Android Revolution

  Android Revolution

Welcome to the world of Android Revolution

            Android's Rises to Prominence

Today, Android is well-known as a mobile operating system; since the launch of Android 1.0 in 2008, Android has had an astronomical rise in market share. In just three years, Android has gone from a new mobile operating system to a mobile OS that controls a plurality of the market share in smartphones, in no small part due to its open source nature and no licensing fees.

In 2003, however, no one would have believed you if you said Google would be at the forefront of smartphone mobile OS development. “Android” was still just a sci-fi word, and the Apple iPhone was not even a speck on the horizon; RIM dominated the smartphone world with their Blackberries and Blackberry OS, and no one then foresaw the coming changes in the smartphone world.

That same year, however, a group of well-known players in the technology field had come together. Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White created a company called Android, Inc. The purpose for the company was vague, and the founders of the company would reveal no specifics; it was common knowledge only that the company was working on some sort of technology related to cell phones.

They continued for about two years, and in 2005 were acquired by Google. Their acquisition by Google was met with a great deal of speculation from investors, commentators, and technology enthusiasts; Android was already a shadowy company that generated interest, and Google’s purchase of it seemed to indicate that Google wanted to move into the mobile phone market; it was already common knowledge that Google was looking to get its search into more mobile devices, and many assumed that this was Google’s entrance into the mobile phone search market.

The general consensus was that Google was going to come out with their own branded handset to enter into the mobile phone market, and the Internet was abuzz with rumors of Google’s technical specifications and possible prototypes that were being shopped around to interested parties; this buzz was only fed by the revelation that Google had filed some mobile phone patents that year. The truth, however, proved to be much more interesting.

In 2007, the Open Handset Alliance was formed, a group of many large electronics companies that included Google in its membership. The announcement of the formation of the Open Handset Alliance was accompanied also by another unveiling; that of the Open Handset Alliance’s flagship product, Android, a mobile phone operating system based on Linux and available for use to anyone because of its free, open-source license.

Android’s initial release was quite impressive, even though it was originally only launched on the HTC Dream / G1, the first Android phone. Released in September of 2008, it lacked many of the features of the later operating systems, of course; the on-screen keyboard, CDMA support, direct video upload to YouTube and Picasa. It was, however, recognizably a smartphone OS that could compete with the other smartphone OSes in the playing field: it was smart, slick, and open, making it a very attractive OS for other phone makers to retrieve, modify, and implement on their own phones.

And the phone makers did in fact appreciate Android’s open nature and ability to perform admirably compared to its competitors. New Android versions kept getting released, and more and more phones started to adopt the Android OS. A little over a year from the release of Android 1.0, Android gained 4% of the market share from its competitors. By this point, Android had become more mainstream in the user sphere, and major carriers like Verizon had launched Android-powered smartphones with aggressive marketing, like the Motorola Droid. A number of Android trainingprograms have opened up to begin spreading Android App Development skills throughout the marketplace. The 2.0 update also helped to contribute to Android’s market share increase, as 2.0 saw the OS gain abilities to interface directly with Exchange servers, improved and advanced calendar functions, and the ability to be able to connect to more than one email account.

It was in 2010 that Android really took off in both the public consciousness and phone manufacturers; in January of that year, Google launched its flagship Android smartphone, the Nexus One, and major phone makers such as Samsung, HTC, and Motorola had all come out with a line of Android smartphones as well. By the end of 2010, Android had seen two major updates: Froyo and Gingerbread. They added improved Exchange support, Internet calling, and much needed copy and paste functionality, all of which appealed to users and broadened Android’s appeal in the corporate market as well. By the end of the year, Android’s market share had rocketed up to almost 18% of the smartphones; no short order, considering it had only existed for two years prior.

Today, Android-powered devices are ubiquitous; there are now tablets, e-book readers, and phones that run some flavor or other of the Android operating system. Android, as of this writing, currently holds 25% plurality in smartphone market share, just three years after the first device that ran the Android operating system launched. A new version 4.0, codenamed “Ice Cream Sandwich”, promises to revolutionize the Android ecosystem as well: it is included on Google’s flagship phone, the Galaxy Nexus, and already has garnered extremely strong reviews from across the board. ICS includes a whole host of new features, such as NFC support, infrared support, and facial recognition unlocking technology, just to name a few. The general consensus, however, is that where ICS really shines is in its enhanced speed, performance, usability, and look. There have been a great deal of performance tweaks under the hood to speed up ICS’ performance, including hardware acceleration of the UI- as a result, ICS is extremely smooth and slick. Some of the early reviewers have noted that this may also be a result of the Galaxy Nexus’ impressive hardware specs, but it does perform better than other devices with similar specs. Google’s emphasis on usability and speed really shows, and Android as an OS has really come into its own with the advent of ICS.

ICS’ clear maturation, along with its usability, shows us just how important the mobile touchscreen world is becoming: with its lack of capacities buttons and slick, minimalist layout, ICS is shaping up to be a technology well-designed to enter the home in all sorts of form factors, whether it be mobile smartphone or beefier tablet. Though it has recently run into allegations of patent violation and other legal issues, Android is a strong contender in the mobile operating system world and it’s here to stay: for the foreseeable future, powered by Android is a tag that’s going to be slapped on quite a few devices as they get shipped out of the factory on their way to the stores!

Announcing Google Chrome for Android

On February 7th, 2012, Google announced the release of Chrome Beta for Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). This download is available in the Android market and was originally intended to be part of the ICS release that unfortunately didn't make it in time. Since many people already use Chrome as their primary browser, it is exciting that it is now available for your favorite devices. In this article, I will talk about some of the new features that Chrome for Android offers.

To start, you can currently get Chrome for Android in the following countries: US, Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Japan, Korea, Argentina and Brazil. Hopefully more countries will have access in the future.

Speed: One of the best parts of Chrome for Android is that the already fast browser has been optimized for mobile and has been given even greater speed and simplicity. Gestures can be used to scroll and pages are loaded in the background while searching which allows pages to appear immediately.

Synchronization: The new single-sign-in feature will allow you to keep your favorites and browser settings synced across all devices so all of your information will always be available:

• Tabs that were left open on your desktop will be available on your device, so you can pick up where you left off.
• Bookmarks can be a synced so you will have your favorites when you need them.
• Autocomplete suggestions will be saved so you can spend less time typing out common phrases and previous queries.
• Support for Google Cloud Print.

Optimization: Since Chrome for Android has been optimized for your mobile device, it fits nicely onto your mobile screen. The tabs work like they should on the smaller screen and scale up to a larger screen tablet without trouble. Gestures can be used to open new tabs or move between them intuitively.

Privacy: When browsing sites where you want to keep your information private, you can use “incognito” mode so no identifying data is sent from your device. You can turn this on by tapping the Menu Icon -> Settings -> Privacy.

No Flash: Ok, so this isn’t really a feature, but Adobe has released a statement saying they will be working with Google on HTML5 support instead of Flash for mobile Chrome. The browser does come with the latest HTML5 support and features.

So, if you have an Android Ice Cream Sandwich device, get to the Android Market and download the Chrome browser so you can give it a try and get the fastest mobile browser in the palm of your hand. Remember, this release is a “Beta” so tread lightly but you should be pleasantly surprised.

iPhone vs. Android – Why Dump iPhone for Android

When the iPhone first appeared on the market, it was a revolution in the mobile device area. Android took a while longer to materialize, but now that it is out there, some consumers are re-evaluating their “love affair” with iPhone. Learning from iPhone’s mistakes, Android was able to capitalize on many i Phones features that users find frustrating. In fact there are plenty of good reasons to dump your iPhone for an Android device.

iPhone’s Hideous Sync Options

Unlike the iPhone, the Android does not sync with the computer it is plugged into. One of the iPhone’s pet peeves is its insistence on syncing with the computer it is plugged into. Innocently plug your iPhone into someone else’s laptop, hit “sync” and watch all your content disappear.

Google Apps

While iPhone does provide a G mail interface, this is where the buck stops, when it comes to Google apps. Not surprisingly, Android goes much further than iPhone in its integration with the Google suite. One example is the address book. Out-of-the-box, Android syncs its contacts with a G mail account. This ensures that your contact records reside in a central location that can be accessed from any location and using various devices. Some Google applications host their data on the Google cloud instead of iTunes. This makes dumping the iPhone for Android especially attractive to those using Linux, and unable to run iTunes.

Multitasking

Multitasking has been one of the iPhone’s worst enemies. Switching between apps requires pushing the dreaded “Home” button, which closes one app and opens another. This gets extremely annoying when reading an email, for example. Clicking on a link within an email message effectively closes the email client and opens a browser window. As simple a task as returning back to the email requires hitting the “Home” button once more and re-opening the email app.

The Android solves this by providing multitasking capabilities out-of-the-box. You can run multiple applications simultaneously without having to close any of them. A drop-down window notifies you of any changes in an application you are running in the background. Although switching between apps is yet to reach its performance optimum – there is an lag time when switching between apps – it is a prominent feature that iPhone lacks.

Web Browser

One of the best reasons to dump your iPhone for Android is the web browsing experience. The Android’s built-in browser is fast, capable, and feature-rich. Unlike iPhone’s Safari, it supports Flash, allowing you to view many more sites than on the iPhone and watch videos directly in your mobile browser window.

Unified Notifications

Another reason to dump your iPhone for Android is the Android’s unified notification infrastructure. Android provides a single notification system available to Android app developers. This means that the Android can be configured to receive Facebook updates, weather alerts, tweets, Reddit submissions and other time-based events. The notification system allows you to stay on top of the things you care about without making the process overly cumbersome.

Open-Source Framework

Finally, Android is built on top of an open-source platform. While this may not matter to some, it may be crucial to others. Open-source software allows developers and device makers to have a much finer control over the phone hardware and the operating system that powers it. The iPhone’s lack of support for Flash is the best illustration of the impact of open-source software. If Flash support were missing on Android, developers would be able to add it quickly without waiting for Google to develop one.

Conclusion

There are a number of compelling reasons to dump your iPhone for an Android phone. Android allows multitasking, integrates well with Google online suite, provides a central notification system, and a terrific web browsing experience. Finally, as an open-source platform, Android allows developers to customize it in limitless ways. Check out Android today and you will quickly find yourself wishing you had not gone to the Apple store.