Lollipop thread (Android 5.0)

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

If they bundle it with vanilla Android wont you just have a bunch of 1st party apps/services running in the background whether the hardware supports it or not?

At least if its put in by the OEM its only on stuff that can actually use it rather than having it running on everything.

Well no. For example LED control is what I've been craving for some time. The way CM does it could be an example. But the current 3rd party solution is to rely on LightFlow which needs to run in the background and intercept notifications.

Imagine if there was no ringtone selector and there was only the default single Android ringtone. You could use a 3rd party app which intercepts that call and plays another MP3 back. Or you could open up something in the system UI to allow changing of the ringtone. Its not an extra app that needs to run in the background anymore because the system is allowing you to make changes.

Quiet Hours would work nicely too with a native interface.

 

[WelshBloke]

Well no. For example LED control is what I've been craving for some time. The way CM does it could be an example. But the current 3rd party solution is to rely on LightFlow which needs to run in the background and intercept notifications.

But what if thats loaded into every Android handset and you dont have a notification LED, isnt that just useless bloat at that point?
Isnt it better to have the software tailored to the hardware?

Imagine if there was no ringtone selector and there was only the default single Android ringtone. You could use a 3rd party app which intercepts that call and plays another MP3 back. Or you could open up something in the system UI to allow changing of the ringtone. Its not an extra app that needs to run in the background anymore because the system is allowing you to make changes.

Thats different because every phone ever has had a speaker and plays a ring tone.

Quiet Hours would work nicely too with a native interface.

I dont really care if quiet hours/blocking mode/whateveryouwanttocallit is native or not, I will say that a lot of these ideas came about because of OEM competition and if you take that away then the development of Android is going to slow down drastically.

 

[sweenish]

OEMs already pick and choose what parts of the AOSP base make it into their ROMs. That argument is moot.

Native support, well implemented, will always be better than an outside app. When my devices get L, I'll likely be deleting a few Tasker profiles. Google's version of Quiet Hours in L is good enough that I won't need those profiles any longer.

Your last argument also pretends that Apple and Windows Phone aren't incentivising Google at all. Google gets as many ideas from OEMs as they do the actual competition. A drastic slowdown is an exaggeration.

And then we would also get back to the real incentive. Serving ads. If Android isn't top dog, the amount of personal data Google is able to mine would drop off significantly, and that would kill their main income, serving targeted ads.

Google won't really lose motivation to keep Android evolving based on that alone. Unless you thought it was OEMs driving innovation prior to 2.2.

 

[WelshBloke]

Native support, well implemented, will always be better than an outside app. When my devices get L, I'll likely be deleting a few Tasker profiles. Google's version of Quiet Hours in L is good enough that I won't need those profiles any longer.

Why would native support be better than an outside app?
With an outside app I can chose the one that suits me best. With a native app if I dont like it I have to have both it and the 3rd party one.
Using your example of Quiet hours your putting up with the one thats there rather than using the best one (going by your description of "good enough").

Your last argument also pretends that Apple and Windows Phone aren't incentivising Google at all. Google gets as many ideas from OEMs as they do the actual competition. A drastic slowdown is an exaggeration.

But more competition is always going to be better than less competition. A lot of the stuff we take for granted in Android started out in OEM skins.

And then we would also get back to the real incentive. Serving ads. If Android isn't top dog, the amount of personal data Google is able to mine would drop off significantly, and that would kill their main income, serving targeted ads.

But I dont want Android just to try to beat iOS and WP, for my needs its way in front of those already. I want something to drive progress within Android, and thats lots of OEMs competing against each other with new ideas.

Google won't really lose motivation to keep Android evolving based on that alone. Unless you thought it was OEMs driving innovation prior to 2.2.

Its not just about motivation, its about not just having one option that everyone has to use. If I wanted that I'd go with iOS or WP.
OEMs have always had a big impact on Android development.

 

[kpkp]

Why would native support be better than an outside app?

If we go back to the notification led example. There already is a "led process" in android but is really basic. You have 2 way to improve that:
- extend/improve the native functionality (that's what custom ROMs do) and is what some people want Google to do, the problem with this is that if there is no LED or the LED is mono colour all the additional settings won't do much and confuse the user, so the OEM would need to limit/remove the functionality accordingly. This is a more efficient way of doing it.

- the other way is less efficient but simpler, 3th party app needs to intercept the native led signal and enhance it, so you have an additional process

Please someone correct me if I got this wrong.

 

[gorcorps]

Remember that as our devices get older, the battery has more wear and less life in it. If the battery life improves in software, it is offset by the additional wear due to age in our hardware.

True, but this is a noticeable change from day before update to day after update. This isn't a comparison between months of use, just before and after update.

 

[nageov3t]

hope this isn't too OT, but what are the odds that people will develop 5.0 ROM's for older phones?

my Galaxy S4 is still running on Jellybean (stock; I bought it the day it was released, rooted it, but never flashed any ROM's and never installed any OTA updates)... I was thinking about flashing it to 4.4.2 this weekend, but debating if it's worth waiting and hoping that a 5.0 ROM comes out.

(finally flashing it now that I'm eligible for an upgrade, so that the loss won't be too catastrophic if it gets bricked)

 

[lopri]

So where is the Nexus 5 2014 refresh? If they think the millions of people who found value in the Nexus 5's price range are all going to bend over and suddenly start paying $650, they are sorely mistaken.

There just isn't much to "refresh" on the Nexus 5. It is still competitive.

 

[dguy6789]

There just isn't much to "refresh" on the Nexus 5. It is still competitive.

This. The Nexus 5 competes perfectly fine vs the likes of any modern phone. It would be a waste to release a new one with 5% better battery life, 5% higher cpu clock, and 5% better camera.

 

[sweenish]

Why would native support be better than an outside app?
With an outside app I can chose the one that suits me best. With a native app if I dont like it I have to have both it and the 3rd party one.
Using your example of Quiet hours your putting up with the one thats there rather than using the best one (going by your description of "good enough").

So what's the "best" option. I just want my phone to shut up and the LED to stay off at night. Quiet hours does it, it's built in. I don't need Tasker Profiles that forced me to leave my volumes up in case of an emergency phone call.

But more competition is always going to be better than less competition. A lot of the stuff we take for granted in Android started out in OEM skins.

I never said it wasn't. You made it sound like without OEMs, there wouldn't be any at all.

But I dont want Android just to try to beat iOS and WP, for my needs its way in front of those already. I want something to drive progress within Android, and thats lots of OEMs competing against each other with new ideas.

This doesn't go against anything I said regarding Google's motivations for staying up top.

Its not just about motivation, its about not just having one option that everyone has to use. If I wanted that I'd go with iOS or WP.
OEMs have always had a big impact on Android development.

You're acting like the third party options are disappearing. They're not. I never denied the impact of OEMs, either. For every 20 horrible things TW does, one should [hopefully] statistically prove useful. A real force for change, that.

I enjoy Moto's additions to Android. And I'm ridiculously pleased that they're coming in Lollipop.

 

[Red Storm]

Looks like when you unlock dev options in Lollipop (by tapping the version number over and over) you also unlock a flappy bird type game. Nice easter egg from Google lol.

http://www.androidcentral.com/android-lollipop-contains-flappy-bird-easter-egg

 

[shabby]

Looks like when you unlock dev options in Lollipop (by tapping the version number over and over) you also unlock a flappy bird type game. Nice easter egg from Google lol.

http://www.androidcentral.com/android-lollipop-contains-flappy-bird-easter-egg

Loving the double swipe down for settings, the animation is nice too.

 

[WelshBloke]

Not sure I like the look of those animations at all.

http://www.androidcentral.com/android-50-lollipop-material-design-pictures-and-video

 

[maxi007]

Multi windows animation is looking preety

 

[TiredEngineer]

Not sure I like the look of those animations at all.

http://www.androidcentral.com/android-50-lollipop-material-design-pictures-and-video

Well rest easier at night knowing you are in the minority.

I know how I feel, and from what I have seen in comments from fellow Android nerds...they look great!

Edit: The one thing I think is kind of meh is no keys on the keyboard, but I have heard there is a setting to change this back...and...well...you can also install a 3rd party keyboard regardless.

 

[WelshBloke]

Well rest easier at night knowing you are in the minority.

This does not make me feel better. :'(

I'm hoping that Nova will let me override them anyway so it wont be a problem.

I know how I feel, and from what I have seen in comments from fellow Android nerds...they look great!

I seriously dont need shit swooping in from all over the place when I open things.

I dont need or want my phone to show off to me, just do what I want done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Theres a reason that everyone goes into the developer options and speeds up the animations.

 

[TiredEngineer]

This does not make me feel better. :'(

I'm hoping that Nova will let me override them anyway so it wont be a problem.



I seriously dont need shit swooping in from all over the place when I open things.

I dont need or want my phone to show off to me, just do what I want done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Theres a reason that everyone goes into the developer options and speeds up the animations.

I also like efficiency, which is why I had thought they did a good job following their material design (i.e. everything is a "physical" object coming from somewhere), but also kept the animations fast.

If iOS 7 had never occurred with its painfully slow animations, then Google may have flopped on this. The animations look faster than I can physically click the next button I would want anyway.

We'll see how it is in practice.

 

[WelshBloke]

I also like efficiency, which is why I had thought they did a good job following their material design (i.e. everything is a "physical" object coming from somewhere), but also kept the animations fast.

So skeuomorphism for animations then?

We'll see how it is in practice.

It won't be a problem either way, I bet they can be turned off if they are horrible.

 

[MrSquished]

This does not make me feel better. :'(

I'm hoping that Nova will let me override them anyway so it wont be a problem.



I seriously dont need shit swooping in from all over the place when I open things.

I dont need or want my phone to show off to me, just do what I want done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Theres a reason that everyone goes into the developer options and speeds up the animations.

usually just enabling developer options can have you control the animations. that's super easy.

 

[Sheep]

usually just enabling developer options can have you control the animations. that's super easy.

And thankfully this still works, although the options aren't as fine-grain as they were in the past (now it's increments of 0.5 instead of 0.25). I haven't tried it but it looks like you can still turn off animations completely.

 

[lopri]

I honestly don't see a big difference from visual standpoint. Maybe because I've been using custom icons and launchers? Only thing that's new to me is the card stack recent apps.

 

[WelshBloke]

I honestly don't see a big difference from visual standpoint. Maybe because I've been using custom icons and launchers? Only thing that's new to me is the card stack recent apps.

A lot of the animations sort of bloop out from a corner or from the button pressed.

Its not a big thing, just a bit distracting.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Ok, who is getting it? I saw all the releases for the Nexuses hit.

I am curious how it works on a Nexus 7 2012, or a Nexus 10. I unrooted and relocked my Nexus 7 2013 this week so I can get the update straight from the source.

 

[cpacini]

Supposedly nexus 7 and 10 OTA rollout was supposed to start yesterday and nexus 5 in a couple of weeks. So far no factory images have been posted by Google

 

[soccerballtux]

What's next? Marshmallow (Android 6.0)? :awe:

macadamia nut. pine nut. cashew nut.