Month: October 2014

As for which devices are going to be the first to get the Android 5.0 – Lollipop update.

Nexus 4, 5, 7, 10 devices will get the update early doors. There is no mention that I can see on which generations of these devices will get the update, perhaps all.

Nexus 6 and 9 which have just been released will ship with Android 5.0 – Lollipop.

Motorola, Moto G, E and X will receive Android 5.0 – Lollipop via OTA shortly after the release, exact releae schedule will depend on your carrier.

HTC One M7 & M8 are scheduled to receive this update within 90 days.

Android One phones (Micromax Canvas A1, Karbonn Sparkle V, Spice Dream Uno) will also see this update.

Sony are saying any Z-series Xperia device  will receive the update, no word on exactly when though. Here is the list: Xperia Z, Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1S, Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Z1 Compact, Xperia Z2, Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3v, Xperia Z3 Compact, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia Z2 Tablet and the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact.

Other manufacturers like Samsung, LG, etc are being tight lipped at the moment. They will likely spend some time integrating Android 5.0 – Lollipop with their own customisations and release it for their latest phones only to try to get people to upgrade.

The fact that Android 5.0 – Lollipop is on the Motorola Moto E and Android One devices should mean that it can run on relatively low spec devices.

This is apparently out today, Friday 17th October 2014. This seems very much about making android work better on lots of different devices. These are the headline features:

Material Design

• “A bold, colourful, and responsive UI design for consistent, intuitive experiences”..
• More vivid typography and edge to edge imagery.

Notifications

• View and respond to messages directly from your lock screen.
• Priority mode so only certain people and notifications get through to a timed schedule.
• Better control over app generated notifications.

Battery

• A battery saver feature which extends device use by up to 90 mins.
• Estimated time to fully charge and time before charging is required.

Security

• Encryption auto-on.
• Better protection of O/S against malware / vulnerable apps.
• Smart lock by pairing it to another Android device (watch / car, etc).

Device Sharing

• Multiple users for phones – apparently you can access your contact / messages from someone else’s phone.
• Guest users for phones and tablets.
• You define what another user can access on your phone.

Quick settings

• Handy controls for flashlight, hotspot screen rotation and screen casting.
• Easier toggles for wifi, Bluetooth and location.
• Manually adjust brightness then adaptive kicks when lighting changes.

Connectivity

• VoIP / video chat should work without interruption when going from wifi to mobile network.
• Better network selection logic
• More power efficient scanning for Bluetooth.
• New BLE peripheral mode.

Experience

• Faster experience due to ART, the new Android runtime.
• Claims of up to 4x performance improvements
• Smoother UI
• Background apps get compacted to save memory.
• Better 64bit support

Media

• Lower latency audio for better music / voice comms
• Multi channel audio stream mixing
• USB audio support for microphones / speakers, amps, etc.
• OpenGL ES3.1 for better graphics.
• Full resolution capture at around 30fps
• Support for raw formats like YUV and Bayer Raw
• Control camera sensor / lens and flash per frame
• Capture meta data like noise models and optical info
• HEVC allows for UHD 4k video playback + tunnelled video for playback on Android TV

OK Google

Talk to google to get answers has been improved

Misc

• Android TV has been improved in various ways
• Better support for people with poor vision / colour blindness.
• 15 new languages
• Easier device set up and app migration to new devices.
• ‘Tap & Pay’ manage multiple payment apps by quickly switching between them?

Better printing support

• New display for batter, Bluetooth, data usage, wifi settings and new search function in settings.
• Android Beam improved.
• Where supported by hardware, device will wake up when you pick it up or tap screen twice.
• Improved hardware keyboard accessory support.