What is meant by an Android phone!

[abhishes]

My first post

1. Can I take any phone (with touch screen) and then try to install Android on it? or does a phone maker have to specially make a phone for Android?

2. When a maker makes a phone for Android does he make it for a specific version like 2.1 or 2.2? or can any version be thrown on the phone?

3. For example, can I buy a phone today on which I can put Android 3.0 (is beta available?)

4. what is the best source to learn android OS internals (apart from reading the code)?

5. which is a best source to learn app development on android?

6. what are the best blogs?

7. good books if any?

8. how can I learn about future roadmap of Android? what is going to happen next? who decides what is going to happen next?

Sorry if this is FAQ. My first post so please don't flame me

 

[Steven58]

Welcome to the Android Forums community! We're glad you singed up! Feel free to join the conversations! If you need any help finding your way, please PM me.

No flames, my friend. I just am going to move this question to a section that better fits it for you. Thanks! Welcome!

Steven

 

[baillou2]

So that's a lot of questions, and I'm not an expert on android. What I will say about the phone compatibility is that you will always need to have the correct drivers available. So theoretically you could install android on just about any phone as long as you can get the OS to talk to the hardware. I'm sure it's a great deal more complex than that, but that's essentially it. I've seen iPhones running android on youtube, so yeah, it can be done.

As for the rest of your questions a little google-fu will answer all of them.

 

[Tangent]

My first post

1. Can I take any phone (with touch screen) and then try to install Android on it? or does a phone maker have to specially make a phone for Android?

You can try. The Windows mobile HTC HD2 has successfully had Android installed on it. It's not a simple matter to be the first to do this though, you need to know what you're doing. After somebody else figures it out they usually post step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish the task.

2. When a maker makes a phone for Android does he make it for a specific version like 2.1 or 2.2? or can any version be thrown on the phone?

The hardware isn't designed for a specific version, but it's possible there isn't a fully-functional ROM of 2.2 available for that specific device. The manufacturer might have only 1.6 available, and if it's not a popular handset it could be that nobody's made a fully functional version of 2.2 yet. There's no technical reason why a handset couldn't eventually get the latest and greatest, it just needs to be done.

3. For example, can I buy a phone today on which I can put Android 3.0 (is beta available?)

I believe the latest that going to be available within a few days - if rumors are true - will be 2.3. For a popular handset it will likely only be a matter of days or weeks until somebody has a fully functional version of 2.3 available for it. Some "vanilla" Android phones (ones without HTC's Sense, or Motorola's Motoblur UI overlays) like the Nexus 1 will probably get 2.3 in an over the air update within days of 2.3s release.

4. what is the best source to learn android OS internals (apart from reading the code)?

xda developers forum is a great resource.

5. which is a best source to learn app development on android?

6. what are the best blogs?

Same as above I'd wager

7. good books if any?

Dunno...

8. how can I learn about future roadmap of Android? what is going to happen next? who decides what is going to happen next?

Rumors abound, but the only way to really know exactly where it's heading for sure is to get a job on the Android dev team at Google probably.

Sorry if this is FAQ. My first post so please don't flame me

The worst question is the one that's unanswered. As long as you at least do a quick search for answers before posting questions most people shouldn't flame you too bad.

 

[Xyro]

Android has been ported to quite a few things it shouldn't be on. Even an iPhone, if I remember correctly. But it is very complicated and you'd have to figure it our your self. Unless you are have a lot experience with this sort of thing you'd probably be wasting your time.

And even if you managed it, the results would likely be disappointing.

Any phone can be upgraded to any version of android, in theory. But if there aren't any suitable drivers available for a phone the results will be poor. For example, back when my phone only had 1.5 firmware, people tried to put 2.1 on the phone. It was slow and power hungry, because there were no 2.x drivers for the hero.

But now HTC have released 2.1 for us, we have our 2.x drivers and can even use 2.2

That said though, if you have a popular enough phone, the dev community will try their hardest to get your phone the latest firmware.

 

[abhishes]

Thanks a lot!

I found these Google IO videos very useful

Videos | Android Developers

 

[alextop30]

1. Can I take any phone (with touch screen) and then try to install Android on it? or does a phone maker have to specially make a phone for Android?

No I do not believe Android can be ported to all phones. Android is the operating system of the phone which is based off of linux. It is one of the most stable open source systems that has one of the fewest security problems per source code line. I believe the first operating system in that ever was Linux.

2. When a maker makes a phone for Android does he make it for a specific version like 2.1 or 2.2? or can any version be thrown on the phone?

No only certain devices support 2.2 as far as I know Galaxy S recently got the update from Samsung (on T-Mobile US only) for 2.2 Froyo.

3. For example, can I buy a phone today on which I can put Android 3.0 (is beta available?)

I do not believe the Android 2.3 (not 3.0) Gingerbread is actually available for developers yet so no beta

4. what is the best source to learn android OS internals (apart from reading the code)?

xda developers forum (I agree)

5. which is a best source to learn app development on android?

I do not quite know that I think xda developers forum might be able to give you an insight there

6. what are the best blogs?

Androidforums.com duh

7. good books if any?

8. how can I learn about future roadmap of Android? what is going to happen next? who decides what is going to happen next?

Land a job for google or read a lot of technology based articles and make your deductions from there.