Thursday, October 23, 2014

Android Lollipop vs. Android KitKat

Android L is a HUGE update that sees Google taking its already mature platform several steps further. The Big G has tightened up nearly every element of its mobile platform, refining the look and feel of Android across the board, as well as touching up back-end tools and protocols to make the platform even more efficient.

Android 5.0 Lollipop has now launched officially and will be initially available on a brand new Nexus 6 phablet and Nexus 9 tablet. Motorola will be next to follow up with the updates and then soon we expect news from Samsung, HTC, Sony and all the rest. HTC revealed they are planning to bring the new update on their flagship smartphones – One M7 and One M8 – within 90 days after the Google makes the final code available. A new report reveals when the Taiwanese phone maker plans to bring the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for HTC One Mini 2 and Desire 816.

Android 5.0 Lollipop vs. Android KitKat: Material

Android Lollipop is the biggest change to Android in some time, finally bumping Google's OS up a full integer to version 5.0.

It's packed with changes, but the most obvious improvements are visual.

Google's been working on getting its new "Material Design" aesthetic out in the world for months, and Lollipop is its culmination. One of Android's biggest failings up to date - including with KitKat - has been that its design language never felt unified, and with Material Design Google hopes to fix that.

The aesthetic is meant to look both flat and 3D, as if you're starting at animated paper that exists on a z-axis as well as the x and y.

Material Design reflects this with clean, bold lines and colors that transform and alter with fun animations. At its best it lets you sense the depth behind the interface, even when it's at rest and appears flat.

This extends from app icons, fonts and interfaces to simple elements like the new navigation buttons and notification bar icons, and once you get past the changes you'll likely agree that most things look better now.

The changes to Android's interface with Lollipop aren't all visual, either - voice commands with "OK Google" are more prominent now as well, and can even be used when the screen is locked and off on some devices, and there are massive improvements to notifications.

Android 5.0 L vs. Android KitKat: Notifications

Notifications have been Android's strong suit since day one, and Google is making them even better in Android Lollipop. The big change here is that they're being integrated into the lock screen – something Google previously experimented with when it developed lock screen widgets which allowed you to view emails and events without actually unlocking your phone.

As well as making notifications the first thing you see when you pick up your handset, Google is working on making them smarter when the phone is in active use. For example, in KitKat a call would totally interrupt whatever activity you were involved in, be it reading a book, browsing your emails or playing a game. In Android Lollipop, events such as these will pop up at the top of the screen, a la Samsung’s Galaxy S5, meaning you can choose to jump to that event or ignore it with a quick tap without leaving your current task.

Compared to Android 4.4, notifications are going to be smarter, more intuitive and less intrusive than before. KitKat's notifications system is decent enough, but it was basically recycling what had come before, so it’s good to see some out-of-the-box thinking from Google in this respect.

Android 5.0 L vs. Android KitKat: Security

Google has made massive strides with Android when it comes to overall security, coming up with innovations such as pattern unlocks and facial recognition. KitKat didn't bring much new to the table in this respect, but it worked well enough. Android Lollipop's big advance is going to be about making security more convenient, and it will do this using two methods: Android Wear and your current location.

In the first case, you can use your shiny new Android smartwatch as an authentication tool to automatically bypass your phone's passcode when it detects the watch nearby. In the second example, you can designate safe zones – your home, for example – where your phone will switch off your lock code. While both of these features could potentially create a security risk, if someone steals your phone and your smartwatch, they have access to all of your personal data, for instance, but they will overcome the irksome issue of having to continually unlock your device every few minutes.

Android 5.0 Lollipop vs. Android KitKat: Battery Life

Project Butter was Google's way of making Android feel smoother and slicker, and now the company has revealed Project Volta – a system which will provide developers with a better means of determining what elements of their apps are draining battery at an unnecessary rate. Because Volta will open up the battery stats to devs, they can tinker with their code to make apps more efficient and spot potential problem areas.

Android Lollipop will also take a leaf out of HTC and Samsung's books by coming with a battery saving mode by default. This will help users get as much mileage out of each charge as possible by throttling certain functions when juice is low. Such improvements will ensure that Android L is leaps and bounds ahead of KitKat, which only offers basic stats on what process is gobbling up the most power.

Complete list of devices which will be upgraded to Android L OS will be (Confirmed):

Nexus smartphones and tablets :

Nexus 4

Nexus 5

Nexus 7

Nexus 10

Motorola smartphones:

Moto E

Moto G

Moto X

Moto G 4G

Moto G 2nd Gen

Moto X 2nd Gen

Motorola Droid Ultra

Motorola Droid Maxx

Motorola Droid Mini

Samsung smartphones and tablets:-

Samsung Galaxy S5

Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini

Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE

Samsung Galaxy Alpha

Samsung Galaxy TabPro 8.4

Samsung Galaxy TabPro 10.1

Samsung Galaxy TabPro 12.2

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5

Samsung Galaxy A5

Samsung Galaxy A3

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Samsung Galaxy S3

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Sony Xperia smartphones:-

Sony Xperia Z1

Sony Xperia Z2

Sony Xperia Z Ultra

Sony Xperia Z Ultra GPE

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact

Sony Xperia Z2 tablet

Sony Xperia Z3

Xperia Z

Xperia ZL

Xperia ZR

Xperia Tablet Z

Xperia Z1S

Xperia Z3v

Xperia Z3 Compact

Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact

HTC smartphones:-

HTC One

HTC One m7

HTC One M8

HTC One GPE

HTC One M8 GPE

HTC Desire Eye

HTC One M8 Eye

HTC One Mini

HTC One Mini 2

HTC One E8

HTC One Max

HTC Butterfly S

HTC Butterfly 2

HTC Desire 816

HTC Desire 610

LG smartphones and tablets:-

LG G2

LG G2 Mini

LG G Flex

LG G3

LG G3 Beat

LG G3 Stylus

LG G Pad 8.3

LG G Pad 8.3 GPE

LG G Pro 2

Other smartphones and tablets:-

Micromax Canvas A1 Android One Smartphone

Karbonn Sparkle V

Spice Dream Uno

Asus Zenfone 4

Asus Zenfone 4 A450CG

Asus Zenfone 5

Asus Zenfone 5 LTE

Asus Zenfone 6

Asus PadFone S

Asus PadFone Infinity 2

Xiaomi Redmi 1S

Xolo One

OnePlus One

Nvidia Shield Tablet

Huawei Ascend Mate 2.