Saturday 3 February 2018

Android(operating system)

There are different mobiles and computers operating systems like different models of computers and mobiles. Android is one of the operating systems using by the smart phones. Android is not simply an operating system rather hardware and programming languages are also use this Android Technology.
Android was invented by an anonymous company but later on Google has taken its copyrights reserved and is now doing further development in this technology. It is Linux based technology that uses Unix as an operating system. Linux is the most recent technology in the field of communication and computing. It is therefore Android is demanded by most of the users to have it their operating system. However, it is also a fact that Google is offering an open choice for the users to modify and add any new application without even bring on the notice of Google. Anyone can upload a new application on the Android platform as App Store to either free or payable. These application uploads by the users can be easily download by the users and enjoy more features like additional games, interactive media and business plan.
Android technology is open to use by anyone who wants to develop applications as it promotes the user to add new ideas by using the programming code accessible by them. The flexibility of Android technology makes it more convenient to the operating system to have this as a base for smartphones. The only requirement is software development kit availability to bring any change in it.
There are two common versions of Android as one is cupcake in which sliding physical keyboard is present in the phone and second is HTC EVO which is totally touch screen operable. It allows user to physically contact the touch screen to perform different functions. Android avoids multitasking yet interface is quite good and user friendly.


Interface

Android's default user interface is mainly based on direct manipulation, using touch inputs that loosely correspond to real-world actions, like swiping, tapping, pinching, and reverse pinching to manipulate on-screen objects, along with a virtual keyboard. Game controllers and full-size physical keyboards are supported via Bluetooth or USB. The response to user input is designed to be immediate and provides a fluid touch interface, often using the vibration capabilities of the device to provide haptic feedback to the user. Internal hardware, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and proximity sensors are used by some applications to respond to additional user actions, for example adjusting the screen from portrait to landscape depending on how the device is oriented, or allowing the user to steer a vehicle in a racing game by rotating the device, simulating control of a steering wheel.




The main hardware platform for Android is the ARM (ARMv7 and ARMv8-A architectures), with x86, MIPS and MIPS64, and x86-64 architectures also officially supported in later versions of Android. The unofficial Android-x86 project provided support for the x86 architectures ahead of the official support. MIPS architecture was also supported before Google did. Since 2012, Android devices with Intel processors began to appear, including phones and tablets. While gaining support for 64-bit platforms, Android was first made to run on 64-bit x86 and then on ARM64. Since Android 5.0 "Lollipop", 64-bit variants of all platforms are supported in addition to the 32-bit variants.
Requirements for the minimum amount of RAM for devices running Android 7.1 range from in practice 2 GB for best hardware, down to 1 GB for the most common screen, to absolute minimum 512 MB for lowest spec 32-bit smartphone. The recommendation for Android 4.4 is to have at least 512 MB of RAM, while for "low RAM" devices 340 MB is the required minimum amount that does not include memory dedicated to various hardware components such as the baseband processor. Android 4.4 requires a 32-bit ARMv7, MIPS or x86 architecture processor (latter two through unofficial ports), together with an OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible graphics processing unit (GPU). Android supports OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1 and as of latest major version, 3.2 and Vulkan. Some applications may explicitly require a certain version of the OpenGL ES, and suitable GPU hardware is required to run such applications.
Android devices incorporate many optional hardware components, including still or video cameras, GPS, orientation sensors, dedicated gaming controls, accelerometers, gyroscopes, barometers, magnetometers, proximity sensors, pressure sensors, thermometers, and touchscreens. Some hardware components are not required, but became standard in certain classes of devices, such as smartphones, and additional requirements apply if they are present. Some other hardware was initially required, but those requirements have been relaxed or eliminated altogether. For example, as Android was developed initially as a phone OS, hardware such as microphones were required, while over time the phone function became optional.Android used to require an autofocus camera, which was relaxed to a fixed-focus camera if present at all, since the camera was dropped as a requirement entirely when Android started to be used on set-top boxes.
In addition to running on smartphones and tablets, several vendors run Android natively on regular PC hardware with a keyboard and mouse. In addition to their availability on commercially available hardware, similar PC hardware-friendly versions of Android are freely available from the Android-x86 project, including customized Android 4.4. Using the Android emulator that is part of the Android SDK, or third-party emulators, Android can also run non-natively on x86 architectures. Chinese companies are building a PC and mobile operating system, based on Android, to "compete directly with Microsoft Windows and Google Android". The Chinese Academy of Engineering noted that "more than a dozen" companies were customising Android following a Chinese ban on the use of Windows 8 on government PCs.

Development

Android is developed by Google until the latest changes and updates are ready to be released, at which point the source code is made available to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), an open source initiative led by Google. The AOSP code can be found without modification on select devices, mainly the Nexus and Pixel series of devices. The source code is, in turn, customized and adapted by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to run on their hardware. Also, Android's source code does not contain the often proprietary device drivers that are needed for certain hardware components. As a result, most Android devices, including Google's own, ultimately ship with a combination of free and open source and proprietary software, with the software required for accessing Google services falling into the latter category.

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