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108-541: The device was released running Android 2.1 ( Eclair ) software, modified with HTC Sense , an overlay user interface for the Android operating system. Following the announcement of Android 2.2 ( Froyo ), HTC did not comment on whether the device would receive 2.2 or when, although it did state all equipped devices would be updated by Christmas 2010, and an update to the following version of Android, codenamed Gingerbread, would depend on its release by Google. The updates would come in

216-410: A native development kit (NDK) for applications or extensions in C or C++, Google App Inventor , a visual environment for novice programmers, and various cross platform mobile web applications frameworks . In January 2014, Google unveiled a framework based on Apache Cordova for porting Chrome HTML 5 web applications to Android, wrapped in a native application shell. Additionally, Firebase

324-408: A weather forecast , the user's email inbox, or a news ticker directly on the home screen. A home screen may be made up of several pages, between which the user can swipe back and forth. Third-party apps available on Google Play and other app stores can extensively re- theme the home screen, and even mimic the look of other operating systems, such as Windows Phone . Most manufacturers customize

432-399: A PC and mobile operating system, based on Android, to "compete directly with Microsoft Windows and Google Android". The Chinese Academy of Engineering noted that "more than a dozen" companies were customizing Android following a Chinese ban on the use of Windows 8 on government PCs. Android is developed by Google until the latest changes and updates are ready to be released, at which point

540-511: A camcorder with resolution of up to 1280x720 ( WXGA ), which may be compressed in either MP4 or H.263 format. It optionally supports tethering by Verizon Wireless with VZAccess Manager. Other ways of tethering may be possible. The device shares the AV output with micro USB output, providing the facility to see the video/YouTube/browser on a television or projector via an extra (not bundled) composite cable accessory. During summer 2010, HTC switched

648-694: A choice of non-default runtimes that allow better C++ support. The SDK includes a comprehensive set of development tools, including a debugger , software libraries , a handset emulator based on QEMU , documentation, sample code, and tutorials. Initially, Google's supported integrated development environment (IDE) was Eclipse using the Android Development Tools (ADT) plugin; in December 2014, Google released Android Studio , based on IntelliJ IDEA , as its primary IDE for Android application development. Other development tools are available, including

756-751: A custom version of the Chromium browser with the Adobe Flash Player "time bomb" removed. This browser can access only a small set of SARS online pages containing Flash-based forms required for filing financial reports. Although no longer available directly from Adobe, all versions of Adobe Flash Player Projector (also known as Adobe Flash Player Standalone) lack the "time bomb" present in the newer plug-in variants, and thus continue to be able to play all supported Flash file formats , including SWF files, without modification. The Internet Archive hosts some Flash content and makes it playable in modern browsers via

864-402: A fluid touch interface, often using the vibration capabilities of the device to provide haptic feedback to the user. Internal hardware, such as accelerometers , gyroscopes and proximity sensors are used by some applications to respond to additional user actions, for example adjusting the screen from portrait to landscape depending on how the device is oriented, or allowing the user to steer

972-519: A keyboard and mouse. In addition to their availability on commercially available hardware, similar PC hardware-friendly versions of Android are freely available from the Android-x86 project, including customized Android 4.4. Using the Android emulator that is part of the Android SDK , or third-party emulators, Android can also run non-natively on x86 architectures. Chinese companies are building

1080-464: A modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen -based mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets . It is the world's most widely used operating system due to it being used on most smartphones and tablets outside of iPhones and iPads , which use Apple 's iOS and iPadOS , respectively. As of October 2024 , Android accounts for 45% of

1188-402: A path forward for replacement. The China-specific variant of Flash is still supported, by a company known as Zhongcheng. The Projector (standalone) versions of this variant also work outside of China and do not include the "Flash Helper Service"; however, some tracking code still seems to be present. They are available on a somewhat hidden "Debug" page. In addition, as the global variant of

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1296-564: A press conference in a New York City subway station . Since 2008, Android has seen numerous updates which have incrementally improved the operating system, adding new features and fixing bugs in previous releases. Each major release is named in alphabetical order after a dessert or sugary treat, with the first few Android versions being called " Cupcake ", " Donut ", " Eclair ", and " Froyo ", in that order. During its announcement of Android KitKat in 2013, Google explained that "Since these devices make our lives so sweet, each Android version

1404-632: A range of other electronics, such as game consoles , digital cameras , portable media players , and PCs , each with a specialized user interface. Some well-known derivatives include Android TV for televisions and Wear OS for wearables , both developed by Google. Software packages on Android, which use the APK format, are generally distributed through proprietary application stores like Google Play Store , Amazon Appstore , Samsung Galaxy Store , Huawei AppGallery , Cafe Bazaar , GetJar , and Aptoide , or open source platforms like F-Droid . Android has been

1512-469: A split-screen view mode are the 2012 Samsung Galaxy S3 and Note 2 , the former of which received this feature with the premium suite upgrade delivered in TouchWiz with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. When connecting or disconnecting charging power and when shortly actuating the power button or home button, all while the device is powered off, a visual battery meter whose appearance varies among vendors appears on

1620-504: A stock-tracking applet and VZ Navigator. On August 20, 2011, AndroidPolice.com obtained the official update build as an RUU, which users wanting the latest software were able to download to their computer, put on the SD card as a required name, after which the bootloader would pick it up. Verizon Wireless did not deploy the update as an OTA update after it was pulled back the week of August 16. On September 7, 2011, Verizon Wireless began deploying

1728-430: A vehicle in a racing game by rotating the device, simulating control of a steering wheel . Android devices boot to the home screen , the primary navigation and information "hub" on Android devices, analogous to the desktop found on personal computers. Android home screens are typically made up of app icons and widgets ; app icons launch the associated app, whereas widgets display live, auto-updating content, such as

1836-507: A whole lot like the program has wrapped up". From 2008 to 2013, Hugo Barra served as product spokesperson, representing Android at press conferences and Google I/O , Google's annual developer-focused conference. He left Google in August 2013 to join Chinese phone maker Xiaomi . Less than six months earlier, Google's then- CEO Larry Page announced in a blog post that Andy Rubin had moved from

1944-509: Is a runtime that executes and displays content from a provided SWF file, although it has no in-built features to modify the SWF file at runtime. It can execute software written in the ActionScript programming language which enables the runtime manipulation of text, data, vector graphics , raster graphics , sound , and video . The player can also access certain connected hardware devices, including

2052-430: Is applied. Apple dropped Flash Player support from Safari 14 alongside the release of macOS Big Sur . Despite the years of notice, several websites still were using Flash following December 31, 2020, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . Many of these were resolved in the weeks after the deadline. However, many educational institutions still relied on Flash for educational material and did not have

2160-439: Is available in two major versions: On February 22, 2012, Adobe announced that it would no longer release new versions of NPAPI Flash plugins for Linux, although Flash Player 11.2 would continue to receive security updates. In August 2016, Adobe announced that, beginning with version 24, it would resume offering of Flash Player for Linux for other browsers. The Extended Support Release (ESR) of Flash Player on macOS and Windows

2268-685: Is based on ECMAScript (similar to JavaScript ). Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge Legacy since Windows 8 , along with Google Chrome on all versions of Windows, came bundled with a sandboxed Adobe Flash Player plug-in. Flash Player once had a large user base, and was required to run many web games , animations, and graphical user interface (GUI) elements embedded in web pages. Adobe stated in 2013 that more than 400 million, out of over 1 billion connected desktops, updated to new versions of Flash Player within six weeks of release. However, Flash Player became increasingly criticized for poor performance, consumption of battery on mobile devices,

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2376-682: Is based on Chromium, followed the same plan as Google Chrome. Google Chrome blocked the Flash plugin as "out of date" in January 2021, and fully removed it from the browser with Chrome version 88, released on January 20, 2021. Starting with Firefox 85, Flash is disabled by default without any prompts to activate Flash content. To play Flash content, users had to manually set a browser to prompt for Flash content, and then during each browser session enable Flash plugin for every site individually. Firefox 85, released on January 26, 2021, completely removed support for

2484-640: Is expanding its low-cost Android One program into the United States, although The Verge notes that the company will presumably not produce the actual devices itself. Google introduced the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones in October 2016, marketed as being the first phones made by Google, and exclusively featured certain software features, such as the Google Assistant , before wider rollout. The Pixel phones replaced

2592-529: Is known as the Android Open Source Project ( AOSP ) and is free and open-source software (FOSS) primarily licensed under the Apache License . However, most devices run the proprietary Android version developed by Google, which ships with additional proprietary closed-source software pre-installed, most notably Google Mobile Services (GMS), which includes core apps such as Google Chrome ,

2700-715: Is labeled as version 50.x, to avoid confusion with other variants. Internet Explorer 11, along with IE mode in Edge , will continue with ActiveX support, and by extension Flash Player support. Firefox forks that plan to continue NPAPI support, and by extension Flash Player support, include Basilisk , Pale Moon , K-Meleon , and Waterfox Classic . Various Chromium -based Chinese browsers will also continue to support Flash Player in PPAPI and/or NPAPI form, including, but not limited to, 360 Secure Browser . Shortly after Flash reached end-of-life, South African Revenue Service (SARS) released

2808-438: Is low, the system will begin invisibly and automatically closing inactive processes, starting with those that have been inactive for the longest amount of time. Lifehacker reported in 2011 that third-party task-killer applications were doing more harm than good. Some settings for use by developers for debugging and power users are located in a "Developer options" sub menu, such as the ability to highlight updating parts of

2916-426: Is named after a dessert", although a Google spokesperson told CNN in an interview that "It's kind of like an internal team thing, and we prefer to be a little bit—how should I say—a bit inscrutable in the matter, I'll say". In 2010, Google launched its Nexus series of devices, a lineup in which Google partnered with different device manufacturers to produce new devices and introduce new Android versions. The series

3024-406: Is primarily a graphics and multimedia platform, and has supported raster graphics and vector graphics since its earliest version. It supports the following different multimedia formats, which it can natively decode and play back. Until version 10 of the Flash player, there was no support for GPU acceleration. Version 10 added a limited form of support for shaders on materials in the form of

3132-534: Is the best Android device that you can purchase in America right now." PC Magazine wrote "The DROID Incredible by HTC is an absolutely amazing device. The most powerful phone on the U.S. market today, it reflects and enhances the state of the art smartphone, with the full backing and support of the Verizon Wireless network." Android (operating system) Android is a mobile operating system based on

3240-512: Is the latest version and includes improvements specific to foldable phones , tablets, desktop -sized screens , and Chromebooks . Android Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California , in October 2003 by Andy Rubin , Rich Miner , Nick Sears, and Chris White. Rubin described the Android project as having "tremendous potential in developing smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner's location and preferences". The early intentions of

3348-693: Is the primary application store installed on Android devices that comply with Google's compatibility requirements and license the Google Mobile Services software. Google Play Store allows users to browse, download and update applications published by Google and third-party developers; as of January 2021 , there are more than three million applications available for Android in Play Store. As of July 2013 , 50 billion application installations had been performed. Some carriers offer direct carrier billing for Google Play application purchases, where

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3456-425: Is used by default), and adoptable storage. Portable storage is treated as an external storage device. Adoptable storage, introduced on Android 6.0, allows the internal storage of the device to be spanned with the SD card, treating it as an extension of the internal storage. This has the disadvantage of preventing the memory card from being used with another device unless it is reformatted . Android 4.4 introduced

3564-499: The AMOLED displays made by Samsung to Sony Super TFT LCD . The change was done to keep up with the high demand for the device. HTC claims that there are "no discernible difference between the displays" and they even expect the change to go unnoticed. On July 19, 2010, it was leaked from HTC that the device would receive Android 2.2 (Froyo) via an OTA update in late July or early August 2010. Before Verizon Wireless had officially announced

3672-890: The Adobe Integrated Runtime . Up until 2012, Flash Player 11 was available for the Android (ARM Cortex-A8 and above), although in June 2012, Google announced that Android 4.1 (codenamed Jelly Bean ) would not support Flash by default. In August 2012, Adobe stopped updating Flash for Android. Flash Player was supported on a select range of mobile and tablet devices, from Acer , BlackBerry 10 , Dell , HTC , Lenovo , Logitech , LG , Motorola , Samsung , Sharp , SoftBank , Sony (and Sony Ericsson ), and Toshiba . As of 2012, Adobe has stopped browser-based Flash Player development for mobile browsers in favor of HTML5 ; however, Adobe continues to support Flash content on mobile devices with

3780-638: The Amazon Appstore , GetJar , and SlideMe. F-Droid , another alternative marketplace, seeks to only provide applications that are distributed under free and open source licenses . In October 2020, Google removed several Android applications from Play Store , as they were identified breaching its data collection rules. The firm was informed by International Digital Accountability Council (IDAC) that apps for children like Number Coloring , Princess Salon and Cats & Cosplay , with collective downloads of 20 million, were violating Google's policies. At

3888-487: The Android software development kit (SDK) and, often, Kotlin programming language, which replaced Java as Google's preferred language for Android app development in May 2019, and was originally announced in May 2017. Java is still supported (originally the only option for user-space programs, and is often mixed with Kotlin), as is C++ . Java or other JVM languages, such as Kotlin, may be combined with C /C++, together with

3996-473: The Apache Software Foundation and rebranded as Apache Flex , superseded by Apache Royale), CrossBridge C++ cross-compilation toolset (released on GitHub ). In some browsers, prior Flash versions have had to be uninstalled before an updated version could be installed. However, as of version 11.2 for Windows, there are now automatic updater options. Linux is partially supported, as Adobe

4104-760: The CrossBridge toolkit which cross-compiles C / C++ code to run within the Flash Player, using LLVM and GCC as compiler backends, and high-performance memory-access opcodes in the Flash Player (termed "Domain Memory") to work with in-memory data quickly. CrossBridge is targeted toward the game development industry, and includes tools for building, testing, and debugging C/C++ projects in Flash Player. Notable online video games developed in Flash include Angry Birds , FarmVille , and AdventureQuest (started in 2002, and still active as of 2020). Adobe Flash Player

4212-516: The Gingerbread (Android 2.3.4) OTA update to customers. This update also fixed several outstanding issues that had been reported by customers regarding MMS messaging, Bluetooth connectivity, and the City ID app. However, this update proved almost immediately to be problematic. Once the update was sent to some HTC phones, many Verizon Wireless customers experienced problems with receiving text messages on

4320-562: The Nintendo Entertainment System . They enable video games created for such platforms to run within Flash Player. Adobe announced on July 25, 2017, that it would end support for the normal/global variant of Flash Player on January 1, 2021, and encouraged developers to use HTML5 standards in place of Flash. The announcement was coordinated with Apple , Facebook , Google , Microsoft , and Mozilla . Adobe announced that all major web browsers planned to officially remove

4428-581: The Open Handset Alliance , a consortium of technology companies including Google, device manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung, wireless carriers such as Sprint and T-Mobile , and chipset makers such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments , unveiled itself, with a goal to develop "the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices". Within a year, the Open Handset Alliance faced two other open source competitors,

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4536-556: The Pixel Bender API, but still did not have GPU-accelerated 3D vertex processing. A significant change came in version 11, which added a new low-level API called Stage3D (initially codenamed Molehill), which provides full GPU acceleration, similar to WebGL . (The partial support for GPU acceleration in Pixel Bender was completely removed in Flash 11.8, resulting in the disruption of some projects like MIT's Scratch , which lacked

4644-776: The Ruffle emulator integrated within its Emularity system. Other emulators, such as CheerpX, also exist as options for Flash Player emulation on other websites. BlueMaxima's Flashpoint project claims to have collected more than 38,000 Adobe Flash Player games and animations and made them available for download. Adobe has released some components of Adobe Flash products as open source software via Open Screen Project or donated them to open source organizations. As of 2021, most of these technologies are considered obsolete. This includes: ActionScript Virtual Machine 2 (AVM2) which implements ActionScript 3 (donated as open-source to Mozilla Foundation ), Adobe Flex Framework (donated as open-source to

4752-556: The Symbian Foundation and the LiMo Foundation , the latter also developing a Linux -based mobile operating system like Google. In September 2007, InformationWeek covered an Evalueserve study reporting that Google had filed several patent applications in the area of mobile telephony. On September 23, 2008, Android was introduced by Andy Rubin, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Cole Brodman, Christopher Schlaeffer and Peter Chou at

4860-682: The Windows 11 announcement event in June 2021, Microsoft showcased the new Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) to enable support for the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), but it has since been deprecated. It was meant to allow users running Android apps and games in Windows 11 on their Windows desktop. On March 5, 2024, Microsoft announced deprecation of WSA with support ending on March 5, 2025. The storage of Android devices can be expanded using secondary devices such as SD cards . Android recognizes two types of secondary storage: portable storage (which

4968-400: The digital distribution platform Google Play , and the associated Google Play Services development platform. Firebase Cloud Messaging is used for push notifications. While AOSP is free, the "Android" name and logo are trademarks of Google, which imposes standards to restrict the use of Android branding by "uncertified" devices outside their ecosystem. Over 70% of smartphones based on

5076-566: The global operating system market , followed by Windows with 26%. Android has historically been developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance , but its most widely used version is primarily developed by Google . It was unveiled in November 2007, with the first commercial Android device, the HTC Dream , being launched in September 2008. At its core, the operating system

5184-523: The source code is made available to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), an open source initiative led by Google. The first source code release happened as part of the initial release in 2007. All releases are under the Apache License . The AOSP code can be found with minimal modifications on select devices, mainly the former Nexus and current Android One series of devices. However, most original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) customize

5292-455: The web cameras and microphones , after permission for the same has been granted by the user. Flash Player was used internally by the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), to provide a cross-platform runtime environment for desktop applications and mobile applications. AIR supports installable applications on Windows , Linux , macOS , and some mobile operating systems such as iOS and Android . Flash applications must specifically be built for

5400-539: The "Call" button. Root has been achieved, initially by causing a race condition in Google's Android Debug Bridge (adb), and later with a "painless root" made by unrEVOked! Since root has been achieved, several enhancements such as Wi-Fi tethering are now available. The phone has had functional ROMs of every version of CyanogenMod up to and including CM 11. In April 2010, Engadget stated: "the DROID Incredible

5508-455: The AIR runtime to use additional features provided, such as file system integration, native client extensions, native window/screen integration, taskbar/dock integration, and hardware integration with connected Accelerometer and GPS devices. Flash Player included native support for many data formats , some of which can only be accessed through the ActionScript scripting interface. Flash Player

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5616-725: The Adobe Flash Player component on December 31, 2020, and Microsoft removed it from the Windows OS in January 2021 via Windows Update . In a move to further reduce the number of Flash Player installations, Adobe added a "time bomb" to Flash to disable existing installations after January 12, 2021. In mid-2020, Flash Player started prompting users to uninstall itself. Adobe removed all existing download links for Flash installers. After January 26, 2021, all major web browsers including Apple Safari , Google Chrome , Microsoft Edge , and Mozilla Firefox have already permanently removed Flash support. However, Flash content continues to be accessible on

5724-673: The Adobe Flex SDK compiler. Flash Player applications and games can be built in two significantly different methods: In both methods, developers can access the full Flash Player set of functions, including text , vector graphics , bitmap graphics, video , audio , camera, microphone, and others. AIR also includes added features such as file system integration, native extensions, native desktop integration, and hardware integration with connected devices. Adobe provides five ways of developing applications for Flash Player: Third-party development environments are also available: Adobe offers

5832-658: The Adobe Integrated Runtime, which allows developers to publish content that runs as native applications on certain supported mobile phone platforms. Adobe said it will optimize Flash for use on ARM architecture (ARMv7 and ARMv6 architectures used in the Cortex-A series of processors and in the ARM11 family) and release it in the second half of 2009. The company also stated it wants to enable Flash on NVIDIA Tegra , Texas Instruments OMAP 3, and Samsung ARMs. Beginning 2009, it

5940-515: The Android Open Source Project run Google's ecosystem (which is known simply as Android), some with vendor-customized user interfaces and software suites, such as TouchWiz and later One UI by Samsung and HTC Sense . Competing ecosystems and forks of AOSP include Fire OS developed by Amazon , ColorOS by Oppo , OriginOS by Vivo , MagicUI by Honor , and custom ROMs such as LineageOS , as well as Meta Horizon OS for VR headsets . Android's source code has been used to develop variants on

6048-531: The Android division to take on new projects at Google, and that Sundar Pichai would become the new Android lead. Pichai himself would eventually switch positions, becoming the new CEO of Google in August 2015 following the company's restructure into the Alphabet conglomerate, making Hiroshi Lockheimer the new head of Android. On Android 4.4 , KitKat , shared writing access to MicroSD memory cards has been locked for user-installed applications, to which only

6156-514: The Android version and manufacturer. Many early Android OS smartphones were equipped with a dedicated search button for quick access to a web search engine and individual apps' internal search feature. More recent devices typically allow the former through a long press or swipe away from the home button. The dedicated option key, also known as menu key, and its on-screen simulation, is no longer supported since Android version 10. Google recommends mobile application developers to locate menus within

6264-600: The Flash Player with touch-screen support. Version 9 was the most recent version available for the Linux/ ARM -based Nokia 770 / N800 / N810 Internet tablets running Maemo OS2008. Other versions of the player have been available at some point for Symbian OS and Palm OS . The Kodak Easyshare One includes Flash Player. The following table documents historical support for Flash Player on mobile operating systems : Some CPU emulators have been created for Flash Player, including Chip8 , Commodore 64 , ZX Spectrum , and

6372-464: The Flash plugin. Firefox ESR dropped support on November 2, 2021 (Firefox 78 ESR was the last version with support). On October 27, 2020, Microsoft released an update (named KB4577586) for Windows 10 and 8.1 which removes the embedded Adobe Flash Player component from IE11 and Edge Legacy . In July 2021, this update was automatically installed as a security patch. However, an ActiveX Flash Player plugin may still be used with IE after this update

6480-554: The LLVM compiler uses more aggressive optimization. Adobe has released ActionScript Compiler 2 (ASC2) in Flex 4.7 and onwards, which improves compilation times and optimizes the generated bytecode and supports method inlining , improving its performance at runtime. As of 2012, the Haxe multiplatform language can build programs for Flash Player that perform faster than the same application built with

6588-634: The Nexus series, with a new generation of Pixel phones launched in October 2017. In May 2019, the operating system became entangled in the trade war between China and the United States involving Huawei , which, like many other tech firms, had become dependent on access to the Android platform. In the summer of 2019, Huawei announced it would create an alternative operating system to Android known as Harmony OS , and has filed for intellectual property rights across major global markets. Under such sanctions Huawei has long-term plans to replace Android in 2022 with

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6696-493: The SAF to access any other part of the filesystem. Since Android devices are usually battery-powered, Android is designed to manage processes to keep power consumption at a minimum. When an application is not in use the system suspends its operation so that, while available for immediate use rather than closed, it does not use battery power or CPU resources. Android manages the applications stored in memory automatically: when memory

6804-479: The Storage Access Framework (SAF), a set of APIs for accessing files on the device's filesystem. As of Android 11, Android has required apps to conform to a data privacy policy known as scoped storage , under which apps may only automatically have access to certain directories (such as those for pictures, music, and video), and app-specific directories they have created themselves. Apps are required to use

6912-453: The ability to adjust the flashlight brightness. Notifications are "short, timely, and relevant information about your app when it's not in use", and when tapped, users are directed to a screen inside the app relating to the notification. Beginning with Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" , "expandable notifications" allow the user to tap an icon on the notification in order for it to expand and display more information and possible app actions right from

7020-479: The company in July of that year for at least $ 50 million; this was Google's "best deal ever" according to Google's then-vice president of corporate development, David Lawee , in 2010. Android's key employees, including Rubin, Miner, Sears, and White, joined Google as part of the acquisition. Not much was known about the secretive Android Inc. at the time, with the company having provided few details other than that it

7128-513: The company were to develop an advanced operating system for digital cameras , and this was the basis of its pitch to investors in April 2004. The company then decided that the market for cameras was not large enough for its goals, and five months later it had diverted its efforts and was pitching Android as a handset operating system that would rival Symbian and Microsoft Windows Mobile . Rubin had difficulty attracting investors early on, and Android

7236-555: The cost of the application is added to the user's monthly bill. As of May 2017 , there are over one billion active users a month for Gmail, Android, Chrome, Google Play and Maps. Due to the open nature of Android, a number of third-party application marketplaces also exist for Android, either to provide a substitute for devices that are not allowed to ship with Google Play Store, provide applications that cannot be offered on Google Play Store due to policy violations, or for other reasons. Examples of these third-party stores have included

7344-511: The dedicated directories with respective package names, located inside Android/data/ , remained writeable. Writing access has been reinstated with Android 5 Lollipop through the backwards-incompatible Google Storage Access Framework interface . In June 2014, Google announced Android One , a set of "hardware reference models" that would "allow [device makers] to easily create high-quality phones at low costs", designed for consumers in developing countries. In September, Google announced

7452-544: The device. HTC representatives said they were fixing the system update to correct the text-messaging issue. Many of the HTC updates caused errors within the Incredible, changing the layout and sometimes even the device set up. Many device owners were critical of Verizon Wireless and HTC for slowing down the roll-out process. Although the upgrade was released OTA on September 7 and HTC and Verizon Wireless promised phone owners would receive

7560-567: The display, show an overlay with the current status of the touch screen, show touching spots for possible use in screencasting , notify the user of unresponsive background processes with the option to end them ("Show all ANRs", i.e. "App's Not Responding"), prevent a Bluetooth audio client from controlling the system volume ("Disable absolute volume"), and adjust the duration of transition animations or deactivate them completely to speed up navigation. Developer options are initially hidden since Android 4.2 "Jelly Bean", but can be enabled by actuating

7668-523: The first set of Android One phones for release in India. However, Recode reported in June 2015 that the project was "a disappointment", citing "reluctant consumers and manufacturing partners" and "misfires from the search company that has never quite cracked hardware". Plans to relaunch Android One surfaced in August 2015, with Africa announced as the next location for the program a week later. A report from The Information in January 2017 stated that Google

7776-473: The form of an over-the-air (OTA) update . It has improvements over standard 2.1 devices including an FM tuner ; a Facebook -, Twitter -, and Flickr -integrated social-aggregation application called Friend Stream (as well as a Twitter client named Peep); a geotagging application for photos called Footprints; and a redesigned appearance and functionality for stock 2.1 applications. The device features an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, optical mouse and

7884-511: The free Adobe Gaming SDK, consisting (as of August 2014 ) of several open-source AS3 libraries built on the Flash Player Stage3D APIs for GPU-accelerated graphics: A few commercial game engines target Flash Player (Stage3D) as run-time environment, such as Unity 3D and Unreal Engine 3. Before the introduction of Stage3D, a number of older 2D engines or isometric engines like Flixel saw their heyday. Adobe also developed

7992-437: The issue. Android's default user interface is mainly based on direct manipulation , using touch inputs that loosely correspond to real-world actions, like swiping, tapping, pinching, and reverse pinching to manipulate on-screen objects, along with a virtual keyboard . Game controllers and full-size physical keyboards are supported via Bluetooth or USB . The response to user input is designed to be immediate and provides

8100-559: The look and features of their Android devices to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Along the top of the screen is a status bar, showing information about the device and its connectivity. This status bar can be pulled (swiped) down from to reveal a notification screen where apps display important information or updates, as well as quick access to system controls and toggles such as display brightness, connectivity settings ( WiFi , Bluetooth, cellular data), audio mode, and flashlight . Vendors may implement extended settings such as

8208-514: The manpower to recode their applications quickly enough. ) Current versions of Flash Player are optimized to use hardware acceleration for video playback and 3D graphics rendering on many devices, including desktop computers. Performance is similar to HTML video playback. Also, Flash Player has been used on multiple mobile devices as a primary user interface renderer. Although code written in ActionScript 3 executes up to 10 times faster than

8316-467: The media player, and a flashlight app which enables the camera's LED flash to operate as a flashlight. Other benefits of the update included: Adobe Flash Player 10, 720p video recording, 3G mobile hotspot (US$ 30/mo for 2GB), and the ability to rotate the screen 270 degrees. The update also installed several applications which cannot be removed, and which run without being invoked by the phone's user: an Amazon MP3 applet, CityID, Skype Mobile, My Verizon Mobile,

8424-481: The mobile communications market continued to build through December 2006. An early prototype had a close resemblance to a BlackBerry phone, with no touchscreen and a physical QWERTY keyboard , but the arrival of 2007's Apple iPhone meant that Android "had to go back to the drawing board". Google later changed its Android specification documents to state that "Touchscreens will be supported", although "the Product

8532-607: The most common screen. Android supports all versions of OpenGL ES and Vulkan (and version 1.1 available for some devices ). Android devices incorporate many optional hardware components, including still or video cameras, GPS , orientation sensors , dedicated gaming controls, accelerometers, gyroscopes, barometers, magnetometers , proximity sensors, pressure sensors , thermometers, and touchscreens . Some hardware components are not required, but became standard in certain classes of devices, such as smartphones, and additional requirements apply if they are present. Some other hardware

8640-475: The most used operating system worldwide on smartphones since 2011 and on tablets since 2013. As of May 2021 , it has over three billion monthly active users , the largest installed base of any operating system in the world, and, as of 2024 , the Google Play Store features 1.7 million apps; a decline from its of peak of over 3 million apps in April 2021. Android 15 , released on October 15, 2024,

8748-779: The name FutureSplash Player , it was renamed to Macromedia Flash Player after Macromedia acquired FutureWave in 1996. After Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, it was developed and distributed by Adobe as Adobe Flash Player. It is currently developed and distributed by Zhongcheng for users in China, and by Harman International for enterprise users outside of China, in collaboration with Adobe. Flash Player ran on SWF files that can be created using Adobe Flash Professional , Adobe Flash Builder , or third-party tools such as FlashDevelop. Flash Player supports video and raster graphics ; vector graphics ; 3D graphics ; embedded audio; and an object-oriented scripting language called ActionScript , which

8856-501: The need for third-party plugins. This led to the eventual deprecation of the platform. Flash Player was officially discontinued on 31 December 2020, and its download page was removed two days later. Since 12 January 2021, Flash Player (original global variants) versions newer than 32.0.0.371, released in May 2020, refuse to play Flash content and instead display a static warning message. The software remains supported in mainland China and in some enterprise variants. Adobe Flash Player

8964-513: The new operating system, as Harmony OS was originally designed for internet of things devices, rather than for smartphones and tablets. On August 22, 2019, it was announced that Android "Q" would officially be branded as Android 10, ending the historic practice of naming major versions after desserts. Google stated that these names were not "inclusive" to international users (due either to the aforementioned foods not being internationally known, or being difficult to pronounce in some languages). On

9072-409: The notification. An "All Apps" screen lists all installed applications, with the ability for users to drag an app from the list onto the home screen. The app list may be accessed using a gesture or a button, depending on the Android version. A "Recents" screen, also known as "Overview", lets users switch between recently used apps. The recent list may appear side-by-side or overlapping, depending on

9180-468: The number of security vulnerabilities that had been discovered in the software, and its nature as a closed platform controlled by Adobe. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was highly critical of Flash Player, having published an open letter criticising the platform and detailing Apple's reasoning for not supporting Flash on its iOS device family. Its usage further waned due to more modern web standards which replaced some of Flash's functionality, reducing

9288-546: The official support. Since 2012, Android devices with Intel processors began to appear, including phones and tablets. While gaining support for 64-bit platforms, Android was first made to run on 64-bit x86 and then on ARM64 . An unofficial experimental port of the operating system to the RISC-V architecture was released in 2021. Requirements for the minimum amount of RAM for devices running Android 7.1 range from in practice 2 GB for best hardware, down to 1 GB for

9396-526: The operating system's build number in the device information seven times. Hiding developers options again requires deleting user data for the "Settings" app, possibly resetting some other preferences. The main hardware platform for Android is ARM (the ARMv7 and ARMv8-A architectures), with x86 and x86-64 architectures also officially supported in later versions of Android. The unofficial Android-x86 project provided support for x86 architectures ahead of

9504-452: The player have been available at some point for BeOS . In 2011, Flash Player had emerged as the de facto standard for online video publishing on the desktop, with adaptive bitrate video streaming, DRM , and fullscreen support. On mobile devices, however, after Apple refused to allow the Flash Player within iOS 's integrated web browser, Adobe changed its strategy, enabling Flash content to be delivered as native mobile applications using

9612-472: The plugin was discontinued, some users have figured how to modify and repack the China-specific variant to bring it more in line with the global variant. This includes removing the "Flash Helper Service" and removing the China only installation restriction, along with all other geo-restrictions and tracking code. A "time bomb," similar to the one found in later versions of the global variant, is also present in

9720-530: The prior ActionScript 2, the Adobe ActionScript 3 compiler is a non- optimizing compiler , and produces inefficient bytecode in the resulting SWF, when compared to toolkits such as CrossBridge . CrossBridge , a toolkit that targets C++ code to run within the Flash Player, uses the LLVM compiler to produce bytecode that runs up to 10 times faster than code the ActionScript 3 compiler produces, only because

9828-520: The same day, Android Police reported that Google had commissioned a statue of a giant number "10" to be installed in the lobby of the developers' new office. Android 10 was released on September 3, 2019, to Google Pixel phones first. In late 2021, some users reported that they were unable to dial emergency services. The problem was caused by a combination of bugs in Android and in the Microsoft Teams app; both companies released updates addressing

9936-419: The screen, allowing the user to quickly assess the charge status of a powered-off without having to boot it up first. Some display the battery percentage. Most Android devices come with preinstalled Google apps including Gmail, Google Maps, Google Chrome, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, and others. Applications (" apps "), which extend the functionality of devices (and must be 64-bit ), are written using

10044-605: The source code to run on their hardware. Adobe Flash Player Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer , Firefox , and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash ) was a computer program for viewing multimedia content, executing rich Internet applications , and streaming audio and video content created on the Adobe Flash platform. It can run from a web browser as a browser plug-in or independently on supported devices. Originally created by FutureWave under

10152-496: The unmodified China variant; this is also removed in most repacks. In theory, these repacks should provide users outside of China with the latest security updates to Flash Player, without having to deal with invasive advertisements or worry about privacy risks. One such project, "Clean Flash Installer," was served a DMCA takedown from Adobe in October 2021. Adobe has partnered with Harman to support enterprise Flash Player users until at least 2023. The Harman Flash player variant

10260-579: The update "in September", many device owners were still waiting for the update nearly four weeks later – and after September had come and gone. On November 15, 2011, the revised update to the Android 2.3.x (Gingerbread) was available via an OTA update to customers. It was automatically sent to device users, and attempted to fix bugs which were known with the September release, including MMS problems. This patch, however, proved to be problematic for some users to install because their device claims to not have enough space or will not restart to complete

10368-449: The update, but community support found solutions to these problems. The device supports full Adobe Flash Player 10.3. It supports the following audio formats: AAC , AMR , OGG , M4A , MID , MP3 , WAV and WMA . Supported video formats include: 3GP , 3G2 , MP4 and WMV . There are several hidden menus and commands available from the phone's keypad. The ones shown below work as of OS version 2.3.4. Note: "+call" means to press

10476-679: The update, its technicians, speaking "officially unofficially" on Twitter, confirmed it. On August 13, 2010, Mashable reported that the device would begin to receive Android 2.2 (Froyo) on August 18, 2010. However, statements from official Verizon Wireless sources indicated that this was a hoax. Verizon Wireless confirmed on August 27, 2010, that the device would begin receiving Android 2.2 through an OTA update beginning on that date. Starting August 26, 2010, all new devices were shipped with Android 2.2 (Froyo). The software update from Android 2.1 v1 (Éclair) to 2.2 also included an updated version of HTC's "Sense" User Interface, which included minor updates to

10584-495: The user interface. On more recent phones, its place is occupied by a task key used to access the list of recently used apps when actuated. Depending on device, its long press may simulate a menu button press or engage split screen view, the latter of which is the default behaviour since stock Android version 7. Native support for split screen view has been added in stock Android version 7.0 Nougat . The earliest vendor-customized Android-based smartphones known to have featured

10692-452: The web through emulators such as Ruffle , with varying degrees of compatibility and performance, although this is not endorsed by Adobe . Starting from Chrome 76, Flash is disabled by default without any prompts to activate Flash content. Users who wanted to play Flash content had to manually set a browser to prompt for Flash content, and then during each browser session, enable Flash plugin for every site individually. Microsoft Edge, which

10800-475: Was a version of Flash Player kept up to date with security updates, but none of the new features or bug fixes available in later versions. In August 2016, Adobe discontinued the ESR branch and instead focused solely on the standard release. Version 10 can be run under Windows 98/Me using KernelEx. HP offered Version 6 of the player for HP-UX , while Innotek GmbH offered versions 4 and 5 for OS/2 . Other versions of

10908-434: Was acquired by Google in 2014 that provides helpful tools for app and web developers. Android has a growing selection of third-party applications, which can be acquired by users by downloading and installing the application's APK (Android application package) file, or by downloading them using an application store program that allows users to install, update, and remove applications from their devices. Google Play Store

11016-593: Was announced that Adobe would be bringing Flash to TV sets via Intel Media Processor CE 3100 before mid-2009. ARM Holdings later said it welcomes the move of Flash, because "it will transform mobile applications and it removes the claim that the desktop controls the Internet." However, as of May 2009, the expected ARM/Linux netbook devices had poor support for Web video and fragmented software base. Among other devices, LeapFrog Enterprises provides Flash Player with their Leapster Multimedia Learning System and extended

11124-490: Was described as having "played a pivotal role in Android's history by introducing new software iterations and hardware standards across the board", and became known for its " bloat-free " software with "timely ... updates". At its developer conference in May 2013, Google announced a special version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 , where, instead of using Samsung's own Android customization, the phone ran "stock Android" and

11232-472: Was designed with the presence of discrete physical buttons as an assumption, therefore a touchscreen cannot completely replace physical buttons". By 2008, both Nokia and BlackBerry announced touch-based smartphones to rival the iPhone 3G , and Android's focus eventually switched to just touchscreens. The first commercially available smartphone running Android was the HTC Dream , also known as T-Mobile G1, announced on September 23, 2008. On November 5, 2007,

11340-432: Was facing eviction from its office space. Steve Perlman , a close friend of Rubin, brought him $ 10,000 in cash in an envelope, and shortly thereafter wired an undisclosed amount as seed funding. Perlman refused a stake in the company, and has stated "I did it because I believed in the thing, and I wanted to help Andy." In 2005, Rubin tried to negotiate deals with Samsung and HTC . Shortly afterwards, Google acquired

11448-586: Was initially required, but those requirements have been relaxed or eliminated altogether. For example, as Android was developed initially as a phone OS, hardware such as microphones were required, while over time the phone function became optional. Android used to require an autofocus camera, which was relaxed to a fixed-focus camera if present at all, since the camera was dropped as a requirement entirely when Android started to be used on set-top boxes . In addition to running on smartphones and tablets, several vendors run Android natively on regular PC hardware with

11556-466: Was making software for mobile phones. At Google, the team led by Rubin developed a mobile device platform powered by the Linux kernel . Google marketed the platform to handset makers and carriers on the promise of providing a flexible, upgradeable system. Google had "lined up a series of hardware components and software partners and signaled to carriers that it was open to various degrees of cooperation". Speculation about Google's intention to enter

11664-634: Was promised to receive new system updates fast. The device would become the start of the Google Play edition program, and was followed by other devices, including the HTC One Google Play edition, and Moto G Google Play edition. In 2015, Ars Technica wrote that "Earlier this week, the last of the Google Play edition Android phones in Google's online storefront were listed as "no longer available for sale" and that "Now they're all gone, and it looks

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