I'm really sorry about that. My browser was inserting in the HTML and when I removed them all I replaced them with nothing instead of spaces accidentally.
No worries! DCRussian just couldn't resist being the 1st commentator. But yeah, Tom's Hardware is a joke these days, does anyone even read what they write there anymore?!?! - it's a 'fu, we have adverts and money' attitude there.
"In addition to the above improvements, Android 5.1 has one more notable feature, it's called Device Protection. Similar to Apple's Activation Lock, Device Protection means that a device will remain locked until the owner signs in with their Google account. This lock persists even after a factory reset, which should hopefully make stealing Android smartphones a pointless endeavor for thieves."
Any details on how that will work? Is it based on the "Android ID", which can easily be changed on rooted devices?* Or is it based on something else?
* Boot to custom recovery, format all partitions, install new ROM, boot into ROM and you have a new Android ID. When trying to restore apps via Titanium Backup, you are given the option of restoring the previous ID, or continuing with the new ID.
If you have rooted your phone and have flashed a custom recovery, I think it's reasonable to say that you've voluntarily forgone all built-in security measures. Don't see how this is any different.
What's stopping the thieves from rooting the device to get around the lock? If you say that the lock is supposed to prevent rooting, then realise that most of the time, rooting a device exploits a bug to get root access. This lock had better be bullet proof.
It's not "you've rooted your phone so forget about using this feature"; instead, it's "is this feature useful if a thief can by-pass it by rooting the phone and installing a custom recovery".
HD voice calling, eh? Hmm... this'll be interesting to see on my the N6. Too bad I probably don't have other people who uses a compatible phone to test this with. *sigh*
I'm pretty sure Android 4.0 had HD Voice. My boss and I both had Galaxy Nexus... Nexuses? ... Nexi? And our phone call audio quality was drastically better than anything we experienced calling anyone else.
Is this really a carrier-announcement by proxy? Or is there actually new HD Voice work at play here?
"Another new feature is support for HD voice calls on compatible networks and devices"
What does that mean? I thought AMR-WB (HD voice) was a baseband feature. It was said to be supported on previous Android devices, e.g. the Nexus 4, so how can it be a new feature in Android 5.1?
In practice, support has depended on carriers "switching on" support for a particular device.
It is a disgrace really, because this makes a huge difference to call quality, yet carriers seem to refuse to inter-operate with HD Voice even on a national basis. I would have thought it should be a licence condition that networks must provide HD voice for all capable handsets.
To answer my own question, it seems this is about VoLTE support, where AMR-WB is baked into the standard. Previously, HD Voice calls were a 3G phenomenon.
However, despite it being a standard, it seems that HD Voice calls through VoLTE still will not work between networks until further work is carried out to provide an enabled VOIP path between them.
So we are still a long way from having this stuff just work. I don't know if on-net whitelisting per device will still be an issue with VoLTE - perhaps not, so that could be progress.
NOT seeing much from Google lately. Kitkat was a step up, but Lollipop sucks, nexus 6 too big, Android UI still laggy during any background process, Android apps still wakes the device all day long killing battery.
I would still rather have Windows 7 on the phone. There's still no real multi-tasking on Android, besides Samsung multi-window. Android still kills background processes (even tabs), so there is no real point of having a task switcher that lists everything. Just allow multiple windows, resizeable, draggable, easy switching, and a TASKBAR.
Some of us like our original android version, then the update comes and screws it all. Then they update it again, mostly moving crap around to justify their paychecks. It's a pain. It's not useful. This last time they screwballed the 8 open screen icons and split them from bottom only to bottom and top - I guess they thought either thumb reaching all 8 easily was somehow "now stupid". I shudder to think what the little (expletives) are going to do to screw the next things up.
A new Android release, definition: Software that will never see the light of day beyond Google devices! Seriously, this is one area where the Android 'market' is a joke.
Now I will hear months of bitching on the internet because peeps can't get there update. Ah, but that's what cell phone carriers are best at, screwing their customers.
PLEASE,,,, what is the use of posting Android updates if few, and I mean very few, manufacturers and service providers make them available for most Android phones??? Android Lollipop adoption is around 3% only. Google MUST find a solution to enable updates on phones that meet minimum specifications capable of running the software.
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DCRussian - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
Thought I was on TomsHardware for a second based on all those typos.Brandon Chester - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
I'm really sorry about that. My browser was inserting in the HTML and when I removed them all I replaced them with nothing instead of spaces accidentally.Cellar Door - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
No worries! DCRussian just couldn't resist being the 1st commentator. But yeah, Tom's Hardware is a joke these days, does anyone even read what they write there anymore?!?! - it's a 'fu, we have adverts and money' attitude there.Spoelie - Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - link
But I reckon they had a GTX 960 review?Bobsy - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
I second that.PC Perv - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
Check the author's name.extide - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
Haha, nice Google, trying to steal some of the attention from Apple today.Novacius - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
The annoying memory leak should be fixed. Finally.menting - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
you mean "hopefully"Novacius - Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - link
They marked it as fixed some time ago, so it should be fixed now.Novacius - Sunday, March 15, 2015 - link
Oh god, it's not. But they fixed it now internally, so let's wait again.Pissedoffyouth - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
I get no memory leak on my note 3...tuxRoller - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
Your launcher doesn't have to reload, occasionally?On my n4, n5, and n7 that happens all the time.
Pissedoffyouth - Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - link
Nopephoenix_rizzen - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
"In addition to the above improvements, Android 5.1 has one more notable feature, it's called Device Protection. Similar to Apple's Activation Lock, Device Protection means that a device will remain locked until the owner signs in with their Google account. This lock persists even after a factory reset, which should hopefully make stealing Android smartphones a pointless endeavor for thieves."Any details on how that will work? Is it based on the "Android ID", which can easily be changed on rooted devices?* Or is it based on something else?
* Boot to custom recovery, format all partitions, install new ROM, boot into ROM and you have a new Android ID. When trying to restore apps via Titanium Backup, you are given the option of restoring the previous ID, or continuing with the new ID.
aryonoco - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
If you have rooted your phone and have flashed a custom recovery, I think it's reasonable to say that you've voluntarily forgone all built-in security measures. Don't see how this is any different.Gigaplex - Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - link
What's stopping the thieves from rooting the device to get around the lock? If you say that the lock is supposed to prevent rooting, then realise that most of the time, rooting a device exploits a bug to get root access. This lock had better be bullet proof.phoenix_rizzen - Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - link
You're thinking about it backwards.It's not "you've rooted your phone so forget about using this feature"; instead, it's "is this feature useful if a thief can by-pass it by rooting the phone and installing a custom recovery".
That's why I'm asking for more details.
tuxRoller - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
It's a hardware feature (probably TrustZone related) since only devices that came loaded with lollipop will get it.keitaro - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
HD voice calling, eh? Hmm... this'll be interesting to see on my the N6. Too bad I probably don't have other people who uses a compatible phone to test this with. *sigh*jokeyrhyme - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
I'm pretty sure Android 4.0 had HD Voice. My boss and I both had Galaxy Nexus... Nexuses? ... Nexi? And our phone call audio quality was drastically better than anything we experienced calling anyone else.Is this really a carrier-announcement by proxy? Or is there actually new HD Voice work at play here?
Pissedoffyouth - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
3G HD voice was a big thing, this is VoLTEtuxRoller - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
Prior to this, HD had to be added on a poorer device basis by carriers, aiui. This provides a standard way to achieve the same result.A5 - Monday, March 9, 2015 - link
Ah. I was going to say, I definitely had HDV on my N4 and N5. Just need more people to get supported devices...Klug4Pres - Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - link
"Another new feature is support for HD voice calls on compatible networks and devices"What does that mean? I thought AMR-WB (HD voice) was a baseband feature. It was said to be supported on previous Android devices, e.g. the Nexus 4, so how can it be a new feature in Android 5.1?
In practice, support has depended on carriers "switching on" support for a particular device.
It is a disgrace really, because this makes a huge difference to call quality, yet carriers seem to refuse to inter-operate with HD Voice even on a national basis. I would have thought it should be a licence condition that networks must provide HD voice for all capable handsets.
Klug4Pres - Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - link
To answer my own question, it seems this is about VoLTE support, where AMR-WB is baked into the standard. Previously, HD Voice calls were a 3G phenomenon.However, despite it being a standard, it seems that HD Voice calls through VoLTE still will not work between networks until further work is carried out to provide an enabled VOIP path between them.
So we are still a long way from having this stuff just work. I don't know if on-net whitelisting per device will still be an issue with VoLTE - perhaps not, so that could be progress.
flyingpants1 - Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - link
NOT seeing much from Google lately. Kitkat was a step up, but Lollipop sucks, nexus 6 too big, Android UI still laggy during any background process, Android apps still wakes the device all day long killing battery.I would still rather have Windows 7 on the phone. There's still no real multi-tasking on Android, besides Samsung multi-window. Android still kills background processes (even tabs), so there is no real point of having a task switcher that lists everything. Just allow multiple windows, resizeable, draggable, easy switching, and a TASKBAR.
phatboye - Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - link
So Android 5.0 still have not hit Samsung's other flagship product the Galaxy Note 4 and now Google is releasing 5.1.blzd - Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - link
Is that really a surprise to anyone? It's funny how many manufacturers announced 5.0 support but then haven't released anything in months.DarkMattr - Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - link
My buddies Note 4(Sprint) got the Lolipop update this past Saturday.FlushedBubblyJock - Wednesday, March 11, 2015 - link
Oh great, I'll get hammered soon with it. I bet it's goofy as all get out.FlushedBubblyJock - Wednesday, March 11, 2015 - link
Some of us like our original android version, then the update comes and screws it all.Then they update it again, mostly moving crap around to justify their paychecks.
It's a pain.
It's not useful.
This last time they screwballed the 8 open screen icons and split them from bottom only to bottom and top - I guess they thought either thumb reaching all 8 easily was somehow "now stupid".
I shudder to think what the little (expletives) are going to do to screw the next things up.
Pissedoffyouth - Wednesday, March 11, 2015 - link
You can just decline the update?blzd - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
No one forces you to update.Shiitaki - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
A new Android release, definition: Software that will never see the light of day beyond Google devices! Seriously, this is one area where the Android 'market' is a joke.Now I will hear months of bitching on the internet because peeps can't get there update. Ah, but that's what cell phone carriers are best at, screwing their customers.
stjojeam - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
PLEASE,,,, what is the use of posting Android updates if few, and I mean very few, manufacturers and service providers make them available for most Android phones??? Android Lollipop adoption is around 3% only. Google MUST find a solution to enable updates on phones that meet minimum specifications capable of running the software.