The version history of the Android mobile operating system began with the public release of the Android beta in November 5, 2007. The first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released in September 2008. Android is continually developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, and it has seen a number of updates to its base operating system since the initial release.
Versions 1.0 and 1.1 were not released under specific code names. Android code names are confectionery-themed and have been in alphabetical order since 2009's Android 1.5 Cupcake, with the most recent major version being Android 8.0 Oreo, released in August 2017.
Note: To clarify, support for e.g. Android 4.4.4 KitKat (Google's support cut-off), means at least security patches in 2014, 2016 and up to and including at least October 2017. The updates may or may not reach actual users' devices; that depends on vendors. Google (and others) may support their own users' devices with a major upgrade only, instead of a security update to those older versions, but it's possible to do.
A version of Android KitKat exclusive to Android Wear devices was released on June 25, 2014, with an API level of 20.
Video Android version history
Pre-commercial release versions
The development of Android started in 2003 by Android, Inc., which was purchased by Google in 2005.
Alpha
There were at least two internal releases of the software inside Google and the OHA before the beta version was released. The code names "Astro Boy" and "Bender" were used internally for some pre-1.0 milestones.
Dan Morrill created some of the first mascot logos, but the current Android logo was designed by Irina Blok. The project manager, Ryan Gibson, conceived the confectionery-themed naming scheme that has been used for the majority of the public releases, starting with Android 1.5 Cupcake.
Beta
The beta was released on November 5, 2007, while the software development kit (SDK) was released on November 12, 2007. The November 5 date is popularly celebrated as Android's "birthday". Public beta versions of the SDK were released in the following order:
- November 12, 2007: m3-rc20a (milestone 3, release code 20a)
- November 16, 2007: m3-rc22a (milestone 3, release code 22a)
- December 14, 2007: m3-rc37a (milestone 3, release code 37a)
- February 13, 2008: m5-rc14 (milestone 5, release code 14)
- March 3, 2008: m5-rc15 (milestone 5, release code 15)
- August 18, 2008: 0.9 Beta
- September 23, 2008: 1.0-r1
Maps Android version history
Version history by API level
The following tables show the release dates and key features of all Android operating system updates to date, listed chronologically by their official application programming interface (API) levels.
Hardware requirements
The main hardware platform for Android is the ARM architecture (ARMv7 and ARMv8-A architectures; formerly also ARMv5), with x86 and MIPS architectures also officially supported in later versions of Android. Unofficial Android-x86 project used to provide support for the x86 and MIPS architectures ahead of 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. Since Android 5.0 Lollipop, 64-bit variants of all platforms are supported in addition to the 32-bit variants.
Requirements for the minimum amount of RAM for devices running Android 7.1 depend on screen size and density and type of CPU, ranging from 816 MB-1.8 GB for 64-bit and 512 MB-1.3 GB for 32-bit meaning in practice 1 GB for the most common type of display (while minimum for Android watch is 416 MB). The recommendation for Android 4.4 is to have at least 512 MB of RAM, while for "low RAM" devices 340 MB is the required minimum amount that does not include memory dedicated to various hardware components such as the baseband processor. Android 4.4 requires a 32-bit ARMv7, MIPS or x86 architecture processor (latter two through unofficial ports), together with an OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible graphics processing unit (GPU). Android supports OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.2 and as of latest major version Vulkan. Some applications may explicitly require a certain version of the OpenGL ES, and suitable GPU hardware is required to run such applications.
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 (except for smartphones) when Android started to be used on set-top boxes.
See also
Notes
References
External links
- Official Android website
- Android API Levels via Android Developer
- Android: A visual history, The Verge, by Chris Ziegler
- The history of Android, Ars Technica, by Ron Amadeo
- Website with Android version distribution historical charts
- A Brief History of Android Version From Cupcake To Lollipop
- Android versions comparison
- Google Android: List of CVE security vulnerabilities
Source of article : Wikipedia
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