What is Android Operating system?

In simple terms, Android is a Linux-based mobile phone Operating System. In technical terms Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. Android was developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), a coalition of hardware, software and telecommunications companies. Android began its life as a Palo Alto-based start-up company, founded in 2003. That company was subsequently acquired by Google in 2005. The Android platform includes an operatingsystem based upon Linux, a GUI, a Web browser and end user applications that can be downloaded. Although the initial demonstrations of Android featured a generic QWERTY smartphone and large VGA screen, the operating system was written to run on relatively inexpensive handsets with conventional numeric keypads. Android runs on both of the most widely deployed cellular standards, GSM/HSDPA and CDMA/EVDO. Android will also support:
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Bluetooth EDGE 3G communication protocols, like EV-DO and HSDPA Wi-Fi SMS messaging MMS video/still digital cameras touchscreens GPS compasses accelerometers accelerated 3D graphics

Features
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Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional) SQLite for structured data storage Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF) GSM Telephony (hardware dependent) Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware dependent) Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer (hardware dependent) Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE

Android Architecture
The following diagram shows the major components of the Android operating system. Each section is described in more detail below.

Applications
Android will ship with a set of core applications including an email client, SMS program, calendar, maps, browser, contacts, and others. All applications are written using the Java programming language.

Application Framework
By providing an open development platform, Android offers developers the ability to build extremely rich and innovative applications. Developers are free to take advantage of the device hardware, access location information, run background services, set alarms, add notifications to the status bar, and much, much more. Developers have full access to the same framework APIs used by the core applications. The application architecture is designed to simplify the reuse of components; any application can publish its capabilities and any other application may then make use of those capabilities (subject to security constraints enforced by the framework). This same mechanism allows components to be replaced by the user. Underlying all applications is a set of services and systems, including:
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A rich and extensible set of Views that can be used to build an application, including lists, grids, text boxes, buttons, and even an embeddable web browser Content Providers that enable applications to access data from other applications (such as Contacts), or to share their own data A Resource Manager, providing access to non-code resources such as localized strings, graphics, and layout files A Notification Manager that enables all applications to display custom alerts in the status bar

An Activity Manager that manages the lifecycle of applications and provides a common navigation back stack

Libraries
Android includes a set of C/C++ libraries used by various components of the Android system. These capabilities are exposed to developers through the Android application framework. Some of the core libraries are listed below:
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System C library - a BSD-derived implementation of the standard C system library (libc), tuned for embedded Linux-based devices Media Libraries - based on PacketVideo'sOpenCORE; the libraries support playback and recording of many popular audio and video formats, as well as static image files, including MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, and PNG Surface Manager - manages access to the display subsystem and seamlessly composites 2D and 3D graphic layers from multiple applications LibWebCore - a modern web browser engine which powers both the Android browser and an embeddable web view SGL - the underlying 2D graphics engine 3D libraries - an implementation based on OpenGL ES 1.0 APIs; the libraries use either hardware 3D acceleration (where available) or the included, highly optimized 3D software rasterizer FreeType - bitmap and vector font rendering SQLite - a powerful and lightweight relational database engine available to all applications

Android Runtime
Android includes a set of core libraries that provides most of the functionality available in the core libraries of the Java programming language. Every Android application runs in its own process, with its own instance of the Dalvik virtual machine. Dalvik has been written so that a device can run multiple VMs efficiently. The Dalvik VM executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format which is optimized for minimal memory footprint. The VM is register-based, and runs classes compiled by a Java language compiler that have been transformed into the .dex format by the included "dx" tool. The Dalvik VM relies on the Linux kernel for underlying functionality such as threading and lowlevel memory management.

Linux Kernel
Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core system services such as security, memory management, process management, network stack, and driver model. The kernel also acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and the rest of the software stack.

What is Symbian Operating system? SymbianOS is an open source operating system for mobile phones primarily used on Nokia advanced or data enabled smart phones. SymbianOS runs exclusively on ARM processors and has evolved from Psion's EPOC which was developed as a rudimentary operating system for early electronic organizers. The Psion EPOC OS was referred to EPOC16 beginning in the late 1990's to help distinguish it from the newer 32bit Operating system EPOC32, which eventually became SymbianOS.

The key advantage of EPOC32 over its 16bit predecessor is the ability to multi-task, perform multiple functions at once. In newer devices, this might mean being able to surf the web using the phone and not lose your content when answering an incoming call. Many third party manufacturers were able to license the 32bit EPOC OS for their organizers and other mobile data devices. Since the late 1990's,SymbianOS has become one of the most popular mobile device operating systems available. Symbian OS is a feature-rich operating system that supports graphics and audio, multimedia applications. The communication protocol can be serial communication via Bluetooth/infrared, and network communication using the TCP/IP protocol (IPv6 is supported). Telephony and messaging are also available with support for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

Symbian Operating System was built in such a way that it follows the three basic design rules.
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The integrity and security of user data is of paramount importance. Response time must not be as small as possible. All resources are scarce.

Features of Symbian Operating Systems

Integrated multimode mobile telephony Symbian OS integrates the power of computing with mobile telephony, bringing advanced data services to the mass market. Symbian OS is the operating system of choice for 2.5G and 3G mobile phones. Messaging Symbian OS includes comprehensive support for SMS, EMS, MMS, email and fax. Peer-to-peer multimedia messaging is a key revenue generator for 2.5G and 3G networks Open application environment Symbian OS enables mobile phones to be a platform for deployment of applications and services (programs and content) developed in a wide range of languages (Java and C++) and content formats Standards and interoperability with a flexible and modular implementation, Symbian OS provides a core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and technologies that is shared by all 4

Symbian OS phones. Key industry standards such as IP v4 and v6, Bluetooth wireless technology, Java, WAP and SyncML are supported

Multi-tasking Fully object-oriented and component-based, Symbian OS includes a multi-tasking kernel, middleware for communications, data management and graphics, the lower levels of the graphical user interface framework, and application engines Robustness Symbian OS maintains instant access to user data. It ensures the integrity of data, even in the presence of unreliable communication, and limited resources such as memory, storage and power Flexible user interface design By enabling flexible graphical user interface design on Symbian OS, Symbian is fostering innovation and is able to offer choice for manufacturers, carriers, enterprises and end-users. Using the same core operating system in different designs also eases application porting for third party developers.

Bluetooth link b/w laptop and mobile phone

Bluetooth:-It is a proprietaryopenwireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short wavelength radio transmissions in the ISM band from 2400-2480 MHz) from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs) with high levels of security.

How is connection established?

When you use computers, entertainment systems or telephones, the various pieces and parts of the systems make up a community of electronic devices. These devices communicate with each other using a variety of wires, cables, radio signals and infrared light beams, and an even greater variety of connectors, plugs and protocols. Bluetooth networking transmits data via low-power radio waves. It communicates on a frequency of 2.45 gigahertz (actually between 2.402 GHz and 2.480 GHz, to be exact). This frequency band has been set aside by international agreement for the use of industrial, scientific and medical devices (ISM).

One of the ways Bluetooth devices avoid interfering with other systems is by sending out very weak signals of about 1 milliwatt. By comparison, the most powerful cell phones can transmit a signal of 3 watts. The low power limits the range of a Bluetooth device to about 10 meters (32 feet), cutting the chances of interference between your computer system and your portable telephone or television. Even with the low power, Bluetooth doesn't require line of sight between communicating devices. The walls in your house won't stop a Bluetooth signal, making the standard useful for controlling several devices in different rooms. Bluetooth can connect up to eight devices simultaneously. With all of those devices in the same 10meter (32-foot) radius, you might think they'd interfere with one another, but it's unlikely. Bluetooth uses a technique called spread-spectrum frequency hopping that makes it rare for more than one device to be transmitting on the same frequency at the same time. In this technique, a device will use 79 individual, randomly chosen frequencies within a designated range, changing from one to another on a regular basis. In the case of Bluetooth, the transmitters change frequencies 1,600 times every second, meaning that more devices can make full use of a limited slice of the radio spectrum. Since every Bluetooth transmitter uses spread-spectrum transmitting automatically, its unlikely that two transmitters will be on the same frequency at the same time. This same technique minimizes the risk that portable phones or baby monitors will disrupt Bluetooth devices, since any interference on a particular frequency will last only a tiny fraction of a second. When Bluetooth-capable devices come within range of one another, an electronic conversation takes place to determine whether they have data to share or whether one needs to control the other. The user doesn't have to press a button or give a command -- the electronic conversation happens automatically. Once the conversation has occurred, the devices -- whether they're part of a computer system(laptop) -- form a network. Bluetooth systems create a personal-area network (PAN), or piconet, that may fill a room or may encompass no more distance than that between the cell phone on a belt-clip and the headset on your head. Once a piconet is established, the members randomly hop frequencies in unison so they stay in touch with one another and avoid other piconets that may be operating in the same room. Let's check out an example of a Bluetooth-connected system.

To study wireless application environment with the help of wireless mark-up language Wireless Application environment:The WAE is the top layer of the WAP stack and is of most interest to content developers because it contains among other things, device specifications and the content development programing languages, WML and WMLScript. It is an application environment that us based on a combination of mobile Telephony technologies and the WWW. The purpose of the WAE is to establish an environment to build applications and services. The WAE includes a micro browser environment that defines how the wireless device interprets and [resents WML and WMLScript. It also contains components that specify the following:

WAE User Agents: Client-side in-device software that provides specific functionality (e.g., display content) to the enduser. Useragents (such as browsers) are integrated into the WAP architecture. They interpret network content referenced bya URL. WAE includes user agents for the two primary standard contents: encoded Wireless MarkupLanguage(WML) and compiled Wireless Markup Language Script (WMLScript.) Content Generators: Applications (or services) on origin servers (e.g., CGI scripts) that produce standard content formats in response torequests from user agents in the mobile terminal. WAE does not specify any standard 6

content generators butexpects that there will be a great variety available running on typical HTTP origin servers commonly used inWWW today.

Standard Content Encoding: A set of well-defined content encoding, allowing a WAE user agent (e.g., a browser) to conveniently navigate webcontent. Standard content encoding includes compressed encoding for WML, bytecode encoding for WMLScript,standard image formats, a multi-part container format and adopted business and calendar data formats. Wireless Telephony Applications (WTA): A collection of telephony specific extensions for call and feature control mechanisms that provide authors (and ultimately end-users) advanced Mobile Network Services.
WAP depends upon a WAP compatible proxy server to translate between WAP and HTTP transactions and WAP and Internet Protocols WAE is divided into two logical layers: User agents, which includes such items as browsers, phonebooks, message editors, etc; and Services and Formats, which include common elements and formats accessible to user agents such as WML,WMLScript, image formats, vCard and vCalendar formats, etc.

WML
WML is a tag-based document language. In particular, it is an application of a generalised mark-up language. WMLshares a heritage with the WWWs HTML[HTML4] and Handheld Device Markup Language [HDML2]. WML isspecified as an XML [XML] document type. It is optimised for specifying presentation and user interaction on limited capability devices such as telephones and other wireless mobile terminals.WML and its supporting environment were designed with certain small narrow-band device constraints in mindincluding small displays, limited user-input facilities, narrow band network connections, limited memory resources andlimited computational resources. Given the wide and varying range of terminals targeted by WAP, considerable effortwas put into the proper distribution of presentation responsibility between the author and the browser implementation.WML is based on a subset of HDML version 2.0 [HDML2]. WML changes some elements adopted from HDML andintroduces new elements, some of which have been modelled on similar elements in HTML. The resulting WMLimplements a card and deck metaphor. It contains constructs allowing the application to specify documents made up ofmultiple cards. An interaction with the user is described in a set of cards, which can be grouped together into adocument (commonly referred to as a deck). Logically, a user navigates through a set of WML cards. The usernavigates to a card, reviews its contents, may enter requested information, may make choices, and then moves on toanother card. Instructions imbedded within cards may invoke services on origin servers as needed by the particularinteraction. Decks are fetched from origin servers as needed. WML decks can be stored in static files on an originserver, or they can be dynamically generated by a content generator running on an origin server. Each card, in a deck,contains a specification for a particular user interaction.WML is specified in a way that allows presentation on a wide variety of devices yet allows for vendors to incorporatetheir own MMIs. For example, WML does not specify how implementations request input from a user. Instead, WMLspecifies the intent in an abstract manner. This allows WML to be implemented on a wide variety of input devices andmechanisms. Implementations may, for example, choose to solicit user input visually like many WWW user agents, orit may choose to use a voice-based interface. The user agent must decide how to best present all elements within a carddepending on the device capabilities. For example, certain user agents on devices with larger displays may choose topresent all the information in a single card at once. Others, on the other hand, with smaller displays may break thecontent up across several units of displays.