An introduction to

Android

What is Android?

Android is the first free, open source and fully customizable mobile platform
Android Introduction 2
Android Introduction 2

What is Android?

Bought by Google in an effort to extend its reach from the computer-based internet to the mobile internet
Developed by the Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 companies, including Google, T-Mobile, Intel, HTC, Qualcomm and Motorola, etc... A fully integrated bundle of software that will significantly lower the current costs and time for developing mobile devices and services
Android Introduction 3
Android Introduction 3

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.

Android Introduction 4

Android Introduction

Android applications

Applications without borders

Applications embed the web

Applications run in parallel

Applications access core mobile device functionality through standard APIs Through intents, applications can announce their capabilities for other applications to use

Applications can easily embed HTML, Javascript, and style sheets

While running in the background, an application can produce notifications to get users attention

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Android Introduction

Android applications

An overview of apps is available on the Android Market site, but apps can only be downloaded via the device

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Android Introduction

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

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Android Introduction

Android Architecture

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Android Introduction

Android Architecture
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. 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

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Android Introduction

Android Architecture
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:
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
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Android Introduction

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Android Architecture
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 registerbased, 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.

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Android Introduction

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Publishing applications to the Android Market

Register using a Google account ($25 fee)

Upload the application whenever you want, as many times as you want, and then publish it when ready Once published, users can browse to the application, download it and rate it Unlike Apple's App Store, Google's Android Market doesn't have any approval process for applications After registration, developers can offer their applications in the store without any further validation or approval Apples approval can take a month or more

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Android Introduction

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Android resources
android.com Brief introduction to Android, with some helpful links and videos source.android.com A little more robust, with more content and links android.com/market Overview of available Android applications anddev.org Android development community code.google.com/android/index.html Useful site with information on getting started androiddevelopment.org/ Developers blog androidcommunity.com/ Android community with articles, forums, blogs, etc
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Android Introduction 13

Thank You. Any Questions..?