Android operating system
{{quotation|Android is Google's operating system for mobile devices based on ARM architecture. It is a competitor to the Symbian platform, Apple's iOS for the iPhone and Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Windows Phone for mobile devices all based on ARM architecture. Technologically, Android includes middleware and key applications, and uses a modified version of the Linux kernel} (Wikipedia).
Why use Android as opposed to an iPhone:
- Apple controls the applications through a single market place
- Apple excludes certain technologies (e.g. banned the "save as iPhone" functionality in Adobe CS5).
- Connectivity is restricted, i.e. you can't tether and iPhone to an Ipad (at least in some places)
As general principle, people in education always should support totally or at least relatively open technology since that way you improved chances to be able to move contents to other infrastructures in the present and the future ....
(Some) technical information
tip: Upgrade the OS whenever a new version is available for your phone
Version 2.1 includes
- WIFI support
- Be able to turn data download off when roaming, vendors typically only offer free data download schemes for the resident country :(
- USB PC connectivity
- USB tethering (i.e. you can use the mobile as a modem for your PC laptop on vacation), may not be available in some countries like the US.
- Good support for google applications (Calendar, google world, etc.)
- Support for 3D capable GPUs, i.e. OpenGL ES
- Default webbrowser: Based on WebKit + the Chrome JavaScript engine
- Applications are programed in Java, but compile to Dalvik (so there is no Java J2ME VM currently)
- Support for typical smartphone features, like GPS, multi-touchscreen, acclerometers, magnetometers.
- Multitasking
Version 2.2 (not available on many phones as of June 2009) will include several improvements, e.g. Flash 10.1
Applications
Android does have a central applications store like the iPhone, i.e. the Android Market, but you may install anything you like by your own. There are
Useful must-have applications
In education
We didn't find any interesting application that targets the education market (but didn't do any exhaustive search)
However:
- There are many games that are somewhat educational
- Many applications (e.g. google earth, office programs, communication programes, interfaces to popular webservices) that can be used in educational scenarios).