
Android 5.0 Lollipop reviewed - jonathansizz
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/11/android-5-0-lollipop-thoroughly-reviewed/?
======
buro9
Received the calendar app this morning, it is a major step-backwards.

What was once a killer app, a core productivity tool, has given way to an
almost unusable interface.

It is now really hard to perform some tasks.

For example, I am a heavy calendar user and I have something in the calendar
almost every day. It is now extremely difficult to answer the question: When
is a three hour window free in the next month or two?

That used to be a single glance at the month view which communicated to me
full day events, part-of-day events, and for the latter which part of the day
and how long the event took. A single glance at month view could answer it and
I could move forward backwards to glance at the next/prev month.

Old:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/kiic7fdrmu65172/2014-11-13%2006.56...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/kiic7fdrmu65172/2014-11-13%2006.56.24.png?dl=0)
(October 2014 in the old v4.4 Calendar app)

To achieve it now, I'd need to use the 5 day view, and for each 5 day segment
to scroll up and down as even on my Moto X (2014) I cannot view more than half
of the working day.

New:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/pgqbhnc1ifp02a9/2014-11-13%2006.56...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/pgqbhnc1ifp02a9/2014-11-13%2006.56.51.png?dl=0)
(October 2014 in the new v5 Calendar app)

Gone is the ability to use Calendar on the phone as the core way to organise
your life, it is essentially now unusable on the phone for anything other than
a near-term agenda/itinerary.

All of the new Gmail/Inbox to Calendar features? Dead to me, all of my
accounts are Google Hosted accounts and none of the Google Now, Gmail, or
Inbox integrations with Calendar work on Google Hosted accounts.

~~~
sleepyhead
"Received the calendar app this morning, it is a major step-backwards _for
me_." FTFY.

~~~
yhlasx
I think this is what people overlook most of the time. I did not use the
calendar app because it was overloaded with things that were completely
unnecessary for ME. Now, it is much simpler, might start using it.

Majority of their users probably are better off with the new calendar app, so
they readjusted it for a better fit. If it turns out this is not the case,
they will change it further, maybe bring some old functionalities back.

They focus on what will please majority of their users, as any other company
would and should, not their power users.

~~~
userbinator
_I did not use the calendar app because it was overloaded with things that
were completely unnecessary for ME. Now, it is much simpler, might start using
it._

What's wrong with just ignoring the features you don't need (yet)? All
software has a learning curve. The more you use it, the more features you
should discover and find useful. Trying to flatten the learning curve by
removing features (or making it much harder to discover them) just keeps more
users from ever advancing beyond the "novice" stage, because there isn't all
that much more to discover.

Power users became power users because they explored and discovered more
functionality, and this is because they were motivated to explore in the first
place; extremely simplified UIs reduce much of this motivation, which results
in less power users - and eventually developers. Maybe "we don't want power
users and want them to disappear" is their goal (I hope not but wouldn't be
surprised if it implicitly is), but this constant trend of lowest-common-
denominator dumbing-down apps is, in the long term, not beneficial to anyone.

Software should have defaults that make it easy to use initially for the
beginner, but it should also encourage growth of the user's knowledge. Instead
we get software that's easy to use initially - and then effectively stunts
their growth, and all the aesthetics they throw at it cannot compensate for
functionality. I think it's really quite sad; although if you believe in the
theory that Google is aiming to take away user's control over their devices
and replace it with Google's, then it makes a lot of sense to keep users as
blissfully ignorant as possible. ("You can't easily check your schedule
anymore... but look, we gave you beautiful rounded buttons!")

From the parent:

 _is essentially now unusable on the phone for anything other than a near-term
agenda /itinerary._

Looking at the way it doesn't even show the year anymore, "near-term" is
right!

------
bane
Pure conjecture, but at some point, Android is basically just going to be the
Kernel and a distribution medium. Everything else will come from the Play
store, the GUI, device drivers, the fonts, the apps, the clock, core APIs, the
runtime, _everything_ and the OS will simply move to rolling partial updates.
Version x simply won't be meaningful anymore and the kernel can stay static
for years and years.

This is a great future that honestly wouldn't have happened if it weren't for
the fragmentation and slow update issue that carriers and device manufacturers
created. It's like trying to grab toothpaste once it's out of the tube. The
harder you squeeze, it simply finds another crack in your hand to go out of.

Material is also fantastic, almost joyful to use. It almost nails the flat-
with-a-dash-of-skeu that Microsoft and Apple have both missed. There's still a
few too flat bits here and there, but it's a great place to be.

~~~
e12e
How is it great? You'll be stuck with all decisions Google make for their
average user, weather you want or not. In fact, once they lock down the user-
land, what's to stop them from moving to a FreeBSD derived kernel, and we'll
be left with only Mozilla (and maybe Canonical) trying to provide a viable
open platform?

At least for now, it's possible to access/install the play store even if
you're running a cyanogen build -- I'm not convinced that'll last, but we'll
see.

~~~
bane
I've been giving this lots of thought recently, with all the changes to
Android. I frankly don't really care all that much about the politics behind
open/closed software. It's almost never been a deciding factor for me and I've
been bit and blessed about as many times by stuff from either camp. I also
know that _right_ now and in the near future, if Google completely closed
source Android _today_ , it wouldn't impact me in the slightest because
there's really only two viable mobile OSs at the moment, neither of which I
spend any time mucking around with the source on -- and neither of them are
built by Mozilla.

I think what I care more about is accessibility. How easy is it for me to
build stuff on their platform? Google makes it really easy, Apple makes it
really easy. There's a healthy debate as to who makes it easier, but in the
end it's not about openness it's about accessibility. If Google replaced their
kernel with the most locked down closed source kernel ever conceived tomorrow,
but made no other changes, it wouldn't impact that in any way.

And that's what I, and to be honest _most_ developers care about, getting
stuff done, which is what accessibility is all about.

------
click170
Just a quick skim through, lots of neat features but it doesn't look like
there's a lot of privacy-oriented ones, which is rather disappointing.

I was really hoping they would bring back whatever API made it possible for
things like AppOps Launcher to allow you to prevent other apps from accessing
things like your contacts, account listing, or location. I was hoping that
when they took it away it was because it was intended for release in a future
version, but we've yet to see it since.

~~~
kijin
AppOps is still alive, though you'll need root in order to access it.

The problem with coarse-grained control like AppOps is that it can cause apps
to malfunction or even outright crash when they try to use permissions that
you revoked. This is probably not the kind of behavior that Google would like
to enable for the average user.

Personally, I'd prefer a subtler (but possibly more draconian) approach, such
as exposing a fake or empty contact list to apps that want my contacts;
exposing some random location in the middle of nowhere to apps that want my
location; and exposing a fake or empty folder to apps that want my pictures.
Grant access to my messages, but never actually notify them when a new message
comes in. Grant access to my microphone, but only ever feed them silence. Poor
apps will not even suspect that anything is amiss! Is there any way right now
to do something like this on rooted phones?

~~~
surreal
The CyanogenMod OS has this built in. Very similar to what you describe
(provides empty contact list, empty folder etc to apps you specify). Don't
know if there's a standalone app to do the same.

------
m_mueller
As an iOS user since the 3GS, I have to say this is the first time I find
Android to look significantly _better_ and more usable than iOS, which IMO has
regressed since iOS 7.

How is the situation with backups and restores nowadays? If I'd have to redo
all my settings when switching from an Android to another Android phone in
2016, I'd be pretty sad. I'd even be willing to restrict myself to Nexus
devices if that makes a difference.

Oh, also, are there any good Nexus phones with dual simcards? That would be a
major reason for me to switch over.

~~~
sleepyhead
As a recent convert from 3GS (yes iOS6) to Sony Xperia Z3 Compact I strongly
disagree. There is so much weirdness in Android that I don't even know where
to begin. A big chunk of it is the ecosystem though but Google is to blame
here as well. Mainly for the lack of privacy (seems like 70% of apps I try to
install wants access to my contacts at install-time. And the design. Oh god
how many ugly things in the Play Store). The openness is Android isn't an
openness in practice. You would assume CalDAV and CardDAV would be a native
feature like in iOS. Nope. You would assume you could uninstall non-critical
apps. Nope. You would think 1Password could integrate itself to Chrome like on
iOS? Nope. The back button is a story in itself. Go back? Exit app? Go to
another app? The russian roulette back button got you covered. The way of
selecting text in various places is also implemented in a similar mysterious
way. And then you have whoever made the phone (Sony in my case) adding shit.
Not only apps but core behaviours. When I long press on the home button Sony
decided that Google Now could be easily available. Which is useful. But also
they have Sony Whats New which is some weird little app that showcases some
various content for sale from Sony. On the main button on the screen.

I can totally understand why people for various reasons would like not be in
Apple's walled garden or don't like how Apple things work. But Android is a
very poor alternative. It doesn't give us the truly open system that we as
users deserve. It has a horrible broken ecosystem in regards to privacy,
design and annoyance (ads, ads everywhere). Google enforces their own products
beyond just "hey look at this cool youtube thing" in a way that is much beyond
what Apple does.

Yes I do really like stuff Apple produces but was really looking forward to
use an open mobile OS. But the whole experience with Android and Google has
left me very negative to use anything from Google again.

~~~
Brakenshire
> seems like 70% of apps I try to install wants access to my contacts at
> install-time

How does iOS handle this?

~~~
m_mueller
Not parent, but: it asks for every permission separately at runtime (on first
time usage). That might seem a hassle, but IMO it's much better this way. Apps
tend to be much more conservative in order to not disturb their users too much
with permission questions, and they also have fallback modes for every
permission that's not critical - a Maps app will still work without location
data for example.

~~~
wlesieutre
To give an example, consider a document scanning app that has a feature where
you can sign up for a DocuScans account and use it to share scanned documents
with other people who use the same app.

A useless feature, as far as I'm concerned. But on Android, the app will
demand access to all of my contacts at install time, just in case I ever
wanted to use it. And then I have no idea what else they might be doing with
it.

On iOS, the app doesn't have permission to get my contacts until it asks for
it. Using Dropbox for your scanned documents instead of the DocuScans sharing
system? Then the app will never request permission to access your contacts.

------
rezistik
"Android 5.0 Lollipop is at least the biggest update since Android 4.0"

Isn't that how versioning works generally?

~~~
thezilch
I took it to mean that 4.x to 5.0 has been the biggest major-to-major update.

~~~
mitchell209
Yeah it's obvious what they meant, but they probably could have worded it
better.

------
ot
This paragraph made me smile:

> Since Dalvik only compiled at runtime, the compiled code was never written
> to _disk_. [...] This would lead to a lot of _disk_ thrashing [...] Since
> ART is already compiled, the compiled code can be paged out to _disk_

(emphasis mine)

It's funny that we still call _disk_ any slower, non-volatile memory (and it's
even funnier to imagine an Android phone with an actual disk).

------
BorisMelnik
This is an extremely thorough review. Tough to say anything negative. Huge fan
of Google Material design and have been using a lot of it for my native app
designs, and my users have frigging loved it. Also transferring a lot of this
into desktop (web) design as well and getting lots of great feedback.

~~~
Larrikin
I like Material design a lot too, but I don't like how branding is mostly done
through colors now with no icon in the action bar. Since everything is flat
now, it makes all apps look too similar to each other.

------
dingaling
One of the most significant changes in 5.0 is the new Camera API, which will
introduce two major benefitting photographers:

1\. Ability to change exposure settings without purging the imaging pipeline,
making exposure bracketing and high-FPS shooting faster and better.

2\. RAW capture; phone lenses are improving but will always be limited on
account of their dimensions, so having the RAW is even more important in
trying to improve images than in a compact camera. Every little helps...

Looking forward to camera apps that take advantage of these new features.

------
e12e
"Devices that ship with Android 5.0 are encrypted out of the box. If you set a
lock screen, you're given the option to require a security challenge before
the device turns on. Enable this and a PIN, pattern, or password prompt will
come up even before the boot animation. After you pass authentication, the
device decrypts the data partition and mounts it, allowing the device to fully
boot."

Good news. Not sure if I think it is good news that you can pair the
(presumably ok) encryption with face-unlock... though. Seems like it's not
possible to (easily) brute force a disk-image off-line any more at least:

[http://blog.kaspersky.com/full-disk-encryption-
android-5/](http://blog.kaspersky.com/full-disk-encryption-android-5/)

“In addition to enabling FDE out of the box, Android L is expected to include
hardware protection for disk encryption keys, as well as hardware acceleration
for encrypted disk access,” Elenkov concludes. “These two features should make
FDE on Android both more secure and much faster.”

Now we'll just have to wait for the source code, to see if this will be usable
by all "tenants" on Android hardware... I hope so -- I'd love to be able to
drop to a simpler unlock key, knowing that it's eg: set to self-
destruct/severely rate-limit after N tries.

~~~
SloopJon
In 4.x, the decryption password is the same as the unlock PIN. I'm hoping it's
possible in 5.x to separate the two, so that the password can be stronger than
the PIN.

~~~
AlyssaRowan
It actually never had to be; if you're rooted you can set it fr the command
line.

[http://niki.hammler.net/wiki/Android_Device_Encryption](http://niki.hammler.net/wiki/Android_Device_Encryption)

However, please note that I have not yet reviewed Android 5.x's FDE.

~~~
e12e
Thank you for that. Right now I'm running stock Samsung rom on my Note 3
(thought I'd wait for cyanogen to mix it up with 5.0 before flashing). But at
least then there is another option than what I do now, basically a compromise
that combines the worst of both worlds: a password/phrase that is too long to
be convenient to type in to unlock, and probably too weak to offer real
security, assuming the encryption key is generated via a straightforward
derivation (not sure if there is any decent stretching involved?).

Either way, for a device like a phone, I'm pretty sure TPM is the way to go.
Alternatively a strong pass-phrase to unlock/boot, and a hard limit on
attempts to unlock the lock screen before the device turns itself off (or at
least "guarantees" that the disk is unmounted and the key wiped from ram...).

------
antman
The most important feature: Full access to the SD card has been reenabled for
apps after the public outcry[0].

    
    
      Updates:
            Status: Released
            Labels: Restrict-AddIssueComment-Commit
    
      Comment #4444 on issue 67570 by jshar...@android.com:     Android 4.4 Samsung Galaxy s4 external sd card is now read only, Remove or option to edit non app files.
      https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=67570
    
      Hey all, in KitKat we introduced APIs that let apps   read/write file in app-specific directories on secondarystorage devices, such as SD cards.
    

We heard loud and clear that developers wanted richer access beyond these
directories, so in Lollipop we added the new ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT_TREE intent.
Apps can launch this intent to pick and return a directory from any supported
DocumentProvider, including any of the shared storage supported by the device.
Apps can then create, update, and delete files and directories anywhere under
the picked tree without any additional user interaction. Just like the other
document intents, apps can persist this access across reboots.

This gives apps broad, powerful access to manage files while still involving
the user in the initial selection process. Users may choose to give your app
access to a narrow directory like “My Vacation Photos,” or they could pick the
top-level of an entire SD card; the choice is theirs.

To make it easy for developers to transition to these new APIs, there’s a new
DocumentFile support library class. It looks and feels just like a traditional
java.lang.File object, which makes it easy to adapt existing code:

[http://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v4/pr...](http://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v4/provider/DocumentFile.html)

These new APIs aren’t just limited to shared storage; they can be used with
any DocumentsProvider that adds support for Root.FLAG_SUPPORTS_IS_CHILD, such
as the advanced Vault example:

[https://android.googlesource.com/platform/development/+/andr...](https://android.googlesource.com/platform/development/+/android-5.0.0_r2/samples/Vault/src/com/example/android/vault/VaultProvider.java#258)

If you're an end user, please reach out to app developers to ask them to start
using these new APIs. With these new rich APIs in place, this issue is
considered fixed.

[0]
[https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=67570](https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=67570)

~~~
on_and_off
I still feel that offering desktop style access to the file system is a
mistake. The file system is way too complex for a normal user and since
developers can put files almost anywhere it is usually a total mess. I would
much largely prefer a personal sandbox for each app : their own folder in
Android/packageName like they can optionally use right now. On top of that,
add an API to grant access to shared folders for music/photos/documents/misc
files.

------
clay_to_n
Good review. I really love Material, and would place it above iOS 8's design
guidelines after using and developing apps for both.

However, there are some inconsistencies - besides the Calendar app heavily
described here, the Contacts app on my Nexus 7 has some weird design choices.

Firstly, when viewing a contact, there is no back button in the top left - you
need to use the system back button, or drag the card down. Secondly, when
adding a new contact, the checkmark button is in the top left, and to discard
you need to go to the top right overflow settings button, and choose discard
changes (the only option in the overflow). Completely counterintuitive (top
left for Create, top right for discard), and the opposite of the Gmail app's
Compose window (which uses the standard layout).

------
DaveWalk
I have tried to port my IMAP email accounts into the new GMail. As far as I
can tell, there's still no support for IDLE and the phone constantly suggests
a "sync time" for my accounts. I guess my phone checking for mail every
1/5/15/30 minutes shouldn't bother me with the new job scheduling upgrades
etc. but it does feel half baked.

I'm happy to go back to the K-9 Mail derived apps which I've always used...but
I was hoping that the new GMail design would be easy on the eyes (since I
spend much of my phone time reading e-mail). Then again, now that I think of
it there's no real "archive" support for non-GMail accounts in the GMail app
either, so maybe it's more of a hack.

------
dav43
just my 2 cents, but my biggest grips are still no universal search, ala
spotlight; and privacy controls for each app, for each function. If they fixed
those i'd switch.

(and no, i don't want to have to download other apps, tweak this and that to
achieve the desired outcome. It should be standard)

~~~
WaterSponge
Universal search (once a part of Android) has long been stripped out due to
patent issues with Apple.

The app permissions system on Android is all or nothing. Which I think would
benefit from a more rigorous approval process. All the access is disclosed
though before install.

Glad the world has options.

~~~
ProCynic
Rather ironic that someone has an advantage over Google for universal search.

~~~
higherpurpose
Unlike Apple, Google isn't so keen on enforcing its patents. Do you really
think Google doesn't have _hundreds_ of search related patents that they could
use against anything Apple does with search, including Siri?

Personally I _prefer_ them not doing anything like that, though, because I'd
like them to stay out of this vicious patent war circle. But it's a shame that
means the war has to be one-sided. Apple and others can fire at them, but they
can't fire back.

------
felixrieseberg
I am one of those people who always felt that Android didn't look nearly as
good as it was feature-loaded. Feeling that I could always do pretty much
anything with a powerful Android phone, I'm happy to see Google taking a
serious big swing at design.

------
clhodapp
In my opinion, the level of stretching and radially-wiping animations in
material design is completely at odds with Google's claim that the central
metaphor is paper/cards. While I like most of their redesigned applications
rather a lot, even if I try to force myself to see them as sheets of paper, I
cannot, as the widgets actually behave almost nothing like paper.

~~~
GeneralMayhem
That's why it's a metaphor, not a strict skeumorphism.

The core ideas taken from the concept of "paper" are stacking, layering,
print-design-style blocks of color, and the idea that things can be shuffled
and moved but cannot instantly appear and disappear in/out of thin air. That
doesn't mean it's literally trying to be a pile of looseleaf, just that it's
mimicking those abstract concepts from the real world in an attempt to make
the interface intuitive and less "magical" (in the negative sense).

------
wernerb
Good review, I agree on all points! But no mention of the new keyboard design
where the borders surround the letters have been removed. On my Nexus 5 I am
making significantly more typos than usual. Anyone else notice this?

------
Kiro
How is the lag? Still a lot of stuttering everywhere?

~~~
jordanthoms
Better. Flawless almost everywhere, couple of places which can still drop a
frame or two in specific situations - but iPhones do that too.

~~~
Kiro
Thanks. Sounds great!

------
cweiss
Maybe not the place to ask, but why is Calculator part of the core OS?

