Android (operating system)
The Android logo
Android 4.4 KitKat home screen
|Company / developer||Google
Open Handset Alliance
Android Open Source Project
|Programmed in||C, C++, Java|
|OS family||Unix-like, Linux (kernel)|
|Source model||Open source|
|Initial release||23 September 2008|
|Latest stable release||5.0.2 Lollipop / December 19, 2014|
|Package manager||Google Play, APK|
|Supported platforms||ARM, MIPS, x86, I.MX|
|Kernel type||Monolithic (modified Linux kernel)|
|Default user interface||Graphical (Multi-touch)|
|License||Apache License 2.0
Linux kernel patches under GNU GPL v2
Android is an operating system for mobile devices. It is mostly used for cell phones, like Google's own Galaxy Nexus, as well as by other phone manufacturers like HTC and Samsung. It has also been used for tablets such as the Motorola Xoom and Amazon Kindle Fire. Android's kernel is based on Linux.
Google says that over 1.3 million Android cell phones are sold every day.
Android programs[change | change source]
Programs for Android, also called "apps", come from the Google Play store. The android programs have an extention of .apk. Android programs are built in C, C++, or Java programming languages but the UI is always made using Java. There are over 900,000 apps available for Android.
Android version numbers and names[change | change source]
- Beta versions: Astro and Bender
- 1.5: Cupcake
- 1.6: Donut
- 2.0 and 2.1: Eclair
- 2.2: Froyo (FROzen YOgurt)
- 2.3: Gingerbread
- 3.x: Honeycomb (a tablet-only version)
- 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich
- 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3: Jelly Bean
- 4.4: KitKat
- 5.0: Lollipop
Related pages[change | change source]
References[change | change source]
- "Android Code Analysis". http://www.ohloh.net/p/android/analyses/latest. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
- "Philosophy and Goals". Android Open Source Project. Google. http://source.android.com/about/philosophy.html. Retrieved 2012-04-21.
- "Announcing the Android 1.0 SDK, release 1". September 9, 2008. http://android-developers.blogspot.in/2008/09/announcing-android-10-sdk-release-1.html. Retrieved September 21, 2012.
- "android_5.0.2_r1 - Git at Google". December 19, 2014. https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/android-5.0.2_r1. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
- "MIPS gets sweet with Honeycomb". Eetimes.com. http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4215490/MIPS-gets-sweet-with-Honeycomb. Retrieved 2012-02-20.
- Shah, Agam (December 1, 2011). "Google's Android 4.0 ported to x86 processors". Computerworld. International Data Group. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222323/Google_s_Android_4.0_ported_to_x86_processors. Retrieved 2012-02-20.
- "Android OS for i.MX Applications Processors Product Summary Page". freescale Inc. http://www.freescale.com/imxandroid.
- "Licenses". Android Open Source Project.. Open Handset Alliance. http://source.android.com/source/licenses.html. Retrieved 2012-09-09. "The preferred license for the Android Open Source Project is the Apache Software License, 2.0. ... Why Apache Software License? ... For userspace (that is, non-kernel) software, we do in fact prefer ASL2.0 (and similar licenses like BSD, MIT, etc.) over other licenses such as LGPL. Android is about freedom and choice. The purpose of Android is promote openness in the mobile world, but we don't believe it's possible to predict or dictate all the uses to which people will want to put our software. So, while we encourage everyone to make devices that are open and modifiable, we don't believe it is our place to force them to do so. Using LGPL libraries would often force them to do so."
- Android Project Home
- "There Are Now 1.3 Million Android Device Activations Per Day". TechCrunch. 2012-09-05. http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/05/eric-schmidt-there-are-now-1-3-million-android-device-activations-per-day/.