Tastier Lollipops for chosen few as Google releases Android 5.1 Android 5.1 is upon us! Google has announced the updated operating system's release in the usual bloggy way. There's not an awful lot to get excited about in this release, which adds multiple SIM support, high-definition voice and less-labyrinthine menus for accessing functions like connecting to WiFi networks. The headline …
I highly recommend downloading f-droid. It is a repo of the GPL stuff for android.
Disable google sync, setup your own "owncloud".
Get textsecure and redphone (courtesty of Phil Zimmerman's work).
GPGguard , create a mobile key.
This may help...
This is my first android too, so opinions may change....!
P.
That is also what I did other than having to sideload a few apps like Roku. The question is Google going to push harder and make it more difficult to use Android without a Google account. There are ways they could really gimp AOSP going forward (such as moving more new features into their cloud or perhaps in the future with kdbus writing internal code they don't have to release).
its quite straightforward to reflash with an older stock ROM if you want to revert to an older version
https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images
Only downside is that you will lose all user data and settings
If this is performance I saw something similar. Before: snappy and a joy to use; post-update: sluggish to the point of wanting to take a hammer to it.
Advice like cache-clearing didn't do much. However, the boot-up factory reset did work. Slight pain having to re-enter credentials for apps (and I know Google do back-up some, if you use that) but it's now as pleasant as it was before.
I don't justify having to do this but it worked here and spousal approval restored. YMMV.
Not that any of the binaries on Google past 4.0 actually work. They include a broken bootloader from Asus which bricks your device nicely. There is a workaround (I have 5.0.1 on mine), but it is ugly and not doucmented.
So I will wait until they post it and it becomes usable via normal device update.
GS4 has 5.0.1, but it's just not released in all regions yet. Using Odin and a copy of the Czech unlocked image I've updated my Singapore sourced S4 i9506 without losing any settings - and yes everything is in proper UK-English with correct regional settings, and all seems to function fine - with better power consumption too.
... this really is the worst aspect of it, waiting not just for the handset maker but also the network (depending on your device) to bother to update it.
And my 2012 Nexus 7 has slowed to a crawl as I stupidly assumed that Google had tested its impact on on the Nexus devices before pushing it out. The upside is I did manage to use it as an excuse with The Boss to let me buy a Z3 Compact tablet which is great and give the Nexus to my son as a dedicated Minecraft tablet :)
"waiting not just for the handset maker but also the network (depending on your device) to bother to update it."
It's worse than that. I always buy my devices directly, not through the networks. I had to watch as each network OKed the software update and rolled it out. Only once every network was happy with the new version, did the stock manufacturer version get the update.
A 2012 Nexus 7 owner here too.
It felt quite nippy under 4.x, but 5.x (latest release for the Nexus 7) has slowed it to a crawl :-/
Factory resets etc don't fix anything,
My LG G Pad 8.3 (budget/mid range tablet), absolutely wipes the floor with it, but is only on 4.4 (no roll out of 5.x by LG yet).
N7 currently relegated to being a remote control for the Sky planner.
Even the GF refuses to use it, she'd rather use the smaller screen on her phone, than put up with the treacle, that is using the GUI on the Nexus 7.
Might have a look at Cyanogenmod if Google can't get their act together for their own device!
As a consequence of Google's poor updates for the 2012 N7 - after upgrading to 5.0.1 my three year old who loved playing games on mine, got so frustrated with the lag that he threw it across the room and smashed the screen and touch membrane. That's one way of having to get a new tablet, but it won't be a new Nexus - way too expensive.
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Has 5.1 allowed us to get the black background back for texts etc? That was the worst thing about 5.0 - forcing a WHITE background which is just horrid to use at night, Oh, and removing the usual way to put the phone on silent or not-silent. And there's nothing new in 5.0 that I actually wanted.
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