Google Android - The Android Log

Once again, Android is a complete mobile operating system, or platform, for cell phones and other mobile/wireless devices. Google is developing the system and giving it away to manufacturers in return for allowing Google to place advertisements in Android mobile programs.

Android can (and will) be able to be scaled to many different devices. For instance, on lower-priced handsets, Android may allow users to make phone calls, send POP/IMAP email and SMS messages and maybe take photos with a built-in camera.

The device - which is unlocked by drawing a shape only the owner knows on a nine-square grid - will also include a magnifying tool, to make zooming in on web content easier on a small screen, and a mobile version of the game Pac Man.

Demonstrating the device at a developers’ conference in San Francisco, Andy Rubin, who heads up the project at Google, declined to give a release date, but said that the first phones powered by Google’s Android operating system will appear in the second half of the year.

Google will not make the phone, but has helped develop the software that handset manufacturers will install in their devices. Samsung, HTC, LG Electronics, and Motorola are among the companies that have said they will produce phones that run on Android.