Android Phones : Operating System ?
Android is an operating system used on a variety of devices, produced by a large proportion of the world’s handset manufacturers. Collectively, the devices which use Android are known as Android Phones.
Android was developed by Android Inc. and is now owned by Google. The first version of Android released on Android Phones was finalized on September 23, 2008. Since then, Android has gone on to be the most popular mobile phone platform around the world.
It’s important to realize that the Android Operating System ( OS ) is even used on devices that are not Android phones. Touch screens, like Google TV, Smart TV, the Nikon and Samsung Galaxy Camera as well as a variety of tablet devices all use at Android OS. Android can be licensed ( from Google ) and adapted exactly the way the manufacturer wants. This tends to stimulate innovation – and lead to unexpected developments – like fully functional point and shoot cameras running the Android OS !
It’s the openness ( the ability for manufacturers to adapt it ) which belies the success of Android. It means the Android OS is available on a broader array of devices than any other phone OS.
Android Phones – The First Devices With Android
In its initial release, Android 1.0, it didn’t have a lot to offer ! The Apple iPhone had many more features out of the gate than the HTC Dream, the original Android phone. With updates delivering approximately once a year the software has improved. Google’s schedule recently brought us to Android 4.0 ( Ice Cream Sandwich and Android 4.1 Jellybean. ) These days, the Android OS has a world more to offer and is finally giving the iPhone some tough competition.
Android Phones with 4.0 : Features
Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) was a major update for Android phone. It provided a significant number of new feature inclusions, focused specifically on the mobile phone experience.
Before ICS, tablets were ‘getting the love’ and experiencing the benefits of Android developer time. ICS turned the tables and took Android phones forward in a mighty leap.
Android Phones : Phone Benefits To Android 4.0 ( ICS )
Specifically, mobile phone users investing in the Android platform benefited from the following key features in ICS :
- Soft Buttons : ICS brought the soft button feature to phones. This created flexibility for manufacturers to substitute ‘on screen’ buttons instead of the physical buttons previously required to operate a device. In essence, the soft button capability allows phones to be made without a home button, back button, or multitask button. Each can be shown at the bottom of the screen, if the manufacturer so chose.
- Folders : The creation of folders is something that was available on previous versions of Android. ICS made folders even easier than before. Folders work exactly the same way on Android Phones as they do on the iPhone. Drag one app icon onto another, and the two will be combined in a folder.
- Keyboard improvements : ICS improved the keyboard too, including better error correction.
- Screen Capture : ICS enabled a built In screen capture feature – operated by holding the power and ‘home’ – buttons simultaneously.
- Easier Access : ICS enabled access to apps from the lock screen, although the passcode, pattern, etc. must be put in in order to access them. The only app that is an exception to this rule is the camera. Don’t worry though, users cannot access the gallery from the unlocked version of the camera app. Sensible, given that lack of privacy would defeat the purpose of a lock.
- Speech Recognition Improvements : Not everyone has used the speech detection function on Android, but if you have, you’ve probably noticed that in the past, it didn’t work as well as you might like it to. One of the issues that existed previously was that the speech detection function could only detect a finite amount of speech. After a few seconds, it would have to cut you off mid-sentence in order to process what you just said. It could be infuriating ! In Android 4.0, speech to text is now in real time. As you’re talking you will see the words you are saying (or hopefully, at least, something close) represented on screen. Rather than being cut off mid-sentence, you now have the ability to keep talking and decide for yourself when you are done.
- Video improvements : One of the neat little features I loved in the camera app for ICS, is that when recording videos, you can now zoom during the recording. Zoom was not available in previous iterations of Android’s Video Camera software.
Android Phones with 4.1 : Features
Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) did not quite represent the ground-breaking update that 4.0 was. At some point, all the improvements possible have started to run out ! However, Jellybean does still offer some small, welcomed improvements.
- Speed : The primary benefit of Jellybean was speed. Better ‘Vsync’ and ‘graphics buffering’ means better performance, and smoother motion. This can be noticed the most in the more demanding applications such as graphically intensive games. Jellybean is noticibly faster to use than previous versions of Android.
- Notifications : Notifications can be set on or off on an individual app basis in Jellybean. For example : If you would like to get notifications from Gmail, but not from Instagram, you have the ability to pick and choose. For those that felt overwhelmed by the number of notifications they were getting in ICS – and, at times, that included me, this feature was welcome news.
- Offline Speech To Text : Offline speech to text means you can have your words transposed to text by your Android Phone, when out of wireless network coverage. In previous Android Phones, this useful facility was only available when your phone had access to the mobile network or WiFi.
- Widget Resize : The ability to resize widgets is a small but useful addition to Android Phones shipped with Jellybean.
- Chrome : Jellybean was also the first version of Android in which Chrome ( Google’s own browser and the fastest growing browser in the world ) was shipped as the default browser. Chrome was available in Jellybean when you opened the box of every new device. On previous Android Phones, Google Chrome was available as a downloadable application, but Jellybean put it is there from the beginning. Simply put, Chrome is better than the stock Browsers that used to be the default. One of the best features of Chrome is the link zooming feature – useful if you have a small phone and/or large fingers. It works like this : Imagine a bar at the top of the screen. On it there are two buttons next to each another. One says “Home” and the other says “About”. If you are not zoomed in sufficiently, you might find yourself accidentally tapping “Home” when you meant to tap “About”. Chrome prevents this from happening by pulling up a zoomed in window of the two or three possible buttons you may have meant to touch, over the screen. Chrome makes it easier to hit the button you were aiming for. Clever.
Android Phones Compared to Apple & Windows Phones ?
Going in to 2013, the Android platform takes up 62.2% of the mobile phone Operating System market in Australia. The iPhone has a share of 29.9%. Windows Phone is currently at 4.7% market share.
Android Phones –Differences to iPhones & Windows Phone 8
The interfaces of each platform have their similarities and differences.
Apps
- The number of apps available for both the iPhone and Android is fairly equal, at around 600,000-700,000.
- Windows Phone 8, by comparison, is anemic, with only around 1/6th as many apps available on the Microsoft platform.
- You can read more about comparisons between the Android, Apple and Windows Phone 8 App Stores here.
Presentation of Information
- Windows Phone 8 uses live tiles, which look a bit different from the standard app icon layout we see both on Android and IOS.
- Widgets (on Android) and Live Tiles (on Windows Phone 8) both allow the user to see dynamically updated information without needing to open up an application.
- The iPhone, however, does not include any of this functionality. In some ways, this is ironic, since Mac OS X includes all kinds of widgets on the dashboard !
Android Notifications – Key Feature
- Android does notifications right. Whenever you receive a notification of any kind, it goes into the tray at the top of the screen. From versions of Android starting with 4.0, all the user has to do to clear a notification from the tray is slide it to the left or to the right. It’s easy and satisfying to use !
- iOS has a very similar notification interface, although it doesn’t quite compare to what Android offers. In iOS, you have to tap on the X on the top right of a notification and tap it again to clear. It’s not difficult, but it just doesn’t compare to the Android interface that makes deleting notifications fast and fun.
- Windows Phone 8 is lacking in this area. There is no centralized tray for notifications. Instead, you must go to the live-tile for each application to find out if you have any notifications. This is way behind the competition and could be viewed as a sign of the immaturity of the Windows Phone 8 Operating System.
Hardware : Android Phones Storage vs Windows Phone 8 & iPhones
Storage capabilities differs according to the phone, rather than the operating system.
Here are some typical examples.
- The highest capacity iPhone 5 holds an impressive 64 GB. None of the iPhone family allow for external storage expansion.
- The Samsung Galaxy S3 ( an Android product, if you didn’t know ) is available in variants which allow up to 64 GB internal. With the ability to add ANOTHER 64 GB of external storage, this phone can be upgraded to 128 GB of storage capacity. If you absolutely need that 128 GB of storage, Android is currently the only OS that includes a phone with that capacity.
- The Windows 8 Phone Samsung ATIV S ( should it ever be released in Australia ! ) has 32 GB internal storage. It can be upgraded to 64 GB via a micro SD card with 32 GB of storage. All 3 platforms include phones with respectable amounts of storage.
Summary Comparison between the 3 OSs
When compared, all 3 platforms have their strong points & weak points.
Of the 3, Windows Phone 8 is the least mature. IOS and Android are, in the opinion of Whatphone, fairly equally matched. One thing the iPhone still does a bit better is the music integration. The MP3 playing functionality is certainly there for Android, but it doesn’t feel quite as polished as the iPod style experience that is available on the iPhone.
Why do some people prefer Android Phones ?
There are many reasons to love Android Phones.
A quick poll in the Whatphone office revealed the following :
- The ‘openness’ of the platform ( manufacturers can use it as they wish ) means Android Phones can be produced by multiple handset brands. That tends to mean there are always newer, faster phones coming out, running Android.
- Range of hardware : Unlike the iPhone, if you want an Android phone, there are 100+ different flavors they can come in. The open source nature of Android assists with app development too. Since the Google Play store is not nearly as rigidly ruled as the App Store on iOS, there are a lot of applications made available that would never see the light of day on iOS.
- Customization : Personalization options on Android phones never seem to end. On Windows Phone and iOS, there is some customization available, but the things that Android will let you do to make your phone unique to you are unprecedented.