What is Android?
Android is a Linux-based mobile phone Operating System developed by Google. Android is unique because Google is actively developing the platform but giving it away for free to hardware manufacturers and phone carriers who want to use Android on their devices. Android is getting most popular Smartphone Operating system these days. It comes with a range of Google features, most notably Search and Maps, installed as standard. This means you can easily search for information on the web and for directions from your phone, as you would on your computer. This is handy for checking up on things like train times and getting directions when out and about. You can also access other Google services, like Gmail, Google Earth, YouTube and Google Calendar on an Android phone.
Android supports a touch screen and is difficult to use without one. You can use a trackball for some navigation, but nearly everything is done through touch. Android also supports multi-touch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom in versions 2.1 (Eclair) and above. Android is an exciting platform for consumers and developers.
What can an Android phone do?
Android phones are highly customizable and as such can be altered to suit your tastes and needs. You can check your Facebook and Twitter profiles through a variety of apps making it ideal for social networking. Through the calendar you can set reminders from your desktop or your phone and on the latest version of Android you can send links to and from your computer and vice versa. Another neat feature of Android is that it automatically backs up your contacts for you. When you set up an Android phone you’ll need to create a Google Account or sign in with an existing one. Every time you save a number to the address book of your Android phone it will be synced to your Google Account.
The benefit of this is if you lose your phone all of your numbers will be saved. The next time you get an Android phone and sign in with your Google Account, all of your contacts and friends numbers will be displayed in your new phone’s address book.
What is Android Market?
Android Market is a place (the equivalent of Apple’s iTunes App Store) where you can find thousands of applications that are made available by thousands of developers working on Android platform. The majority of Apps are downloaded from the Android Market. Most of these are free but there are some premium apps as well that you’ll have to pay for.
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