Android

Android is a software platform for mobile devices, running on the Linux operating system. It was initially developed by Google and later the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries.

Google released most of the Android code under the Apache License, a free-software and open source license.

In July 2005, Google acquired Android, Inc., a small startup company based in Palo Alto, California, USA. Android's co-founders who went to work at Google included Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications, Inc.), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (headed design and interface development at WebTV). At the time, little was known about the functions of Android, Inc. other than that they made software for mobile phones. This began rumors that Google was planning to enter the mobile phone market, although it was unclear what function it might perform in that market.

At Google, the team, led by Rubin, developed a mobile device platform powered by the Linux operating system which they marketed to handset makers and carriers on the premise of providing a flexible, upgradeable system.

October 2008, Android has been available as open source. Google opened the entire source code (including network and telephony stacks), which had previously been unavailable, under an Apache license. With the Apache License, vendors are free to add proprietary extensions without submitting those back to the open source community.

On 30 April 2009, the official 1.5 update for Android was released. There are several new features and UI updates included in the 1.5 update:

- Ability to record and watch videos with the camcorder mode
- Uploading videos to YouTube and pictures to Picasa directly from the phone
- A new soft keyboard with an "Autocomplete" feature
- Ability to automatically connect to a Bluetooth headset within a certain distance
- New widgets and folders that can populate the desktop
- Animations between screens
- Expanded ability of Copy and paste to include web pages