Awesome Facts You Should Know About ANDROID

Android is a one word for gadget-
awesomeness. It transforms a smartphone
into a power gadget. Here we are with some of
the obscure android facts that you have not
heard of yet.
1. What Android Means?
Whenever you hear about Android, you could tell it’s the
Smartphone OS from Google. And Further? Well Android
isn’t a new term, it seems to have originated a few hundred
years ago. It was thought to be a robot that gave answers
to your queries (Now it really does). To be specific, it was
“a humanoid robot”. Android also appeared on many
gaming consoles and Movies during the 80’s.
2. Google Did Not Start Android
Andy Rubin – The Man Behind Android
Though Google stays to be the prime reason for Android’s
tremendous success, it wasn’t made by Google. Android
Inc. was a separate company shaped by Andy Rubin in the
US. Google bought Android in 2005 that led to the
revolutionary operating system, combining the power of
web and mobile into one system.
Google’s decision to make Android open source was one of
the best things that they could do. Although Andy Rubin
remained the head of Android in Google for a while, he
moved on while the other Google officials took over his
role.
3. HTC Made the First Ever Android Device
HTC Dream (Also known as the HTC G1) – The First Ever
Android Smartphone
If you thought Nexus One was the first smartphone to run
Android, you are off beam. The First ever smartphone to
run Android was HTC G1 (also called HTC Dream). It was
running the Android 1.6 (Donut) version. It came with a
3.2 inch capacitive screen, and a slider QWERTY keyboard.
Anyhow it was a breakthrough and this was where the
revolution began.
4. Not Just Smartphones – Wearable Glasses to Watches
Android expands its territory to Wearable devices and
consumer electronics now. It is no more restricted to
smartphones. The Google Glass is an augmented reality
device which runs on the Android Ice-cream Sandwich OS.
It enables you to take photos while you are busy on
something, view notifications and sync everything online,
the Google way.
Some months ago, Samsung came up with the Galaxy
Camera, a Digital camera running the Android Jelly Bean
OS. Although not totally received by the Android fans, it
was a delight for amateur photographers to take and edit
pics in one go.
It seems this is the time for smart watches. The Galaxy
Gear and Qualcomm’s TOQ are a few examples. The Gear
runs a modified Android operating system and comes with
features like a camera with video recording, a handful of
sensors and a tiny yet beautiful screen. Android’s
intervention into Smart watches and Smart televisions will
bring changes to the way we work with gadgets!
5. Totally Free and Open Source
What makes Android spaced out from Windows phone and
iOS is the fact that it’s free. Android is [simply put] totally
open. You can see what’s running behind the system, edit
the source code and maybe create your own flavour of it [If
you are up to it]. The AOSP (Android Open Source Project)
is released by Google under Apache License which allows
distribution and modification of the same, no strings
attached.
6. So Far the Most Used Smartphone OS
Android OS happens to be the top Smartphone platform so
far. With One Billion+ device activations, no rivals have
hit this mark. Although Windows phone and iOS have tried
many rivalry tactics from “hackathons” to free
development tools for apps (Windows Phone) , nothing
seems working so far. Android’s open nature and ease of
app development led to their great milestone of hitting one
billion activations.
7. Google Play – Formerly Android Market
The Google Play Store was earlier known as Android
Market. You should be knowing this if you were an Android
user since 2012. Many criticisms arose when Google
renamed it to the Play Store but all of them subsided with
time.
Google play is not just an App store mow. You can
purchase books, movies and music and obviously apps
using it. Either you can use the Google wallet service or a
credit card for payment. The store now contains more than
one million (12,00,000+) applications, which is growing
each day. Although Apple claims to have crossed one
million apps in its store, nothing comes close when the
number of app downloads are matched.
8. Android’s Rivals – Apple’s iOS and Windows Phone
The two rivals of Android OS are windows phone OS and
Apple iOS. Though windows app store seems to be a novel
rivalry attempt, iOS is not too far behind. Since Android is
free while the others are not, there is more adoption. You
get the choice to customize the user interface to a great
level along with the ability to add custom (third party)
launchers.
9. “Sweet” Naming Convention
Android follows a “sweet” naming convention. The latest
version (as of this writing) – Android 4.4.2 KitKat takes its
name from the delicious wafer chocolate – KitKat. Perhaps
Google would have thought that “KitKat” or “Ginger
Bread” sounds better than mere numbers like 2.3 or 4.4. It
is also interesting to note that after the first two versions,
android naming follows an alphabetical order, how
“sweet”!
10. Free Development Tools with Enormous Support
Want to develop an Android app? Well, the tools are freely
available. Android has a very good documentation at
developer.android.com. You can download the Eclipse IDE
(Integrated Development Environment) today to get
started. One of the besetting thing about iOS app
development is that you need to have an iPhone or iPad to
test your app. Plus you have to pay for the coding tools like
the XCode. Developers around the world support Android
and forums like xda-developers and Github provide
enormous resources.
Did I miss something here?
Do you think there are more exciting facts
about Android? Well, push them in the
comments section below.