What gives android in the phone. What is the Android operating system
Modern users of smartphones and tablets are unlikely to ask the question that you see in the title of this topic, but let's not forget that in the world you can find a huge number of people who, in principle, are not familiar with mobile technology. So, they are not familiar with such a definition as "android". What is it?
In fact, the word "android" has several meanings:
- humanoid robot
- Film of the same name
- Operating system
The last point is of greatest interest, and we'll talk about it.
At the time of writing, Android is the most popular mobile operating system and it is unlikely that anything will change in the coming years, because, according to 2014, Android OS was already installed in 86% of smartphones sold in the second quarter of that year.
The Android logo is a green robot, here it is:
Initially, the operating system was developed by the company of the same name - Android Inc., which was bought by the Internet giant Google in 2004. However, the first version of the operating system was officially released much later, only in September 2008. Why is it remarkable? For the reason that the iPhone OS operating system, which was later renamed iOS, appeared more than a year earlier, but this did not prevent Android from taking a leading position. There is an opinion that if iOS were used not only on Apple devices, but also on any other devices, most likely it would be the most popular mobile operating system in the world now. However, history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood.
By the way, here is the first device based on Android - HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1):
As for the operating system, we recall that this is a complex of interrelated programs or applications designed to manage device resources. Have you heard about the Windows operating system and worked with it? Android is also an operating system designed primarily to work with touch screens. For this reason, a modern smartphone easily replaces a home computer that can be placed in a pocket. However, in fact, this is a compact computer. A device without an operating system turns, as it is fashionable to say now, into a brick - a non-working device.
Initially, Android OS was used only on smartphones, but today everything has changed significantly. So, you can find Android on tablets, e-readers, smart watches, smartbooks, game consoles, TVs, etc.
What does Android OS allow you to do?
If before we used phones to make calls and send SMS messages, then with the advent and development of Android-based smartphones, as mentioned above, we got a full-fledged compact computer. And maybe even more: for example, some smartphones allow you to take photos almost at a professional level.
As for the Android operating system, it allows you to use the Internet, play a variety of games, watch videos, listen to audio recordings, chat in instant messengers, install and run a wide variety of applications, including even graphic editors, work with external devices, etc. Of course, smartphones allow you to make calls, and many models support 2 SIM cards, and some support 3 or even more!
By the way, some users ask why the appearance of the Android operating system differs depending on the device? The so-called launchers (launchers) differ - this is a graphical user interface. That is, the appearance of the desktop, icons, menus can be completely different on different devices, but they all work on Android. This is also one of the features of this operating system. Look at the difference:
It should be noted that Google is constantly upgrading the Android OS. However, you must understand that not all devices support the latest versions of Android - some updates cannot wait at all! Why? Most likely, for the reason that the creator of the device does not see the point in this, moreover, it often “forces” the user to change the device to a newer one. By the way, you can’t install the latest firmware versions on “old” iPhone models either.
Be that as it may, the Android operating system is one of the best in the world. Perhaps the best in the world, which indirectly confirms its popularity.
Hello friends, I'm starting to develop a rubric related to smartphones, now it's full-fledged. Now on the site you will find a bunch of interesting articles about smartphones based on Android. I will build in as much detail as possible to convey to users about new smartphones, that is, there will be a lot of news. The emphasis, of course, will be on the creation of materials on working with the OS. So to speak, instructions from A to Z. For now, I’ll start with the simplest, and write an article about what it is and what its advantages and disadvantages are. Now let's get to the point.
What is Android OS
Android is an operating system based on the Linux kernel, which was acquired in 2005 by Google. In 2008, the first version of the operating system was released. This OS is designed for smartphones, tablets and many other devices. At the moment, it is built into watches, various navigators, set-top boxes and players.
Now a huge number of smartphones and other devices with this system are being created. It has gained terrible popularity, so it has almost no competitors, except perhaps iOS.
I think it's not worth listing the well-known brands of today's phones that are growing by leaps and bounds. So, they all use Android. If we talk about a clean system, we can say that it is very nimble and productive. Many manufacturers, taking this OS as a basis, make their shell with additional functions, features and design. Someone does it better, and the system flies, but in some devices it doesn’t work very well.
With the help of the operating system, you have the ability to manage functions such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, create Wi-Fi access points, that is, make a modem out of your phone, and much more. Modern smartphones are embedding fingerprint and iris scanning sensors, which allows for many times better protection - all this can be controlled using Android. Naturally, Apple with its iOS is trying to keep up.
Advantages and disadvantages
Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages:
- Since it is developed on the open source Linux kernel, the mobile system is also open source, which allows you to create whatever your heart desires for this system.
- A clean OS is highly optimized and not demanding on devices. It can work on the weakest phone that is now available, although this is already a rarity.
- The ability to customize the system for yourself.
- A huge number of add-ons and applications that greatly expand the capabilities of the OS.
- Speed of work (not in all cases).
- The system is available for the following hardware platforms: ARM, x86, MIPS.
These are the main positive characteristics that I noted for myself. Maybe there is something else. In addition to the pros, there are also cons:
- An open source operating system gives an advantage to smartphone and tablet manufacturers to create shells that are not always as optimized and efficient as possible. In addition, the shell update may come much later than the latest version of the official system.
- If the system is poorly optimized, then there is a possibility of a strong energy consumption. And atomicity is now very much appreciated. But it depends more on device manufacturers.
- Because of its popularity, hackers and other bad people write viruses for the OS and look for vulnerabilities. Of course, this OS has some protection, not like Windows. Therefore, the disadvantage is minor.
- Cases have been observed where several million dollars have generally been stolen from users around the world. This was done by sending SMS without the knowledge of the user.
In addition to the clean system from Google, there are a number of enthusiasts developing their own firmware, which have their own functionality and capabilities. You will see a completely different design, it happens that the firmware of another manufacturer will work better than pure Android.
At the moment, there are such companies that create firmware for smartphones and other devices: CyanogenMod, which is now LineageOS, AOKP, MIUI, Paranoid Android, AOSP, Replicant and others.
Enthusiast developers try to release firmware versions on time, along with the release of a clean OS. But sometimes it is not necessary to flash the phone, as the manufacturers could take care of it.
Applications and Play Market
Everyone knows that every day hundreds of programs and games are uploaded to the Google Play Market app store. You can find whatever your heart desires, these are various audio and video players, desktop wallpapers, file managers, of which there are probably thousands, a lot of software for communicating with people - social networks, instant messengers and others. You can also download movies, books and music from there. Of course, the content there is both paid and free.
A little bit of theory. The Android application code is written for the so-called Dalvic virtual machine. Applications are in .apk format, this is the only format. Until recently, applications themselves could be written in Java, and since 2009, Google has added a special package of features that allows you to create software in C and C ++. Also, there are many development environments, such as Embarcadero RAD Studio.
As for the app store itself, it was opened in 2008. The agreement was that software developers give 30% of the profits to Google. By the standards of 2017, there are about 2.8 million applications in the Play Market database.
Of course, sometimes unscrupulous users posted applications with malicious code, which caused a scandal around 2011, but the problems were quickly hushed up and the vulnerabilities were closed.
Whoever says anything, but the direct specific Play Market is the App Store - an application store for iPhone, iPad, iPod and others. They have less software than in the Play Market. In terms of developer income, the same as that of Google. You create a paid application for which you will give 30% of the profit.
What's Inside Android
And now, almost the penultimate fad, in which I want to talk about the internal components of the system. Those who use this system should understand it at least a little. And compare it with Windows.
So, Linux differs from Windows in that the second one has information sorted into disks and folders, of course, in Linux as well, but it's all displayed differently. In Linux systems, a tree structure.
There are also differences in registers. If you create several folders with the same name, then on Windows there will be no difference, but on Linux they will be completely different folders. This also applies to files. These names will be different in Linux - Papka, papka, PAPKA.
Always the cache for the system and some application will be saved in a special section - cache.
Surely everyone saw the folder in the file manager data. This directory has other folders related to installation files and directories from applications.
Configuration files and software libraries can be found in the app-lib folder.
To make applications work, they are written in Java for a special Dalvik virtual machine. Therefore, you may come across a catalog dalvic-cache. Sometimes it needs to be cleaned, for example, before flashing the phone. This is done with the help of root rights or from, but I will definitely talk about all this in future articles.
You will definitely see the directory in the file manager system. From the name it is clear that system settings are stored there, changing which can ruin your system.
In catalog etc you will find files that allow the system to start normally.
These are not all the folders that are in the Android system. It will take a few additional articles to sort it all out.
Additional features
Many people know that each modification of the system has a key name, usually some kind of dessert. For example, Cupcake, which means cupcake. One of the popular versions 4.1-4.3 is called Jelly Bean (Jelly beans). But version 4.4 is named after the famous chocolate bar KitKat. The next modification 5.0 and 5.1 is called Lollipop - lollipop. The sixth variant is Marshmallow and, finally, the latest variant 7.0-7.1.2 received the Nougat code.
It’s already quite a bit left before the release of version 8, or as it is called Android O. The beta version of the operating system is already installed on some flagships and works stably. Full OS will be released at the end of 2017. And yes, the keyword is likely to be Oreo. Below you will see a video of the presentation of the eighth version.
Well guys, I finished the article, now you know what Android is, where it is used, its chips. In future articles, I will cover almost everything related to this operating system. Well, I wish you good luck!
When people hear this word, they have a lot of questions: “Why a green robot?”, “How difficult is it to handle?”, “How to install programs or make a backup copy?”, “Should I give it preference when choosing new mobile phone? other.
But what is Android in principle? Let's try to figure this out.
Description
android (eng. Android) is the name of a software platform for devices (most of which are mobile devices) based on the Linux kernel. It was originally created by Android Inc., which was acquired by Google. Android provides the ability to develop Java applications that control the device using libraries developed by Google. Distributed under the Apache 2.0 license.
Used in a wide range of devices:
- Smartphones
- TVs
- Google glasses
- media players
- Electronic books
- photo frames
- Notebooks/Netbooks/Smartbooks
- And so on
It is planned to install the Android system on the automotive computerized part and robotic machines (military and domestic). Now it is the most common operating system for mobile devices (for example, in 2014, more than 80% of smartphones sold had the Android operating system).
In the fall of 2012, L. Page (executive director of Google) published statistics on the activation of over 500 million Android-based mobile devices. To compare the spread rate of this OS, in the fall of 2013, it became known that more than 1 billion Android devices were activated on our planet.
The main competitor in the mobile segment at the moment is Apple with an expensive proprietary operating system called iOS. Like Apple, Google has its own Internet market, but it has not only paid, but also many free products, unlike its competitor, which sells its full-fledged programs most often for more than $0.
Software store (applications) "Google Play"
In the fall of 2008, Google presented an online store of programs (applications) for its OS - Android Market. As for payment, developers receive about 70% of the profits, and the remaining 30% is received by operators providing access to the cellular network. As of January 2012, more than 10 billion applications have been downloaded since the launch of the Android Market.
In the spring of 2012, the company combined its multimedia services, such as Books, Android Market, Music, etc. Google Play appeared. Google Play is used in over 180 countries and has over half a million apps with over 25 billion downloads.
Advantages of Android
Unlike iOS, Android is a free platform, which gives it the opportunity to implement more various functions and make itself more versatile with the help of firmware and patches from third-party programmers.
- by default, it has a restriction on installing programs from “unverified sources”, but this prohibition can be easily deactivated in the device settings, which allows installation without an Internet connection, and also provides the ability to test personally written applications;
- available for MIPS, ARM, x86;
- multiplayer mode since Android 4.3
Criticism from
- some devices have Google services that allow you to transfer confidential information to the company;
- the platform has excessive fragmentation that prevents programmers from creating applications without any problems;
- due to the use of Java code, there is often a decrease in overall performance and increased power consumption of Android devices
- According to Lookout Security Mobile, in 2011, over $1 million was stolen from Android smartphone owners (frequent methods: sending instant messages without the participation of the owner of the phone or calling a paid number).
It is interesting
- the name of each version of Android 1.5+ is a dessert, or rather its name. In this case, the first letters of the names are relative to the letters of the Latin alphabet, following in order:
- individual font sets were created for Android Droid and Roboto;
- In versions of Android 4.2+ initially developer tools are off, to activate it, you need to click on the release number seven times.
- on official websites from the moment they were launched to the present moment no minimum specifications required to run the OS;
- in versions 2.3+ there is easter egg, to launch it, you should go to "Settings - About device - Android version" and quickly press this function 4 times, after which an animation will be displayed, and then the "Flappy Bird" mini-game will open.
Hello, dear readers of the Start-Luck blog. If there were no operating systems, any user would need to graduate from high school and memorize a hundred complex commands to use the phone.
I do not think that in this case, devices such as smartphones and computers were very popular. Fortunately, not only Tefal, but also many other companies have been thinking about us for many years now.
Today I am going to tell you about android - what it is and what it is for. As always, the information will be simple and clear, as they say, it is intended for dummies, so do not be offended if you already know some things very well. Consolidate the information and fill your mind with new knowledge.
The essence of the term
So, each program helps an ordinary user to create code without knowing it at all. We see only the final result and a friendly interface, which we have long been accustomed to.
The operating system is the basis of everything that exists in an electronic device. Look, each utility is designed to simplify the user's actions, and the operating system is something like a brain, it helps to create and execute any other commands, connect special programs, use games, and so on.
It is very difficult to give a similar example from life to make it clearer, but I will try. See to write a letter, a book or a movie script - the author needs a pen or pencil. It's exactly the same here.
If you want to write a message - you need, suppose there is a desire to read a book - open FbReader, to download all these programs you will need the Play Market, but a single system for performing all these operations is called android.
Of course, it is not installed in all phones, there are many others - iPhone iOS, windows phone, semibian, bada, palm, maemo and so on. True, the two most popular today are Apple iOS and Android. Why is that? Let's figure it out.
Advantages of android
What does the term mean, you already understood, but why is android so popular? In my opinion, this operating system is on everyone's lips, primarily for the reason that it is pre-installed in almost all brand new mobile devices. Samsung, Sony, LG, ZTE, HTC and many other firms cooperate with them.
If you are buying a laptop, tablet or phone, then it is foolish to get rid of the operating system and install a new one for yourself. It's long, tedious and generally pointless. Everyone who has ever reinstalled Windows is familiar with this topic, so it's easier to use what is there.
However, android has a lot of advantages, even in comparison with the same Apple iOS. Namely - a large number of free applications. If the game is made for iPhone, it may not open if the phone is running android, but we all know that most iPhone plugins cost money, there is always a free alternative on android.
Installing Android on PC
Not everyone knows, but in fact, if you like to play some games on your phone, you can do it from your computer too. It is enough to install the emulator. You kind of deceive the system, it seems to her that you are not sitting from a computer, but working on a familiar mobile phone - post photos on Instagram, scroll through the Vkontakte feed, download your favorite applications and even games.
By the way, for the first time I wrote about cheating a PC system in an article about, perhaps this article will also interest you.
Well, for Android to work, you will need one of the emulator programs: Nox App Player, Andy or Bluestacks. Choose any, use and enjoy a very large screen.
Even more secrets about your laptop will help you open the course " Productivity Secrets ". Pay your attention to it.
Well, that's all for me. Don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter and group Start-Luck Vkontakte . See you again and good luck.
This article will help you understand the term Android. We will reveal all the advantages of gadgets running on this operating system.
In fact, from our article you will learn about what Android is, explanations for dummies will be presented below. With our help, you will deal with the main aspects and questions that may arise for a beginner who first encountered a phone or tablet on this system.
What is Android?
For many, the word Android raises the question: "What is it?" This device is an operating system or "firmware" created for mobile devices by the company Google based linux. Translated from English, "Android" means "humanoid robot."
- The first version of the Android system appeared in 2008 and immediately won the attention and interest of users of smartphones, tablets, etc. True, the iPhone and its iOS, as well as Nokia with Windows Mobile and Symbian, decided not to succumb to the Android system and left their unpopular operating systems.
- According to statistics, by 2015, more than 80% of tablets and smartphones were running on Android. To date, this operating system has not had any real competitors. Even a kettle can deal with Android, because the system is quite simple.
Advantages
- One of the main advantages of the Android operating system is that it has proven to be much better than its main competitor, Apple iOS, in a number of ways. In addition, unlike iOS, Android is an open platform. It is thanks to this that more useful functions can be implemented on Android.
- The settings of your tablet or smartphone allow you to install applications on your device from unverified sources, such as from a memory card. Thus, to install a particular program, the Internet may not be needed.
- The Android system is available for all kinds of hardware platforms, such as MIPS. ARM, x86.
Who makes Android smartphones and tablets?
In fact, there are a lot of manufacturers of Android smartphones and tablets. The most popular at the moment are Samsung, Huawei, HTC, Sony Ericsson, Dell, Motorola, LG, Acer other. All of them, respectively, develop smartphones running the Android operating system. However, as mentioned earlier, we will probably not be able to see Android smartphones from Nokia and BlackBerry.
Currently, manufacturers of Android devices offer consumers a huge selection of various models of tablets and smartphones for every taste. Everyone will be able to choose a gadget based on their individual preferences, which will emphasize your individuality. The appearance of an Android smartphone
Every Android device comes in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. Everything is done in order to attract potential buyers. Some gadgets are equipped with a great camera, others with a super-fast processor, others with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
A distinctive feature of Android smartphones is a large touch screen. Screen sizes may vary, however, most are at least 3 inches diagonal.
The 5-inch capacitive touchscreen on Android 6.0 is the undoubted advantage that makes the device so popular. What can an Android device do?
An Android device is easy to set up even for a teapot. You can easily change certain settings of your tablet or smartphone, according to your needs and preferences.
For dummies, this operating system may be simpler than it seems at first glance.
What apps can be installed on an Android device?
Android Market allows you to download many useful applications and interesting games.
- There are dedicated camera apps that allow you to take pictures using various filters and effects.
Photo editing apps will turn your every photo into a real masterpiece. Now photography has become much easier and you can create real works of art on your Android device So, your photos will be no worse, and maybe even better than a real professional photographer.
- A huge touchscreen display allows you to set any image from the Internet or a self-taken picture as wallpaper.
- Android supports on-screen widgets. They allow you to access various functions and settings of your smartphone. For more convenience, you can create your own menu system and shortcuts.
Widgets make it easier for users to use a smartphone or tablet. Thus, even a child can handle the gadget How much do Android updates cost?
Updates for the Android platform are absolutely free. New versions of the operating system provide gadgets with new functionality and changes, as a rule, only for the better. First of all, the top-end Android models receive updates.
findings
So what is Android? This is the operating system, which is by far the most popular platform, which is very popular among the owners of phones and tablets.
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