Google Launches Android L

Google Launches Android L  !!!

Just few days back, Google completed its annual conference, aptly named Google I/O 2014. This event was a much awaited event  for thousands of people. From developers to competitors, everyone was curious to know what
Google’s coming up with next. And as expected by many, Google launched its next-gen Android version, the “Android L”. Many consider this to be Google’s most daring and ambitious upgrade of its best selling operating system till date; no doubt Google has completely reinvented Android’s user interface.

It has features akin to iOS 7 and Windows Phone 8. The new Android L features brand new colors, newer notification options and design guidelines. Head of Android’s Design team, Matias Duarte unveiled the astonishingly refreshing new look of L. 

Android L heavily depends on a new design language appropriately named ‘Material Design’. It brings shadows, subtle textures and brighter colors to your Android enabled Smartphone. Material design is a one stop interface for a smartphone, smartwatch, tablet or even a TV.

Google has also focused on performance. This would be the first version of Android that uses the ‘ART’ architecture instead of the successful Dalvik as its runtime environment.

This could prove to be a boon for Android Developers because of the improved battery life and performance that surpasses  its predecessors. The new OS has battery life enhancements and related power saving modes that will offer all its users more elemental control over the processes that consume more power.

By releasing this updated version of their best-selling operating system, the Android L, Google wants to have more control over the system while maintaining a perfect balance between keeping the OS open and guarded. Google has improved the malware protection as well as the much maligned OS updates feature for security and patches. Google reports that they will be releasing updates every six weeks

Google has made a preview version of the Android L available only to developers as of now. Plans are on to get the consumer version ready by September this year.

The features and changes in the new Android L are as follows:

New Look UI

The very first noticeable thing about the new operating system is that it is quite different to Android 4.4.

Google Android has come up with a new and improved interface and named it Material. It looks much more vibrant than the current Android 4.4, and it makes use of many interfaced layers. This is quite different from recent trends in UI designing, which usually depended heavily on making interfaces as flat and simple as possible. Android’s Material may be a simple UI, but it’s now way flat.

Redesigned Navigational Keys

The designs of the navigational buttons which form a key part of Android have been changed as well. Although their functions remain same but the look seems to have been based on a PlayStation controller. A triangle, circle and square do manage, strangely enough, to encompass what each of the soft keys are for well enough, though. And the extra simplicity of this is no doubt all a part of the Material look.

More Sync between tablets, phones and PCs

Google is keen to big-up that the Material look is going to be fairly consistent between phones, tablets, desktops and laptops. It wants to offer that smooth cross-platform feel that you get when you really buy into the Apple universe, with an iPhone, iPad and MacBook.

Of course, on the PC front Google is only really going to have access to the Chrome interface – it can’t reskin Microsoft’s Windows. But the look on a laptop isn’t a million miles removed from the tiles of Windows 8.

Dynamic ‘heads up’ notifications

Another element of Android 5.0 L that we’ve seen in some third-party Android interfaces is head-up notifications. These pop-up on top of whatever you’re doing, meaning you don’t have to go to an app or drag down the notifications bar to find out what’s going on when your phone beeps.

It seems highly likely that you’ll have control over what apps can send you these pop-up notifications. As otherwise they’ll become very, very annoying.

New lock screen notifications

Notifications also have a real spot on the lock screen. And, again, this is something that has been common for some time in many custom Android interfaces.

Each notification shows up as a little bar across the screen in high-contrast fashion, making them super-clear. It looks as though four different notifications has be displayed on the lock screen at once on a normal-size phone.

3D multitasking

A minor visual tweak of Android 5.0 L is the new multitasking menu. It still shows your ‘recent’ apps, but rather than being displayed as a 2D scroll of apps, it’s now a 3D cascade of app tiles.

It looks quite similar to the tabs screen of the Chrome browser for Android – no surprise there. The look of the Android take is better, though – sharper, simpler and with good use of those new realtime shadows.

64-bit CPU support

One new feature we knew was coming – support for 64-bit CPUs. As 64-bit CPUs clearly designed to work with Android devices have already been officially announced, this one was obvious.

As well as letting many more instructions take place simultaneously, having a 64-bit CPU really lifts the lid on how much RAM Android phones/tablets can actually make use of. With a 32-bit processor the limited address space means that only so much RAM memory can be accessed at once.

Improved GPU support

Google has improved the coding of Android’s execution of graphics, allowing for much more advanced visuals. It has been dubbed an ‘extension pack’, and will finally make top-end processors start to make a bit more sense.

The extension pack enables tesselation, geometry shaders, computer shaders and ASTC texture compression. The latter is an advanced image compression algorithm that will allow for highly effective reduction in the size of art assets.

ART runtime is in

Android 5.0 L switches over to the ART runtime. If you’ve read our Android 4.4 tips and tricks article you’ll know that this is something people with recent Android phones have been able to try out for themselves for a while.

At present Androids use the Dalvik runtime as standard. ART is significantly quicker, but uses a bit more storage space for apps. It’s a fair trade off in our opinion.

Smartwatch as authentication

One of the funkiest little additions in Android 5.0 L is a new way to bring your phone out of standby securely. Android Wear watches will work as an authentication tool, meaning you won’t need a password to unlock your phone if you’re wearing your watch. We’re not quite sure yet exact what tech is used to do this. But it is neat.

BUT, of course, if you get mugged your attacker is probably going to nick your Android smartwatch as well as your shiny new Galaxy S6 mobile phone. But it should at least stop your friends from being able to tweet on your behalf should you nip of to the lav for a minute.

Support for USB audio

One of the new APIs of Android 5.0 L is USB audio. This means you’ll be able to transmit digital audio right from a phone’s microUSB port, bypassing the DAC stage used when you listen through a headphone jack.

What will this mean? It opens up an Android phone to being a genuine audiophile source when paired with a decent outboard USB DAC, and could mean we start to see USB headphones – something Apple is rumoured to be working on through Beats. The Nexus 5 supported USB audio output, but it is not native to all Android 4.4 devices.

Battery efficiency optmisation

Android 5.0 L gets some new battery features, including a reworked Battery Saver mode. Android 4.4 falls well behind the competition in this respect – where phones like the Galaxy S5 have extreme power-saving modes on tap, the basic Android 4.4 battery saver is rather rudimentary.

The lock screen will also tell you how long your phone will take to charge when plugged in – a clever little tweak that seems so obvious now it’s in place.

Bluetooth 4.1 support

Android 5.0 L offers native support for Bluetooth 4.1. Top-end phones have Bluetooth 4.0 these days, but what’s the difference?

Bluetooth 4.1 doesn’t clash with 4G signal like Bluetooth 4.0, and it gives manufacturers much more control over the timeout times of the connection. This gives much more scope for controlling power consumption. Bluetooth 4.1 also improves connectivity, letting Bluetooth peripherals talk to each other more easily.

Here is a video showcasing the ‘Material Design’ interface of the Android L

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