Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Announces Android 5.1

Posted by Soulskill on from the onward-and-upward dept.

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."

6 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yay! Another OS I'll never see! by mr_jrt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How about a Jolla with a slide out keyboard...

    It's my plan to finally replace my beloved N900. :)

    --
    Boo.
  2. Re:Yeah but..... by Raxxon · · Score: 4, 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.

  3. It's great and all that but can you use it to call by Pow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    https://code.google.com/p/andr...

    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?

  4. Re:Bug Fixes? by bolek_b · · Score: 2, Interesting
    My feelings exactly. I bought a Nexus 7 (2013) last year and loved it. Then, at some unfortunate moment, I have confirmed the "upgrade". The result was ugly UI (not such a surprise, given the Google track record with arrogant GMail changes, but for Material UI they probably hired the brain behind Windows 8 tiles), performance like some 1$ chinese toy (screen massively tearing while scrolling text web page, ffs!), apps crashing just about all the time... and I find myself the great Android device maybe twice a week now.

    On a positive side, it is only a tablet. But in near future, having a car botched by similar upgrade experiences, now that is going to be a completely different matter. It is time to realize that the Google is rotting like any other megacorp and no more true innovation (not to be confused with PR innovation) is going to happen unless some drastic measures are put in motion.

  5. Re:Yeah but..... by Raxxon · · Score: 3, 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. :(

  6. Re:Yeah but..... by Cramer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...to the shitty lack of a file manager to the shitty mountain of built-in [crap]...

    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.