Android 5.1 – SomeGadgetGuy

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. Continue reading “Android 5.1 Brings Better Device Protection for Lost or Stolen Phones and Tablets”

The 5.1 update isn’t a typo. It’s real and it’s already available on entry level Android One devices designed for emerging markets.

In the nomenclature of updates, it’s a fairly large jump from 5.0.2 to a full 5.1, though we don’t have an official changelog on whats included. AndroidPit published a list in December on what was coming in 5.1. They expect we’ll see the Silent Mode return alongside improvements to performance, RAM utilization, and radio management.

It’s just somewhat odd that Google would launch a decimal point update like this with virtually zero fanfare, though it’s interesting to see what phones Google selected first to receive the new software. Android One is one of the few areas that Google can almost completely control the software experience on a smartphone. It’s an area where even the Nexus experiment can falter when carriers get involved in support. Continue reading “Google Quietly and Oddly Pushes Lollipop 5.1 Update to Android One Devices”