|
SECTION A
Introduction
The purpose of this report is to survey the architecture, development tools, runtime and OS kernel of the Android Operating System by examining a range of recently published journal articles, magazine articles and internet sites on the topic.
In the advancing world of mobile technology and the growing demand of users for more functionality and customization opportunities, mobile applications are a rapidly growing segment of the global mobile market (TECHTARGET). The key product for this growing segment is the Android Operating System, an open source (Neither developers nor handset manufacturers pay royalties or license fees) Linux-based operating system that is used primarily on mobile devices (such as the iPhone mobile phone and Samsung Galaxy Tab Tablet) with most of them providing a touch screen for user input (WIKIPEDIA, 2012). Android is the most widely used OS on mobile devices specially phones that provides easy access to a wide range of services functionalities and applications such as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and smooth integration with Google products like Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar. (HOLLA, Suhas and Katti, Mahima M, 2012), some can be found on a site called Google play (GOOGLE). Due the increased availability of these powerful devices, there is also a potential increase for criminals to use this technology as well for a number of activities such as committing fraud over e-mail and trafficking of child pornography. Some countries like Dubai have gone to the extent of banning such mobile phones because of this. However smart phones store data that could be extremely useful to analysts through the course of an investigation (LESSARD, Jeff and Kessler, Gary C, 2010).
About eleven commercial versions of the Android Operating System have been
Cited: ANDROID DEVELOPERS. 2012. Android Developer Tools. [online]. [Accessed 28 September 2012]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adt.html> ANDROID DEVELOPERS ANDROID DEVELOPERS. 2012. Tools. [online]. [Accessed 28 September 2012]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://developer.android.com/tools/help/index.html> ANDROID-APPS ANDROIDCENTRAL. 2012. Android A to Z: What is a kernel? [online]. [Accessed 28 September 2012]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.androidcentral.com/android-z-what-kernel> CNET ELINUX. 2011. Android Dalvik VM. [online]. [Accessed 28 September 2012]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://elinux.org/Android_Dalvik_VM> ELINUX HOWSTUFFWORKS. 2012. How the Google Phone Works. [online]. [Accessed 27 September 2012]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/google-phone2.htm> KILGO, Paul M LESSARD, Jeff and Gary C KESSLER. 2010. Android Forensics:Simplifying Cell Phone Examinations. SMALL SCALE DIGITAL DEVICE FORENSICS. IV(1), pp.1-12. LINDUSEMBEDDED. 2010. Android Linux kernel additions. [online]. [Accessed 28 September 2012]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.lindusembedded.com/blog/2010/12/07/android-linux-kernel-additions/> LINUXFORDEVICES MAKER, Frank. 2011. Android Dalvik Virtual Machine. [online]. [Accessed 28 September 2012]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://jaxenter.com/android-dalvik-virtual-machine-35498.html> TECHOTOPIA WIKIPEDIA. 2012. Android (operating system). [online]. [Accessed 26 September 2012]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android %28operating system%29> WIKIPEDIA WIKIPEDIA. 2012. Android/Introduction. [online]. [Accessed 28 September 2012]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Android/Introduction> WIKIPIDEA