Android Lollipop 5.1 announced with HD calls, Device Protection

[watercooled]

The way I'm seeing it lately, Nexus users get to do the beta testing which seemingly hasn't been done internally. I mean how would some of the ridiculously obvious bugs make it into the OTA otherwise?

[cheesemp]

Only had a few minor issues with 5.0 on my N5. Only one I want fixed is the over aggressive RAM management that kills apps while I using them once the phone has been on for a week or two. A reboot sorts it but it would be nice if it was fixed.

[edzieba]

According to several phone companies, 5.0 was a total disaster, and basically totally broken on non-Nexus devices. Not just the usual delay in porting customizations - but needing to fix all of Google's bad engineering.

Google: We're thinking of dumping Dalkit for ART in 5.0
OEMs: OK
Google: We're going to dump Dalvik for ART in 5.0
OEMs: OK
Google: We've dumped Dalvik for ART in 5.0
OEMs: OH ****! 5.0 is terrible! Nerf Google!

[LSG501]

I literally updated my nexus 7 (2012) to 5.02 (skipped the earlier versions) last night and I'm still waiting on my moto g (gen 1) to get it's update, it's 'coming soon according to the pop up on the phone supposedly'.

It's a little ironic on the moto g seeing as they were one of the first to get updated to 4.4 but are taking their sweet time to go to 5.0, funny how it all falls inline with the transfer to Lenovo which is not a good sign for the future.

You would have thought by now Google would have coded android so that the 'core code' could be updated without the need for the OEM's to do anything. Even Windows RT/mobile doesn't need oem's to do this and that supports more than one manufacturer/device/hardware config etc.

As to Dalvik to ART... been using art for ages with no major issues.

[edgars70]

WRT the above (Jowsey) - are you using a non-Nexus device, and if so how have you found 5.0 (if you have it)?

See, I do have a Nexus 4 and Android 5.0 has been a massive headache for me; I'd happily trade that for waiting a few months for a more stable version. I started a thread about my experience with 5.0 so won't go over it all again, but I was getting ready to roll back to 4.4.4 if 5.1 didn't arrive soon, it's that bad.

I have a Nexus 4 and the upgrade to 5.0 was a disaster. The performance was so bad, the wifi would not connect and the battery would drain in about 5 hours. I did a full reset of the phone and reinstalled 5.0. Whilst the battery life is much improved, the wifi is still a problem and the performance is not a good as kitkat.

[Biscuit]

Do you have the Flash plugin installed? If not, maybe FF now supports VP9 HTML5 video as a fallback?

I have the flash plug in installed, I think its just a case of Firefox+OSX+Flash+Intel 'Iris' is a poor combo.

[jimborae]

Not all devices have decent encryption performance.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/...es-by-default/

As far as I know Device Protection is nothing to do with device encryption more to do with TEE's and Android Device Management but facts are hard to come by at the moment.

In general though I've been running Lollipop on a number of phones for a quite a while (HTC One-M7, LG G3 & Nexus 5) and like others I'm not a fan atm, I much prefer my Sony Z3 with KitKat. The best implementation so far I've seen is on the HTC but that's a GPe device not full HTC implementation.

[MrRockliffe]

Lollipop on my OnePlus is now running perfect. I've no performance complaints (everything is butter smooth, even more so than KitKat). Battery life is better for me (a lot of stand by) and Spotify issue is solved, and it's still on nightlies.

Can't wait to see what the full release is like.

EDIT: 1 hour and 46 minutes screen on time today and 74% battery at the time of writing

[3dcandy]

Gf has an S5 and it's been a nightmare after upgrade to Lollipop. |contacts stops working (supposed to be a what's App issue and battery life is dire...

[cheesemp]

You would have thought by now Google would have coded android so that the 'core code' could be updated without the need for the OEM's to do anything. Even Windows RT/mobile doesn't need oem's to do this and that supports more than one manufacturer/device/hardware config etc.

From what I've read the google play services (which Google does update regularly/silently) does update a lot of core functionality/APIs etc including security patching. The problem with replacing the whole ROM is that an Android device is like a PC - Any hardware goes pretty much. Google just couldn't support every CPU/GPU combo out there (including x86, ARM etc). With Windows Phone (To my understanding) they have a specific set of CPU/GPUs etc that are supported (and all ARM as far as i'm aware). This reduces the driver count down to a manageable amount for one ROM.

[cjs150]

Biscuit: there may be a bug in the latest YOutube update, I have had to clear out cache and uninstall the updates. Youtube is using huge amounts of battery life even when you are not using it

[Biscuit]

Biscuit: there may be a bug in the latest YOutube update, I have had to clear out cache and uninstall the updates. Youtube is using huge amounts of battery life even when you are not using it

On OSX with firefox?

[3dcandy]

From what I've read the google play services (which Google does update regularly/silently) does update a lot of core functionality/APIs etc including security patching. The problem with replacing the whole ROM is that an Android device is like a PC - Any hardware goes pretty much. Google just couldn't support every CPU/GPU combo out there (including x86, ARM etc). With Windows Phone (To my understanding) they have a specific set of CPU/GPUs etc that are supported (and all ARM as far as i'm aware). This reduces the driver count down to a manageable amount for one ROM.

This is why iOS is pretty quick out of the box. Some of the hardware has barely changed in years

[LSG501]

From what I've read the google play services (which Google does update regularly/silently) does update a lot of core functionality/APIs etc including security patching. The problem with replacing the whole ROM is that an Android device is like a PC - Any hardware goes pretty much. Google just couldn't support every CPU/GPU combo out there (including x86, ARM etc). With Windows Phone (To my understanding) they have a specific set of CPU/GPUs etc that are supported (and all ARM as far as i'm aware). This reduces the driver count down to a manageable amount for one ROM.

Google 'had to separate' google play services because of the lack of updates from oems, they've done the same with most google software too. You could also argue that Google/android doesn't actually deal with the drivers in some respects, some of the reasons old device aren't getting updates is because the internal hardware manufacturers aren't updating their 'drivers', a bit like on windows when companies didn't update xp drivers for vista etc. I believe the term being used now is forced/planned obsolescence.

I can understand if the drivers aren't being updated (we all know the '2 year cycle' with mobiles) but it's things like going from 5 to 5.1 when the fundamental drivers are the same that should be being handled by google directly, not left up to the likes of the oems who lets be honest are only interested in selling their latest models.