Developing Android Apps Using Android Terminal Emulator

Overview

The Android Terminal, bundled with SDK, comprises of a mobile device emulator that runs on your computer. The emulator lets you prototype, develop, and test Android applications without using a physical device. The Android SDK can browse folders, handle files, runs all Linux commands available from adb shell prompt, when installed in the Android SDK provides easy access to adb tool – it also provides access to Eclipse or the ADT Plug-in.

The Android SDK includes several Emulator skins that can be used to control the resolution and density of the emulated device's screen.

How does an emulator work?

The emulator allows to prototype, develop and run Android applications without a physical device. The Android emulator replicates all the hardware and software features of a mobile device without 'calling' facility. It provides a variety of navigation and control keys to run applications. In order to use the Emulator, one or more AVD configurations need to be created. The Android tool also helps to create a new SD card image, with a new AVD, which enable to copy files to it. The SD card image can be loaded in the emulator at start-up. The Emulator is supported by Android Virtual Device (AVD) configurations, which can specify the version of Android system in order to use other applications, networking, Audio / Video, store and data recovery, provide user information, and deliver graphical transitions and themes. The applications can run by starting on more than one emulated device. The emulator also includes a variety of debug capabilities, such as a console from which you can simulate application interrupts, like SMS / GSM phone calls, and simulate latency effects and dropouts on the data channel. The Android emulator has its GSM emulated modem that simulates telephony functions in the emulator.

DISADVANTAGES

Lack of advanced features

The disadvantages of the Emulator are that it restricts phone calls and does not have advanced features like USB connection, Camera, Video, Headphones, Blue tooth.

Doesn't support X86 Android devices

Android Terminal Emulator uses the Native Development Kit (NDK) to work with Linux APIs for providing a Linux shell. Unfortunately there are currently no publicly available Android devices that support the x86 NDK. Therefore, currently Android Terminal Emulator is not available for x86 Android devices.

Android Terminal Emulator is compiled with support for x86 devices, and should therefore be able to run on x86 devices as soon as x86 devices that support the NDK become available.

Supports Android 4.0

Android Terminal Emulator runs well on the Android 4.0 x86 emulator.