What is Android?

Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java programming language.

Features

• Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components
• Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices
• Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine
• Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional)
• SQLite for structured data storage
• Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
• GSM Telephony (hardware dependent)
• Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware dependent)
• Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer (hardware dependent)
• Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE

Android Architecture

The following diagram shows the major components of the Android operating system. Each section is described in more detail below.

Applications

Android will ship with a set of core applications including an email client, SMS program, calendar, maps, browser, contacts, and others. All applications are written using the Java programming language.

Application Framework

By providing an open development platform, Android offers developers the ability to build extremely rich and innovative applications. Developers are free to take advantage of the device hardware, access location information, run background services, set alarms, add notifications to the status bar, and much, much more.

Developers have full access to the same framework APIs used by the core applications. The application architecture is designed to simplify the reuse of components; any application can publish its capabilities and any other application may then make use of those capabilities (subject to security constraints enforced by the framework). This same mechanism allows components to be replaced by the user.

Underlying all applications is a set of services and systems, including:

• A rich and extensible set of Views that can be used to build an application, including lists, grids, text boxes, buttons, and even an embeddable web browser
• Content Providers that enable applications to access data from other applications (such as Contacts), or to share their own data
• A Resource Manager, providing access to non-code resources such as localized strings, graphics, and layout files
• A Notification Manager that enables all applications to display custom alerts in the status bar
• An Activity Manager that manages the lifecycle of applications and provides a common navigation backstack

Libraries

Android includes a set of C/C++ libraries used by various components of the Android system. These capabilities are exposed to developers through the Android application framework. Some of the core libraries are listed below:

• System C library - a BSD-derived implementation of the standard C system library (libc), tuned for embedded Linux-based devices
• Media Libraries - based on PacketVideo's OpenCORE; the libraries support playback and recording of many popular audio and video formats, as well as static image files, including MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, and PNG
• Surface Manager - manages access to the display subsystem and seamlessly composites 2D and 3D graphic layers from multiple applications
• LibWebCore - a modern web browser engine which powers both the Android browser and an embeddable web view
• SGL - the underlying 2D graphics engine
• 3D libraries - an implementation based on OpenGL ES 1.0 APIs; the libraries use either hardware 3D acceleration (where available) or the included, highly optimized 3D software rasterizer
• FreeType - bitmap and vector font rendering
• SQLite - a powerful and lightweight relational database engine available to all applications

Android Runtime

Android includes a set of core libraries that provides most of the functionality available in the core libraries of the Java programming language.

Every Android application runs in its own process, with its own instance of the Dalvik virtual machine. Dalvik has been written so that a device can run multiple VMs efficiently. The Dalvik VM executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format which is optimized for minimal memory footprint. The VM is register-based, and runs classes compiled by a Java language compiler that have been transformed into the .dex format by the included "dx" tool.

The Dalvik VM relies on the Linux kernel for underlying functionality such as threading and low-level memory management.

Linux Kernel

Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core system services such as security, memory management, process management, network stack, and driver model. The kernel also acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and the rest of the software stack.

Android versus iPhone

The Android versus iPhone debate has been heating up in the recent months as consumers, journalists, industry folk, and even CEOs argue over which platform is superior. Now, obviously an article found on an Android website discussing these issues is going to be a little (ok, maybe a lot) biased, but hey… this isn’t NPR.

There are dozens of Apple sites that will make the argument that Apple’s iOS platform is superior to Android, and they may even be right about a few of them. That being said, there are some really good reasons why I feel Android is better than Apple and the iPhone. In fact, I have five reasons, and you can find out what those reasons are by continuing to read after the break.

Open Source:

This is a very hotly debated aspect of Android, with many people associating this as something negative about Android. Many have argued that Android being open source leads to a lack of control by Google, and thus results in fragmentation. With that being said, however, I think the pros of the open source model vastly outweigh the cons, and here’s why.

Developers and manufacturers are free to implement and change Android in any way that they would like, which opens up the platform to tons of new ideas and innovations. Granted these changes aren’t always for the better, but the potential for a developer or manufacturer to create something unique and customized using Android is there – thanks to the fact it is open sourced.

Take the MIUI Android ROM (pictured above) for example. Thanks to Android being open source, developers are able to produce custom ROMs that look and function amazingly. Having the freedom to choose where and how to implement a platform simply offers much more flexibility, which is ultimately better for everyone.

Adobe Flash:

Many companies (including Adobe, ironically) are beginning to push for HTML5 to become the new standard. However, until that day comes, Flash still powers a lot of the Web’s multimedia. That being said, Android enjoys full Flash support with Android 2.2, whereas the only way to even watch Flash video on an iPhone is to use the recently released iOS version of Skyfire.

In all honesty, I’ve had very little problems using Flash on Froyo. I haven’t noticed any significant decreases in my phone’s performance, and doing something as trivial as watching a YouTube video where it’s embedded on a page is a nice feature. Flash may be a dying star, but while it’s still here, Android has it, and the iPhone does not.

More Carrier Options:

Many iPhone users can attest to their love/hate relationship with AT&T. As it stands, AT&T is the only carrier that has the iPhone, and I have read countless horror stories about their network. Constant dropped calls, lost service and delayed messages are just some of the gripes iPhone users haves with AT&T.

Even as I sit here writing this, I am staring at an AT&T cellular base station my roommate has to use to get a signal in our apartment. With Android, you have the option of just about every carrier in the US, including some of the little guys. Now granted, we may see the iPhone headed to Big Red sometime in the new year, and AT&T’s upcoming 4G network may solve a lot of the woes iPhone users deal with on a daily basis.

Fully Hackable:

I alluded to this a bit up above when discussing ROMs, but the hacking aspect is one area where Android severely trumps the iPhone. Perhaps it’s the Linux geek in me, but there’s something about being able to install custom recovery software, custom ROMs, and having root access to my device that just makes me feel more comfortable about using the device.

For example, I am using the popular CyanogenMod ROM for my Droid Incredible, but was having a problem with an application crashing and causing my phone to restart. I was unable to uninstall it conventionally (it had become corrupt somehow) but I was able to use my superuser privileges to remove it for good.

Another wonderful element of Android’s hacking aspect is the developer community. Forums such as XDA-Developers are a treasure trove of knowledgable individuals who are able to do some pretty incredible things with these phones. The number of custom ROMs, applications, tips, and tricks I have come across on that forum alone is countless, and it is the spirit of the developer community that is going to take Android to new heights.

Dozens of Phones to Choose From:

The iPhone is a beautiful piece of hardware, but what if you want an iOS phone but want something with a QWERTY keyboard? Or suppose you want something a little bigger, or something a little smaller, or something a little more cost effective?

With the iPhone, you’re stuck with just the iPhone. With Android, however, there are dozens of options available to consumers. You have the low-end phones for customers that want the Android experience but don’t want to spend a lot of money, the mid-range models for people that only want to spent $50 or $100, or power users who want the biggest and baddest devices, and have no problems spending $200 plus dollars.

With new Android phones coming out every week it seems, the potential for outstanding devices is massive. I think we’re only seeing a small fraction of what is possible, and I am very much looking forward to what Android 3.0 and the year 2011 have in store.

Conclusions:

I know I’m going to get flamed for this article, and I welcome it. The great thing about opinion articles is the discussion that results and I am looking forward to hearing what people have to say about this.

Don’t get me wrong, I am by no means saying Android is a perfect platform. On the contrary, it has its fair share of problems just like any other. I do firmly believe though that these are five very legitimate reasons that make Android a better platform than iOS and the iPhone.

Hopefully, as Android continues to progress and manufacturers continue to produce better and better devices, we can continue to add to this list. For the time being, however, these are the aspects of Android that I feel make it better than the iPhone, and I encourage you to leave a comment below and let your voice be heard.

10 Best Android Phones in India’2011

Posted by on 15 October 2011

Even though introduced late in India, Android Phones have grabbed a considerable share in the Indian Mobile Market and are counting…As of now, the Symbian OS rules the mobile phone market, but I am sure in future we’ll see a huge competition between Symbian Mobiles and Android Mobiles. However, Indian market is now flooded with cheap android smartphones like Samsung galaxy and others. Going for a good brand with good features is always a good idea even though the cost is little high as it will enrich your Android experience.

Recommended : If cost is not your problem, you can also go for Dell Streak which is a Smartphone Cum Tablet. And also look at the Android mobiles with Front Camera

Below are the Best Android Phones available in India:

HTC Sensation: It’s the latest android smartphone from HTC which offers speed, performance and awesome multimedia experience. It has 1.2 GHz Dual Core CPU and 4.3″ qHD (540 x 960) high resolution widescreen. It comes with 1GB internal memory (8GB micro SD included) and can be expandable up to 32GB. An 8MP camera with auto focus and dual LED flash allows it to take 1080p video recording @ 30fps. It also has a front cam (VGA) for video calling. HTC sensation runs on Android v2.3 Gingerbread operating system and also equipped with HTC sense v3.0 UI. Connectivity options include wifi, 3G, micro USB, GPS, Bluetooth. It has 1520 mAh Li-Ion battery which gives you talktime of upto 8hrs 20 min (2G)/6hrs 40min (3G).
HTC Sensation Price in India : Rs.28,599/-
Samsung Galaxy S II
Galaxy S2 is a great combination of solid quality, elegant design and rocking performance. With Gingerbread 2.3 operating system and a dual core processor, Samsung has made the mobile to deliver high performance. There are two cameras (one for capturing and the other for video calling).
It comes with a huge 4.3″ Super AMOLED touch screen, 8MP camera with auto-focus and LED Flash. Front camera has 2MP for video calling. Weights about 116 g with the battery. The other features are common which are found in other Samsung Android mobiles.
Price of Samsung Galaxy S II in India : Rs.27,500
Sony Ericsson Xperia Play:
It is the best gaming supported android mobile which runs on Android v2.3 Gingerbread OS with 1GHz scorpion processor and Adreno GPU supporting it. It has 4″ LED backlit LCD with 480 x 854px touchscreen. The 512MB RAM helps to speed up the mobile and 400MB internal memory helps you store data. The rear camera is 5MP with autofocus and LED flash while the front camera is VGA. Connectivity options include 3G, Wi-fi, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot and GPS. The best part about this mobile is that is sports accelerometer sensor, slide out PSP like gaming console with buttons and speakers around. Xperia is equipped with 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery with talk time up to 8hr 25min (2G) / 6hr 25min(3G).
Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Price in India : Rs.26,899/-
Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc:
It’s a sleek and slim android phone with advanced multimedia options and excellent display. It comes with 4.2″ LED backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen (480 x 854) which is also scratch-resistant. It runs on Android v2.3 Gingerbread OS and is powered by 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 scorpion processor and Adreno 205 GPU. Other options include 512MB RAM, 32GB external memory, Timescape UI, 3G,Wi-Fi, GPS etc… XPERIA Arc has a camera of 8MP with autofocus and LED flash. Disadvantage of it is that it doesn’t have front camera. The battery is Li-Po 1500 mAh and the talktime it gives you is up to 7hrs and music playback up to 31 hrs.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc Cost in India : Rs.25,990/-
HTC Desire HD:
It’s a recent release from the makers of HTC Desire. It has got a premium look and feel with 4.3” display along with 768MB RAM and 1.5gig of Internal Memory. Desire HD is powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and packs an Adreno 205 GPU.
Camera: 8MP with dual-LED flash. No secondary camera.
Battery: 1230mAh (Unfortunately, the handset cannot last throughout a day which is a disadvantage)
HTC Desire HD Price in India: Rs.24,950/-
HTC Incredible S: HTC Incredible S runs on Android 2.2 Operating system with 1GHz Qualcomm Scorpion CPU. It’s cost is around Rs.23,100/- (HTC Incredible S Specifications)

Samsung Galaxy S:
It’s the most popular Android based mobile phones in 2010. It comes with a 1GHz Hummingbird processor and a PowerVR SGX540 graphics core. You can have a great clearance with its Super-AMOLED display. Samsung had launched the Galaxy S with Android 2.1 on board but recently rolled out the Android 2.2 update in India.
Camera : 5MP auto-focus camera on the backside and a VGA camera for all your video calling needs on its front.
Connectivity : Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, microSD card
Memory : 16GB of internal memory including 2GB of ROM
Price of Samsung Galaxy S : Around Rs. 19,999
Demerits of Samsung Galaxy S is its camera with no LED flash support and also the price tag.
Dell Venue:
It’s an android mobile with 4.1″ AMOLED touch screen (800 x 480px) resolution which is made from scratch resistant Gorilla glass. The camera is of 8MP with auto-focus and 4x Zoom. Supports all the popular music formats. Internal memory is 1GB and can be expanded with 32GB microSD card. Dell Venue runs on Android 2.2 with a Snapdragon 1GHz processor.
Dell Venue Price: Rs.21,900/-
HTC Desire Z:
With slide-out QWERTY keyboard, HTC Desire Z is said to be one of the best Android handsets available in India. Desire Z runs at a ‘mere’ 800 MHz processor. However, this doesn’t effect the phone performance. Desire Z packs in 1.5gig of internal memory and 512MB of RAM. The Desire Z runs on Android 2.2 with the latest version of Sense UI on top of it.
Camera : 5MP with an LED flash
Video : Capable of recoding 720p HD videos
Cost of HTC Desire Z in India : Rs. 23,899
Samsung Google Nexus S:
It’s an android phone with v2.3 Gingerbread android os. It comes with a 4″ Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen of 480 x 800 px. Nexus S runs on 1GHz ARM cortex A8 processor and 512MB RAM. It has a huge internal storage capacity of 16GB unlike other popular phones. It has 3G, Wi-Fi, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot and GPS connectivity options. The camera quality is 5MP with auto-focus and LED flash and it supports WVGA video recording @ 30fps. The front cam is VGA enabled. It comes with Oleophobic surface, Accelerometer sensor, Contour Display with curved glass screen.
Price of Samsung Google Nexus S: Rs.26,093
HTC Desire:
It’s a very similar mobile like Google Nexus One. It has got good features like 3.7″ AMOLED display, a 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM.
Camera : 5MP camera
Connectivity : Wi-Fi, GPS etc
HTC Desire Costs around Rs.18,499
Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro :
Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro simply to say, is a power packed handset with amazing features like 2.55″ screen with QVGA display and is powered by a 600MHz processor with 128MB of internal memory. It’s also powered by Android 2.1 operating system with Sony’s proprietary TimeScape UI on top of it.
Camera : 5MP
Price : Rs.11,299
A must buy phone for its decent QWERTY keyboard. Unfortunately, Sony has stopped android updates for this mobile.
Samsung Galaxy Ace:
It’s an android mobile which suggest most of the users to go for as it is worth the money. It’s available at a price range of Rs.13,190/-
HTC Wildfire:
It’s said to be the most popular budget phones in India with its excellent features like 3.2″ QVGA display (320×420). HTC Wildfire is powered by 528MHz processor with 384MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM. It has got an update of Android 2.2 recently.
Camera – 5MP
Connectivity – Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G …
HTC Wildfire Price in India : Rs.10,299
LG Optimus One:
It’s a budget phone with a low price and has features like 3.2″ HVGA display, a 600MHz processor, 512MB of RAM and 170MB of internal memory. It runs on Android 2.2 (Android 2.3 Gingerbread update will be launched soon).
Connectivity : Wi-Fi, GPS, 3.5mm jack and a microSD card slot
Camera : 3.15MP with auto-focus
Battery : 1500mAh (Charging will easily last through a day)
Cost of LG Optimus One: Rs.9,490
So Decide one among the above android phones that suits your daily needs. Do lemme know your favorite mobile through your comments.
Note: The prices may vary. Please check with your local mobile outlet for exact prices before going for the purchase.
Last Updated: October, 2011

Samsung Galaxy S

Software

User interface

The phone employs the latest proprietary Samsung TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. Unlike TouchWiz 3.0 on the Samsung Wave, it allows up to seven homescreens. However, different from other Android user interfaces, TouchWiz 3.0 allows users to add, delete and rearrange homescreens. The program launcher is also different from other Android user interfaces in that it has an iOS-like program menu which allows customization of shortcuts. In addition, three of the four shortcuts at the bottom of the screen can also be customized.

The Epic 4G features a specialized version of TouchWiz based on TouchWiz 2.5. Because of the Epic 4G's QWERTY slide-out keyboard, the homescreen needed to be able to rotate into landscape mode, and accordingly several key features and applications are absent on the Epic. TouchWiz 3.0 devices do not support this feature, and because of that difference, the Epic 4G ships with a heavily modified TouchWiz 2.5 interface. The customization of homescreens, as well as several other features found on TouchWiz 3.0 devices like the Vibrant, Captivate, and Fascinate, is not supported in the version of TouchWiz that ships on the Epic 4G.

The most important aspect of all three generations of TouchWiz is the widget interface. The most prominent widgets that come with the Galaxy S are the Daily Briefing, weather clock and the Buddies Now widget. In addition to Samsung widgets, standard Android widgets can be added and removed from the homescreens.

Manufacturer	Samsung Electronics
Series	Samsung Galaxy S
Carriers	See article
Compatible networks	Dual band CDMA2000/EV-DO Rev. A 800 and 1,900 MHz; WiMAX 2.5 to 2.7 GHz; 802.16e 2.5G(GSM/GPRS/EDGE): 850, 900, 1700 1800, 1900, and 2100 MHz; 3G (HSDPA 7.2 Mbit/s, HSUPA5.76 Mbit/s): 900, 1,900, and 2,100 MHz;
First released	June 2010
Discontinued	Still available (in some countries)
Predecessor	Samsung Galaxy i-7500
Successor	Samsung Galaxy S II
Related	Samsung Galaxy Player
Type	Touchscreen smartphoneAndroid
Form factor	Slate (most versions) Slider (Sprint version)
Dimensions	122.4 mm (4.82 in) H 64.2 mm (2.53 in) W 9.9–14 mm (0.39–0.55 in) D.
Weight	118–155 g (4.2–5.5 oz).
Operating system	Android 2.2.1 with TouchWizUI 3.0. Upgradeable to Android 2.3.5
CPU	Samsung Hummingbird S5PC110 (ARM Cortex A8), 1 GHz
GPU	PowerVR SGX 540 (128MB For GPU Cache)
Memory	512 MB RAM
Storage	1 – 16 GB (flash nand memory)
Removable storage	micro-SD (up to 32 GB supported)
Battery	Li-pol 1.5 Ah Talk time: 2G, 803 min.; 3G, 393 min. Standby time: 2G, 750 hr; 3G, 576 hr.
Data inputs	Multi-touch capacitive touchscreen display Ambient light sensors Microphone Barometer Magnetometer (Compass) aGPS 3-axis accelerometer 3-axis gyroscope Stereo FM Radio With RDS, and Swype physical QWERTY keyboard (on Sprint version only)
Display	800×480 px, 4.0 in (10.2 cm) at 233 ppi WVGA Super AMOLED (0.37 megapixels) with mDNIe
External display	TV out via headphone jack, mDNIe Via WiFi(HD)
Rear camera	5 MP with auto focus; 720p HD video(12 Mbps); self-, action, panorama, and smile shot; stop motion; add me Front-facing VGA camera (some models)
Connectivity	Bluetooth 3.0 HDMI 1.4 (Type D), 720p micro-USB 2.0 Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n DLNA FM radio with RDS
Other	TV out, integrated messagingSocial Hub, Android Market, Samsung Apps, A-GPS, augmented reality with Layar Reality Browser, video messaging. Exchange ActiveSync, offline, and no SIM Mode, voice command, RSS reader, widgets, smart security[1]