What is the Android operating system?

The beginning of the Android operating system is directly related to the company Android Inc., which was founded by Andy Rubinera, Nick Sears and Chris White in October 2003 in the city of Palo Alto, California. Initially, the company developed technology totally independent from other companies and kept its projects in absolute secrecy. Among its main objectives was the development of an advanced operating system for digital cameras. Later, it was realized that the market for such devices was not big enough, so the team shifted their efforts to producing an operating system for smartphones, thus rivaling another category of systems, such as Symbian, developed by Nokia and Windows Mobile, the Windows . However, the lack of investment prescribed the good development of the project.

Two years later, on August 17, 2005, Google bought the company and put the entire Android development team, led by Andy Rubinera, who became a member of the company’s membership, to work on a mobile platform. Linux based. These were the first steps that culminated on November 5, 2007 with the launch of the project called Android, whose objective was to develop a system for mobile devices under the open standard (a standard that is publicly available and has several associated rights of use, and can also have various properties of how it was designed) and built on top of version 2.6 of the Linux kernel. The Android project is connected to the Open Handset Alliance, which is a consortium of technology companies made up of companies like Google, Sony, Samsung, telephone operators, and device manufacturers.

The first Android device, the HTC Dream, was released on October 22, 2008 in the United States. Currently the system is in version 4.3 and according to the company Google has 75% of the smartphone market. In total, more than 500 million devices and more than 600 different devices use the system. According to Google, the Android system gains no less than a million new users every day.

To name each version, the company decided to name desserts. In April 2009, version 1.5 – or “Cupcake” – introduced autocorrect text and also the famous “widgets”, which are still one of the best features of the system.

Then version 1.6 “Donut” brought automatic online search from the home page of the device. Also in 2009, version 2.0 “Eclair” enabled the use of multiple Google accounts on a single device, making it easier to sync emails and contacts.

In 2010, version 2.2 “Frodo”, the great novelty was the possibility of transforming the device into an access point via WI-fi using the 3G network. Also, a big step in this phase was the introduction of Flash (cross-platform browser plugin that offers advanced features on the Web) in the browser, which clashed with its main competitor, the iPhone.

At the end of 2010, version 2.3 “Gingerbread” brought for the first time support for voice over IP, VOIP technology, which allows the use of applications for voice calls such as Skype, for example. In 2011, with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, it became possible to use the system on larger screens with better graphics and a completely redesigned notification bar system.

On December 16, 2011, Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” revamped the entire interface of the world’s most widely used platform. The main innovation was the creation of folders on the home screen of the device. Also, starting with this version, it is now possible to choose which applications should start working as soon as the smartphone is turned on.

In July 2012, version 4.1 “Jelly Bean” included new internals and new research. And the 4.2 update was for security. This is an Android vulnerability. Over the years, various flaws and vulnerabilities have been found in the platform, and it is now a target for many viruses and malware. The update, 4.3, brought multiple users with different usage restrictions for each one and the latest Android 4.4 KitKat update brings system performance to an all-time high by optimizing memory and improving its touch screen to make it more responsive and faster. precision than ever. . The next version 5.0 – “Key Lime Pie” – is scheduled to be released on October 5 of this year.