Android

Android is an open source project of the Open Handset Alliance that has revolutionized the user experience of a mobile device. Android is a platform for mobile devices, which includes an OS, middleware and some key applications. The OS is based on variant of Linux Kernel. The biggest advantage is that the success of Android depends on the availability of unique and engaging user applications created by developers.

Android is a mobile operating system (OS) currently developed by Google, based on the Linux kernel and designed primarily for touch screen mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. Android's user interface is mainly based on direct manipulation, using touch gestures that loosely correspond to real-world actions, such as swiping, tapping and pinching, to manipulate on-screen objects, along with a virtual keyboard for text input. In addition to touch screen devices, Google has further developed Android TV for televisions, Android Auto for cars and Android Wear for wrist watches, each with a specialized user interface. Variants of Android are also used on notebooks, game consoles, digital cameras, and other electronics. As of 2015, Android has the largest installed base of all operating systems

Course Objective

1. To understand the android platform architecture.

2. Difference between Android and other mobile development environments.

3. Design, develop, debug, and deploy Android applications.

4. Use Android SDK's simulator to test and debug applications.

5. Construct user interfaces with built-in views and layouts.

6. Advantage of APIs for data storage, retrieval, files, databases etc.

There are a number of ways to create apps for Android devices, but the recommended method for most developers is to write native apps using Java and the Android SDK. Java for Android apps is both similar and quite different from other types of Java applications. If you have experience with Java (or a similar language) then you will probably feel pretty comfortable diving right into the code and learning how to use the Android SDK to make your app run. But if you are new to programming or object-oriented languages then you will probably want to get familiar with the syntax of the Java language and how to accomplish basic programming tasks before learning how to use the Android SDK.

Android has several accessibility-focused features baked into the platform, which make it easy to optimize your application for those with visual or physical disabilities. However, it's not always obvious what the correct optimizations are, or the easiest way to leverage the framework toward this purpose. This lesson shows you how to implement the strategies and platform features that make for a great accessibility-enabled Android application.