5.0 Lollipop thoughts.

Most of the time the status bar now changes color to match the app that's in use. Not transparent, but matching.

Should be less stress/processing power.

The KitKat updates were always mostly under the hood, you know that

They might have been mostly under the hood but for those with the Nexus 5 they got tons of extras that the 10 never got. Google made lousy unbelievable excuses to justify them. i am seriously hoping they don't repeat that same crap.

You would think that paying $499 for a Nexus tablet would at least give you the same level of dignity that paying $299 for the 2013 7 would...But if Google continues their track record of non-support for the 10 i'm just about to bin the thing. it's just a paperweight right now, my Galaxy Note 10.1 seems to do everything the 10 was supposed to but without omitted features

I think we have different ideas of what the term 'paperweight' means.

Paperweight as in a device that normally stays shoved away in a dresser drawer forgotten. especially when i have an identical device (10" tablet with same screen resolution) that has all the features intact, whereas Google has infuriated me ever since i got the Nexus 10--they outright refuse to support the blasted thing and make stupid unbelievable excuses to justify the lack of support (KitKat ended up being nothing short of a modified Jelly Bean) despite custom ROM dev proving otherwise. I bought the thing hoping to get all the updates while it's supported, with every feature and not needing to root it to overcome any shortcoming. the KitKat release never had any of the key features, even the performance improvements available.

Now it seems Google, just as i predicted, has omitted a load of good stuff from the 5.0 release for the 10 as well, but leaves all them intact on other devices for no real reason. you think $499 would mean something. the thing has been unsupported for a long time and i don't get it.

If 5.0 ends up being a similar disappointment i will toss it into the garbage--i have no real other use for it. it has horrible battery life, takes forever to recharge, and has none of the benefits KitKat offers, including any of the performance benefits of ART. i'm sure they will probably omit ART as well.

A disappointment? I'll agree with you there. It promised so much, but delivered less. They pushed the thing too hard trying to run that high resolution. They gave up supporting it.

But for people that aren't like me or like you, the tablet probably works just fine for their needs. So I wouldn't call it a paperweight.

At the end of the day Google has their reasons for the decisions made. They cited perfomance issues for the nexus 10 right in the code. Yes, custom ROMs have it, and who knows what else they incorporated to make it run smoothly. I don't have the device so I'm not up to date on that custom ROM scene.

If transparent nav bars are seriously a deal breaker, you are better off selling it. I think that's a little drastic, but its better than sitting in a drawer. There are plenty of people who wont mind the status bar is black.


They can't omit art, as dalvik isn't even a part of lollipop.

Nexus 4 images are up. Probably speaking too soon, but it appears they've given it the Nexus 10 treatment. Black status bars all around. Of course, they neglected transparent bars on 4.4 but included it in an updated built within a week.

Edit: I received bad information. Status bars are transparent/colored.

I flashed lollipop onto my nexus 5.

It's super fast...just as fast as kit-kat or faster. The animations are cool and don't bog things down. The app switcher is much more useful since you can more easily navigate through apps. Apps do not disappear from the app switcher even after your reboot the phone. Not sure how I feel about that. I didn't like they added the chrome browser tabs into the app switcher, but that feature can be disabled which I did.

I really like the lock screen notifications...about damn time they got that feature done right in stock android. You can also swipe into the camera or phone from the lock screen. Again...about damn time. The quick toggles are also easier to access because you just swipe down twice to access them, rather than having to press a button. Ease of access is a common theme throughout lollipop.

I find it kind of weird that there's no actual border in the notification pulldown menu and each notification instead is kind of just "floating" there in a list.

One thing that I've always wanted that google has finally implemented is that now, automatic brightness has a brightness level. So you can set brightness to high, and still have it on auto brightness, and you can set brightness to low, and still have it on auto brightness. So, if you set to to low brightness and autobrightness on, think about it as if the brightness might range from 0 to 30 depending on ambient light. And if you set the brightness to max and turn autobrightness is on, the brightness can range from 70 - 100. I'm just giving an example for the sake of understanding the feature, I don't know the actual ranges.

There also seems to be more advanced volume control when running multiple applications like the music player and navigation at the same time but I haven't really played with this much.

There are some other features that were added, but nothing that really is useful to me.

Can anyone confirm any missing features in the Nexus 10?

nickdalzell said:

The 2012 Nexus 7 wasn't meant to get 5.0. Any lag or problems are expected

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Wasn't meant to get it? ...what source did you get this from?

I'm excited the Nexus 7 2012 is getting the update.. I play Playstation 1 games on it all the time. The notion that two years of age somehow makes these devices ancient and obsolete is complete asinine.

Double44 said:

Wasn't meant to get it? ...what source did you get this from?

I'm excited the Nexus 7 2012 is getting the update.. I play Playstation 1 games on it all the time. The notion that two years of age somehow makes these devices ancient and obsolete is complete asinine.

Click to expand...

But it doesn't have a transparent notification bar, and so it's a "paperweight" and is completely useless to me.

I never said that devices should be obsolete after two years, however, Google does or rather did make official that Nexus devices get 18-months of support. The 2012 Nexus 7 is well out of that window. Many even figured that 4.4.4 was its last update.

Mike, the 2012 Nexus 7 did get transparent bars, despite its hardware being inferior to the hardware in the Nexus 10, proving the performance issues a myth. The Galaxy Note 10.1 has the same resolution and TouchWiz and it has no issue with transparent notification bars. What gets me is that apps have to resize during load to accommodate the bars on the 10 and makes the experience less immersive and takes up screen real estate.

The Nexus 7 did not, as of 4.4.4 have ART or the GEL so with exception to one feature it was as badly loved as the Nexus 10. One would expect buying a Nexus would equate to having the Updates and all features of those updates. If Google wants to eliminate fragmentation they need to start by not fragmenting features on their entire line. Making certain features exclusive to the newest device in the line, stinks of Apple to me.

nickdalzell said:

I never said that devices should be obsolete after two years, however, Google does or rather did make official that Nexus devices get 18-months of support. The 2012 Nexus 7 is well out of that window. Many even figured that 4.4.4 was its last update.

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It seems like they listened to the backlash

Yet ignored the wishes to have all the options in Kitkat delivered to the Nexus 10. Hmm.

One can only hope that 5.0 changes this. But until I get back a week from now to test it out I won't know. Can anyone confirm whether or not the Nexus 7 and 10 have a complete update or does it still look and perform like Jelly Bean?

nickdalzell said:

Mike, the 2012 Nexus 7 did get transparent bars, despite its hardware being inferior to the hardware in the Nexus 10, proving the performance issues a myth. The Galaxy Note 10.1 has the same resolution and TouchWiz and it has no issue with transparent notification bars. What gets me is that apps have to resize during load to accommodate the bars on the 10 and makes the experience less immersive and takes up screen real estate.

The Nexus 7 did not, as of 4.4.4 have ART or the GEL so with exception to one feature it was as badly loved as the Nexus 10. One would expect buying a Nexus would equate to having the Updates and all features of those updates. If Google wants to eliminate fragmentation they need to start by not fragmenting features on their entire line. Making certain features exclusive to the newest device in the line, stinks of Apple to me.

Click to expand...

Google knows way more than any of us about what's going on with the hardware of the nexus 10. They came to the conclusion putting it in would bring down the user experience. I think we can move past that. If its there, its there. If its not, its not. It doesn't make the tablet any more or less useful.

The inclusion of ART for some devices in 4.4x was an experimental preview for developers to make sure their apps would work. Unless you were a developer this isn't an issue. And if you were a developer you could easily install a ROM that had it. Its a non- issue for those that it was there for. I did not use art on my nexus 5. It was there, it was buggy, it wasn't there for everyday use.

GEL can be installed on any device running 4.1+ from the play store. Everyone has that option, regardless if it comes via the OTA.

Let's try to stay looking forward to 5.0 and move past these conversations we've had over and over. Device specific things should be handled in the device specific forum.

For example, this is one of my favorite additions to lollipop:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...-unlock-so-amazing-you-might-actually-use-it/

Face unlock is actually useful now. It doesn't require anymore steps than not using any security lock at all.

My problem with Face Unlock has been that you almost need to be looking into a flood light to get it to recognize you. I hope they fixed it.

bjacks12 said:

My problem with Face Unlock has been that you almost need to be looking into a flood light to get it to recognize you. I hope they fixed it.

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Its worked very well for me so far.

When you set it up you can addultiple shots of different lightings/ect to help it be more accurate

there was also some lack of security with the face unlock feature. couldn't you put up a photograph you took of that face and unlock the device?

I, too, had problems a lot in dimly lit rooms and it just defaulted to the pass code instead 90% of the time. annoying enough to be useless, as when it did work, it took longer than inputting my PIN.

I just run without security, lol.

oh so do i. but i had to try the feature out just to see whether or not it's fun to use, it sadly ended up being nothing short of a gimmick.

I'm amped for the trusted devices, but wish they had also added trusted networks or locations.

I've often thought that any kind of biometric security measures can be insecure, especially when used on their own.

I flashed Lollipop tonight on my N4. So far I'm really liking it. The animations look great and are smoother than ever before. It's currently reinstalling all of my apps(except for ones that I told it to ignore). They have really improved the backup & restore feature.

I can't wait to see how the battery life is.

Face unlock is indeed less secure than a pin, but it warns you of that before setting it up.

If you have things that absolutely must be secure, its not recommended.