android

(in science fiction) a robot resembling a human being

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Android

An operating system for smartphones and tablets from the Google-sponsored Open Handset Alliance. With myriad models to choose from, Android is the leading mobile platform with approximately 75% of the worldwide smartphone market. More devices with the Android are currently in operation than any other OS.

Android is a Linux OS, and apps are programmed in Java. Users download applications from Google's Play Store (formerly Android Market), the Amazon Appstore and other online sources (see Google Play and Amazon Appstore).

The first Android smartphone came out in 2008 and quickly became a major competitor to the iPhone due to its availability from multiple carriers and numerous handset manufacturers. In addition, Androids could multitask, whereas iPhones initially could not. By 2011, Android outsold every other smartphone. See Android market share.

Like Windows vs. Mac
Like Windows computers, Android hardware is made by many different manufacturers. Also like Windows, Android vendors can add their own set of apps and different interface features to their phones (see app launcher). In contrast, like the Mac, the iPhone, iPad and iPod are made only by Apple. They feature one interface, one set of apps and only a few current models. See iPhone vs. Android, how to select a mobile device, Open Handset Alliance, AOSP, Android fragmentation, mobile compatibility and mobile device vendor control.

The Google Phone
In 2005, Google acquired Android, Inc. and two years later unveiled smartphone specifications for third-party manufacturers. In 2010, Google began to offer "pure Android" versions, devoid of vendor add-ons (see Google Nexus and Pixel phone). When it acquired Motorola Mobility in 2012, Google became a phone manufacturer itself. However, in less than two years, Google sold the company to Lenovo while retaining numerous patents. See Android camera, Android rooting, Android laptop, Android antivirus program, Chromecast, Android TV, Galaxy S, HTC G1 and smartphone.

Early Models

After T-Mobile introduced the first Android phone in 2008, other carriers and vendors followed, eventually introducing more than a thousand models. See GSM and CDMA.

No Phones on These Androids

In 2009, the ARCHOS entertainment center (top) and Barnes & Noble e-book reader were some of the first Androids sans phone. Soon after, myriad Android tablets and devices were introduced. (Images courtesy of ARCHOS and Barnesandnoble.com)

No Phones on These Androids

In 2009, the ARCHOS entertainment center (top) and Barnes & Noble e-book reader were some of the first Androids sans phone. Soon after, myriad Android tablets and devices were introduced. (Images courtesy of ARCHOS and Barnesandnoble.com)

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References in periodicals archive

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What most people don't know is that after the above-mentioned 1886 decision, artificial persons were held to have exactly the same legal rights as we natural folk.

The Supreme identification of corporations and persons

Smith and other opponents of corporate free speech employ the tired metaphors "artificial person" and "creatures of the state" as though those vague labels end the debate.

Concerning Citizens United

What I am interested in, however, is not Facebook, which is, after all, a foreign company, but the criminal liability that may now also be extended to the 'state' in Pakistan, which is also, like a corporation, a legal artificial person. That a sovereign state - yes we do love the word sovereign, do we not?

VIEW: The liabilities of our state -Yasser Latif Hamdani

7 CORPORATIONS REPRINTED FROM RULING CASE LAW [section]3 (1915) ("The corporation is the real though artificial person substituted for the natural persons who procured its creation ...

The status of corporations in the travaux preparatoires of the Genocide Convention: the search for personhood

During the state of war, men conquer women through this coercion, women contract with individual men; together, they become, a single "artificial person" wherein the woman's personhood is subsumed under a man's--soon, there are no free women; the artificial persons (conceived of as male-headed families) then come together to form the social contract; women are excluded.

Feminist interpretations of Thomas Hobbes: a response to Carole Pateman and Susan Okin

A corporation is an artificial person and in this sense may have artificial responsibilities, but "business" as a whole cannot be said to have responsibilities, even in this vague sense.

Two views on the social responsibility of business