Android 5.0 Lollipop in Nexus 4 Hands on Review

Checking Lollipop version - also you can play game using this

I felt my Nexus 4 is reborn after the upgrade. I was scared to update initially after reading some posts about WIFI connectivity issue and battery issues. I am running from yesterday and did not find any lag or issues.

Here are the features / changes in lollipop

1) Faster

I felt significant improvement in the performance compared to 4.4. Apps are starting faster. Lollipop is running in ART (Android run time) instead of Dalvik and may be one of the reasons for performance

2) Fresh

There are animations everywhere and it is done beautifully. Let it be alarm, tool tips, Google now – all these apps are using the power of animation and material design. The color and font is mild and pleasing.

3) Lock Screen

Lock screen is looking great with new gestures and notifications. It will show estimated time to fully charge. I was using dynamic notifications in 4.4 for notification summary and it is not required in 5.0.

Charging indicator in lock screen

Notifications in lock screen

4) Pull down notification panel

This is one of the best features. More options are available in notification panel to enable wifi, mobile data, flash light etc.

Pull down notification; last set of ugly icons are coming from Notification toggle app

5) Battery Saver mode

This mode will stop most of the background running apps to improve the battery. Apps like WhatsApp, Facebook won’t notify me for every update and it will be refreshed only after opening them. Also most of the animations will be automatically disabled

Orange shade for status bar

I felt 15-20% improvement while running in this mode. Your notification and action panel will appear in orange in this mode. It is similar to using apps like Greenify to hibernate resource hungry apps

6) Recent Tabs

It is highly inspired from Chrome. Recent apps will appear as tabs instead of stack. Looks beautiful and easy to switch recent apps

Recent apps in Chrome style tabs

Multi-user support

This is not a new feature for Android since Android used to support multi users from 4.1. But this was available for Nexus tabs and some other custom ROMs like Cyanogenmod. It was not made available out of the box since phone was considered as personal device and it was not supposed to be shared with others.

Switching users

Things have changed… Line between tablet and phone is getting thinner and people started using phablets.

I can add guest user and allow them to use the phone. Guest will not be able to access any apps or personal data (including gallery). This becomes handy if your kid wants to play some games or colleague wants to make some urgent phone call

7) Screen Pinning

Another useful feature and it is an abstract version of multi user. I can pin one of the app and give the phone to someone. He/she will be able to use only the pinned app

Go to Settings à Security à Screen pinning

Enabling screen-pin option

You will be able to see pin button in recent tabs. Pin any one of the app and it is the only app user will be able to use. Click on back and recent button to un-pin. You can add additional security feature using lock pattern or pin. User will be redirected to lock screen if they tried to unpin and they have to know the pattern to view home screen.

8) Dialer

Dialer interface and gesture animations are good

Dialer with quick search and dial pad

Right gesture to view recent contacts

9) Google Chrome

Chrome works differently in 5.0. Add new tab button is moved to menu and switch tab was missing. Later found that chrome tabs are also listed along with recent apps. It was bit annoying in the start and now I’m used to it

10) Gallery

I am disappointed to see that there is no gallery app and only Google photos app is available. It is difficult to view the folders since the way it is organized is not so user friendly. I was expecting a redesigned Gallery

11) Camera

No improvements in camera even after upgrading. The same camera app used in 4.4 is available in 5.0 as well

12) Battery

I did not find any major improvement in battery life compared to 4.4. I was expecting huge improvement since I read about Project Volta – a project to improve the battery.

Quick recharge - Nexus 6 supports fast charging - charge for 15 minutes and use for 6 hours. Looks like it is not a feature of 5.0

13) Other issues

Most of the apps used in 4.4 works without issues. MX Player did not work and hopefully they will update the app soon

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How to root Nexus 5 on Android 5.0 Lollipop [updated]

The Android 5.0 Lollipop glue has not even set on the Nexus 5 yet, but there is already an exploit out to provide you with beautiful root privileges. Here's how to root the Nexus 5 on Android 5.0 Lollipop. Update: I've added the modified kernel boot image to the instructions below. Apologies for any confusion.

How to root Nexus 5 on Android 5.0 Lollipop :

1. Make sure your phone has USB Debugging enabled in Developer Options. If you don't have this option in Settings already, go to Settings > About Phone and tap Build Number until the notification that Developer Options have been enabled pops up. Then back out a step and you'll see it at the bottom of your Settings menu.

2. Make sure you have the Nexus 5 USB Drivers installed on your PC.

3. Double check your Nexus 5 battery is charged, and if not, charge that bad boy!

4. Open the ADB Tools folder on your PC. If you don't have it installed already download ADB Tools here.

5. Ensure Fastboot lives in the ADB Tools folder once you're done installing. If it doesn't, download Fastboot for Windows.

6. Download SuperSU on your PC too.

7. Copy the SuperSU zip file to the root directory of your Nexus 5. To do this, connect your Nexus 5 to your PC with a USB cable and copy the file to the place where all the root folders are: not in a folder.

8. Download ClockworkMod custom recovery to your PC and put it in the Platform Tools directory as well as the modified boot image with the modified kernel patch for Lollipop. Extract the zip file and put the boot.img in the ADB Tools folder.

9. Restart your Nexus 5 in Fastboot. Turn it off, then press and hold Power and Volume Down until you see the Fastboot menu. You should still be connected to the PC with a USB cable.

10. Open a Windows Explorer window and head to the Platform Tools folder.

11. In a blank space in the window, hold Shift and right click your mouse. You'll want to click on Open Command Window Here.

12. Type in the following command:

13. You'll now be rocking ClockworkMod recovery. Next you want to enter the following ADB comand:

14. And now you'll be rocking the modified boot image with custom kernel. Use the volume keys to select Recovery Mode on your Nexus 5 and hit Power to enter it.

15. From CWM, use the volume keys to select ''install zip'' and hit Power to confirm, then select ''choose zip from SD card'' – no prizes for guessing what comes next.

16. Locate the SuperSU zip you copied over earlier (mine appeared in /sdcard/0/Alarms) and press power to confirm your selection, reconfirm and wait until you see the notification at the bottom of the screen that says ''Install from SD card complete''.

17. Back out to the main menu and reboot your Nexus 5. make sure you tell SuperSU to fix root!

18.The first boot may take ages (this is why you charged your battery) – don't freak out. Go have a cup of tea and let it do its thing. Do NOT unplug your phone from your PC or winged monkeys will fly through the window and do all kinds of terrible things to you.

19. Once your Nexus 5 has rebooted, that's it. You're rooted and ready to roll with SuperSU installed and requesting superuser access. Install RootChecker from the Play Store to double check your root status. If you have the gren light you're all sorted.

20. If you get stuck in a bootloop (meaning after a long time your phone still hasn't booted up normally), you can switch it off, reboot into Fastboot, go to Recovery and wipe data, wipe cache partition and reboot again. That should do the trick.
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Android Apps Development Business with New OS Version Android L

As the release of new operating system all of we want to grasp it because definitely it has been arrived with new features. Google recently released the Android L for better Android Apps development  if you have a growing app development business then, it’s necessary to influence the features of new technology.

Android L for Android Apps Development

Everyone have a question in their mind that what about this L OS update? What is the new in this OS update? And why it’s helpful for apps development business? Let’s discuss here about all these questions?

Features:

#Notifications:

This OS update has been arrived with better notifications. Now you will get all your notifications on the lock screen and automatically organize as per priority. You can swipe them or tap to open it. The Notification bar is looking quite different from before.

#Lock Screen

It has been arrived with new lock screen design which shows you notifications. You have to swipe up to unlock the lock screen. Now will get dialer as swipe right and launch camera to swipe left.

#Multi-Tasking

Google carries the card layout styles its completely new in this OS update. This layout will able to show you separate cards for each open tab. So you can manage your multiple tasks easily.

#Security

For every Android users security is a very important thing. In this feature, unlock the smartphone near at other device like Android Wear.

#Battery

Now users can see the all detail battery information from settings menu in the battery section. Now it’s allows developer to identify that how each applications using battery.

All given above features will helps developers to better Android Apps Development. Now developer will make more user friendly application with the help of all these advance features. So what are you waiting for? Grow your business with these new features of Android L like Silicon Valley Mobile App Development Company focusing to build user friendly apps with modern technologies.

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