Trying to steal a few headlines from Apple today, Google officially and publicly announced Android Lollipop 5.1.
Alongside bug fixes and performance improvements, Android 5.1 brings a much improved security with Device Protection. We’ve detailed Device Manager in the past, which can be used to locate a missing phone or wipe it clean in the event it’s stolen.
Device Protection now includes the ability to lock a device to your Google ID. Even after wiping and hard resetting a phone, Android will require you to enter in your Google account password before the phone can be used again. This follows recent state legislation in California and Minnesota mandating a “Kill Switch” on phones. The idea being a stolen phone will be far less valuable if it’s essentially a brick without the victim’s password. I’m very excited to see this feature implemented on Android handsets, as Apple devices already have this style of protection built in for a little while now.
Also on tap will be built in support for high definition voice calling on cell phone carriers which support that feature.
Some nice features coming down the pipe, though Android 5.0 is still on woefully few handsets, we have to wonder what the 5.1 roll out will look like as we wait for manufacturers and carriers to start utilizing these new features. You can read Google’s full PR below.
Android 5.1: Unwrapping a new Lollipop update
Whether you want to share your phone with a family member or better manage your mobile costs, Android Lollipop 5.1 now lets you use more than one SIM card on a device with multiple SIM slots.