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Google Announces Android 5.1 172
An anonymous reader writes: Google has officially announced Android Lollipop 5.1. This is a small update to the mobile operating system, and focuses on stability and performance. The main new features include support for multiple SIM cards, high definition voice calls on supported devices, and the ability to join Wi-Fi networks and manage Bluetooth pairings through Quick Settings. The biggest new feature is "Device Protection." They say, "With Device Protection, your lost or stolen device will remain locked until you sign in with your Google account — even if someone resets your device to factory settings. This feature will be available on most Android phones and tablets shipped with Android 5.1 in addition to Nexus 6 and Nexus 9."
I hope the Device Protection is optional. (Score:2, Insightful)
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AFAIK, you can turn off the Device Administrator function, and that functionality will be removed.
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AFAIK, you can turn off the Device Administrator function, and that functionality will be removed.
I have used Prey for years. It is a known quantity, it works well, and doesn't come with the inherent problems of a Google app.
Would it work after a factory reset? No. But that difference isn't enough to get me to switch.
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AFAIK, you can turn off the Device Administrator function, and that functionality will be removed.
I have used Prey for years. It is a known quantity, it works well, and doesn't come with the inherent problems of a Google app. Would it work after a factory reset? No. But that difference isn't enough to get me to switch.
Prey solves a slightly different problem. The purpose of device protection isn't to help you recover your device, it's to prevent thieves from benefiting from stealing your device. As such, it will only work if broadly deployed, because we need to build a "herd immunity" effect. There may be some devices that can be stolen usefully, but if most can't thieves will stop targeting Android devices. This is why it's not an app but part of the base operating system.
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I'd hate to think my device gets bricked because I delete my Google account or forget the password.
Don't worry. If you forget your Google password you can reset it from the website. They'll send a security validation code to your mo---
Oh.. Yeah...
Re:I hope the Device Protection is optional. (Score:4, Insightful)
I hope the Device Protection feature is optional.
Of course it is. You can't use it unless you put a Google account on the device.
Right, but I have put a Google account on the device. I hope the device protection is still optional. Since I'm already using encryption, I'm not sure the device protection will add much security. Will a thief return my device when they discover they can't use it?
Re:I hope the Device Protection is optional. (Score:4, Insightful)
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maybe the GP can get a free ride because would-be theives will start to avoid androids because of the activation lock, and he doesn't have to lock his phone specifically. this activation lock thing is just a deterrent, like if you put explosives in there to blow their fingers off. you still lose your phone.
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So, no, if you're lucky you don't lose your phone. It will never be 100% because stolen phones can be turned into parts.
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true but his chances of getting the phone stolen are the same whether he locks it or not.
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Re:I hope the Device Protection is optional. (Score:4, Insightful)
Will a thief return my device when they discover they can't use it?
no, but if thieves understand that modern smartphones, including android 5.1 devices, are worthless if stolen, they aren't going to bother stealing them in the first place. sure, until a sufficient % of the devices out there support this it's not as useful but you have to start somewhere right?
also, don't you feel a little better knowing that the thief didn't get compensated $300 for stealing your phone?
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Or, it could have the effect that the thief now has to steal 10x as many phones to get enough money for a fix.
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absolutely. why should do anything to stop any crime? the perps will just go out and commit a different crime. really, really sound thinking.
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A locked phone is not worthless if it has recoverable pieces. Think Battery and above all that fragile screen that can be recovered from locked phones. Having a non bypassable lock is still a good idea, but it doesn't make it worthless to thieves.
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Will the buyer of my phone be able to use it?
common sense to the rescue. of course there's a way to unlock it from your google account, but you have to enter your google credentials to perform that operation.
but yeah, maybe it's the case that google is making it such that phones can never, ever be changed to use a different google account. they can't be sold, or gifted to family member or friend, nothing. seems likely right? sheesh.
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He didn't say "I have to," he said "I have." Meaning that he voluntarily chose to, past tense.
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Right, but I have put a Google account on the device.
No you don't. A Google account is 100% optional on an Android device.
Well, how do you install Firefox on an Android 4.4.2 device (Samsung Tab S) without Google Play and NOT giving access to:
- device and app history
- identity
- location
- pictures, media, files
- camera
- microphone
- WLAN connection info
- besides: read sync statistics and download files without notification
(that's right from the permission list displayed before install)
How would anyone not totally stoned allow such access rights?
That's idiotic, gimme a break!
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Vendor stores like Google, for example? So what you're basically saying is:
"There are no apps, apart from all the apps!"
Bug Fixes? (Score:2)
I made the mistake of updating my original Nexus 7 to 5.0. What a buggy mess! I quickly put it back to 4.4 and have no intention of updating it any further. Granted that the original 7 is getting very long in the tooth and I don't really expect google to maintain backwards compatibility to old hardware.
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And Yet..... HTC.... (Score:2)
Their Flagship the M8 is still on 4.4.3 not even 4.4.4
Never buying HTC ever again.
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Mod parent up, my HTC M8 got 5.0.1 months ago on the O2 network.
I think it depends on the carrier as well as the manufacturer.
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does it work?
would you like new UI better?
on tablets I don't like the double drawer shit for example.
It's great and all that but can you use it to call (Score:3, Interesting)
https://code.google.com/p/andr... [google.com]
This is ridiculous.
I'm fed up with issues I've had with Google Nexus line Android devices:
1) Nexus 7 first gen. Enable encryption and device becomes superslow due to not having a proper fstrim support.
2) Galaxy Nexus. No more updates after 4.3, not even security updates.
3) Nexus 4. This recent dialer issue. I'm still getting updates but what good are they if they only break things that worked before?
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Hey now, you (and I) may be stuck at 4.3 but we're still getting updates on the stuff that matters. Other than the vulnerable web browser, that is.
Of course, Google Apps updates have made the phone practically unusable, I mean, it was a really fast really slick phone when it was new. Now it's a laggy thing that takes seconds to do anything. Typing on it is not an exercise in frustration as it stalls, catches up, stalls, etc.
And I thought
Multiple SIM Card Support (Score:2)
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Technically, T-Mobile and AT&T already support it, so you must be talking about the CDMA carriers.
If your carrier won't roll out Lollipop ... (Score:2, Funny)
does that make you a Sucker?
Fuck Google and Their Stranglehold on Open Source (Score:2, Informative)
Google's Iron Grip on Android [arstechnica.com]
Oblig. xkcd (Score:4, Funny)
http://xkcd.com/619/ [xkcd.com]
Did they fix .opus support? (Score:2)
Device Protection work with jailbroken/rooted? (Score:2)
Does anyone know if Device Protection can work with rooted phones or jailbroken ones?
Or rather, if you set Device Protection on it, and "lost your password", can you root it and use it by installing another rom?
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That will depend on whether you can get into recovery or not and whether you can get into recovery or not will depend on the exploit used on your phone.
I suspect that in the case of nexus branded products the answer will be no because people haven't had to hack the bootloader to achieve root. If you were look at something like the sony xperia x3 then probably yes because you are already attacking a known vulnerability in the boot loader to access recovery.
Cancelled Google account? (Score:2)
I've heard some horror stories from people who've had their Google accounts auto-banned due to overzealous spam filters for the Play Store, Adwords and things like that, and been unable to get to speak to a human at Google about it. What happens if you protect your phone so that you need to sign into your Google account, then you lose your Google account?
Too many unfixed things (Score:3)
Lollypop has so many GUI issues, and none are addressed.
For example, the stock appearance of the settings menu with ultra bright white background cannot be changed. So if you open Settings in any kind of dark place like a movie theater, your car at night, or a bedroom, you eyes GET BLASTED BUT FULL ON ULTRA BRIGHT BULLSHIT that cannot be toned down. Compare to 4.2 and before where the menus where white text on a gray or black background. Worse, there is no way to change this. You are stuck wincing if you need to use the menus in the dark. And you lose all ability to remain private or avoid disturbing others.
The automatic dimming feature -which you might suspect would fix this complaint- does not actually work. In a bright environment, auto dimming dims the screen to unusable. And in a dim environment, it actually makes it so dim you can't see to undo it. But if you turn it off, you get BLASTED by that damn GUI with all it's bright white crap. Auto dimming USED to work.
The "battery is fully charged" info box appears even when the screensaver is running, and you need to do that because the super bright menus and status bars now leave significant image ghosting on the screen. For the first time ever on a mobile device, I have to run the multicolor screensaver AND a burn-in removal app periodically just to remove the hole in the screen where the status bar normally appears. Again, the issue is the overall brightness of the GUI contrasting with the rest of the visual elements.
Those things plus apps crashing, loss of root, needing to be rebooted twice a day which takes about three minutes before the desktop is actually working and usable, awful plummeting battery life, sluggish performance trying to open the dialer -Look, I hate Lollypop. 4.2 and 4.4 were very good versions. I expected better from 5.0. I expected more of the same Android UI. I got some misguided experiment in casual blinding.
For me, iOs is not an option. But instead of feeling like a big Android fan and supporter, I feel like I am getting shafted, And without root and access to the bootloader, I can't even DO anything about it. I am stuck with this thing rather than being a fan in love with it.
Maybe the S6 will be decent and somehow manage to fix these things but nothing I've read mentions any GUI fixes. I'm not sure Google even wants to fix it. Afterall, they have had years to fix the contrast problem in Gmail -look at your inbox from more than few feet away and see if you can tell read and unread messages based on color. Pretty much cannot because new messages are in not very bold black over white and read messages are a slightly less black black over almost the same white. There is almost no contrast difference. You cannot tell at a glance what is going on. This problem is awful on desktop Gmail and only a little less awful on mobile mainly because you are obviously closer to the mobile screen.
Google supposedly has GUI scientists and such but they don't see to put any thought into these things. It is frustrating. Yes I will keep using Google. They are wiring my neighborhood for Google Fiber so, yeah, I am on board. But I may not be using any Android devices by the time they get to my house this year.
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From what you're saying, you may want to take a look at Blackberry. Windows Phone isn't exactly big on contrast, but could be worth a look. FirefoxOS, naturally, would be a good fit thanks to Haida [mozilla.org], though if you're technically inclined you could always customize Gaia [mozilla.org] to suite your tastes.
Does Android 5.1 fix 5.0.2? (Score:2)
Re:Does Android use systemd yet? (Score:5, Funny)
I think the better question is "Does systemd include Android yet?".
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It will, as soon as systemd assimilates Java.
systemd = The Borg
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Not yet. What I'm surprised at is that ChromeOS doesn't either, which makes it about the only OS still using Upstart. Their upstream, Gentoo, does support systemd but not upstart.
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Doesn't need it, since Android's init system does basically all of systemd without being GPL. Using systemd would move Android backwards since the whole goal is to have practically everything be Apache licensed.
Manages services, triggers (you can run things based on events), handles logging, properties, IPC, udev, etc. All in one handy executable, too.
It's the "freer" version of systemd.
Re:Yay! Another OS I'll never see! (Score:4, Interesting)
How about a Jolla [jolla.com] with a slide out keyboard [funkyotherhalf.com]...
It's my plan to finally replace my beloved N900. :)
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I wish like hell this were available in the US. I'd have bought one already. I liked the keyboard on my G1, my Sidekick2 had pretty much a perfect keyboard and I've been stuck with touch devices ever since I started down the upgrade path....
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They really need to release a new "global" phone with support for like 30 LTE bands, like an iPhone. The current one only supports 2.
Get an iPhone and slide out keyboard case (Score:2)
If you must have a "real" (read: really small) keyboard, just get an iPhone and one of many slide out keyboard cases [google.com].
I doubt the combo would be much bigger than what you have...
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Huh. That's actually sort of a clever idea, even if I wish it wasn't necessary - I'd much rather actually have it built in, both for purposes of guaranteed compatibility and for purposes of not having to futz around with bluetooth, if at some time in the future my current phone breaks and it becomes impossible to find a decent replacement, I'll keep that in mind as a workaround (except for Android still That is not even remotely the only reason I go for Android phones over Apple.)
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both for purposes of guaranteed compatibility and for purposes of not having to futz around with bluetooth
Keyboards have not really had issues pairing on iPhones in pretty much as long as I can remember. I know countless people that use bluetooth keyboards all the time, without issue.
except for Android
Do you want to have reliable Bluetooth or not? The Android bluetooth stack is pretty bad on lots of phones... and not as well tested as iOS devices are.
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That seems like a good idea until you get one. And then you realize that a lot of the keyboard shortcuts no longer work. Tried it, returned it. Got a keyboardless flagship android and swipe.
NB - I had several slide out phone "back in the day" and swore I'd never get a phone without one. Really, I don't miss it now and I type faster with the swipe keyboard than I could on a chicklet.
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Then I began to experience UI lockups and Chrome browser crashes for the first time. Performance was so bad I had to only run one app at a time so it would crash less often.
So, I had to download 4.4.4 and the SDK to re-install the OS. Some people call that a downgrade, but it was a hell of an improvement over 5.0.2. That was my first time to do tha
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Yeah, you don't want to run Lollipop on a 2012 Nexus 7. 5.0 grew a little and it's too much for the 2012 N7's hardware. A goal of 5.1 was to slim it back down, but that wasn't really achieved. Perhaps M will run well on the 2012 N7.
(Disclaimer: I'm a Google engineer on the Android team, but speaking for myself, not in an official capacity.)
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It is out for the HTC One M8, the unlocked version. It works decently, although all the privacy utilities like XPrivacy and others don't work, so one is left vulnerable until those are fixed.
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Guessing that's the 1st Generation "G"?
You don't want it (Score:3)
My Nexus 7 is quite a bit worse after the 5 upgrade. I need to reboot every couple of days or it will slow to a crawl. Wifi is also dodgy - takes forever to come up after being switched off, and takes a *long* time to connect to new APs.
I'm hoping 5.1 will be better.
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My Nexus 7 is quite a bit worse after the 5 upgrade.
2012 Nexus 7? If so, 5.1 probably won't make you very happy either. You should probably go back to KitKat. The 2012 N7 doesn't have enough RAM to run Lollipop well. M may be slimmer.
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Yea, I hate how Google stole the draw-down menu, the app drawer, the quick-settings, and the 3-button interface.
Cant they do ANYTHING different, like create a smart watch ecosystem?
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Re:Yeah but..... (Score:5, Interesting)
I own a OnePlus One. Don't have any issues with BS "carrier apps" or anything like that, because there are none (in general, some of the Cyanogen bits are a little 'special' at times).
Sucks that Google hasn't made a requirement for a "clean" version of Android to be made available for major devices. That's where probably 75% or more of the issues come in.
Re:Yeah but..... (Score:5, Informative)
Sucks that Google hasn't made a requirement for a "clean" version of Android to be made available for major devices
you can disable any app, including apps packaged in the firmware. it won't even show up in the launcher after that. that's been in place since 4.0 (or so).
Re:Yeah but..... (Score:4, Interesting)
From my experience with the Note3, yeah you can "disable" apps from showing, but not completely. They're still resident in memory most of the time and a number that I wanted to disable, the option to disable was disabled.
After rooting I found that they had cross-linked dependencies. Some of the apps I wanted to keep were dependent upon stuff in apps that I wanted to remove. Freeze/remove some of the carrier crap-ware and other things that weren't so crap broke. :(
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From my experience with the Note3, yeah you can "disable" apps from showing, but not completely. They're still resident in memory most of the time
the "disable" feature that's available on any firmware-based app completely stops the app from running. i use it on my nexus 6 to disable the exchange crap from running in the background. works fine.
if samsung did something to mess with how that works (i'd be surprised if they did, but if you say so), then well, why the heck did you buy a samsung device? that's called just deserts. don't blame android for some terrible crap done by samsung. by the way, you paid 50% for samsung, right?
if people don't support
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I'm not blaming Android/Google for anything other than not making a requirement that a "bullshit free" OS load be an option. If there were a firmware from Samsung that didn't have all the carrier/manufacturer mandated extras and BS added I'd be much happier and I'm sure some of the more tech-savvy users would be as well. Most of the people complaining that "Android Sux" are the ones who've never seen or used anything near an AOSP. They're fighting with Motorolla crap or Samsung crap or HTC crap. If Google
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Samsung tried that with Google Play Edition devices. They were a flop. It wasn't a big sell giving people a device which didn't work like or have the features of the devices they were used to.
It also heavily depends on the carrier as to what bloat you get. My carrier only adds one app. Samsung on the other hand are the ones responsible for a shitload of others that come with the phone, and I'm not just talking about Samsung's own apps but things like Flipboard, Dropbox etc too.
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you're a nerd, you know nexus exists, what's your excuse?
My pockets are too small.
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if samsung did something to mess with how that works (i'd be surprised if they did, but if you say so)
I'm pretty certain disabling app-disabling would cause the device to fail the compliance test suite. There's a test that's supposed to check that.
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Every time I *stop* it
i'm not talking about killing the process. i'm talking about going into settings > apps > [app] > disable.
on my n6, there's no "google search" app. there is an app called "google play services" which is the heart of google. there's a big "disable" button right there for me.
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And of course all that baked in crapware mean
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Disabling isn't the same as removing. It's still there, unnecessarily eating up space.
the "space" it's eating is completely unusable for any other purpose. the binary exists in /system which is a read-only partition. that's why you can't physically remove the APK.
Worse than that, if you do use that app you will incur a double penalty as soon as you install an update.
no you don't see above.
And of course all that baked in crapware means you won't be getting firmware / security updates for your phone in a timely fashion, if ever.
the existence of an APK installed into /system has zero impact on your manufacturer's ability to roll an updated ROM. it has everything to do with the customizations they make to the firmware itself.
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then that's something samsung did for you. any lesson to be learned here?
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Sucks that Google hasn't made a requirement for a "clean" version of Android to be made available for major devices. That's where probably 75% or more of the issues come in.
I agree,
However such restrictions would be incompatible with the open nature of Android. Sadly, carrier and manufacturer crapware is the downside of having an open ecosystem.
But this is exactly what the Nexus phones are meant to combat. I'd like it if Google were to release vanilla firmware for popular phones like the Samsung Galaxy, Note and HTC One, but this would still require manufacturer co-operation.
My last two phones were Nexuses, my previous phones were bought outright and modded.
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I'm not sure how it's incompatible.
Requirement to be able to include Google Services and Google Play: You will make and provide a method for users of the device to install a build of Android that is untainted by any 3rd party applications in the firmware. They make the device with their standard extras and ship it. They provide links on their website for a download of the "same" firmware without all the extras and the firmware update tools to install it. The burden is then on the user or their designated
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That's not a requirement, that's an option.
You can buy a lot of Android devices that dont have Google Play and Google Services. Many of these devices are phones and tablets.
The core of Android is built around being open and optional. If you start requiring manufacturers to do something in order to use Android, Android stops being open.
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That's the part that Google Licenses. You can't distribute their Services and Play because those aren't part of AOSP. That's where you put the hinge.
Yes you can download and install and distribute the OS. However most devices that do that aren't really well received. They tend to be low quality cheap knock-offs. Most vendors that sell Android devices need the Google Services and Google Play on their device and have a license to distribute those "Non-Open Source" components. The cheap vendors that are includ
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Apart f
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Which US carrier lets you make all these changes? The phones are locked by the Carrier. The Carrier has way too much power in the current ISP relationship. They are the ones that won't let you be an admin. You can always buy a reference device (Nexus and unlock), or make your own.
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AFAIK none of them "let you" or "support you" doing it, but let's be honest... And geek of sufficient caliber is going to do it. ;)
Re:Yeah but..... (Score:4, Interesting)
So when did Apple start shipping a filesystem explorer? Oh, right, they don't -- you aren't supposed to look at the filesystem. And there are numerous crap-applications Apple installs and constantly updates that I (and others) simply don't care about. They cannot be removed (system app), nor can they be disabled/hidden; the best you can do is put them in a folder sort-of out of sight.
There are plenty of Android APPS that piss me off, too. Like I need every app I've ever installed to wake up and "check in" when ever I turn on my tablet. That's not Google's fault; that's all on the asshats that wrote the apps.
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Yes, I completely agree, especially about being buggy like no other piece of software (except maybe Adobe stuff).
However, there is a clear lack of alternatives. iOS is a walled garden, and Windows may be a lot nicer in many ways, but is distinctly short of apps.
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For goods sake stop removing features and disabling stuff.
Please cite. What is being removed in 5.1?
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Dalvik.
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Is that a problem? Xposed for ART is now in Alpha 2 :)
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It might be.
Last I really, really looked into it, the requisite XDA thread said something like "it'll be ready if it ever gets ready, until then naff off."
Perhaps I will look again. I don't consider Xposed to be optional equipment anymore...
Are you using it?
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Nope, but I used to use Xposed on KitKat, mostly for interface twiddles. Some of them are unnecessary on Lollipop.
I wouldn't expect it to work properly yet.
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Bad car analogy time:
Before I replace the engine in my car, I must first remove the old one.
That Lollipop includes a Java-esque VM called ART does not mean that Dalvik has not been removed.
Indeed, Dalvik is not there. It was removed and replaced with something rather different.
Words are useful. It is good to understand what they mean.
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Re: Google please stop removing features (Score:2)
It doesn't work with all of the software that I am accustomed to using on my pocket computer(s).
If my old engine did things that were useful to me, and my new one lacks some of those abilities, then I would also say that my car has had features removed.
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Curious, what software isn't working with ART at this point?
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Not specially in 5.1 but in all versions. What has been removed/disabled:
- Ability to control Airplane mode programmatically
- Ability to control Data mode programmatically
- Ability to control interruption/silent mode programmatically
- Ability to control system volume programmatically
- No control of how lock screen icon appear programmatically
- No write access to SD card from apps
These are just the ones from the top of my head.
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At first I was a little freaked out about not having 'silent mode' but now I've just gotten used to interruptions
You had me thrown there. That would be horrible! Why would you just accept that?
Anyhow ... I'd say 'FYI' here but this benefits the people near you more: You can still disable all notifications by sliding the notification mode to “none”. There's also an app called "SoundHUD" that will quiet your chatty phone.