Brian Atzori 4B 2015/2016

Android  is a  mobile operating system  (OS) currently developed by  Google, based on the  Linux kernel  and designed primarily for  touchscreen mobile devices such as  smartphones  and  tablets. Android's user interface  is mainly based on direct manipulation, using touch gestures that loosely correspond to real-world actions, such as swiping, tapping and pinching, to manipulate on-screen objects, along with a  virtual keyboard for text input. There are several versions of Android developed for systems like cars and TV and even for watches.

The history of Android The history of this OS starts with the foundation of the Android Inc. in 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, and Nick Sears. The purpose of this company was the developement of smarter mobile devices more aware about the user preferences.They start working with the idea of producing an OS for digital camera, but they realized that the market was not large enough, so they started putting their efforts for producing an operating system that could compete Symbian and Microsoft Windows Mobile.

In 2005, Google acquired Android Inc. for at least $50 million In 2005,  Google  acquired Android Inc. for at least $50 million. Key staff of Android Inc, including Rubin, Miner and White, stayed at the company after the acquisition. With this operation everyone assumed that Google was planning to enter the market of mobile phone. In these years Rubin's team starts to develop an operating system for mobile devices based on the Linux Kernel. The official presentation of the "Green Robot" was on 5th November 2007 from the newborn OHA (Open Handset Alliance), an union of companies of the  Hi Tech sector  which includes Google and smartphone producers   like   HTC  and  Samsung.

The first device with Android installed was the HTC Dream released on 22nd October 2008. Since that year the updates for Android have been many, the purpose of these updates was the improvement of the features and the elimination of security problems form the previous versions. From version 1.5 every updates and release, similarly for what happens for many versions of  Linux, follows a proper alphabetical convention with names, which in this case are names of sweets, like gingerbread, lollipop and kitkat. The latest version of android is the 6.0, Marshmallow.

In March 2013, Larry Page announced that Andy Rubin was leaving the presidency of the Android company to dedicate himself to other Google projects. He was replaced by Sundar Pichai.

Android Features Android has an open source type license, the Apache license, it allows to modify and distribute the source code of Android. Android has a world-wide community of developers that create applications with the purpose of increasing the O.S features, all of this is possible thanks to open-source. These applications are written mostly in Java. In October 2012 the applications on the market (Google Play) have reached 700,000 units

These features have allowed Android to become the most used O These features have allowed Android to become the most used O.S on mobile enviroment. For the companies, Anroid means the best choice in terms of low cost and customization, without the problem of writing a new O.S from scratch. All Android applications are Java-based, even if you write the code in C/C++, for example, you have to call this code from a Java function. The flash memory on the Android devices is divided in different partitions, for example "/system" for the O.S and "/data" for the user data and the installations of the applications. 

The   Homescreen  it's similar to the Desktop on Windows, it's the main screen that you find when you switch on your device. The homescreen of Android can be empty or occupied by the icons of the applications or the “Widgets”, something similar to gadgets with several functions, there are many types of widgets, for example widgets that show different styles of clocks, and other that show the latest videos on Youtube, and others that shows the wheather data. On the top part of the screen there is a “Status bar”, which shows information about the device and its connectivity.

The apps are the more generic form to indicate application software installable on Android and they can be downloaded from Google Play, or from other marketplaces like “Amazon Appstore”. The Android applications can be installed from an APK (It stands for Android package) file, a package that contains the application installer and its resources, distributed by the software developer.

“I want to become an Android developer” Do you want to become an Android developer? It's easier than you think... You'll just need some prerequisites, let's see what in particular...

Surely you need to know the basics of software development In particular you will need to learn object-oriented programming Then you'll need an IDE , I suggest Android Studio... Then you are ready to start with the development of your first application! If you're stuck with your work or you need help, remember … There is always the Android Community, there are many places where you can find help, tutorials, videos and forums where you can meet other developers! Remember that even Google is here to help you, putting many resources for your app avaible for free on its website, like permissions, tutorials and other things! You'll just need a Gmail account.

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND GOODBYE!