ANDROID

Next Generation Mobile Computing

Vignans Lara Institute of Technology and Sciences

B.Varasri 09FE1A0588 III/IV CSE

Abstract Android is an operating system for mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. It is d eveloped by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google. Google purchased the initial developer of the software, Android Inc., in 2005. The unveiling of the Android distribution on November 5, 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. Google released most of the Android code under the Apache License, a free software license The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is tasked with the maintenance and further development of Android. Android consists of a kernel based on the Linux kernel, with middleware,libraries and APIs written in C. Android uses the Dalvik virtual machine with just-in-time compilation to run Dalvik dex-code (Dalvik Executable), which is usually translated from Java bytecode. Features of Android are Application framework, Dalvik virtual machine, Integrated browser, Optimized graphics, SQLite, Media support, GSM Telephony, Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi, Camera,

GPS, compass, and accelerometer, Rich development environment Android was listed as the best-selling smartphone platform worldwide with over 200 million Android devices in use by November 2011

Android Architecture The following diagram shows the major components of the Android operating system. Each section is described in more detail below.

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. Developers have full access to the same framework APIs used by the core applications. The application architecture is designed to simplify the reuse of components; any application can publish its capabilities and any other application may then make use of those capabilities (subject to security constraints enforced by the framework). This same mechanism allows components to be replaced by the user. 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 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: System C library - a BSD-derived implementation of the standard C system library (libc), tuned for embedded Linuxbased devices 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 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 register-based, 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-levelmemory 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. Dalvik Virtual machine The Dalvik virtual machine is a registerbased virtual machine, designed and written by Dan Bornstein with contributions from other Google engineers as part of the Android mobile phone platform. It is optimized for low memory requirements, and is designed to allow multiple VM instances to run at once, relying on the underlying operating system for process isolation, memory management and threading support. Dalvik is often referred to as a Java Virtual Machine, but this is not strictly accurate, as the bytecode on which it operates is not Java bytecode. Instead, a tool named dx, included in the Android SDK, transforms the Java Class files of Java classes compiled by a regular Java compiler into another class file format (the .dex format).

Features Handset layouts The platform is adaptable to larger, VGA, 2D graphics library, 3D graphics library based on OpenGL ES 2.0 specifications, and traditional smartphone layouts. Storage SQLite, a lightweight relational database, is used for data storage purposes.

Connectivity

Android supports connectivity technologies including GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA, EVDO, UMTS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LTE, NFC and WiMAX. Messaging SMS and MMS are available forms of messaging, including threaded text messaging and now Android Cloud To Device Messaging (C2DM) is also a part of Android Push Messaging service. Multiple language support Android supports multiple languages. Web browser The web browser available in Android is based on the open-source WebKit layout engine, coupled with Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. The browser scores 100/100 on the Acid3 test on Android 4.0, however does have some rendering issues. Java support While most Android applications are written in Java, there is no Java Virtual Machine in the platform and Java byte code is not executed. Java classes are compiled into Dalvik executables and run on Dalvik, a specialized virtual machine designed specifically for Android and optimized for battery-powered mobile devices with limited memory and CPU. J2ME support can be provided via third-party applications. Media support Android supports the following audio/video/ still media formats: WebM, H.263, H.264 (in 3GP or MP4 container), MPEG-4 SP,

AMR, AMR-WB (in 3GP container), AAC, HE-AAC (in MP4 or 3GP container), MP3, MIDI, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, WAV, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP. Streaming media support RTP/RTSP streaming (3GPP PSS, ISMA), HTML progressive download (HTML5 <video> tag). Adobe Flash Streaming (RTMP) and HTTP Dynamic Streaming are supported by the Flash plugin. Apple HTTP Live Streaming is supported by RealPlayer for Mobile, and by the operating system in Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). Additional hardware support Android can use video/still cameras, touchscreens, GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, barometers, magnetometers, dedicated gaming controls, proximity and pressure sensors, thermometers, accelerated 2D bit blits (with hardware orientation, scaling, pixel format conversion) and accelerated 3D graphics. Multi-touch Android has native support for multitouch which was initially made available in handsets such as the HTC Hero. The feature was originally disabled at the kernel level (possibly to avoid infringing Apple's patents on touch-screen technology at the time). Google has since released an update for the Nexus One and the Motorola Droid which enables multi-touch natively.

Bluetooth

Supports A2DP, AVRCP, sending files (OPP), accessing the phone book (PBAP), voice dialing and sending contacts between phones. Keyboard, mouse and joystick (HID) support is available in Android 3.1+, and in earlier versions through manufacturer customizations and third-party applications. Video calling Android does not support native video calling, but some handsets have a customized version of the operating system that supports it, either via the UMTS network (like the Samsung Galaxy S) or over IP. Video calling through Google Talk is available in Android 2.3.4 and later. Gingerbread allows Nexus S to place Internet calls with a SIP account. This allows for enhanced VoIP dialing to other SIP accounts and even phone numbers. Skype 2.1 offers video calling in Android 2.3, including front camera support. Multitasking Multitasking of applications is available. Voice based features Google search through voice has been available since initial release. Voice actions for calling, texting, navigation, etc. are supported on Android 2.2 onwards. Tethering Android supports tethering, which allows a phone to be used as a wireless/wired WiFi hotspot. Before Android 2.2 this was supported by third-party applications or manufacturer customizations. Screen capture

Android has native support for screenshot capture ability by pressing the power and volume buttons at the same time on an Android device. This native support came about with the release of Android's 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update which is first seen on the Galaxy Nexus smartphone. Previously Android did not feature native support for screen capturing which would have likely been due to security concerns. Previously, manufacturer and third-party customizations as well as using a PC connection (DDMS developer's tool) were the only known methods of capturing a screenshot on Android.

Applications Application security An example of app permissions in Android Market. Android applications run in a sandbox, an isolated area of the operating system that does not have access to the rest of the system's resources, unless access permissions are granted by the user when the application is installed. Before installing an application, Android Market displays all required permissions. A game may need to enable vibration, for example, but should not need to read messages or access the phonebook. After reviewing these permissions, the user can decide whether to install the application. Some Android malware incidents have been reported involving rogue applications on Android Market. In August 2010, Kaspersky

Lab reported detection of the first malicious program for Android, named TrojanSMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.a, an SMS trojan which had already infected a number of devices. In some cases applications which contained Trojans were hidden in pirated versions of legitimate apps. Google has responded by removing malicious apps from the Android Market, and remotely disabling them on infected devices.Security firms such as AVG Technologies and Symantec have released antivirus software for Android devices. Privacy Android smartphones have the ability to report the location of Wi-Fi access points, encountered as phone users move around, to build vast databases containing the physical locations of hundreds of millions of such access points. These databases form electronic maps to locate smartphones, allowing them to run apps like Foursquare, Latitude, Places, and to deliver locationbased ads. One design issue is that average users cannot monitor how applications access and use private and sensitive data (e.g. location and hardware ID numbers). Even during installation, permission checks do not often indicate to the user how critical services and data will be used or misused. Third party monitoring software such as TaintDroid, an academic research-funded project, can identify personal information sent from applications to remote servers.

Android is a disruptive technology, which was introduced initially on mobile handsets, but has much wider potential. References As the subject is quite new and there are no books and papers published yet, I wrote this report based on the information I found on these web pages 1.http://www.android.com/GoogleAndroid official webpage 2.http://www.OpenHandsetAlliance webpage 3.http://www.wikipedia.org 4.http://www.googleblog.blogspot.com/ Official Google Blog -

Conclusion