Android is an OS( Operating System ) based on Linux kernel, which is deigned for touch screen mobile phones such as Smartphones or Tablets. Initially android is developed by our big search-engine Google.
Google introduced android in 2005.
1. Android 1.0 Astro
2. Android 1.1 Beta
Google introduced android in 2005.
1. Android 1.0 Astro
2. Android 1.1 Beta
3. Android 1.5, Cupcake
4. Android 1.6, Donut
5. Android 2.0–2.1, Eclair
6. Android 2.2, Froyo
7. Android 2.3, Gingerbread
8. Android 3.0, Honeycomb
9. Android 2.3, ICS ( Ice Cream Sandwich )
10. Android 4.1, Jelly Bean
11. Android 4.4, KitKat
More have to come
Versions of android :
1. Android 1.0 Alpha
2. Android 1.5, Cupcake
Android 1.5 Cupcake was released on April 27, 2009. As we all know that all Android versions name was based on deserts it's name is also given the name CupCake.
Features :
- Auto-rotation option
- Animated screen transitions
- New stock boot animation
- Ability to upload videos to YouTube
- Ability to upload photos to Picasa
- Auto-pairing and stereo support for Bluetooth
- Copy and paste features in web browser
- User pictures shown for Favorites in Contacts
3. Android 1.6, Donut
It is released on September 15, 2009.
Features :
- Voice and text entry search enhanced to include bookmark history, contacts, and the web
- Ability for developers to include their content in search results
- Multi-lingual speech synthesis engine to allow any Android application to "speak" a string of text
- Easier searching and ability to view app screenshots in Android Market
- Gallery, camera and camcorder more fully integrated, with faster camera access
- Ability for users to select multiple photos for deletion
- Updated technology support for CDMA/EVDO, 802.1x, VPNs, and a text-to-speech engine
- Support for WVGA screen resolutions
- Speed improvements in searching and camera applications
- Expanded Gesture framework and new Gesture Builder development tool.
4.Android 2.0, Eclair
It is released on October 26, 2009.
Features :
- Expanded Account sync, allowing users to add multiple accounts to a device for synchronization of email and contacts
- Microsoft Exchange email support, with combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page
- Bluetooth 2.1 support
- Ability to tap a Contacts photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person
- Ability to search all saved SMS and MMS messages, with delete oldest messages in a conversation automatically deleted when a defined limit is reached
- Numerous new camera features, including flash support, digital zoom, scene mode, white balance, color effect and macro focus
- Improved typing speed on virtual keyboard, with smarter dictionary that learns from word usage and includes contact names as suggestions
- Refreshed browser UI with bookmark thumbnails, double-tap zoom and support for HTML5
- Calendar agenda view enhanced, showing attending status for each invitee, and ability to invite new guests to events
- Optimized hardware speed and revamped UI
- Support for more screen sizes and resolutions, with better contrast ratio
- Improved Google Maps 3.1.2
- MotionEvent class enhanced to track multi-touch events
- Addition of live wallpapers, allowing the animation of home-screen background images to show movement
5. Android 2.2, Froyo
Released on May 20, 2010
Features :
- Speed, memory, and performance optimizations
- Additional application speed improvements, implemented through JIT compilation
- Integration of Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine into the Browser application
- Support for the Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) service, enabling push notifications
- Improved Microsoft Exchange support, including security policies, auto-discovery, GAL look-up, calendar synchronization and remote wipe
- Improved application launcher with shortcuts to Phone and Browser applications
- USB tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot functionality
- Option to disable data access over mobile network.
- Updated Market application with batch and automatic update features.
- Quick switching between multiple keyboard languages and their dictionaries.
- Support for Bluetooth-enabled car and desk docks
- Support for numeric and alphanumeric passwords
- Support for file upload fields in the Browser application
- The browser now shows all frames of animated GIFs instead of just the first frame only
- Support for installing applications to the expandable memory
- Adobe Flash support
- Support for high-PPI displays (up to 320 ppi), such as 4" 720p screens
- Gallery allows users to view picture stacks using a zoom gesture
- Bug fixes, security updates and performance improvements
- Minor bug fixes, including SMS routing issues that affected the Nexus One
6. Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
Release date : February 9, 2011
- Support for voice or video chat using Google Talk
- Open Accessory Library support. Open Accessory was introduced in 3.1 (Honeycomb) but the Open Accessory Library grants 2.3.4 added support when connecting to a USB peripheral with compatible software and a compatible application on the device
- Switched the default encryption for SSL from AES256-SHA to RC4-MD5.
- Improved network performance for the Nexus S 4G, among other fixes and improvements
- Fixed Bluetooth bug on Samsung Galaxy S
- Improved Gmail application
- Shadow animations for list scrolling
- Camera software enhancements
- Improved battery efficiency
- Fixed a voice search bug
- (The 2.3.6 update had the side-effect of impairing the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality of many Canadian Nexus S phones. Google acknowledged this problem and fixed it in late September.)
- Google Wallet support for the Nexus S 4G
7. Android 3 (Honeycomb)
Release date : July 15, 2011
- Improved hardware support, including optimizations for a wider range of tablets
- Increased ability of applications to access files on the SD card, e.g. for synchronization
- Compatibility display mode for applications that have not been optimized for tablet screen resolutions
- New display support functions, giving developers more control over display appearance on different Android devices
- Bug fixes and minor security, stability and Wi-Fi improvements
- Update to Android Market with automatic updates and easier-to-read Terms and Conditions text
- Update to Google Books
- Improved Adobe Flash support in browser
- Improved Chinese handwriting prediction
- "Pay as You Go" support for 3G and 4G tablets
8. Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
release date: October 18, 2011
- Major refinements to the "Holo" interface with new Roboto font family
- Soft buttons from Android 3.x are now available for use on phones
- Separation of widgets in a new tab, listed in a similar manner to applications
- Easier-to-create folders, with a drag-and-drop style
- Improved visual voicemail with the ability to speed up or slow down voicemail messages
- Pinch-to-zoom functionality in the calendar
- Integrated screenshot capture (accomplished by holding down the Power and Volume-Down buttons)
- Improved error correction on the keyboard
- Ability to access applications directly from lock screen
- Improved copy and paste functionality
- Better voice integration and continuous, real-time speech to text dictation
- Face Unlock, a feature that allows users to unlock handsets using facial recognition software
- Automatic syncing of browser with users' Chrome bookmarks
- Data Usage section in settings that lets users set warnings when they approach a certain usage limit, and disable data use when the limit is exceeded
- Ability to shut down applications that are using data in the background
- Improved camera application with zero shutter lag, time lapse settings, panorama mode, and the ability to zoom while recording
- Built-in photo editor
- New gallery layout, organized by location and person
- Refreshed "People" application with social network integration, status updates and hi-res images
- Android Beam, a near-field communication feature allowing the rapid short-range exchange of web bookmarks, contact info, directions, YouTube videos and other data
- Support for the WebP image forma
- Hardware acceleration of the UI
- Wi-Fi Direct
- 1080p video recording for stock Android devices
- Android VPN Framework (AVF), and TUN (but not TAP) kernel module. Prior to 4.0, VPN software required rooted Android.
9. Android 4.1 (Jellybean)
release date : June 27, 2012
- Smoother user interface:
- Vsync timing across all drawing and animation done by the Android framework, including application rendering, touch events, screen composition and display refresh
- Triple buffering in the graphics pipeline
- Enhanced accessibility.
- Bi-directional text and other language support
- User-installable keyboard maps
- Expandable notifications
- Ability to turn off notifications on an application-specific basis
- Shortcuts and widgets can automatically be re-arranged or re-sized to allow new items to fit on home screens
- Bluetooth data transfer for Android Beam
- Tablets with smaller screens now use an expanded version of the interface layout and home screen used by phones.
- Improved camera application
- Multichannel audio.
- The Fraunhofer FDK AAC codec becomes standard in Android, adding AAC 5.1 channel encoding/decoding.
- USB audio (for external sound DACs).
- Audio chaining (also known as gapless playback).
- Ability for other launchers to add widgets from the application drawer without requiring root access
10. Android 4.4 KitKat
Release date : September 3, 2013
- Refreshed interface with white elements instead of blue
- Clock no longer shows bold hours, all digits are thin. The H, M, and S markings for the stopwatch and timer have been removed, leaving just the numbers.
- Ability for applications to trigger translucency in the navigation and status bars.
- Ability for applications to use "immersive mode" to keep the navigation and status bars hidden while maintaining user interaction.
- Action overflow menu buttons are always visible, even on devices with a "Menu" key, which was officially deprecated by Android 4.0.
- Optimizations for performance on devices with lower specifications, including zRAM support and "low RAM" device API.
- Wireless printing capability.
- NFC host card emulation, enabling a device to replace smart cards.
- WebViews now based on Chromium engine (feature parity with Chrome for Android 30)
- Expanded functionality for notification listener services
- Public API for developing and managing text messaging clients
- New framework for UI transitions
- Storage Access Framework, an API allowing apps to retrieve files in a consistent manner. As part of the framework, a new system file picker allows users to access files from various sources (including those exposed by apps, such as online storage services).
- Sensor batching, step detector and counter APIs
- Settings application now makes it possible to select default text messaging and home (launcher) application
- Audio tunneling, audio monitoring and loudness enhancer
- Built-in screen recording feature (primarily for developers, as usage of ADB is required).
- Native infrared blaster API
- Expanded accessibility APIs and system-level closed captioning settings
- Android Runtime (ART) introduced as a new experimental application runtime environment, not enabled by default, as a replacement for the Dalvik virtual machine
- Bluetooth Message Access Profile (MAP) support
- Disabled access to battery statistics by third-party applications
- Settings application no longer uses a multi-pane layout on devices with larger screens
- Wi-Fi and mobile data activity (TX/RX) indicators are moved to quick settings
- Browser text wrap is disabled.
- Improvements to auto focus, white balance and HDR+ for the Nexus 5 camera.
- Better application compatibility for the experimental Android Runtime (ART)
- Camera application now loads Google+ Photos instead of Gallery when swiping away from the camera view
- Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes
- Refreshed Dialer app interface.
- Updated the Chromium based WebView to version 33 (screencasting to DevTools, HTML5 Canvas hardware acceleration performance improvements, vibration API, HTML5 form validation, HTML5 datalist).
- Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
( Source : en.wikipedia.org )
