Android Lollipop 5.1 announced with HD calls, Device Protection

[HEXUS]

The update should begin rolling out to Nexus devices today.

Read more.

[jimborae]

Been playing with 5.1 on my Nexus 5 this morning (had to manually update it) and Device Protection does not work on the N5 which is a bit disappointing but not surprising I suppose. I presume it's using some kind of Knox lite implementation so I'm not sure why it wont work on the N5.

[Jowsey]

Nice incremental update, however, the problem continues. The updates are so slow to get to the consumer unless they are using a Nexus device you've forgotten about the benefits when it arrives!

[shaithis]

Nice incremental update, however, the problem continues. The updates are so slow to get to the consumer unless they are using a Nexus device you've forgotten about the benefits when it arrives!

Custom ROMs from XDA. It's pretty much the only way to get updates faster and for longer....and if you don't care too much about brand apps (HTC Sense, Samsung TouchWiz etc) then you might as well flash Cyanogenmod and be done with OTA updates.

[watercooled]

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 don't see the 5.1 images available for the Nexus 4 yet so hopefully they'll appear soon and be available OTA shortly thereafter, and not add any regressions.

I'll be sure to post an update when I've had a chance to test it.

[directhex]

Nice incremental update, however, the problem continues. The updates are so slow to get to the consumer unless they are using a Nexus device you've forgotten about the benefits when it arrives!

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.

[Jowsey]

Custom ROMs from XDA. It's pretty much the only way to get updates faster and for longer....and if you don't care too much about brand apps (HTC Sense, Samsung TouchWiz etc) then you might as well flash Cyanogenmod and be done with OTA updates.

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 don't see the 5.1 images available for the Nexus 4 yet so hopefully they'll appear soon and be available OTA shortly thereafter, and not add any regressions.

I'll be sure to post an update when I've had a chance to test it.

Just to clarify, I have rooted my HTC One and I'm running a custom ROM ( still on 4.4.4, I think ). I mean the 80% of people who own an android device who haven't rooted there phone or haven't got a flagship phone and therefore are basically second class citizens for updates!

Re the nexus 4, my girlfriend has a N4, and 5.0 is fine on her phone, I have heard complaints though.

[Biscuit]

I have avoided 5.0 completely so far as I have heard so many people report really stupid bugs in the interface. I got the update on my Moto G today and just clicked, 'not right now'.

4.4.4 is incredibly stable and works well on all my devices, so I'm in no rush to upgrade. I'll see how things go with 5.1 but if they screw it up again it might be time to start considering how Windows Phone and iOS compare at the moment.

[shaithis]

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.

How odd....

I upgraded my M7 in December with an unofficial early leaked HTC ROM and the ONLY problems I have faced were the in-built alarm would fail 1 in 20 times and the in-built torch app would turn off when the display sleep timer was triggered. The later releases seems to have fixed those issues, although they were both very minor issues fixed with app downloads.

In early January I upgraded my Galaxy Tab 4 to Cyanogenmod 12 (nightly builds) and haven't had a single problem with that.

Both of them have better battery then before as well.

Perhaps I was lucky and both HTC and the Cyanogenmod team were extremely fast to fix the issues that were causing so many issues but so far I have found LP to be the best release to date.

[watercooled]

Most of the issues I listed in the other thread are blanket problems i.e. affect everyone as they're clear software bugs/bad UI choices. However some are more variable e.g. terrible battery life vs 4.4.4, and some people have had some success by doing a factory reset.

TBH I'd say having to wait a while longer for what isn't a particularly special update isn't what I'd consider a big deal if it means it has been properly tested and fixed vs rushing obviously broken and untested software out of the door.

It's starting to seem par-for-the-course for some Google products sadly. A rather funny (though not for the huge amount of people affected) issue is Youtube essentially breaking on a huge number of Bay Trail based Chromebooks. In their infinite wisdom they've decided to force their VP9 codec on all (non-mobile) devices, including those without the ability to play it smoothly. Whereas h264 has hardware decode support on most new devices (including Bay Trail) so plays fine, VP9 is pretty much universally software-only and it takes quite a bit of grunt to do it. Apparently testing and usability are far down the ladder of concerns when an idea is pushed out. VP9 isn't ready for the Internet, and the Internet isn't ready for VP9. It's really quite frightening that no-one spotted that sort of issue in early development; anyone with a basic knowledge of video decoding would see that coming.

@shaithis: You're talking about manufacturer-tested and third-party ROMs, not the horribly broken stock images release by Google themselves, hence my point.

[Biscuit]

... A rather funny (though not for the huge amount of people affected) issue is Youtube essentially breaking on a huge number of Bay Trail based Chromebooks. In their infinite wisdom they've decided to force their VP9 codec on all devices, including those without the ability to play it smoothly. Whereas h264 has hardware decode support on most new devices (including Bay Trail) so plays fine, VP9 is pretty much universally software-only and it takes quite a bit of grunt to do it....

I wonder if this is why I have been seeing such high CPU usage when watching youtube clips over the last few months?

[watercooled]

It's very likely. Right click on the video and select 'stats for nerds', it should tell you the codec used.

A 'fix' for the time being is, rather ironically, to use Firefox as it still uses Flash and hence h264 for Youtube.

Edit: The sad thing is, unless Google does the sensible thing and goes back to h264 for the time being, this problem isn't likely to go away any time soon as VP9 isn't even in the pipeline for hardware decode for Intel/AMD/Nvidia AFAIK, let alone in any products. I wonder how many people this is impacting in drastically reduced battery life on laptops, even for those with the ability to play it back smoothly?

[Biscuit]

It's very likely. Right click on the video and select 'stats for nerds', it should tell you the codec used.

A 'fix' for the time being is, rather ironically, to use Firefox as it still uses Flash and hence h264 for Youtube.

I guess its not that as I actually switched back to Firefox a while ago...

[DanceswithUnix]

Been playing with 5.1 on my Nexus 5 this morning (had to manually update it) and Device Protection does not work on the N5 which is a bit disappointing but not surprising I suppose. I presume it's using some kind of Knox lite implementation so I'm not sure why it wont work on the N5.

Not all devices have decent encryption performance.

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

[watercooled]

Full device encryption is yet another shining example of terrible execution, and quite comparable to the VP9 disaster. They both need hardware support to function effectively, and both are currently missing in the vast majority of devices.

I guess its not that as I actually switched back to Firefox a while ago...

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

[crossy]

What is it with tech announcements today - first a distinctly "meh" one from Apple and now Google seem to be trying to match them for boredom.

Nice incremental update, however, the problem continues. The updates are so slow to get to the consumer unless they are using a Nexus device you've forgotten about the benefits when it arrives!

Hmm, Motorola and LG were quite quick off the mark with KK to L updates. Unfortunately the downside was that the L update delivered was pretty dire - dire enough to make one start looking longingly at an iPhone. From what's been said on XDA though, it was Google wot done it, and the base OS was the problem, not Moto/LG's implementation.

That said, my G3 got "L mk 2" from LG and it's actually very usable.

Just to clarify, I have rooted my HTC One and I'm running a custom ROM ( still on 4.4.4, I think ). I mean the 80% of people who own an android device who haven't rooted there phone or haven't got a flagship phone and therefore are basically second class citizens for updates!

Yep, Nexus folks are at the head of the queue, then this years flagship;
then this years midrange and last years flagships;
and if you're on budget or 18 months+ models then ... good luck!
Oh and if you're carrier-locked then you're a step behind where you would be - which is one reason why I buy SIM-free phones these days.

Irrespective of my objections to iOS, OS upgrades is just a place where Apple consistently gets it right and Google ends up looking stupid.