ANDROID 5.0 lollipop review :-
The new google android version 5.0 that is called lollipop.... seems to be very attractive and visually nice enough to attract everyone..
Back in June, Google gave us a chance to see the future of
Android as a mobile operating system. The tech giant
introduced us to Android 5.0 Lollipop, which was boldly
described as Android's most significant release to date. An
overstatement? Well, we don't think so. We're several
months into the future now and we're holding Android 5.0 in
our hands, running on our Google Nexus 5 smartphone in its
nearly finalized state. To put it briefly, Lollipop rocks, and
if you want to know why, here's what we have to say about
the platform's new, sweet flavor.
Before we proceed, though, we'd just like to make a
disclaimer of sorts: what we're dealing with here is the
stock, vanilla version of Android 5.0 Lollipop, as seen on
Nexus and more recent Motorola devices, but not on
smartphones by popular brands such as Samsung, HTC, or
LG. Handsets that use custom user interfaces will most
probably get most functional improvements from 5.0
Lollipop, along with some of the visual enhancements, but
we expect those UIs, such as TouchWiz and Sense, to
preserve their custom look and feel to a large extent.
INTRODUCING MATERIAL DESIGN :
Since its commercial debut six years ago, Android has
undergone a number of major visual overhauls. None of
them, however, has had an effect as pronounced as the
move to Material Design in Android 5.0 Lollipop. This is what
Google calls its current UI philosophy, which is governed by
the principles of flatness and minimalism. But unlike other
UIs based on the same ideas, Google's solution is also
sprinkled with a hint of depth that can be felt throughout
the user interface – while switching between apps, while
interacting with notifications, while scrolling through the
contacts list, for example. This effect has been achieved
through clever uses of shadows under objects and by
layering elements as if they're stacked on top of each
other. All of this graphical goodness is accompanied by
smooth animations and elegant transition effects.
Seriously, even the error messages are pretty.
So by now you've probably figured out that we're happy with
Android's new look. Material Design adds personality to
Android – personality that was mostly lacking in previous
releases. The platform feels familiar, yet fresh. It is
engaging, but does not distract you from whatever it is
that you're doing. And no less importantly, it is consistent
in its visual presentation. You won't really find a menu or
screen that feels out of place (save for the apps that have
not had their UIs updated yet).
FUNCTIONALITY BOOST :
But of course, the changes brought by Android 5.0 Lollipop
aren't merely superficial. New features have been added,
while ones we knew from 4.4 KitKat have been improved.
The lock screen, for example, now holds a shortcut to the
dialer in addition to the one for the camera application.
Lock screen notifications are displayed at a glance, in their
own space in the middle of the screen, so you don't have to
swipe down to see what you've missed anymore. Tapping on a
notification launches the respective app, and a swipe to the
side dismisses it. On the downside, lock screen widgets have
been scrapped, but these were kind of confusing anyway, so
their loss isn't that big of a deal.
As for the Android 5.0 home screens, nothing much has been
altered. As before, you're free to personalize your space
with app shortcuts, folders, and widgets, backed by a static
or a live wallpaper. What's changed, however, is the
multitasking screen. It is one of the things that you'll
either like or hate – recent apps are listed as cards stacked
on top of each other, and you scroll through with a swipe up
or down. On one hand, the design looks great with its large
app snapshots, but on the other, the old solution could fit
more app snapshots on the screen. Nevertheless, it
shouldn't take long for your brain to re-wire itself and
adjust to the redesigned recent apps list.
In a typical Android fashion, swiping down from the top of
the screen displays a list of notifications. These are now
listed by priority, not in a chronological order, with the
most important notifications at the top of the list and the
least important ones pushed to the bottom. For example,
email notifications have a higher priority than those letting
you know that a new app has been installed. The button for
dismissing all notifications is still present.
Swipe again (or use the two-finger swipe-down gesture
from any screen) and you'll be taken to the redesigned quick
settings menu. We're glad to see that the toggle buttons
for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth make more sense now – tapping one
of the icons toggles the feature on or off and tapping on
its label shows the list of available networks or devices.
We're also happy to welcome dedicated buttons for locking
the screen orientation and a flashlight shortcut.
Now, you might notice that your personal profile picture is
displayed in the UI's upper right-hand corner. That's neat,
but it gets even neater when you tap on the icon itself.
You're taken to a screen letting you switch between users.
Yes – with Android 5.0, multi-user support is enabled on
phones as well! Each user has their own personal space and
home screens customized to their preferences. What's
more, you can easily switch to a guest account at the tap of
a few buttons. This should come in handy in case somebody
wants to borrow your phone, and you don't want them
messing with your personal stuff.
Another feature we find highly useful is the built-in
interruptions filter. It works like a Do Not Disturb mode,
muting beeps and boops that shouldn't go off at the
inappropriate time – during sleepytime hours, or during
meetings. Activating the mode couldn't be any easier.
Pressing the volume down button gives you the option to
filter out non-priority notifications or to mute all
interruptions, either indefinitely or for a given period of
time. What makes the feature even better is that you can
set your own schedule and have the filter activate itself
automatically at a specified time.
While we're at it, we have to mention Android 5.0's battery
saver. It can be set to activate automatically when the
battery reaches a critical level. It works by disabling most
data connectivity, limiting the device's performance, and
turning synchronisation off. And while your phone or tablet
is charging, a timer indicates the time left until the
process is complete.
UNDER THE HOOD :-
So far we've been commenting solely on Android 5.0 Lollipop
features that we can see and experience. But the fact of
the matter is that the OS' new version has also undergone
some serious changes under the hood. We won't be going
over each and every tweak as the list is a lengthy one. We
will, however, highlight the most notable ones among them.
Project Volta is what Google calls its new set of tools and
APIs made to enable apps to run efficiently, thus using less
battery power. Among these APIs is the Job Scheduler which
allows a developer to optimize the power use of their apps
while running in the background. And with Battery
Historian, devs can get a visual representation of when and
how their software is using energy.
Android 5.0 is the release that makes ART (Android
RunTime) the system's default, thus replacing Dalvik. ART
takes advantage of ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation,
effective garbage collection, and improved development and
debugging features. Switching to ART should result in
improved device performance without that requiring any app
modifications.
Another improvement in Lollipop that is projected to boost
performance is the added 64-bit support. Java apps will run
immediately on 64-bit architectures with no need for
developers to modify them. In addition, the extra address
space will allow RAM capacity in Android to reach the 4GB
milestone.
And game developers can benefit from the added support for
OpenGL ES 3.1. This would give them the option to use new
shader and texture tools while making their games' visuals.
Plus, there's the new Android Extension Pack (AEP), which is
a new set of extensions to OpenGL ES that promise to bring
desktop-class graphics to Android. Games will be able to take
advantage of tessellation and geometry shaders, and use
ASTC texture compression across multiple GPU technologies.
CONCLUSION :-
Good things come to those who wait – so goes the age-old
saying. This applies to Lollipop's launch as well, as the wait
for it has been worth it. Trust us, you'll agree once you
take Android 5.0 for a spin.
From the very start, Lollipop treats us to a visual
experience that's fresh, engaging, and fun to use. But
more importantly, Material Design carries a sense of
uniqueness. It doesn't simply build upon the look and feel
established by KitKat – it catapults us into a brand new
chapter in the evolution of Google's design language. The
result is a platform that does a great job at separating
itself from the competition's offerings with its welcoming
character and distinct personality. Once again, we have to
note that it's yet to be seen what part of these
enhancements will find a place in other manufacturers'
custom user interfaces - hopefully, they will adopt as much
of Lollipop's look and feel as possible, though something tells
us the likes of TouchWiz and Sense aren't going anywhere
for the time being.
Feature-wise, we know that many of Lollipop's features
have existed for a while on other platforms or custom
Android releases. Lock screen shortcuts, battery savers,
Do-Not-Disturb solutions, and lock screen notifications
have been around for some time. But we're not complaining.
In fact, we're glad to see that third-party apps won't be
required to enjoy these features – it is all now built into
the OS. So in a way, Android 5.0 is a package more complete
than ever before, requiring less intervention and software
augmentation to do its job effectively.
And if you're a developer, you should already know that the
move to Android 5.0 is a huge leap forward. Android apps are
about to get faster, more efficient, and less power hungry
thanks to all under-the-hood improvements brought by
Lollipop. What's more, support for 64-bit hardware makes
Android's latest flavor future-proof, ready to power the
upcoming Android flagships.
So that's Android 5.0 Lollipop in a nutshell – a culmination
of Google's efforts to create a modern, versatile, and open
mobile operating system. It is something all mobile users
should experience to get a sense of what a top-notch
mobile platform should feel like. Thankfully, it won't be long
until Lollipop sweetens the smartphones and tablets of
millions. The OS will launch in its final state in early
November, first on Nexus and GPE devices, then on other
recent devices in the form of a software update. As usual,
we can expect flagship products to be updated in a timely
manner, while mid-range offerings will probably have to
wait a bit. Hopefully, there won't be that many models left
without an update to Android 5.0, because it's a
fundamental update that should not be missed.
Must comment about this new update.. do u thik it is best.?
Comment..
For more about new phones and reviews visit :-
www.phoneocean.blogspot.in
The new google android version 5.0 that is called lollipop.... seems to be very attractive and visually nice enough to attract everyone..
Back in June, Google gave us a chance to see the future of
Android as a mobile operating system. The tech giant
introduced us to Android 5.0 Lollipop, which was boldly
described as Android's most significant release to date. An
overstatement? Well, we don't think so. We're several
months into the future now and we're holding Android 5.0 in
our hands, running on our Google Nexus 5 smartphone in its
nearly finalized state. To put it briefly, Lollipop rocks, and
if you want to know why, here's what we have to say about
the platform's new, sweet flavor.
Before we proceed, though, we'd just like to make a
disclaimer of sorts: what we're dealing with here is the
stock, vanilla version of Android 5.0 Lollipop, as seen on
Nexus and more recent Motorola devices, but not on
smartphones by popular brands such as Samsung, HTC, or
LG. Handsets that use custom user interfaces will most
probably get most functional improvements from 5.0
Lollipop, along with some of the visual enhancements, but
we expect those UIs, such as TouchWiz and Sense, to
preserve their custom look and feel to a large extent.
INTRODUCING MATERIAL DESIGN :
Since its commercial debut six years ago, Android has
undergone a number of major visual overhauls. None of
them, however, has had an effect as pronounced as the
move to Material Design in Android 5.0 Lollipop. This is what
Google calls its current UI philosophy, which is governed by
the principles of flatness and minimalism. But unlike other
UIs based on the same ideas, Google's solution is also
sprinkled with a hint of depth that can be felt throughout
the user interface – while switching between apps, while
interacting with notifications, while scrolling through the
contacts list, for example. This effect has been achieved
through clever uses of shadows under objects and by
layering elements as if they're stacked on top of each
other. All of this graphical goodness is accompanied by
smooth animations and elegant transition effects.
Seriously, even the error messages are pretty.
So by now you've probably figured out that we're happy with
Android's new look. Material Design adds personality to
Android – personality that was mostly lacking in previous
releases. The platform feels familiar, yet fresh. It is
engaging, but does not distract you from whatever it is
that you're doing. And no less importantly, it is consistent
in its visual presentation. You won't really find a menu or
screen that feels out of place (save for the apps that have
not had their UIs updated yet).
FUNCTIONALITY BOOST :
But of course, the changes brought by Android 5.0 Lollipop
aren't merely superficial. New features have been added,
while ones we knew from 4.4 KitKat have been improved.
The lock screen, for example, now holds a shortcut to the
dialer in addition to the one for the camera application.
Lock screen notifications are displayed at a glance, in their
own space in the middle of the screen, so you don't have to
swipe down to see what you've missed anymore. Tapping on a
notification launches the respective app, and a swipe to the
side dismisses it. On the downside, lock screen widgets have
been scrapped, but these were kind of confusing anyway, so
their loss isn't that big of a deal.
As for the Android 5.0 home screens, nothing much has been
altered. As before, you're free to personalize your space
with app shortcuts, folders, and widgets, backed by a static
or a live wallpaper. What's changed, however, is the
multitasking screen. It is one of the things that you'll
either like or hate – recent apps are listed as cards stacked
on top of each other, and you scroll through with a swipe up
or down. On one hand, the design looks great with its large
app snapshots, but on the other, the old solution could fit
more app snapshots on the screen. Nevertheless, it
shouldn't take long for your brain to re-wire itself and
adjust to the redesigned recent apps list.
In a typical Android fashion, swiping down from the top of
the screen displays a list of notifications. These are now
listed by priority, not in a chronological order, with the
most important notifications at the top of the list and the
least important ones pushed to the bottom. For example,
email notifications have a higher priority than those letting
you know that a new app has been installed. The button for
dismissing all notifications is still present.
Swipe again (or use the two-finger swipe-down gesture
from any screen) and you'll be taken to the redesigned quick
settings menu. We're glad to see that the toggle buttons
for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth make more sense now – tapping one
of the icons toggles the feature on or off and tapping on
its label shows the list of available networks or devices.
We're also happy to welcome dedicated buttons for locking
the screen orientation and a flashlight shortcut.
Now, you might notice that your personal profile picture is
displayed in the UI's upper right-hand corner. That's neat,
but it gets even neater when you tap on the icon itself.
You're taken to a screen letting you switch between users.
Yes – with Android 5.0, multi-user support is enabled on
phones as well! Each user has their own personal space and
home screens customized to their preferences. What's
more, you can easily switch to a guest account at the tap of
a few buttons. This should come in handy in case somebody
wants to borrow your phone, and you don't want them
messing with your personal stuff.
Another feature we find highly useful is the built-in
interruptions filter. It works like a Do Not Disturb mode,
muting beeps and boops that shouldn't go off at the
inappropriate time – during sleepytime hours, or during
meetings. Activating the mode couldn't be any easier.
Pressing the volume down button gives you the option to
filter out non-priority notifications or to mute all
interruptions, either indefinitely or for a given period of
time. What makes the feature even better is that you can
set your own schedule and have the filter activate itself
automatically at a specified time.
While we're at it, we have to mention Android 5.0's battery
saver. It can be set to activate automatically when the
battery reaches a critical level. It works by disabling most
data connectivity, limiting the device's performance, and
turning synchronisation off. And while your phone or tablet
is charging, a timer indicates the time left until the
process is complete.
UNDER THE HOOD :-
So far we've been commenting solely on Android 5.0 Lollipop
features that we can see and experience. But the fact of
the matter is that the OS' new version has also undergone
some serious changes under the hood. We won't be going
over each and every tweak as the list is a lengthy one. We
will, however, highlight the most notable ones among them.
Project Volta is what Google calls its new set of tools and
APIs made to enable apps to run efficiently, thus using less
battery power. Among these APIs is the Job Scheduler which
allows a developer to optimize the power use of their apps
while running in the background. And with Battery
Historian, devs can get a visual representation of when and
how their software is using energy.
Android 5.0 is the release that makes ART (Android
RunTime) the system's default, thus replacing Dalvik. ART
takes advantage of ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation,
effective garbage collection, and improved development and
debugging features. Switching to ART should result in
improved device performance without that requiring any app
modifications.
Another improvement in Lollipop that is projected to boost
performance is the added 64-bit support. Java apps will run
immediately on 64-bit architectures with no need for
developers to modify them. In addition, the extra address
space will allow RAM capacity in Android to reach the 4GB
milestone.
And game developers can benefit from the added support for
OpenGL ES 3.1. This would give them the option to use new
shader and texture tools while making their games' visuals.
Plus, there's the new Android Extension Pack (AEP), which is
a new set of extensions to OpenGL ES that promise to bring
desktop-class graphics to Android. Games will be able to take
advantage of tessellation and geometry shaders, and use
ASTC texture compression across multiple GPU technologies.
CONCLUSION :-
Good things come to those who wait – so goes the age-old
saying. This applies to Lollipop's launch as well, as the wait
for it has been worth it. Trust us, you'll agree once you
take Android 5.0 for a spin.
From the very start, Lollipop treats us to a visual
experience that's fresh, engaging, and fun to use. But
more importantly, Material Design carries a sense of
uniqueness. It doesn't simply build upon the look and feel
established by KitKat – it catapults us into a brand new
chapter in the evolution of Google's design language. The
result is a platform that does a great job at separating
itself from the competition's offerings with its welcoming
character and distinct personality. Once again, we have to
note that it's yet to be seen what part of these
enhancements will find a place in other manufacturers'
custom user interfaces - hopefully, they will adopt as much
of Lollipop's look and feel as possible, though something tells
us the likes of TouchWiz and Sense aren't going anywhere
for the time being.
Feature-wise, we know that many of Lollipop's features
have existed for a while on other platforms or custom
Android releases. Lock screen shortcuts, battery savers,
Do-Not-Disturb solutions, and lock screen notifications
have been around for some time. But we're not complaining.
In fact, we're glad to see that third-party apps won't be
required to enjoy these features – it is all now built into
the OS. So in a way, Android 5.0 is a package more complete
than ever before, requiring less intervention and software
augmentation to do its job effectively.
And if you're a developer, you should already know that the
move to Android 5.0 is a huge leap forward. Android apps are
about to get faster, more efficient, and less power hungry
thanks to all under-the-hood improvements brought by
Lollipop. What's more, support for 64-bit hardware makes
Android's latest flavor future-proof, ready to power the
upcoming Android flagships.
So that's Android 5.0 Lollipop in a nutshell – a culmination
of Google's efforts to create a modern, versatile, and open
mobile operating system. It is something all mobile users
should experience to get a sense of what a top-notch
mobile platform should feel like. Thankfully, it won't be long
until Lollipop sweetens the smartphones and tablets of
millions. The OS will launch in its final state in early
November, first on Nexus and GPE devices, then on other
recent devices in the form of a software update. As usual,
we can expect flagship products to be updated in a timely
manner, while mid-range offerings will probably have to
wait a bit. Hopefully, there won't be that many models left
without an update to Android 5.0, because it's a
fundamental update that should not be missed.
Must comment about this new update.. do u thik it is best.?
Comment..
For more about new phones and reviews visit :-
www.phoneocean.blogspot.in
