I bet you've heard so much fuss about the android but what really is it? and how can it affect your tech life?
The Android is a an Operating System developed for mobile devices, previously owned by Android Inc. which was later acquired by Google and now the OHA (Open Handset Alliance). The Android runs on the Linux kernel, and so we get the picture of the possibilities  it brings to the fore.
                     After finalizing several portion of the Android, Google in association with HTC released several Android Handsets; the HTC Dream (Tmobie G1), HTC Hero amongst others. Several other companies have jumped unto the Android bandwagon, like motorola, samsung, LG, Asus and a myriad of other companies all for good reason.

The Android uses instructions written in Java compiled and executed by the Dalvik Virtual Machine (DVM). The Android has support for multi touch technology but very few handsets support this at this point.

Now enough with the technical mambo, am sure you're dying to get your hands dirty and try it out. Well the good news is, you dont have to have over $400 to have a feel of the Android OS, I'm going to walk you through the virtual experience momentarily.
For this exercise we'll use an android image, which would be mounted on a virtualized environment.
The Live Android iso is around 170mb and can be easily be obtained at (http://code.google.com/p/live-android/)
For those who prefer torrents can download the torrents alternatives here.

I'm currently running VMWare workstation ACE Edition 6.04, but this would easily and equally work with Sun's VirtualBox. Which is free and downloadable here

Now for the prerequisites, the Android iso is under 200mb so it would be a total waste to apportion any space higher than 500mb in itself. VMWare defaults to 192mb of RAM which I find satisfactory since the HTC Dream packs around the same amount of physical memory, but you could give it 256mb or higher if you prefer.





You'll have to specify which resolution you'd prefer. In my opinion 800X600 is all you'll need.


Now you have a fully working Android phone. This goes without saying that you'll not be able to make calls or text, unless you probably install some form of VOIP client.

Alright that's it, Enjoy!!