A sweet new take on Android. Get the smarts of Android on screens big and small – with the right information at the right moment.
The Android Story
Android is the operating system that powers more than one billion smartphones and tablets. Since these devices make our lives so sweet, each Android version is named after a dessert. Whether it's getting directions or even slicing virtual fruit, each Android release makes something new possible.
Android 4.4 KitKat
Smart, simple, and truly yours. A more polished design, improved performance, and new features.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Android is fast and smooth with buttery graphics. With Google Now, you get just the right information at the right time.
And with more than 1 million apps on Google Play, and thousands of Android devices, you've got the freedom to do what you want on any device you choose.
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
Android comes of age with a new, refined design. Simple, beautiful and beyond smart.
Android 3.0 Honeycomb
Optimized for tablets, this release opens up new horizons wherever you are.
Android 2.3 Gingerbread
New sensors make Android great for gaming - so you can touch, tap, tilt, and play away.
Android 2.2 Froyo
Voice Typing lets you input text, and Voice Actions let you control your phone, just by speaking.
Android 2.0 Eclair
Make your home screen just how you want it. Arrange apps and widgets across multiple screens and in folders. Stunning live wallpapers respond to your touch.
Android 1.6 Donut
The world's information is at your fingertips – search the web, get driving directions... or just watch cat videos.
Android™ delivers a complete set of software for mobile devices: an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications.
Open
Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. It was built to be truly open. For example, an application can call upon any of the phone’s core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing developers to create richer and more cohesive experiences for users. Android is built on the open Linux Kernel. Furthermore, it utilizes a custom virtual machine that was designed to optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment. Android is open source; it can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. The platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications.
All applications are created equal
Android does not differentiate between the phone’s core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone’s capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. With devices built on the Android Platform, users are able to fully tailor the phone to their interests. They can swap out the phone's homescreen, the style of the dialer, or any of the applications. They can even instruct their phones to use their favorite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos.
Breaking down application boundaries
Android breaks down the barriers to building new and innovative applications. For example, a developer can combine information from the web with data on an individual’s mobile phone — such as the user’s contacts, calendar, or geographic location — to provide a more relevant user experience. With Android, a developer can build an application that enables users to view the location of their friends and be alerted when they are in the vicinity giving them a chance to connect.
Fast & easy application development
Android provides access to a wide range of useful libraries and tools that can be used to build rich applications. For example, Android enables developers to obtain the location of the device, and allows devices to communicate with one another enabling rich peer–to–peer social applications. In addition, Android includes a full set of tools that have been built from the ground up alongside the platform providing developers with high productivity and deep insight into their applications.
While the flagship HTC One M9 may not have lived up to expectations, HTC’s Desire phones, which combine premium features and design with affordable prices have thrived. Now, HTC is welcoming four new members to the family with screens ranging from 4.5- to 5-inches. Generally, that's smaller than many of our favorite unlocked phones. The Desire 626 and 626s are the largest of the bunch featuring 5-inch, 1280 x 720-pixel screens. Each of the new Desire phones runs Android 5.1 and come with 1.1-GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 processors and 8-megapixel rear cameras. The 626 being the only one with a 5-MP camera in front. The other three come with 2-MP front cameras. MORE: Our Favorite Cheap Unlocked Smartphones The remaining specs for the 626 include 1.5GB of RAM, a 2000mAh battery, 16GB of storage and microSD support for up to 200GB. The Cricket Wireless-exclusive Desire 626s comes with slightly less onboard storage, 8GB, but is otherwise the same. The Verizon-exclusive 526 features a 4.7-inch, 960 x 540-pixel display. The 520 rounds out the new additions with a 4.5-inch, 854 x 480-pixel screen. The phones will come in a wide variety of colors such Marshmallow White, Marine White, White Birch (apparently those are all different), Gray Lava and more, and available on a multitude of prepaid and traditional carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, Virgin Mobile and MetroPCS. Unfortunately, pricing info has yet to be revealed. We will have to wait and see how these four stack up against their unlocked brethren, but for now we can say that the our favorite unlocked phone right now is the OnePlus One. It runs Cyanogen 11s, based on Android 4.4, which is an outdated OS compared to HTC's newest phones. It costs just $299. In terms of specs, the OnePlus One offers more RAM and a more powerful CPU than the Desire 626. Plus the OnePlus phone's front camera is a larger 13-megapixels. But it doesn't offer a microSD card slot. If these new HTC devices are priced even lower (less than $100), something like the HTC Desire 526 would be comparable to the second-generation Moto E and it's 4.5-inch display with 1.2-GHz Snapdragon 410 CPU with 1GB of RAM.
Lollipop is about to get a whole lot more secure thanks to a new partnership between BlackBerry and Google bringing BES12 support into Android. BlackBerry’s reputation in the world of mobile communications was founded on its impressive security chops. Whilst Apple is pushing for iPhone to become the new work device of choice, for some businesses it’s still BlackBerry or nothing. This latest development however could open up a world of Android smartphones to those same security-conscious business users. BlackBerry’s Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) framework lets a business’s IT team manage the policies, profiles and sensitive data of every device hooked up to BES12 within their company and opening that functionality up to Android Lollipop too means greater flexibility for both a business and its employees. The partnership also highlights integration with Google’s existing mobile work platform - Google Play for Work, which lets businesses run dedicated work apps within the standard Android OS experience. It’s an interesting development in the story of BlackBerry and feeds into recent rumours of an Android-powered BlackBerry smartphone anticipated to arrive later this year. Such a device could serve as the poster child for the partnership. Stay tuned to see how the partnership develops.
We’ve spent the week playing with the gorgeous and feature-packed Android Lollipop 5.0, which (spoiler alert) we bloody love. Here’s some tips and tricks for the best new features to help you get the most from Android 5.0.
Android Lollipop Tip One: Notifications bar
Google has jazzed up the notifications bar for Android 5.0 Lollipop, and although it still works in a similar fashion to the old notification bar, there's a few cool new features. Drag down with a single digit from the top of the screen and you’ll pull out a list of all of your notifications, including emails, tweets, Google Now cards and whatever else you’re interested in. Just flick unwanted notifications away to get rid of them, or tap the three staggered lines at the bottom of the bar to clear them all at once. You’ll find that calls, low battery warnings and other important info appear directly in notifications now, keeping things neat and tidy. Note that if you’re getting notifications from an app that you really don’t want (no, Asphalt, I do not care to purchase a fake car for real money) then you can go to Settings > Sound & notification > App notifications. Then just tap any app that’s bugging you and hit ‘Block’. Drag down from the top of the screen with two fingers and you’ll uncover a little more than just notifications - you’ll also notice some shortcuts appear, which allow you to quickly toggle GPS, auto rotate, Wi-Fi and screen brightness, among others. Before this was a separate menu bar, but now it’s integrated nicely into the notifications. Your notifications will now also appear immediately on your lock screen by default, something that most manufacturers already add to their devices. You can dismiss notifications right there on the lock screen and they’ll be removed from your menu, without bothering to unlock your phone or tablet. You can thankfully hide notifications from specific apps from the lock screen, in case your inbox is flooding with penis enlargement notices. Just go to Settings > Sound & notification > App notifications, tap the app you want and hit ‘Sensitive’.
Android Lollipop Tip Two: Don’t interrupt!
If you fiddle with the volume rockers in Google Android 5.0, you might notice three new options appearing below the volume window that pops up on screen: All, Priority and None. These refer to interruptions, or in other words what notifications are allowed to pop up and bother you. ‘All’ is the default option, which of course lets everything through. ‘Priority’ (signified by a star icon in your taskbar) allows you to manually choose which notifications can interrupt you, either indefinitely or for a set period. This is particularly handy if you use your tablet at work or if it’s keeping you awake at night with its pinging and buzzing. You can even set regular days and times for Priority mode to automatically activate, by tapping the settings cog. Finally, ‘None’ is also pretty obvious and again can be set indefinitely or for a specific period.
Android Lollipop Tip Three: Get the whole family involved
Drag down the notifications bar with two fingers and you’ll spot the new users icon at the very top, basically a blue circle with a head and shoulders inside. Tap this and you’ll have the ability to add a new user or a guest. As the first owner, or the master owner if you will, you have full admin rights over any additional users. That means you can remove them at any time, uninstall their apps and basically ruin their day. Each user can then set their own themes and arrange their desktops however they see fit, without worrying about others coming along and messing it all up (set your own password just to be sure). Android Lollipop also allows you to set up quick and easy guest accounts, if a mate is borrowing your tablet. This allows them to access your Wi-Fi or whatever else they need, again without messing up your settings or accessing your private photos, emails and so on. All you need to do is tap ‘Add guest’ in the user menu and you’re basically done.
Android Lollipop Tip Four: Add any email account to Gmail
If you use non-Google mail services, such as Yahoo or Hotmail, then good news. Google has taken pity on you and now allows you to check your emails directly through Gmail, rather than dicking around with separate mail programs. Just set up your account as normal (go to Settings > Accounts > Add account, then tap in your email address and password) and then head into the Gmail app. Tap the menu button at the top left (three horizontal lines) and you’ll notice your dirty non-Google account is now available to access.
Android Lollipop Tip Five: Use your Bluetooth kit to unlock your phone with Smart Lock
If you’re sick of constantly entering PIN codes to unlock your phone, the Smart Lock feature should make you happier than a crack-addled hyena. Basically, this uses a Bluetooth device as authentication instead - so as long as your phone is paired with a trusted device, the PIN stage is bypassed. Of course, this feature is only really useful if you regularly keep a smartwatch or set of wireless earphones hooked up to your mobile. All you need to do is head to Settings > Security > Smart Lock and set which Bluetooth devices are trusted. You can use multiple devices, and Smart Lock worked perfectly every time for us. Alternatively, if you don’t have any Bluetooth gear, you can set up a ‘Trusted Face’ instead. This uses the front-facing camera to check if it’s really you handling the tablet, although Google does warn that someone who ‘looks like you’ could abuse the feature (I'm personally buggered if Louis Spence nicks my gear) and we found it occasionally failed to work, with the Nexus 9 asking us to enter our PIN code anyway.
Android is now over six years old and despite the green robot android peeking out of phone shops up and down the highstreet, there are still those who don’t know what it is or what it’s all about.
If you fit into this category then have no fear, this article is your guide to understanding Android and what to expect when you see the little green guy on a product or device.
What is Android?
Android is the name of the mobile operating system made by American company; Google. It most commonly comes installed on a variety of smartphones and tablets from a host of manufacturers offering users access to Google’s own services like Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and more. This means you can easily look for information on the web, watch videos, search for directions and write emails on your phone, just as you would on your computer, but there’s more to Android than these simple examples.
What can an Android phone do?
Android phones are highly customisable and as such can be altered to suit your tastes and needs with wallpapers, themes and launchers which completely change the look of your device's interface. You can download applications to do all sorts of things like check your Facebook and Twitter feeds, manage your bank account, order pizza and play games. You can plan events on from your phone's calendar and see them on your computer or browse websites on your desktop and pick them up on your phone. 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 that if you lose your phone all of your numbers will be saved. The next time you get an Android phone (or and iPhone or Windows Phone if you prefer) and sign in with your Google Account, all of your contacts and friend's numbers will be displayed in your new phone’s address book immediately, no need to transfer or back them up anywhere else.
Syncing is a way for your phone to keep all your information; websites, contacts, calendar entries and apps up-to-date. This can happen over your phone's mobile data or WiFi connection, seamlessly, in the background.
What apps can I get on an Android phone?
There are hundreds of thousands of apps and games available to download from the Google Play store (formerly the Android Market). There are camera apps that allow you to take pictures with artistic effects and filters on them and music players which allow you to stream music from the web or create playlists. You can customise the appearance of your Android handset with a number of wallpapers based on pictures you’ve taken yourself or downloaded from the internet too. There are also various on-screen widgets to download which allow access to and the alteration of settings on your phone, without the need to dive through menus as you would on non-Android devices. You can pretty much create your own system of shortcuts and menus to better suit how you uniquely use your phone. Popular games available for Android phones include Cut The Rope, Goat Simulator and Temple Run 2 to name but three, but there are thousands of free and paid apps and games on offer.
How can I get apps on an Android phone?
The majority of apps can be downloaded from the Google Play store (the equivalent of Apple’s App Store), which includes a mix of free as well as 'premium' apps that you have to pay for. Some apps have ‘lite’ versions which are free, in the hope you’ll enjoy them and upgrade to the full premium version. Others - like Angry Birds - are free, but include adverts or the ability to make in-app purchases. The same account that lets you backup your contacts can also have financial details added to it, allowing you the ability to purchase content from the Google Play store directly. You can pay either by debit or credit card and initial setup takes less than five minutes from a computer. Although there are over 1.3 million apps available to Android users in the Google Play store, some developers choose to make their apps available to download from their own sites or alternative app stores. In order to download these you'll have to change some settings on your phone before visiting these sites on your Android phone’s web browser. By downloading apps outside of the Google Play store, you do run the risk of attack in the form of data theft leave yourself more susceptible to viruses, so be careful if you choose this route. Should you upgrade or change your Android phone; log into your Google account and you’ll be able to download your previously owned apps again, without being charged.
What does an Android phone look like?
Android phones come in many different shapes, colours and sizes. Some have super-fast processors, some have powerful cameras and a few have hardware QWERTY keyboards. All current Android phones feature a touchscreens, the size of which varies, but in most cases it measures at least 3-inches diagonally, although some devices use much larger displays; like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 for example which features a 5.7-inch screen and has been described as a 'phablet' - a cross between a phone and tablet. Popular Android phones include the Motorola Moto X (5.2-inch), HTC One (M8) (5-inch), Sony Xperia Z3 Compact (4.6-inch) and Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 (4-inch). Some examples of older Android phones with hardware QWERTY keyboards include the HTC Desire Z, HTC ChaCha and Sony Xperia Mini Pro, but these designs are diminishing as on-screen keyboards become better at predicting words, phrases and even complete sentences.
So who makes Android phones?
Any handset maker is free to make an Android phone if they want to. As well as the aforementioned Motorola, HTC, Samsung and Sony, Acer, Alcatel, Asus, Huawei, LG and ZTE have all made Android phones (and tablets) too. Apple, Nokia and BlackBerry do not offer Android handsets however.
Does Google make any Android phones?
Although Google owns the OS (Android) they have not made any hardware on which it runs in-house. However, they have partnered with various handset manufacturers over the years to make their own-brand smartphones under the 'Nexus' name. [From left to right] The Google Nexus One was actually made by HTC and ran Android 2.1 Eclair; the Google Nexus S was made by Samsung and launched on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus launched on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the LG Nexus 4 was the first handset to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out-the-box; the LG Nexus 5 was the first handset to run Android 4.4 KitKat and the current Nexus handset the Motorola Nexus 6, is the is the first handset to run Android 5.0 Lollipop.Google's Nexus phones are typically the first to receive new updates and are considered to be the flagship Android phones, even though some other Android devices sport larger screens, better cameras and more powerful hardware.
Android updates
Google is constantly working on new versions of the Android software. These releases are infrequent; at the moment they normally come out every six months or so, but Google is looking to slow this down to once a year. Versions usually come with a numerical code and a name that’s so far been themed after sweets and desserts, running in alphabetical order.
Android 1.5 Cupcake
Android 1.6 Donut
Android 2.1 Eclair
Android 2.2 Froyo
Android 2.3 Gingerbread
Android 3.2 Honeycomb - The first OS design specifically for a tablets, launching on the Motorola Xoom
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich: The first OS to run on smartphones and tablets, ending the 2.X naming convention.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: Launched on the Google Nexus 7 tablet by Asus
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean: Arrived on the LG Nexus 4
Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
Android 4.4 KitKat: Launched on the LG Nexus 5
Android 5.0 Lollipop: Launched on the Motorola Nexus 6 and HTC Nexus 9
Google also releases minor updates with bug fixes and improvements. Android tablets Like Android phones, Android tablets come in all shapes and sizes. These can range from the 7-inch screen of the Asus-made Google Nexus 7 to far larger displays, such as the 10-inch display found on the Nexus 10. Somewhat confusingly, some older Android tablets; like the original Samsung Galaxy Tab, launched running Android 2.2 Froyo - a version of Android designed for phones, whilst Android 3.0 Honeycomb was the first release of the OS specifically for tablets. Older Android tablets which didn’t run on 3.0 Honeycomb couldn’t benefit from things like the redesigned YouTube app, improved widgets and certain tablet-specific apps like SwiftKey for Tablets. This fragmentation between Android phones and tablets was eliminated with the launch of Android Ice Cream Sandwich, which was designed to operate on either type of device and scale accordingly. Android Jelly Bean introduced a number of improvements for both the smartphone and tablet experience over the likes of ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) and that trend continues with the latest release, Android 5.0 Lollipop.
Do Android updates cost anything?
Android updates are free. The updates bring a number of new features and changes to Android each time. Generally though, with each update the speed and overall performance of Android is improved upon. Most of the high-end Android phones are scheduled to receive updates first. Most Android phones will have at least one update during their life cycle, with some having two. A life cycle is usually around 18 months, but depending on the phone can be longer.
How do I get an update?
Android updates are normally received OTA (Over The Air), that is, sent directly to your Android phone without the need for a computer. Normally, once your Android phone or tablet is due to get an upgrade, you'll see a notification in the bar at the top of the screen. You'll then be prompted to connect to WiFi to avoid incurring extra data charges - updates can be quite big and downloading them over a mobile data connection isn’t advised as it may result in expensive data charges. Updates are generally one-stage processes and relatively straightforward, but in some cases you may need to back up/save any media (photos, movies, music) or apps you've downloaded before updating. In some cases, such as with some of Sony’s and Samsung's older Android phones, you'll need to install the dedicated software supplied online by the manufacturer first. Unlike Apple's iOS, where the majority of users get the latest update simultaniously, regardless of device (this usually means the last three to four generations of hardware). Android updates are more fragmented, dependent on manufacturers and in some cases carriers as well - this can make for a frustrating experience when some phones of the same model have the update and others haven't.
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There are also various on-screen widgets to download which allow access to and the alteration of settings on your phone, without the need to dive through menus as you would on non-Android devices. You can pretty much create your own system of shortcuts and menus to better suit how you uniquely use your phone.
Google also releases minor updates with bug fixes and improvements.
