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Android 5.0 Lollipop

306 'Android 5.0 Lollipop' stories June 2014 - August 2015
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Android Lollipop was the 5.0 release of Google’s mobile operating system. This version of Android launched with groundbreaking features, including an all-new “Material Design” language, enhancements to notifications, performance improvements, and more. Google called this release the biggest in Android history at the time, with over 5,000 completely new APIs.

Features |

Material Design

Google separated Lollipop from the strictly flat design of Apple’s iOS with Material Design, which allows developers to specify the “elevation values” of elements within apps — automatically creating shadow and perspective for the user. The company also updated its famed typeface Roboto, allowing developers to use one optimized font across a number of different platforms.

As part of Material, there are several animations for developers to use that include sleek visual feedback to freshen up the experience when users are navigating Android apps.

Notification Enhancements

Google also enhanced the notification experience in Lollipop, bringing full access to notifications right on the lock screen. Swiping down gives you the full list of notifications, essentially combining the lock screen and the notification pane. The company also introduced a completely new kind of notification called a “heads-up” that is really easy to dismiss or engage with.

Lock Screen Enhancements

Google also announced something called “personal unlocking” alongside Android Lollipop, which enables your device to determine whether or not it is in the owner’s hand. It can take advantage of locations, Bluetooth devices that are in range, and even voice. In the Keynote, the example of a Bluetooth watch was used and when the watch was removed, the device prompted for a passcode.

Performance Improvements

Android Lollipop also included a plethora of performance improvements. Lollipop runs on the “Art” runtime that was (first previewed with the release of Android 4.4 KitKat), which is truly cross-platform covering ARM, x86, and MIPS processor types. The runtime is fully 64-bit compatible, which brings “larger number registers,” “newer instruction sets,” and “increased addressable memory space.”

Better Graphics with Android Extension Pack

Android Lollipop also shipped with better graphics capabilities through something the Android Extension Pack. This set of capabilities includes tesselation, geometry shaders, computer shaders, and ASTC texture compression. The feature was demoed at the event with a video of EPIC’s Unreal Engine 4 desktop rendering pipeline running on Android Lollipop.

Battery Improvements

Rounding off the performance improvements in Android Lollipop was improved battery life. Project “Volta” was announced, which — amongst other features — improves the “instrumentation” of battery data through a tool called Battery Historian. Also announced is the JobScheduler API, which helps developers optimize power consumption in apps. And finally, Google added a “Battery Saver” mode in Lollipop which can be triggered manually or configured to be enabled automatically when the battery is low.

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Compatible devices |

Android 5.0 Lollipop works with most Android phones released after mid-2014, and many that were released prior. Phones that shipped in 2016 onward likely shipped with Android 6.0 Marshmallow or later, which you can read about here.

Review: Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 has the beauty, brains and brawn, but not without compromises [Video]

Avatar for Dom Esposito Aug 29 2015 - 11:42 am PT
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There’s no denying the beauty of Samsung’s latest Note iteration. The Note 5 is simply amazing when it comes to its form, but how does that affect function, if at all? Today, we’re going to find out. The Galaxy Note 5 was unveiled and released within about a week and it seems to be the talk of the town in the mobile tech space, both good and bad.

Samsung’s previous iterations of the Note’s design have been more evolutionary than revolutionary, but this year that all changed. We now have a device that’s built from metal and glass, much like its smaller brother the Galaxy S6. It may prove to be quite fragile if you drop it, but damn it feels good in your hand…


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3 days with the Moto X Play: I love it, but…

Avatar for Cam Bunton Aug 29 2015 - 9:01 am PT
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Just a few days ago, Motorola sent me its latest smartphone, the Moto X Play. It’s a sort-of halfway house between its super-affordable but awesome Moto G and the more premium unreleased Moto X Style/Pure. Although it’s not available in the US yet, it is available to buy in the UK and Canada, and evidence suggests it’ll be rebranded as a Verizon DROID of some kind. It costs under £300 in Britain, putting it in the same price range as devices like the OnePlus 2 and the 4GB Zenfone 2. In fact, it’s slightly more expensive than either of those.

I’ve been using the device as my daily driver since I unboxed it, and for the most part, but almost every part of my experience could be described as ‘I love it, but…”  Each part of the phone almost has something not quite right. It’s not perfect, but I still think it’s great overall.


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Cyanogen OS 12.1 update for OnePlus One rolling out OTA

Avatar for Cam Bunton Aug 27 2015 - 7:23 am PT
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cyanogen os 12.1

Cyanogen has announced that its most recent update, Cyanogen OS 12.1, is rolling out now to OnePlus One owners as an over-the-air update. The initial launch has been slightly delayed, but it’s finally here and you should see it available to download over the coming days. Cyanogen OS 12.1 is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop and comes with a promising list of updates. From looking at the update, it seems Cyanogen is really going for productivity and performance over anything else. Those updates include:
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BlackBerry Passport ‘Silver Edition’ w/ Android Lollipop purportedly caught on camera [Video]

Avatar for Stephen Hall Aug 24 2015 - 8:55 am PT
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Evan Blass — otherwise known as Evleaks — shared with us an image last week showing what looks to be some silver variant of the much-rumored BlackBerry Passport running Android Lollipop. Tech blog 4GNews then went on just before the weekend to share images of what it called Passport Silver Edition. It turns out those images were from Dudu Rocha Tec., an Android-related Brazilian YouTube channel, and now we have a look at what is likely the much-rumored BlackBerry device in its full glory…
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LG G Pad II 10.1 announced: 2GB RAM, Snapdragon 800 chip and 7,400mAh battery in tow

Avatar for Cam Bunton Aug 24 2015 - 1:38 am PT
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LG has announced a brand new tablet ready to compete at the 10-inch screen size category, and by all accounts, it looks to be a decent piece of hardware. The LG G Pad II 10.1 is going to make a full appearance at IFA in a couple of weeks. Pricing and availability details won’t be announced until then, but in the mean time, LG has given us the lowdown on all the tablet’s internal specifications.


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Samsung allegedly working on ‘Tahoe’, a giant 18.4-inch Android tablet

Avatar for Cam Bunton Aug 21 2015 - 5:16 am PT
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With Samsung’s most recent device launches being surprisingly restrained, you could almost be forgiven for thinking the company didn’t care so much about the showmanship of releasing high-specced products with ridiculous features anymore. Case in point being the elegant and well-made Galaxy S6 and Note 5 phones. No longer are they smartphones packed with eye-watering feature lists, or a slew of gimmicky features no one needs. But that doesn’t mean the company is completely giving up on trying new, interesting things. At least, not if a recent rumor from SamMobile is anything to go by.

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Moto X Play available in Canadian retail stores this Friday, August 21 (Update: $420 CAD)

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Aug 18 2015 - 2:47 pm PT
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Update: Canadian mobile operator TELUS has just posted its pricing for the Moto X Play, and it will be $50 CAD on a 2-year plan or $420 CAD unlocked.

Are you a Canadian eagerly awaiting the day when you can finally get Motorola’s new Android-powered Moto X Play in your hands? Well, this weekend is going to be great for you, as Motorola Canada has just announced that will be available in retail stores starting this Friday.

[tweet https://twitter.com/Motorola_CA/status/633735528110649348 align=’center]

Earlier today we saw Motorola begin to accept orders for the Moto X Play online through its Moto Maker personalization tool for approximately $400 USD. Orders through that system have been displaying an estimated delivery date of the 26th and 27th for some of the 55 countries (Europe, Latin America, and Canada) that the new phone is being sold in. Motorola Canada’s website has yet to be updated with pricing information, and the company has traditionally only sold its phones through carriers in Canada — not unlocked. There’s no word on when the Moto X Play will make it to retailers in the other 54 countries.

The Moto X Play is quite similar to the Moto X Style, also unveiled at the same time, but compromises on internal specifications in favor of a water-repellent design and quoted 48 hours of battery life. Where the Moto X Style is more beastly than the X Play is in its display, processor clock-speed, and total RAM — the X Style has a 5.7-inch Quad HD display, a 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, and 3GB of RAM, whereas the X Play has a 5.5-inch Full HD display, a 1.7GHz Snapdragon 615, and 2GB of RAM. You still get the same 21 megapixel camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and the battery capacity is 3630 mAh versus 3000 on the X Style.

As with all Motorola smartphones these days, expect a very light Android experience (Lollipop until Android Marshmallow comes out) with almost no Motorola-preinstalled software save for well-regarded features like Moto Assist. That is, after all, one of the main selling points of Motorola phones today aside from their reasonable prices off-contract.

Motorola Canada’s The United States was left out of this phone’s release, but Motorola says that it will be bringing more new offerings stateside sometime in the near future.

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Google posts LMY48I factory images with Stagefright fixes for Nexus devices

Avatar for Chance Miller Aug 5 2015 - 7:41 pm PT
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Earlier today, Google announced that it would soon begin improving its security efforts for its Nexus line of devices by rolling out monthly security updates. To go along with that, Google this evening has posted new factory images for seven Nexus devices. The factory images all appear to address the recent security bug that saw “Stagefright” exploited, as well as other fixes.


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Android distribution data updated for August, Lollipop usage slowly nearing 20%

Avatar for Chance Miller Aug 3 2015 - 4:09 pm PT
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Screen Shot 2015-08-03 at 7.06.49 PMAs it does at the beginning of almost every month, Google today has updated its Android distribution data to reflect a 7-day period ending on August 3rd. It’s been two months since the data was last updated, so some more significant changes have occurred. Most notably, Android 5.0/5.1 Lollipop is now installed on 18.1 percent of devices, up from 11.6 percent last time around.


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Motorola officially announces the 3rd generation Moto G

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 28 2015 - 6:26 am PT
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After almost a dozen leaks over the last couple of months, Motorola has today made the 2015 Moto G official. As with previous years, this handset is made for the budget-minded customer in mind, but it definitely is one of the better options in its class and you won’t be sacrificing much in terms of the overall Android experience…


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Past meets future: LG’s new ‘Gentle’ flip-phone runs Android 5.1 Lollipop

Avatar for Cam Bunton Jul 27 2015 - 6:16 am PT
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lg gentle

This morning, LG announced a brand new Android flip phone to join its ranks. The LG Gentle, or LG U Plus, will be sold for 200,000 Korean Won (roughly $171 USD) to early adopters, and be available in both navy or burgundy.

The ‘Gentle’ is aptly named, and is designed to be both soft to the touch and comfortable to hold in your palm. Flip the phone open and there’s a large traditional physical keypad with bespoke buttons for functions like launching camera and messages, for example. Although you can use the directional pad to control the phone, the 3.2-inch 480×320 LCD display is touch sensitive too.

Specs include a modest 1.1GHz quad-core processor, 1,700mAh battery, 3MP rear camera, 1GB RAM and 4GB storage with the option to expand via MicroSD card. It runs Android 5.1 Lollipop and is equipped with USB 2.0, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

It’s not the first, and almost certainly won’t be the last Android-powered clamshell launched in Korea. They are seemingly very popular with the older generation who want the latest tech in a familiar form factor.

Lava Pixel V1 is the latest Android One handset for India, sadly lacks 4G support

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 27 2015 - 6:09 am PT
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devices-in

 

When Google launched the Android One program, its goal was to bring reliably-updated devices at affordable prices to developing countries. We’ve seen the program make its way to nine countries, most recently Pakistan and Myanmar, and now it’s bringing a new device to India. It’s called the Lava Pixel V1, and it has some decent specs and a modest price tag…
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Full 2015 Moto G spec sheet leaks, includes Snapdragon 410, 5-inch screen, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 24 2015 - 11:47 am PT
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It looks like there aren’t going to be any surprises at all come next week. Earlier today, we told you that some of the best images of the Moto G we’ve seen yet leaked thanks to LaptopMedia, and now the same publication has studied their device and put together an entire spec sheet…
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Android Lollipop 5.1 for Sony Xperia Z3 and Z2 now rolling out

Avatar for Cam Bunton Jul 22 2015 - 8:06 am PT
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Sony confirmed in a blog post that its Android 5.1 update for the Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z2 device family is rolling out now. Devices including the Xperia Z3, Z3 Compact, Z3 Tablet Compact, Xperia Z2, and Z2 Tablet are part of this current wave of software releases.

As always, if you have a carrier device you may have to wait a few weeks or months for your network operator to give its approval to the software. If you have the unlocked model, however, you could see the update any day now. Be sure to keep checking for updates in your settings menu if you haven’t already received a notification to download the OTA.

Included in the Android 5.1 Lollipop update are the following new features:

  • Increased customisation options – so you have even more control over the way volume, silent modes and your alerts function
  • Brand new LinkedIn integration – be more productive with intuitive contact synchronisation in your Calendar
  • Camera improvements – with faster, more accurate Superior Auto Mode focus for great images, regardless of conditions
  • Enhanced enterprise support – with our latest Xperia in Business features for work
  • SmartWear integration – selfie snapping made that bit easier, with SmartWatch 3 as a remote shutter button

Older Xperia products will be getting the update “over the coming weeks”, according to Sony. Devices like the Z1, Z1 Compact and Xperia Z Ultra will be first in line before the T2 Ultra, Xperia C3 and original Xperia Z are updated a little while later.

PSA: AT&T suspends 5.1 Lollipop update for first gen Moto X

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 21 2015 - 8:33 am PT
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Moto-X1

For reasons unknown, AT&T has just suspended the rollout of Android 5.1 to the first generation Moto X. Motorola announced the update last month, and it first began rolling out to AT&T Moto X (2013) owners on July 7th.

Here’s what AT&T says on its support website:

UPDATE SUSPENDED

Effective July 20, 2015, the Android 5.1 (Lollipop) software update for the Moto X (XT1058) has been temporarily suspended. We apologize for any inconvenience and are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

As mentioned, it’s not yet clear why AT&T has pulled the update for now. The company does say that it is working to resolve the issue as soon as it can, and the rollout should continue soon.

Leaked 3rd gen Moto G dummy unit confirms IPX7 certification, 2470 mAh battery, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 20 2015 - 9:15 pm PT
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As Motorola’s July 28th event draws near, more and more leaked images and renders of the upcoming Motorola handset refreshes continue to hit the Internet. This time we’re getting a look at leaked images (via MobileSyrup) of what is assumably a 3rd gen Moto G display dummy unit, and there just so happens to be a sticker affixed that confirms some previously rumored specifications of the device…
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Android 5.1 update for HTC One M9 on AT&T and T-Mobile coming very soon

Avatar for Cam Bunton Jul 14 2015 - 12:53 pm PT
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Good news for HTC One M9 users with the AT&T and T-Mobile variants: Your Android 5.1 software update should be landing on your devices very soon. Mo Versi, the manufacturer’s VP of product management announced that AT&T owners should see it arrive from tomorrow, July 15th.

The update has passed technical approval and will come alongside some camera improvements:

Of course, a T-Mobile customer replied to the tweet asking when #TeamMagenta subs might see the software arrive on their phones. Turns out, that’s pretty soon too. As of right now, the OTA update for HTC One M9 on T-Mo is on course to arrive on July 20th, just six days away.

Big Blue users, be sure to check your phones for updates from tomorrow if you don’t get a notification informing you of its availability. T-Mo customers, hold on tight, you have less than a week to wait.

Nostalgia overload: Commodore PET smartphone coming soon with V64 and Amiga emulators

Avatar for Cam Bunton Jul 14 2015 - 11:01 am PT
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Screen Shot 2015-07-14 at 18.32.25

Update: This article states that the upcoming Commodore PET smartphone is being made by Commodore. While this is true, it’s not the same corporation, nor is it under the same management, that created both the Commodore 64 and Amiga computer line. The company creating this smartphone was incorporated just this past March in the United Kingdom, while the original Commodore International was founded in Ontario, Canada and shut its doors in 1994. It’s an example of deceptive practices.

My first real taste of technology was as a kid. Myself and two of my siblings would huddle around the TV with a Commodore Amiga plugged in and sit playing Buggy Boy, Lemmings, Batman, ThunderCats and bunch of other titles for hours. If it wasn’t for my brother’s temper and his destruction of too many joysticks, I’m sure we’d have enjoyed many more hours. So I couldn’t just skip over Wired’s piece on the upcoming Commodore smartphone without writing about it.

You read that right: A smartphone made by Commodore is coming to market soon. Dubbed the Commodore PET, it’s coming with a couple of emulators built in out-of-box so you can play all your favorite Amiga and V64 titles.


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Review: Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Active is capable & rugged, trades fingerprint sensor for better battery

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 10 2015 - 9:50 am PT
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Samsung Galaxy S6 Active Review! - YouTube 2015-07-10 11-33-34

If you’ve been following our thoughts on this year’s flagship smartphones, you know that we think that Samsung’s offerings are some of the best. The Korean company really stepped up their game with the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, introducing a much more premium build, a cleaned up version of TouchWiz, and internals that are worthy of 2015. In that vein, the Galaxy S6 Active is pretty much identical. It has a really nice hard plastic body, the same less-horrible TouchWiz, and the exact same internal specifications as its standard S6 brethren. But it’s not perfect, and there are always going to be compromises. Maybe fewer compromises than ever before, but compromises nonetheless…
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Turing Phone promises physical strength and secure communications like no other

Avatar for Cam Bunton Jul 6 2015 - 4:18 am PT
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turing phone

Turing Robotic Industries recently took the wraps off a phone which — if it lives up to its promises — could be essentially indestructible and ridiculously secure. The Turing Phone is built from a “revolutionary liquid-metal” called Liquidmorphium which is stronger than steel and titanium. If that sounds familiar to you, there’s good reason for that. Apple has been in partnership with a company which manufactures a very similar material for some time now.
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Moto X (1st gen) Lollipop upgrade rolling out to carrier models in bevy of countries

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Jul 1 2015 - 9:08 am PT
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Motorola has a way of saying software is ready when it isn’t, and publishing release notes for major upgrades long before they actually begin rolling out. It can often feel like deja vu to see the announcement of an update rollout multiple times, so we of all people know that it can be frustrating. That said, Motorola’s David Schuster has posted to his Google+ account this morning to announce that the 1st-generation Moto X is receiving Android 5.1 starting today in a whole host of countries…


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