The Android Software

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By Jill Hollands


If anyone were to ask you what is Android what could you say other than that it is the best software stack for any mobile phone? It consists of an operating system, some key applications and the necessary middleware. It is the Android SDK which offers the tools and the APIs that are important for developing the applications using the Android platform. This is done by making use of the Java programming language.

The Android software is shipped along with a set of standard applications such as email client, an SMS program, maps, calendar, browser, contacts and other such features. The applications are prepared using the Java programming language.

The developer can prepare the applications in a rich and innovative way as the Android platform is an open framework with which he can get the best advantage of the hardware to get information about location. The developer can put in alarms and other features and also add to the status bar and so on. The APIs used for the core applications can be reused for other applications and the reusing of the Android components is very simple. For instance, the capabilities of one application can be used in other applications and the components can also be replaced by the user.

To understand more about what Android is, it gives a set of Views for building lists, grids, and buttons and text boxes. It also contains content providers which help the applications to retrieve data from other applications in the mobile device, like the contacts and even share its own data with the other application. There is a Resource manager with which the developer can reach non code resources such as graphics and layout files. A Notification Manager allows all the applications that are created to be capable of displaying custom alerts in the status bar of the mobile device. An Activity Manager is present in the Android Software which controls the working of the applications and helps to provide the background with one single common backstack.

Android has libraries such as the System C Library, the Media Libraries, the Surface Manager, the SGL for graphics, the LibWEBCore and 3D libraries. These provide all the functionality necessary for a mobile device. It is based on the Linux version 2.6 for the basic system services concerning security, memory, process, network and so on.




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