Android is
a Linux-based operating system designed
primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet
computers. Initially developed by Android, Inc., which Google backed financially and later bought in
2005, Android was unveiled in 2007 along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance: a consortium of hardware,
software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open
standards for mobile
devices. The first
Android-powered phone was
sold in October 2008.
Android is open source and Google releases the code under the Apache
License. This open source code and permissive
licensing allows the software to be freely modified and distributed by device
manufacturers, wireless carriers and enthusiast developers. Additionally,
Android has a large community of developers writing applications ("apps")
that extend the functionality of devices, written primarily in a customized
version of the Java programming
language. In October 2012, there
were approximately 700,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number
of applications downloaded from Google Play,
Android's primary app store, was 25 billion.
Evolution of android operating system
There is absolutely no denying that the Androidmobile operating system has gone through a lot
and climbed to new heights within a few years of its existence. Today,
some sources claim that all versions of Android combined currently take up a
larger market share than iOS.
Indeed, the story
of how Android came to be and evolved through the years is something any geek
will be interested in as Android’s popularity didn’t happen overnight. After
many doubts and hopes for the operating system, it’s finally showing that it is
very capable and that it has a very bright future in store, which is something
iOS can’t say with all of its heart.
Android 1x
Android 1.0(Angel Cake)
Android 1.0 is where it all began which was
released on 23rd September 2008. With the HTC Dream as
the first Android phone in the world (sometimes better known as the T-Mobile
G1), it set the framework for what Android could do. It enabled camera support,
WiFi, Bluetooth, folders, a web browser, notifications, voice dialing, YouTube,
alarm clock, gallery, instant messaging, media player, and the whole Google apps
array and Android Market.
It really was the basic beginning, and already
fulfilled a lot of what smartphones should be able to do.
Android 1.1 (Battenberg)
In Feb 2009, version 1.1 was
released. Although it took almost a year to materialise, it wasn't a major
update. The Battenberg, only ironed out existing bugs and allowed users to save
attached documents. In addition to that, the software was also optimised to run
smoother. It was after this update that the development of this open-source
software picked up speed.
The Android 1.x releases after that weren’t nearly
as major as Android 1.0 itself, but they are still worth noting. After the big
initial release, Android 1.1 focused mainly on fixing bugs and improving the
API. The only noteworthy new feature was the ability to save attachments in
messages.
Android 1.5 (Cupcake)
Launched in April 2009, Cupcake offered video recording capabilities, widget support, and animated transition effects. The OS also got the A2DP profile, which enables stereo Bluetooth support. The onscreen keyboard recieved text prediction, and the users could now upload content directly to sites such as YouTube and Picasa.
For the next
update, we jumped straight to Android 1.5, which allowed you to use different
keyboards, introduced widgets for your home screen, picture and video recording
in different formats, copy and paste, auto-rotation, and more
Android
1.6 Donut
Released
15th September 2009. Donut brought more major features enhancements the biggest
of which was Google Maps with turn-by-turn navigation for gratis. The Android
Market became a friendly place to shop for apps while voice and universal
search facilities were sharper – to name but a few.
It was also the first release
which had a codename, dubbed Cupcake. Android 1.6, the last release of the
series and dubbed Donut, included numerous updates to text, voice, and
searching. The release also supported WVGA screen resolutions, which is
equivalent to 800 x 480. Throughout the whole series, the look of Android
remained largely the same.
Android 2.x
Android 2.x brought in plenty of changes. Those
included extended account sync for multiple accounts, exchange email support,
Bluetooth 2.1, new camera features, an improved Android keyboard, optimizations
for speed, a revamped user interface, a refreshed browser with HTML5 support,
and support for live wallpapers.
Android 2.0 \ 2.1 (Eclair)
Eclair came with a revamped UI and support for animated wallpapers. Camera features including digital zoom, macro, and white balance were added. The browser got a facelift and HTML5 support. Additionally, Bluetooth support was bumped up to version 2.1.
Android 2.1 served mainly as a bug fix release
which included a changed API, so it shared the Éclair codename.Android
2.2.
Released in the summer of 2010,
Froyo (short for FROzen YOghurt) was a huge improvement over its predecessor in
terms of performance. The users could now finally install the apps on a memory
card. Additionally, support for 720p screens, USB and Wi-Fi tethering made it
to Android. With the Adobe Flash 10.1 integration,
devices running on this OS could handle web videos through the browser.
And it brought in some highly sought-after features
which left plenty of Android fanboys with their mouths watering. Not only
was this release using a new kernel (as customary with every Android release),
but the codebase offered many performance improvements, the addition of the JIT
(just-in-time) compiler for even more speed, integration of the V8 JavaScript
engine in the browser, support for push notifications, better Exchange support,
USB tethering and WiFi hotspot, voice dialing over Bluetooth, support for
screens of up to 320 ppi, and Adobe Flash support.
"Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)"-Most popular till now
Gingerbread landed by the end of 2010. This version of the Android offered the support for relatively large screen-sizes, gyroscopes, and even barometers. It also brought native internet telephony and video chat capabilities. Google also introduced the much-hyped NFC (Near Field Communications) feature along with improved power management.
This release also brought plenty of improvements,
but some of the cooler ones included support for resolutions of 1280 x 768 and
higher, SIP Internet calls, support for multiple cameras, enhanced copy and
paste functionality, revamped UI, voice and video support for Google Talk,
garbage collection for increased performance, and support for near field
communication. Notably, the 2.3.7 release offered Google Wallet support for
the Nexus S 4G.
Android 3.x
For the first time
Google released a software that was totally focused on tablets. This version,
released in 2011, came up with a fresh UI that depended more on software
buttons. It also introduced hardware acceleration to the platform. On the
multimedia front, the OS could support FLAC files. Moreover, it supported
external input devices such as keyboards and mice.
Android
3, where all the releases in this series were dubbed Honeycomb, were meant for
tablets only. This series had a completely different look with an entirely new
user interface. Many of the improvements made were meant to make using a tablet
easier and to use its resources more efficiently. As tablets are bigger than
smartphones, there’s more space to pack in better hardware, and Android needed
to take advantage of this additional processing power.
Android 4.x
Android 4.x., was the next major version for
smartphones. The look of the user interface was completely overhauled, and the
release also introduced the ability to use software buttons on the touchscreen
instead of hardware buttons for things like Home, Back, and Menu. Performance
was also significantly improved, and the UI portion of the operating system was
hardware-rendered. It also introduced WiFi Direct and 1080p video recording.
Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0)
In 2011, Google took a
U-turn from its earlier vision of having two different versions of Android, one
for tablets and other for the smartphones. The latest Android 4.0 is designed
to play nice with both phones as well as slates. This update is claimed to be
the most enhanced version of the platform with full support for multi-core
CPUs.
Android 4.1-4.1.3 (Jelly Bean)
Android 4.1 is optimized
to deliver Android's best performance and lowest touch latency, in an
effortless, intuitive UI. To ensure a consistent framerate, Android 4.1 extends vsync
timing across all
drawing and animation done by the Android framework. Android 4.1 also adds triple
buffering in the graphics pipeline.
Android 4.1 reduces touch latency not only by synchronizing touch to vsync timing, but also by actually anticipating where
your finger will be at the time of the screen refresh. This results in a more
reactive and uniform touch response. In addition, after periods of inactivity,
Android applies a CPU input boost at the next
touch event, to make sure there’s no latency.
Android 4.2 has
performance optimizations, a refreshed system UI, which builds on the
performance improvements already included in Jelly Bean —vsync timing, triple buffering, reduced touch latency, and CPU input boost — and adds new optimizations that make Android even faster.
A variety of WebView rendering optimizations make scrolling of web pages smoother
and free from jitter and lags.
Android’s Renderscript
Compute is the
first computation platform ported to run directly on a mobile
device GPU. It automatically takes advantage of GPU
computation resources
whenever possible, dramatically improving performance for graphics and image
processing.
Android 4.3
Android 4.3 has
performance optimizations, a refreshed system UI and it was an small tweak for
the 4.2 version and only available for stock android os(sgs4,htc 1x and nexus)
Evolution in Graphical View
Home Screen
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Menu Screen
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Settings
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