Android 5.0 Lollipop:
10 Key highlights of
Google’s latest mobile OS
The all new Android
5.0 Lollipop operating system has landed first on the latest Nexus devices
– Nexus
4, Nexus
5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Nexus Player.
Android chief Sundar
Pichai had earlier said this is the largest and most ambitious
release on Android to date. Here are the best features announced in the latest
Android OS:
1. Pick up where you
left off: Similar to Continuity
in iOS 8, Lollipop lets you pick up where you left
off, so the songs, photos, apps, and even recent searches from one of your
Android devices can be immediately accessed across devices.
2. Multiple device
compatibility: Lollipop will
support devices with different screen sizes including wearables such as
smartwatches, TVs and cars. According to Google, it is designed to be flexible,
so that it can work on all your devices and customised for your needs.
3. Material Design: In order to maintain a consistent design experience
across all Android devices, Lollipop uses the Material Design interface across
devices it runs on.With Material Design, elements can dynamically shrink and
expand, there’s more white space between elements, and gives a 3D appearance
overall. While we are yet to try it out ourselves, Google claims that the new
design is more intuitive and transitions between tasks are more fluid.
4. Updated camera: Lollipop makes it easier to support features
like burst mode and fine settings tuning. You’ll be able to capture full
resolution frames around 30fps, and shoot in raw formats like YUV and Bayer
RAW. There’s also support for UHD 4K video playback, tunneled video for high
quality video playback on Android TV and improved streaming. Lollipop adds
professional features to control settings for the sensor, lens and flash per
individual frame.
5. Battery settings: There’s a new battery-saver feature that
extends the life of your device by up to 90 minutes—helpful if you’re far from
a power outlet. It’s also easier to manage your power usage. The OS adds a
feature which gives the estimated time left before you need to charge and, when
it’s charging, it tells you approximately how much time it will need to charge
before it’s ready to go.
6. Improved security: Share your device securely with guest user
mode, create multiple user accounts to enable friends to log in on your device.
In either case, no one will be able to access your private files. There’s
Android Smart Lock to secure your phone or tablet by pairing it with a trusted
device like your wearable or even your car. Google has enforced the SELinux
security module for all apps to give better protection against vulnerabilities
and malware.
7. Updated
notifications screen: You can now view and
respond to messages directly from your lock screen, or hide notifications for
sensitive content. Turning on Priority mode through your device’s volume button
will allow only certain people and notifications get through.You can also
choose to avoid calls from interrupting the game you are playing or the movie
you are watching.
8. New Quick Settings: The updated Quick Settings on the
notification screen has new handy controls such as flashlight, hotspot, screen
rotation and cast screen controls. While these settings were not on older
stock-Android devices, they may already be present on other customised Android
devices. Similarly, you can manually adjust the brightness for certain
conditions, while adaptive brightness will kick in based on ambient lighting.
9. Smoother experience: Google uses a new runtime on Android (called
ART), which claims to improve app performance, battery life and responsiveness.
Google claims that the new OS improves Android’s performance by four times. It
compacts background apps and services so you can do more at once. There’s also
support for 64-bit chips now.
10 Tap and Go: Tap and Go for NFC devices lets you set up
your new Android phone or tablet instantly by simply tapping it to your old
one. Whenever you get a new Android phone or tablet, you can sync your
apps from Google Play automatically from any of your old Android devices.
As with all OS
updates, there are minor improvements on the camera, video and audio
experience, along with better multitasking, performance and battery life.
Overall, Lollipop will provide a smoother user experience, more usable apps and
services and help you manage bloatware. Google has also announced it will
re-enable microSD card writing support and segmentation of firmware for
older devices.