What a long, strange trip it's been.From its inaugural release to today, Android has transformed visually, conceptually and functionally — time and time again.
Google's mobile operating system may have started out scrappy, but holy moly, has it ever evolved.Here's a fast-paced tour of Android version highlights from the platform's birth to present.Android versions 1.0 to 1.1: The early daysAndroid made its official public debut in 2008 with Android 1.0 — a release so ancient it didn't even have a cute codename.Things were pretty basic back then, but the software did include a suite of early Google apps like Gmail, Maps, Calendar and YouTube, all of which were integrated into the operating system — a stark contrast to the more easily updatable standalone-app model employed today.