Android is a mobile operating system that uses a modified version of the Linux kernel. The OS was initially developed by Android Inc., a firm later purchased by Google, and lately by the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries. In its development, the OS has been adopting by many phones on the market.

The unveiling of the Android distribution on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 47 hardware, software, and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. Google released most of the Android code under the Apache License, a free software and open source license.

On Feb 16, 2010 Google announced that 60,000 android cell phones are shipping per day.

Samsung’s first Android phone was revealed earlier today at a Samsung dealer show in Amsterdam. The upcoming handset is believed to include a capacitive touchscreen, 528MHz processor, and some substantial internal storage with microSD expansion available.

The Samsung Android phone will also (supposedly) have quad-band GSM, and will be available in UMTS 900 and UMTS 2100 for the US and European markets.

The Samsung I7500 is a cutting-edge smartphone, featuring a 3.2″ AMOLED full touch screen and 7.2Mbps HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, giving users access to Google™ Mobile services and full web browsing at blazing speeds.

The Samsung I7500 offers users access to the full suite of Google services, including Google Search™, Google Maps™, Gmail™, YouTube™, Google Calendar™, and Google Talk™. The integrated GPS receiver enables the comprehensive use of Google Maps features, such as My Location, Google Latitude, Street View, local search and detailed route description. Hundreds of other applications are available in Android Market. For example, the application Wikitude, a mobile travel guide, allows consumers to access details of unknown sights via location-based Wikipedia articles.

Based on Samsung’s proven product leadership, Samsung I7500 comes with latest multimedia features. The large and vivid 3.2″AMOLED display ensures the brilliant representation of multimedia content and enjoyable full touch mobile experience. Along with supporting a 5-megapixel camera and various multimedia codec formats, the I7500 also provides a long enough battery life (1500mAh) and generous memory capacity up to 40GB (Internal memory: 8GB, External memory: Up to 32GB) to enjoy all the applications and multimedia content. The phone also boasts its slim and compact design with mere 11.9mm thickness.

The Samsung I7500 will be available in major European countries from June, 2009.

Well here it is, Samsung’s pico projector phone live and in the flesh here at Mobile World Congress. And surprise surprise, it’s running Android 2.1 with a TouchWiz 3.0 skin just as we heard. The only difference is the name: Halo is the codename, the official product name announced today is Beam. As a smartphone with integrated pico projector it’s very impressive. However, as you can see from the pictures and video (it’s coming), the 6 lumen brightness struggles even under the semi-controlled lighting demonstration set up here on the show floor in Barcelona. Samsung tells us that the TouchWiz implementation is nearly identical to what you’ll find on Bada with “very small” differences. Unfortunately, the people we spoke with on the show floor weren’t able to articulate exactly what those were. To us, having only used the two devices for a short period of time, they do look identical. Beam features a nice pass through trick that allows it to project the image seen by the 5 megapixel camera through the TI pico. Not sure how we’d use that in real life but it’s a neat trick nonetheless. Now click into the gallery and prepare to be amazed at just how thin a smartphone with integrated projector can be while we wait for the summer launch.

Full-color displays for e-readers could really take off soon — on the wings of butterflies.

Qualcomm MEMS Technologies new Mirasol is the first full color, video-capable display on a prototype e-reader. Built on the concept of the iridescence of a butterfly’s wing, the new technology reflects light rather than transmitting light the way LCD screens do.

The display is readable in sunlight and offers unprecedented energy savings for longer battery life. E-readers may just be the beginning for Mirasol displays as consumers seek color in every device they use, better visibility in bright light, and days or even weeks worth of battery life.

Inspiration

The inspiration for Mirasol’s engineering came from nature’s most vividly colored creatures: the cerulean wing of a butterfly, the ruby throat of a hummingbird, and the rainbow flash of a tropical fish. The branch of science devoted to the study of technology imitating nature is known as biomimetics. It gave us Velcro, which was invented in 1948 by Swiss chemist George de Mestral, who mimicked the way burrs stuck in his dog’s coat.

Velcro may be one of the few recognizable brand names to come out of biomimetics, but that may be about to change.

“Looking at pretty structures in nature is not sufficient,” said MIT chemical engineer Robert Cohen. “What I want to know is, can we actually transform these structures into an embodiment with true utility in the real world?” Qualcomm engineers say, yes we can.

A closer look at the mechanics of natural iridescence reveals a common structure across many species — layers of microscopic crystals in insect wings, bird feathers and fish scales. The crystals reflect light at different angles, causing light waves to interfere with one another, which we see as changing or iridescent colors. Scientists call it structural color, as opposed to color by pigmentation.

Traditional STN- or cholesteric-based passive matrix displays have switching speeds as slow as tens or hundreds of milliseconds. An IMOD element’s switching time is 1000 times faster than traditional displays. In addition, switching speed of Mirasol displays is maintained across a wide temperature range, unlike organic liquid-crystal-based displays, whose switching speeds decrease as temperatures go into low environmental ranges.

The speed and image quality would allow a Mirasol-equipped e-reader to double as a media player for video and games. Viewing video on an ordinary device can quickly drain the battery, but Mirasol display video capabilities require no significant sacrifice in battery life.

Mirasol technology, formally known as interferometric modulation (IMOD), uses electrically charged, tiny flexible membranes overlaid onto a mirrored surface to imitate the reflective properties of biological crystals. Light reflected back out through those membranes is refracted so that interfering wavelengths create colors. Like a butterfly on a sunny afternoon, Mirasol reflective displays can be easily seen in bright light.

Better performance

Mirasol displays require virtually no illumination or backlighting, a power sucking requirement of LCD screens, resulting in significant energy savings. Pike Research estimates that IMOD displays consume 33.7 percent less energy and emit 94 percent less carbon dioxide equivalents while active than an LCD display of the same dimensions.

The Qualcomm e-reader prototype made by Foxlink caught media attention for its obvious advantages over available e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook. “The displays use ambient light in order to create colour,” said marketing director Cheryl Goodman at Qualcomm MEMS Technologies. “It is a nature-based design and it is a significant innovation that no one has done before.”

Qualcomm claims Mirasol displays have approximately the same contrast ratio and reflectivity as a newspaper, making it easy to real in most any lighting situation.

Yet unlike black and white e-ink displays, Mirasol’s full color and fast response time allow a Mirasol-equipped e-reader to double as a media player for video and games. Viewing video on an ordinary device can quickly drain the battery, but Mirasol’s video capabilities require no sacrifice in battery life. Qualcomm estimates battery life in days, not hours. Easy to read in more places, extended battery life and multi-function make Mirasol a category driver for e-readers, but Qualcomm envisions a much wider application of its technology.

Without the need for backlighting, Mirasol displays can be even thinner and lighter than their LCD counterparts. Look for not only thinner e-readers, but even thinner versions of digital cameras, cell phones, gaming devices, and GPS units. According to Qualcomm, the technology is scalable and can be adapted to larger applications such as TVs and outdoor digital signs.

Qualcomm says Mirasol Color Video e-book readers will ship late 2010. Hardware partners will be announced in the first part of 2011.

Steve Ballmer announced Windows Phone 7 Series (Windows Mobile 7 to you and me) and promised some big changes – but has the overhaul worked?

Ballmer apparently pushed the development of the platform back by some time in order to get it to the point he felt it could compete with the incumbent dominant platforms (such as the iPhone OS and Android).

To that end, with Windows Phone 7 Series we get a radically overhauled UI, capacitive-only touchscreens with hi-res WVGA (800 x 480 pixel count) displays and multi-touch throughout.

Some of the best and most exciting new features behind Windows Phone 7 Series.

Call it a case of throwing the ugly duckling out with the bathwater. Microsoft’s latest revision to Windows Mobile isn’t really a revision at all, but a total start from scratch, with next to nothing that resembles the clunky operating system of yore.

No great loss. Windows Phone 7 brings a host of features both new to the Windows Phone brand and even to smartphones as a whole. Let’s dive into some of the most impressive.

New Hub-based Interface

The grid-of-apps layout pioneered by Apple and copied by everyone from Palm to Google is dead. Microsoft has actually leapfrogged that proven design for its own new “Metro” interface, which appears to be a permutation of the existing Zune HD interface. It uses six “hubs”: People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace, and Office. Rather than shrinking volumes of information into a tiny phone screen, each “hub” basically takes the form of a panoramic menu system, spilling off the sides and breaking each section down into subsections.

Customizable Start screen

Need to get something done in a hurry? The Start screen will offer shortcuts to your most frequently used applications, from the phone dialer and text messaging to individual contacts. Their pictures will even change on the fly to the most recent Facebook photos – a feature Microsoft calls “live tiles.”

Zune Player

Typefaces and graphics won’t be the only factor familiar to Zune HD owners: the Music + Video hub basically acts as a Zune HD within a phone, mimicking just about everything about the player. That means quick access to music, video, podcasts, radio and the Zune marketplace, and a home page with an automated history of most-played content, new stuff you’ve just added, and even apps.

Xbox Live

Microsoft clearly has big plans for phones as gaming devices. Xbox Live integration will tie your phone to your Xbox Live account, allowing you to earn achievements, link up with friends, and play multiplayer turn-based games. You’ll even retain your Live avatar. Although the company didn’t announce any specific titles at launch, clearly the platform has the potential to go far beyond idly burning time with Sudoku.

Multi-touch browsing

At long last, Microsoft will join the ranks of Apple, Palm and Google with true multi-touch support for the browsing experience. Most importantly, that means pinch-to-zoom capability for fluidly navigating full HTML pages not explicitly built for the mobile experience.

Raising the bar for hardware

Once upon a time, you could just about bring a glorified pocket calculator to Microsoft and walk out with a Windows Mobile license for it. Not anymore. Microsoft has severely ratcheted down the hardware restrictions for Windows Phone 7 so that it will only appear on devices that can truly handle it. The stringent checklist of must-haves includes dedicated hardware buttons for home, search and back, capacitive touchscreens for multitouch, and even an FM radio. Custom interfaces, like HTC’s slick TouchFlo, have also been banned.