items, from left to right: Phone dialer, Internet browser, Apps
Drawer (which will show all your installed apps), Messenger and Camera.
At the bottom you have on-screen buttons, for the Galaxy Nexus they
are: Return, Home and Recent apps, which makes it easy to do multitasking on Android.

Nexus S Layout (Android 2.3)

This is the older version of Android, also "vanilla". Although the design is
different, the functions are quite similar. Again, at the top you have the
Notification & Status Bar and the Google Search Box. In the middle
section you'll find the app icons for the standard Google apps for Gmail,
Maps, YouTube and the Play Store (Android Market), from which you can
download apps and widgets.
The Apps Dock has three icons: Phone dialer, Apps Drawer and Internet
browser. To the left and right of the Apps dock you'll find small dots that
gives an alternative way to move to the left and right home screens,
instead of sweeping left or right.
At the bottom of the phone we find the Navigation Buttons that were
described in a previous chapter. If you long-press the home button you
will see a list of the recent apps you've been running,