Either wanting to annoy Apple, or really hoping to attract attention to itself, the search corporation, the day before the presentation of a new line of “apple” tablets (that is, yesterday), quietly introduced the fifth generation of its mobile OS, and at the same time a number of devices, including a game console, that will work on it.
Until they ran ahead, I’ll tell you about a small incident. Being a witness of such a case right on the eve of its own presentation, Apple arranged for information about the new iPa d to be leaked. But, to be honest, the drain against the background of the new “androids” turned out to be quite faded.
And now, actually, to the new system.
Android 5.0, like all previous versions of the platform, received a “sweet” name – Lollipop (lollipop). This is the largest OS update since December 2011, when the first “four” was released – Ice Cream Sandwich, which survived two major iterations – Jelly Bean and KitKat, which proved that Android can not lag (by the way, iOS 8 has also been released since then, demonstrating that iOS is capable of hanging and glitches). Google announced 5,000 (!) new APIs for developers.
Among the main:
- New Android Runtime – ART (was introduced back in Android 4.4 as optional, now it’s default);
- A completely updated user interface, it is now built around dynamic material design, which developers, according to the idea, should and can easily implement into their applications so that they look like part of the ecosystem;
- Changes in alerts (now they can be sorted and distributed into groups, and they can also be assigned priority and different types of behavior);
- One application can now leave multiple tasks in the Recents screen;
- Support for OpenGL ES 3.1 (plus not its framework anymore – tessellation, geometric shaders, ASTC);
- Access to detailed information about battery usage by users;
- Ability to block alerts in the app;
- Full support for 64-bit devices.
A detailed list of innovations can be found here.
The “five” SDK will be available from October 17.
As for the new gadgets, there are three of them.
First, the new Nexus under the serial number six. It is released by Motorola. Externally, it definitely looks better than the latest generation of Apple phones, although without revolutions – a large shovel with a 5.96-inch screen and a resolution of 1440×2560 pixels. They say 15 minutes of charging will last him for six hours. The price for it will start at $649.
Secondly, the 8.9-inch Nexus 9 tablet from HTC. Unlike the first Google tablets, it does not please with a democratic price – it starts at $ 399. Apparently, the company realized that it would not be possible to do it cheaper than the Chinese. Well, it’s clear that HTC has never done budget things.
Thirdly, and this is the most interesting thing, Google is launching its own TV set-top box for sale, which will not only stream movies on the most popular services, but also download games from the Play Store and play them using the original gamepad from Asus, which looks like an Xbox gamepad.
Actually, after all this, I don’t know how I can look at Apple’s presentation today without skepticism. Everything is too delicious at Google. On the other hand, we all know perfectly well that Google’s own devices, unlike the “apple” company, are not particularly able to sell, and they do not particularly strive. So everything she presents every year is, rather, samples for those companies that produce devices running Android.