A Dummy’s Futile Attempt To Demystify Android Technology

The buzz for Android phones lurks in the gadget world for quite some time now.  It gave the Symbian OS a very hard time catching up. As an inevitable speculation, Nokia N8, the Nokia heavyweight, might be the last of its Symbian kind. As Microsoft changed direction and just recently launched the Windows 7 Smartphones (which offer a level-up capacitive multi-touch screen interface). That’s what I’ve heard from the techno-savvy groupies in the office.

In my mind, I was laughing myself out loud at how these nerdies flocked together and convulsed over these gadget evolutions like there's gonna be a whole new order of life... of Genomic or Molecular importance.  The idea of tekkie-talks makes me feel nauseated. It is a certified “bloody-nose situation”, as far as I am concerned! OK, my LOL inside my mind was maybe a little unnecessary.  This advancement is just as important, I supposed. Hey, am I not allowed to use a little defense mechanism for my obvious inadequacies?!  (winks!)

Now that I submitted myself to this “extra tekkie challenge,” might as well roll my sleeves up, get my hands dirty and dig in some more.  And for my fellow technologically-challenged friends, relax.  We’ll have a lot of time talking about our life dramas in the coming blogs.  Meanwhile, let’s traverse some unchartered virtual territories.  This could be educational!

Image credit: laihiu

Okay, first thing’s first. What is Android? I am not referring to the near-human robots that we've seen during the 80s. We have been hearing and seeing marketing messages driving us to “get Andronified.” Adroid is one of mobile phone's Operating Systems (along with Mac's OS X and Windows Phone 7).  It allows our phone to be the “super phones” they are now. It blurs the line between a mobile phone and a laptop. It amazingly packed our phones with the following features:

Optimized graphics
Dummy interpretation: 3D animations that we enjoy with the online games– Farmville, Diner's Cafe, Sudoku, UNO, Treasure Hunt, Mystery of Mortlake Mansion, Prince of War, etc.

Wide range of media support from common audio, video and still image formats (MPEG4, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
Dummy interpretation: high-definition photos, videos, movie streamings, youtube, etc.

SQLite for Structured data storage
Dummy interpretation: a hefty 16, 32, 64 gig memory space!

Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components

Dummy interpretation: downloading fun widgets like The Impossible Quiz, Learn 10, Tweet  Blender, Pandora, Tumblelog, Spout Movie List, Dance Monkey Dance, Forbes.com, My Last.fmTop Artists, Bebo, Rhyme Dictionary, Book of the  Day, Drawing Game, etc.

Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for debugging       
Dummy interpretation: Uhm.. I'm lost in translation, sorry!

Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices
Dummy interpretation: Red Alert: Nausea attack! Bloody nose! Project Tekkie aborted!  hehe

To cut it short, Android provides our mobile phones with a seamless User Interface that can be compared to actual computers/laptops - all in palm-size wonders (e.g. Sony Ericson Xperia Arc, HTC Desire S, Samsung Tablets, etc.)!

Sorry guys, you can’t say I didn’t try. Now I know why these stuff are called virtual… ‘coz they ain’t real.  (winks!)

Okay, let’s just talk about real stuff.  How ‘bout my backpacking journey in all the beautiful beaches of the Philippines?  (winks!)

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Photo credit: Pictures from Heather

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