The update just popped up on my Nexus 4. Downloading now.
Anyone else using it? Anything I should be aware of?
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No, not available on my S5 yet.
But I will be very interested in your experience / impressions. Do tell....
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Thanks, seemingly a lot of change. I find it quite difficult to understand the impact that it will have on day to day usage though.
On the subject of battery life, my S5 does a full day without problems, so I'm not sure why they focus on that so much.
On the subject of the S5, I just changed to the S5 due to the demise of my S4 screen, about a week after I berated my daughter for breaking the screen on her S3!!
The S5 is good, but its not worth changing from an S4 to an S5 IMO. Its not that much better considering the difference in cost, and its slightly, and surprisingly annoyingly, larger.
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One of the biggest changes is under the skin so to speak. They have switched from the Dalvik Java runtime to ART. So for Java applications (like many are) they no longer compile the Java byte code into native instructions every time you run them. This is one of the reasons for better battery life. The ART runtime compiles at startup. Downside is you need more storage for the pre-compiled apps. And some apps might not work.
ART will also improve performance. And improved performance equates to better battery life. It's the race to get CPU to lower power states that's important.
Another big difference for the latest phones is 64-bit support. So for the latest ARM 64-bit CPUs (e.g. Snapdragon 805) and Intel 64-bit (e.g. Atom's), the ART compiler will create 64-bit code. And ARM8 has many advantages apart from 64-bit registers - there's more of them for starters.
There's obviously many other changes.
Battery life on my HTC One (M7) used to be excellent and got worse. Particular bad after I upgraded it to Android 4.4.4. It was the system using most battery and it could run down really quickly. I went into restore mode and cleared the cache partition and it's been excellent ever since. It was down to 50% after 24 hours. It had been getting that low in a few hours!
I still like the phone and it works well. I'm not sure what I'd get next because the top end models are now huge! 4.7" screen is fine for me.
blog.newrelic.com/2014/07/07/android-art-vs-dalvik/
Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 18 Nov 14 at 17:44
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Well Lollipop downloaded and installed without any problems, taking about 15min overall.
Initially the main difference, compared to V4.4.4 (KitKat), seems to be the start screen. I use a PIN to unlock the phone but the keypad is no longer on the start screen by default. I need to swipe up to display the keypad before entering my PIN.
In place of the keypad the start screen now displays notifications showing brief details of emails, missed calls etc. This is switchable but I find it useful.
It is now possible to have multiple users of the phone, each with their own settings.
I noticed that I now have flashlight app, it wasn't there before.
Most other things seem mainly related to cosmetic features: different startup logo, black on white menus rather than white on black...
I am sure the battery saving and other features are there under the skin but it's too soon to notice at the moment.
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..... Looks on wistfully with his HTC One X, but I just cant justify changing it as with a Custom Rom it is still a great device even after several years.
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I had the HTC One X before my current One M8. The One X battery struggled to last out the day, but the larger One M8 battery will last up to three or four days with average use and is still at around 40 per cent even then.
In relation to another point, the M8 came with the Flashlight app on 4.4.3 - the system software update to Version 4.4.4 (3.29.161.9) arrived OTA a couple of days ago.
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As usual after a major software release, there is a news story about how many people are having issues with Lollipop www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30116319
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>> As usual after a major software release, there is a news story about how many
>> people are having issues with Lollipop www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30116319
Why are people surprised? Nicole had already been instructed not to update her Nexus 7
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It's not just the UI. They could update Bluetooth for example then you're car and phone no longer get along.
I found that with ICS to JB.
Last edited by: gmac on Wed 19 Nov 14 at 20:50
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Have never forgiven them for removing the simple screenshot function at the last update.
Now have to try and press the power button and volume down button simultaneously to do it.
Why???
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>>Now have to try and press the power button and volume down button simultaneously to do it.
You don't on my S5 with 4.4.2 - its just a slow swipe with the whole finger, rather than the finger tip.
Has it changed?
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I think it depends on the skin added to Android. The method BobbyG mentions always worked. On HTC's SenseUI there's an option in the quick settings menu accessed by pulling down on the top of the screen.
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I owned a Nexus 9, and last week, I upgraded it to Android Lollipop OS, but after that, some apps can not run. tell me if you face the same problem and also update us about your experience with it.
good luck
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Android 5 - Lollipop - No FM2R
