Android (operating system)
From St. Louis Hackerspace Wiki
Stub
This article is incomplete and could use your help with finishing it.
This article could use some hacks.
Know any good tips or tricks to do with the the item this article is about? Post them here!
Android is an mobile operating system using a modified version of the Linux kernel initially developed by Android, Inc., a firm later purchased by Google, and lately by the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in Java, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries. (Actually, it uses the Dalvik virtual machine.)
Contents |
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Open Source
- Adobe Flash support coming soon!
- Voice dialing! (Exclusively for the Motorola Droid! Though other Android 2.0+ devices may support it in the near future.)
Cons
- No .gif support. (This issue has been around for years. Mainly due to patent issues between Unisys and the open source community. Nevermind that devices like Sony PSP and Microsoft XBox use the giflib library to enable .gif support.)
- Can't install applications on the SD card...yet. (Sure you can do it now by rooting your Android device, but why ruin it?)
- No complete multitouch support...yet. (Google Maps for Android has this feature as of version 4.0, but everything else will have to wait. Again, you can enable it by rooting your Android device, but caveat emptor!)
- The Android Market is a nightmare! It was fine at first, but then some crappy developers started to upload hundreds of these junk apps. For your convenience, a list of good, legitimate applications will be listed on the Android Market page in this wiki, as well as a black list of bogus developers to avoid.
