Android is a Linux-based, open-source operating system designed for use on cell phones, e-readers, tablet PCs, and other mobile devices. For users of smart phones, Android provides easy access to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and smooth integration with Google products like Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar. While it is owned by Google, it should not be confused with Google’s Chrome OS, a web-resident, thin-client operating system designed primarily for netbooks and tablets rather than for mobile devices. Android has been adopted by a number of manufacturers, including Motorola, Samsung, HTC, and Sony Ericsson. The expanding assortment of applications available on this platform suggests that Android-based phones will continue to be strong competitors in the smart-phone market.
As a mobile platform, Android has grown in popularity among hardware manufacturers and the general public alike in recent years. Its open market model allows registered software developers to create applications for Android mobile devices in Java and list them in Android Market without undergoing review and waiting for approval. Users can download from a growing store of smart-phone applications at Google Market, many of which connect with existing Google services. They can also download compatible Android apps from other locations. Flexible and adaptable, Android’s facility in supporting screen-based interfaces has also made it the OS of choice for many industrial and consumer electronics, including navigation devices, set-top boxes, kiosks, selfcheckout stands, medical equipment, netbooks, tablets, and e-readers.
As a free mobile OS, Android has been selected by many hardware manufacturers to run on a wide range of devices, including cell phones, tablets, e-readers, netbooks, and others. Androidbased phones are available from all major cellular providers in the U.S. market, meaning that most students can select a phone running Android from the vendor their friends or families already use. Consequently, Android may bring smart phone and tablet functionality to a much wider cross-section of students and faculty members. Like the iPhone, an Android device may o er intriguing possibilities with regard to context awareness. Android phones can be set up to recognize when the phone operator is in a car, causing the device to respond by reading text messages aloud and accepting only voice input. Or cell phones could silence automatically during class time if users’ calendars include class schedules. Such location-awareness could see use in campus-based learning activities like augmented reality games or could remind
a student in the library pursuing an English assignment that a previously requested physics text is now available for checkout.
The Android OS may accelerate the di usion of smart phones by providing a free operating system that can draw from more than 100,000 applications, including those that support
teaching and learning. Access to the Android software development kit (SDK) suggests that the number of applications will continue to swell as professional developers provide new o erings. In addition, the App Inventor, which provides a web-based visual development environment for those new to this kind of programming, is meant to entice students and developers from outside the computer science department to write their own applications and
thereby ensure a growing base of apps going forward. If App Inventor proves easy enough for non-developers to use, faculty members and students alike may build custom Android applications for research projects, learning challenges, and classroom use. This could engage student interest in the work they do and also in the tools they use, thereby transforming them from consumers of existing applications to creators of apps designed to meet their needs.
As a mobile platform, Android has grown in popularity among hardware manufacturers and the general public alike in recent years. Its open market model allows registered software developers to create applications for Android mobile devices in Java and list them in Android Market without undergoing review and waiting for approval. Users can download from a growing store of smart-phone applications at Google Market, many of which connect with existing Google services. They can also download compatible Android apps from other locations. Flexible and adaptable, Android’s facility in supporting screen-based interfaces has also made it the OS of choice for many industrial and consumer electronics, including navigation devices, set-top boxes, kiosks, selfcheckout stands, medical equipment, netbooks, tablets, and e-readers.
As a free mobile OS, Android has been selected by many hardware manufacturers to run on a wide range of devices, including cell phones, tablets, e-readers, netbooks, and others. Androidbased phones are available from all major cellular providers in the U.S. market, meaning that most students can select a phone running Android from the vendor their friends or families already use. Consequently, Android may bring smart phone and tablet functionality to a much wider cross-section of students and faculty members. Like the iPhone, an Android device may o er intriguing possibilities with regard to context awareness. Android phones can be set up to recognize when the phone operator is in a car, causing the device to respond by reading text messages aloud and accepting only voice input. Or cell phones could silence automatically during class time if users’ calendars include class schedules. Such location-awareness could see use in campus-based learning activities like augmented reality games or could remind
a student in the library pursuing an English assignment that a previously requested physics text is now available for checkout.
The Android OS may accelerate the di usion of smart phones by providing a free operating system that can draw from more than 100,000 applications, including those that support
teaching and learning. Access to the Android software development kit (SDK) suggests that the number of applications will continue to swell as professional developers provide new o erings. In addition, the App Inventor, which provides a web-based visual development environment for those new to this kind of programming, is meant to entice students and developers from outside the computer science department to write their own applications and
thereby ensure a growing base of apps going forward. If App Inventor proves easy enough for non-developers to use, faculty members and students alike may build custom Android applications for research projects, learning challenges, and classroom use. This could engage student interest in the work they do and also in the tools they use, thereby transforming them from consumers of existing applications to creators of apps designed to meet their needs.
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