Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
Can anyone give a general background on Android? I'm lost on some of the nuances. For example, over at UMPC Portal I read about "authorized" vs "unauthorized" devices. What does it mean when Google "approves" a device?
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What specifically do you need to know?
Android is an embedded Linux derivative, which Google got by acquiring the outfit developing it. It's modular, with a wide assortment of drivers included to support Wifi, Bluetooth, and various forms of cellular communication, as well as Java (through a third-party source, as Google had issues with Sun's license). The vendor builds a custom image with support for the particular things their device will do.
I don't see Android as a UMPC OS just yet, since it's targeted at smartphones, and various phones are either present (an HTC device, Motorola's Droid, and Google's own Nexus One) or in the pipeline. But when I read the specs and got the SDK, my first question was when we'd see Android in something that
wasn't a smartphone, and I've heard rumors of some ARM based netbooks in development that will use Android under the hood.
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Dennis