Table of Contents

About the book

Copyright

About the author

FIRST EDITION

DISCLAIMER

INTRODUCTION

FEATURES & APPLICATIONS

Android version numbers and names

11

Rooting (Android OS)

13

Use outside of smartphones and tablets

18

Hardware

20

TIPS AND TRICKS

22

About the book

THIS BOOK GIVES DETAILED KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ANDROID AND ITS
FUNCTIONS.ANDROID IS AN DEVELOPING FURIOUS OS WHICH IS
POPULAR AROUND THE WORLD.THIS BOOK MANY USEFUL ASPECTS
ABOUT ANDROID.SO KINDLY READ THIS BOOK AND GET THE MOST OUT
OF IT

Copyright
Author
G.S.SRIDHAR
Editor
G.S.SRIDHAR
Copyright 2015 G.S.SRIDHAR

First Published using Papyrus,2015

This book may be purchased for educational, business, or sales

promotional use. Online edition is also available for this title. For more
information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: [Insert
your phone number here] or [Insert your email here]
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book,
the publisher and authors assume no responsibility for errors or
omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information
contained herein.

About the Author

G.S.SRIDHAR is an English instructor, freelance writer, and novelist.He
has great knowledge on android,windows,ios.He has unique skills in
android technolgy which helps him to produce unique books.
For more details visit www.gssridhar21.blogspot.com

FIRST EDITION
This e-book is a property of G.S.SRIDHAR therefore no part of this book
may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,electronic or
mechanical including recording photocopying, offset or by any storage
aid.The information cannot be used or retrieved in any form without
prior permission of author except the reviewers who may use a passage
from the book for print purpose with credits regarded to author

DISCLAIMER
THIS BOOK IS INTENDED TO ENRICH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ANDROID
AND ITS ITS DETAILED CONCEPTS.IT GIVES INFORMATION ABOUT
ANDROID(FUNCTIONS,VERSIONS,FEATURES,TIPS).KINDLY READ THIS
BOOK TO ENRICH YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND TO KNOW MORE ABOUT
ANDROID

INTRODUCTION
What is Android
Operating Systems have developed a lot in last 15 years. Starting from
black and white phones to recent smart phones or mini computers,
mobile OS has come far away. Especially for smart phones, Mobile OS
has greatly evolved from Palm OS in 1996 to Windows pocket PC in 2000
then to Blackberry OS and Android.
One of the most widely used mobile OS these days is ANDROID. Android
is a software bunch comprising not only operating system but also
middleware and key applications. Android Inc was founded in Palo Alto
of California, U.S. by Andy Rubin, Rich miner, Nick sears and Chris White
in 2003. Later Android Inc. was acquired by Google in 2005. After original
release there have been number of updates in the original version of
Android.

FEATURES & APPLICATIONS

Features & Specifications
Android is a powerful Operating System supporting a large number of
applications in Smart Phones. These applications make life more
comfortable and advanced for the users. Hardwares that support
Android are mainly based on ARM architecture platform. Some of the
current features and specifications of android are:
Features of Android OS
Android comes with an Android market which is an online software
store. It was developed by Google. It allows Android users to select, and
download applications developed by third party developers and use
them. There are around 2.0 lack+ games, application and widgets
available on the market for users.
Android applications are written in java programming language. Android
is available as open source for developers to develop applications which
can be further used for selling in android market. There are around
200000 applications developed for android with over 3 billion+
downloads. Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core system services
such as security, memory management, process management, network
stack, and driver model. For software development, Android provides
Android SDK (Software development kit).
Applications
These are the basics of Android applications:
Android applications are composed of one or more application
components (activities, services, content providers, and broadcast
receivers)
Each component performs a different role in the overall application
behavior, and each one can be activated individually (even by other
applications)
The manifest file must declare all components in the application and
9

should also declare all application requirements, such as the minimum

version of Android required and any hardware configurations required
Non-code application resources (images, strings, layout files, etc.)
should include alternatives for different device configurations (such as
different strings for different languages)
Google, for software development and application development, had
launched two competitions ADC1 and ADC2 for the most innovative
applications for Android. It offered prizes of USD 10 million combined in
ADC1 and 2. ADC1 was launched in January 2008 and ADC 2 was
launched in May 2009. These competitions helped Google a lot in making
Android better, more user friendly, advanced and interactive

10

Android version numbers

and names

Beta versions: Astro and Bender

1.5: Cupcake
1.6: Donut
2.0 and 2.1: Eclair
2.2: Froyo (FROzen YOgurt)
2.3: Gingerbread
3.x: Honeycomb (a tablet-only version)
4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich
4.1, 4.2 and 4.3: Jelly Bean
4.4: KitKat
5.0: Lollipop
11

12

Rooting (Android OS)

Rooting is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets and
other devices running the Android mobile operating system to attain
privileged control (known as "root access") within Android's sub-system.
Rooting is often performed with the goal of overcoming limitations that
carriers and hardware manufacturers put on some devices. Thus, rooting
gives the ability (or permission) to alter or replace system applications
and settings, run specialized apps that require administrator-level
permissions, or perform other operations that are otherwise inaccessible
to a normal Android user. On Android, rooting can also facilitate the
complete removal and replacement of the device's operating system,
usually with a more recent release of its current operating system.
As Android derives from the Linux kernel, rooting an Android device gives
similar access to administrative permissions as on Linux or any other
Unix-like operating system such as FreeBSD or OS X.
Root access is sometimes compared to jailbreaking devices running the
Apple iOS operating system. However, these are different concepts.
Jailbreaking describes the bypass of several types of Apple prohibitions
for the end user: modifying the operating system (enforced by a "locked
bootloader"), installing non-officially approved apps via sideloading, and
granting the user elevated administration-level privileges. Only a
minority of Android devices lock their bootloadersand many vendors
such as HTC, Sony, Asus and Google explicitly provide the ability to
unlock devices, and even replace the operating system entirely.Similarly,
the ability to sideload apps is typically permissible on Android devices
without root permissions. Thus, it is primarily the third aspect of iOS
jailbreaking relating to giving users superuser administrative privileges
that most directly correlates to Android rooting.
Rooting lets all user-installed applications run privileged commands
typically unavailable to the devices in the stock configuration. Rooting is
required for more advanced and potentially dangerous operations
13

including modifying or deleting system files, removing carrier- or

manufacturer-installed applications, and low-level access to the
hardware itself (rebooting, controlling status lights, or recalibrating touch
inputs.) A typical rooting installation also installs the Superuser
application, which supervises applications that are granted root or
superuser rights by requesting approval from the user before granting
said permissions. A secondary operation, unlocking the device's
bootloader verification, is required to remove or replace the installed
operating system.
In contrast to iOS jailbreaking, rooting is not needed to run applications
distributed outside of the Google Play Store, sometimes called
sideloading. The Android OS supports this feature natively in two ways:
through the "Unknown sources" option in the Settings menu and through
the Android Debug Bridge. However, some US carriers, including AT&T,
prevented the installation of applications not on the Play Store in
firmware,although several devices are not subject to this rule, including
the Samsung Infuse 4G;AT&T lifted the restriction on most devices by the
middle of 2011.
As of 2011, the Amazon Kindle Fire defaults to the Amazon Appstore
instead of Google Play, though like most other Android devices, Kindle
Fire allows sideloading of applications from unknown sources, and the
"easy installer" application on the Amazon Appstore makes this easy.
Other vendors of Android devices may look to other sources in the
future. Access to alternate apps may require rooting but rooting is not
always necessary.
Rooting an Android phone lets the owner modify or delete the system
files, which in turn lets them perform various tweaks and use apps that
require root access.
Advantages
Advantages of rooting include the possibility for complete control over
the look and feel of the device. As a superuser has access to the device's
system files, all aspects of the operating system can be customized with
the only real limitation being the level of coding expertise.Immediately
expectable advantages of rooted devices include the following:
Full theming capabilities, meaning that everything can be changed and
14

themed from the color of the battery indicator, to the look of the dialer or
contact list, to the video that plays while the device boots up.
Full control of the CPU and kernel
Full application control, including the ability to backup, restore, or batch
edit applications, or to remove bloatware that comes pre-loaded on
many phones.
Processes can be automated on the device through the use of
applications such as Tasker.
Ability to install custom firmware (also known as custom ROMs) that
allows additional levels of control on a rooted device. As Android is open
source, anyone with the proper skills can create their own customized
version.
Rooting varieties
The process of rooting varies widely by device, but usually includes
exploiting one or more security bugs in the firmware of (i.e., in the
version of the Android OS installed on) the device. Once an exploit is
discovered, a custom recovery image can be flashed which will skip the
digital signature check of firmware updates. Then a modified firmware
update can be installed which typically includes the utilities needed to
run apps as root. For example, the su binary can be copied to a location
in the current process' PATH (e.g., /system/xbin/) and granted executable
permissions with the chmod command. A supervisor application, like
SuperUser or SuperSU, can then regulate and log elevated permission
requests from other applications. Many guides, tutorials, and automatic
processes exist for popular Android devices facilitating a fast and easy
rooting process.
The process of rooting a device may be simple or complex, and it even
may depend upon serendipity. For example, shortly after the release of
the HTC Dream (HTC G1), it was discovered that anything typed using the
keyboard was being interpreted as a command in a privileged (root)
shell. Although Google quickly released a patch to fix this, a signed image
of the old firmware leaked, which gave users the ability to downgrade
and use the original exploit to gain root access. By contrast, the Googlebranded Android phones, the Nexus One, Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus
4 and Nexus 5, as well as their tablet counterparts, the Nexus 7 and
15

Nexus 10, can be boot-loader unlocked by simply connecting the device

to a computer while in boot-loader mode and running the Fastboot
program with the command fastboot oem unlock. After accepting a
warning, the boot-loader is unlocked, so a new system image can be
written directly to flash without the need for an exploit.
Difficulties[edit]
In the past, many manufacturers have tried to make "unrootable" phones
with harsher protections (like the Droid X), but they are usually still
rootable in some way. There may be no root exploit available for new or
recently updated phones, but one is usually available within a few
months.
Some rooting methods involve use of the command prompt and
development interface called Android Debug Bridge (ADB), while other
methods may use specialized applications and be as simple as clicking
one button. Devices, or sometimes even different variants of the same
device, can have different hardware configurations. Thus, if the guide,
ROM, or root method used is for a device variant with a different
hardware setup, there is a risk of bricking the device.Also there is a
strong possibility that you might end up losing your Smartphone's
warranty because most of the manufacturers do not provide warranty to
Rooted Devices.
Industry reaction[edit]
Until 2010, tablet and smartphone manufacturers, as well as mobile
carriers, were mainly unsupportive of third-party firmware development.
Manufacturers had expressed concern about improper functioning of
devices running unofficial software and related support costs. Moreover,
firmwares such as OmniROM and CyanogenMod sometimes offer
features for which carriers would otherwise charge a premium, such as
tethering. Due to that, technical obstacles such as locked bootloaders
and restricted access to root permissions have commonly been
introduced in many devices. For example, in late December 2011, Barnes
& Noble and Amazon.com, Inc. began pushing automatic, over-the-air
firmware updates, 1.4.1 to Nook Tablets and 6.2.1 to Kindle Fires, that
removed one method to gain root access to the devices. The Nook Tablet
1.4.1 update also removed users' ability to sideload apps from sources
other than the official Barnes & Noble app store (without modding).
16

However, as community-developed software began to grow popular in

the late 2009 to early 2010,and following a statement by the Copyright
Office and Librarian of Congress (US) allowing the use of "jailbroken"
mobile devices,manufacturers and carriers have softened their position
regarding CyanogenMod and other unofficial firmware distributions.
Some manufacturers, including HTC,Samsung,Motorola and Sony
Ericsson,even actively provide support and encourage development.
In 2011, the need to circumvent hardware restrictions to install unofficial
firmware lessened as an increasing number of devices shipped with
unlocked or unlockable bootloaders, similar to the Nexus series of
phones. Device manufacturer HTC has announced that it would support
aftermarket software developers by making the bootloaders of all new
devices unlockable.However, carriers, such as Verizon Wireless and more
recently AT&T, have continuously blocked OEMs, such as HTC and
Motorola, from releasing retail devices with unlocked bootloaders, opting
instead for "developer edition" devices which are only sold unsubsidized,
off contract. Similar in practice to Nexus devices, but for a premium and
with no contract discounts.
In 2014, Samsung released a security service called Knox, which is a tool
that prevents all modifying of system and boot files, and any attempts
set an eFuse to 0x1, permanently voiding the warranty

17

Use outside of smartphones

and tablets
Ouya, a video game console which runs Android, was one of the most
successful crowdfunding campaigns on the website Kickstarter.
The open and customizable nature of Android allows it to be used on
other electronics aside from smartphones and tablets, including laptops
and netbooks, smartbooks,smart TVs (Android TV, Google TV) and
cameras (E.g. Galaxy Camera).In addition, the Android operating system
has seen applications on smart glasses (Google Glass),
smartwatches,headphones,car CD and DVD players,mirrors,[288]
portable media players,[289] landline[290] and Voice over IP
phones.Ouya, a video game console running Android, became one of the
most successful Kickstarter campaigns, crowdfunding US$8.5m for its
development,and was later followed by other Android-based consoles,
such as Nvidia's Shield Portable an Android device in a video game
controller form factor.
In 2011, Google demonstrated "Android@Home", a home automation
technology which uses Android to control a range of household devices
including light switches, power sockets and thermostats.Prototype light
bulbs were announced that could be controlled from an Android phone
or tablet, but Android head Andy Rubin was cautious to note that "turning
a lightbulb on and off is nothing new", pointing to numerous failed home
automation services. Google, he said, was thinking more ambitiously and
the intention was to use their position as a cloud services provider to
bring Google products into customers' homes.
Parrot unveiled an Android-based car stereo system known as Asteroid in
2011,followed by a successor, the touchscreen-based Asteroid Smart, in
2012.In 2013, Clarion released its own Android-based car stereo, the
AX1.In January 2014 at Consumer Electronics Show, Google announced
the formation of the Open Automotive Alliance, a group including several
major automobile makers (Audi, General Motors, Hyundai, and Honda)
18

and Nvidia, which aims to produce Android-based in car entertainment

systems for automobiles, "[bringing] the best of Android into the
automobile in a safe and seamless way."
On March 18, 2014, Google announced Android Wear, an Android-based
platform specifically intended for smartwatches and other wearable
devices; only a developer preview was made publicly available.This was
followed by the unveiling of two Android Wearbased devices, the LG G
Watch and Moto 360.
On June 25, 2014, at Google I/O, it was announced that Android TV, a
Smart TV platform, is replacing the previously released Google TV. On
June 26, 2014, Google announced Android Auto for the car.

19

Hardware
Android supports the ARM architectures (ARMv7 and ARMv8-A), and x86
and MIPS architectures in later versions. Since Android 5.0 "Lollipop", 64bit variants of all platforms are supported in addition to the 32-bit
variants.Unofficial Android-x86 project used to provide support for the
x86 and MIPS architectures ahead of the official support.Since 2012,
Android devices with Intel processors began to appear, including phones
and tablets. While gaining support for 64-bit platforms, Android was first
made to run on 64-bit x86 and then on ARM64.
As of November 2013, Android 4.4 recommends at least 512 MB of
RAM,while for "low RAM" devices 340 MB is the required minimum
amount that does not include memory dedicated to various hardware
components such as the baseband processor.Android 4.4 requires a 32bit ARMv7, MIPS or x86 architecture processor (latter two through
unofficial ports),together with an OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible graphics
processing unit (GPU).Android supports OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.1.
Some applications may explicitly require a certain version of the OpenGL
ES, and suitable GPU hardware is required to run such applications.
Android devices incorporate many optional hardware components,
including still or video cameras, GPS, orientation sensors, dedicated
gaming controls, accelerometers, gyroscopes, barometers,
magnetometers, proximity sensors, pressure sensors, thermometers, and
touchscreens. Some hardware components are not required, but became
standard in certain classes of devices, such as smartphones, and
additional requirements apply if they are present. Some other hardware
was initially required, but those requirements have been relaxed or
eliminated altogether. For example, as Android was developed initially as
a phone OS, hardware such as microphones were required, while over
time the phone function became optional.Android used to require an
autofocus camera, which was relaxed to a fixed-focus camera if it is even
present at all, since the camera was dropped as a requirement entirely
when Android started to be used on set-top boxes.
20

In addition to running on smartphones and tablets, several vendors run

Android natively on regular PC hardware with a keyboard and mouse. In
addition to their availability on commercially available hardware, similar
PC hardwarefriendly versions of Android are freely available from the
Android-x86 project, including customized Android 4.4.Using the Android
emulator that is part of the Android SDK, or by using BlueStacks or Andy,
Android can also run non-natively on x86.Chinese companies are
building a PC and mobile operating system, based on Android, to
"compete directly with Microsoft Windows and Google Android".The
Chinese Academy of Engineering noted that "more than a dozen"
companies were customising Android following a Chinese ban on the
use of Windows 8 on government PCs.

21

TIPS AND TRICKS

1. Disable App Notifications
Bugged by annoying app notifications that just keep coming? If you dont
know already, these app notifications also drain your phones battery. If
you want to turn them off, and you are on Jelly Bean 4.1 and above,
heres how:
On any of your unwanted notifications in your notification bar, long press
on the notification for a message box to appear.
Tap on App Info > Untick Show Notifications > OK.
Disable App Notifications
2. Disable Mobile Data
Whenever you dont need to stay connected, disabling the Mobile Data
can help keep your smartphone battery from draining too quickly.
Turning off mobile data is as easy as:
Going to Settings > Data Usage.
Disable Mobile data by toggling the setting from ON to OFF.
Disable Mobile Data
Read Also: 10 More Tips To Conserve Your Smartphone Battery
3. Set Mobile Data Limit
Want to keep track of how far your usage is from your monthly mobile
data limit? If you have ICS and above, there is a feature which lets you
keep track of how much of the quota you have left.
Head over to Settings > Data Usage.
Set your data limit by dragging the orange line to reflect your monthly
quota.
Set your data usage cycle based on when your "month" starts and ends,
and youre done.
22

You will be alerted once you hit the limit you have set. Note that the
tracked data usage of your phone may vary slightly than your carriers
tracking.
Set Mobile Data Limit
4. Add Multiple Google Accounts
You need a Google account to use an Android phone but did you know
you can choose to run more than one Google account on your Android
device. This is convenient if you use more than one account for several
of your Google services. To add multiple Google accounts:
Go to Settings > Add account.
Select Google and setup your New or Existing Google account.
Once added, choose what you want to sync with the account.
Repeat all the steps above if you want to add more accounts.
Add Multiple Google Accounts
5. Disable Automatic App Updates
Prefer to read through app permissions and manually pick which app
updates to adopt? You can, but first you need to disable your automatic
app updates. Here are the steps:
Open Play Store and head over to Settings.
Tap on Auto-update apps.
Choose Do not auto-update apps.
If you want to enable the auto updates, follow the same path and choose
Auto-update apps at any time or via Wi-Fi (available for certain Android
devices only).
Disable automatic Apps Updates
To update your apps manually, just open Play Store, and on the main
page swipe in from the left and tap on My apps. You can tap on apps
with pending updates and update them manually, or if you like to update
them all at once, just tap on Update All.
6. How To Check For Android System Updates
For Android users that are using stock ROM, you may want to look for
23

new updates to your system. To check for updates:

Go to Settings > About phone/tablet.
Tap on System updates.
Tap Check now to look for system updates.
Check For android System updates
7. Changing Default Apps
If you have already set some default apps for particular tasks (e.g. using
Chrome for opening web links) but wish to change this:
Go to Settings > Apps.
Swipe right and look for the All tab.
Select the app you want to remove as default.
Tap on Clear defaults.
Changing Default Apps
8. Organize Homescreen Shortcuts With Folders
Once you have a lot of apps installed, your homescreen might be filled
with app shortcuts. Unlike the app drawer, the apps on your home
screen are not arranged alphabetically. So, you might want to create
some folders for your homescreen shortcuts.
Assuming you have more than a handful of shortcuts already on your
homescreen, long press on any of the shortcuts and drag it onto another
shortcut.
A circle should now appear around the apps, indicating that a folder has
been created.
By tapping on the newly created folder, a mini window will pop up with
your apps in it.
You can drag and drop additional apps into the folder if you like. You can
also rename the folder by tapping on the text area at the bottom of the
mini window.
Organize Homescreen Shortcuts With Folders
9. Disable Animations
Heres a tip on how to make your Android device run a bit smoother:
24

disable its animations. You will need to have access to Developer

Options which can be found under Settings or About device.
Note: For some phones, you may need to go to Build number and tap on
it repeatedly until you see "You are now a developer!". Developer options
are now enabled.
Under enabled Developer options, look for Window animation scale,
Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale. Then, turn them
off (disable) them one at a time.
Disable Animations
10. How To Turn Off Auto-Correction
Hate the fact that your phone is going English teacher mode on you?
Turn off auto-correction for peace of mind when texting.
Go to Settings > Language & input.
Tap on the settings icon next to the keyboard that you are using, e.g.
Google Keyboard.
Look for Auto-correction and tap on it.
Select Off to turn auto-correction off.

25