The computer you carry with you

At its very core, Android is a version of the very free and open Linux operating system, but tailored for a computer that has just a few buttons and a touch-sensitive screen. It's not a single phone or line of phones, like Apple's iPhone, though the Verizon/Motorola Droid model might make you think that. It's not even a single look for a phone, as manufacturers and cellphone companies can totally remake the interface however they'd like. At the moment, learning how to get at the good stuff on one Android device generally trains you to use them all, but that may change in the future. Put simply, Android is a bundle of code, mostly developed by Google, that allow phones with small screens and tiny chips to do great things.

What it can do

What kind of things? If you're showing off your Android phone to your friends, you might show how you can hit a microphone-style button, say "Pizzeria Due, Chicago" into your phone, and, a few seconds later, have links to call, get directions to, or view the web site for one of Chicago's best deep-dish pizzerias. You can have the My Tracks app follow you via GPS and record your progress on a map, or in a spreadsheet. You can listen to your MP3s or streaming podcasts, read and respond to emails, and get turn-by-turn directions as you walk around a city you don't know—all at the same time. If you can't do something, there's a good chance an app in the Android Market can do it, and you can download it at any time.

Sure, you can browse the web, make phone calls, and send text messages (or SMS, for the purposes of this guide), but you can do that on most any phone these days. What makes Android different are a few features baked into its core:

• Sync with Google: It's the first thing you do when you turn your phone on for the first time—sign into a Google/Gmail account, or create a new one. From then on, your contacts, Gmail, Google Calendar, browser bookmarks, and even your wallpaper, phone, and search preferences are backed up and constantly streaming between your phone and Google's servers. You never need to plug your phone into, or "sync," with a computer, if you don't want to—your phone is its own computer. Not every Android phone must sync with Google, but the vast majority of them do—it's a prime selling point.
• True Multi-tasking: This is the big difference between the Android and the iPhone, and it's an even bigger leap forward from the clamshell/"candybar" phones sold by U.S. cellphone carriers. Android phones can keep multiple applications of any kind loaded at once, so you can switch between Facebook, email, SMS, and other apps without losing your place, and allow them to quietly do small things in the background. Applications written for Android phones can also synchronize with their servers and run little tasks in the background, without having to be actually open. The latest iPhones can let applications keep certain features, like music or message watching, open in the background, but Android allows app developers a lot more flexibility. iPhone applications can work around their limitations with pop-up "push notifications," but that involves their own servers pushing a message to your phone over the wireless internet, and they often charge for it.
• Get totally customized: Don't like the way Android's icons, widgets, and interface buttons look by default? You can change them. You can easily change your background wallpaper to any picture you want. Themes that provide total graphical makeovers are available, both free and for a small fee, in the Market app included on your phone. The entire home screen interface, in fact, can be replaced entirely with neat apps like SlideScreen or Launcher Pro, and if you don't like your SMS app, your phonebook app, your dialing app, or anything else for that matter, you can replace it!
• Use open software: Android itself is open-source software, meaning that anyone can look at how the system works and make it better, or just different. Not everything is free and open—you can't (normally) copy applications between phones—but application makers can do a lot more with your phone than on other platforms, and groups of enthusiasts can (and do) make their own customized Android versions.

What it can't do

Run the iPhone's apps: The iPhone was the first major smartphone intended for personal use, and it has built up a catalog of thousands upon thousands of third-party applications since early 2008. Many of the most popular and clever applications have made their way to Android's Market, or someone's made a very close copy. Still, experienced iPhone users coming to Android often have to live without an app or two they really enjoyed, but can often make peace with a work-around or almost-there app.

Work with iTunes (officially): There are applications like Songbird or doubleTwist that can put your iTunes music playlists on your Android phone, but Android phones aren't officially supported by iTunes itself—and, most likely, never will be.

Work with Niche Corporate Servers: The latest versions of Android support Microsoft's ActiveSync, part of Microsoft's Exchange server platform, and if you can get your company email working on any other app or phone, you can likely get it working on Android. The exception is for certain proprietary email models, and certain uses of the BlackBerry platform. In other words, if you work for a corporation that doesn't really trust its employees to get at their email except on the apps and phones they hand out, you might run into problems.

The Android Learning Curve

Android is a very young phone operating system, and it comes with a few new features and concepts that take some getting used to.

Your emails, SMS messages, and other background notifications pile up on the notification bar that's almost always at the top of your screen, and you "pull" down on it with your thumb, like a window shade, to see more details and click on a notification to access the app. Applications don't automatically get a shortcut on your home screen, but can be accessed from a tray sitting at the bottom of your home screen which you "pull" up on to access (Android 2.1 & below) or by pressing the center icon between your phone and browser icons at the bottom of your screen (Android 2.2) . You can access a universal search bar from any screen, and the four main buttons have distinct purposes, but they do slightly different things, depending on what you're doing. Most importantly, you don't, at the moment, sync your phone through a primary computer application that handles all your music, pictures, videos, and applications. You drop it all on your phone's microSD card from any computer, and your phone picks it all up from there.

After a few days with an Android phone—I'd say about a week of inquisitive use—you'll probably get used to how Android wants to get your data to you, and how you can get at the things you want. Want a little help with some of the particulars? Want to see if making the Android switch might be worth your time and money? Good thing somebody wrote a book about it, I guess.

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