News & Reviews:   Android L

ASUS recently scheduled the Android L or Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the ASUS ZenFone 4, ZenFone 5, ZenFone 6, ZenFone 5 LTE and PadFone S for the end of April 2015. Now with the end of April set for today, a new schedule has been released today revealing that an OTA schedule starting with the ZenFone 5 LTE A500KL in the beginning of May 2015 and ending with the PadFone S PF500KL in the beginning of June. Bear in mind that the schedule could change again, but this should give all those ZenFone and PadFone S users in Malaysia an idea of when to expect the latest Android L update. Incidentally, the Android 5.0 Lollipop update has already been rolled out for the ASUS MeMO Pad 7 ME572C/CL so ASUS tablet users should expect their sweet upgrades soon.

ndroid 5.0 was officially announced yesterday at the Google I/O event. While it still hasn't got it's official codename, the codename will start with L. The current Android version is still at Android 4.4 KitKat, so a jump to 5.0 should bring quite a lot of changes and improvements. While new features are on the way, the most notable features and improvements include:

• Flatter Material Design interface: The new Android will look flatter with practically every element including the navigation keys being changed. Colours are more pastel and the overall design is flatter for a softer but more comfortable look. More animation will also be included. This design will be applied to all Google platforms including Chrome OS, Android Wear and Android TV.
• More powerful Search: When you search for something now, the Search will also include usage from other apps like Google Earth to finetune your search. Other third-party apps will aslo be able to use this.
• Recent apps menu: The Recent apps get a rework with bigger tabs and more clickable stuff. Again, third-party app devs will also get access to this.
• More actionable notifications: Notifications are more interactive and can size up into a floating box when tapped so you don't have to open the app first.
• More Contextually Aware: Want to bypass your lockscreen but forgot you're wearing your smartwatch? Android 5.0 will now detect it for you, and pass you through.
• 64-bit ready: Through the use of the ART runtime, you can now run 64-bit apps with a reported 2x increase in performance. Some apps may even do better by up to 400% while you can now expect more RAM as you are no longer limited to just 4GB.
• Console graphics: Using the Android Extension pack you can now expect graphic effects like tessellation and geometry shaders for console-like levels of quality in your games and apps.
• Better battery life: Through Project Volta, Android subsystems will be better managed and therefore save more energy.
• Better enterprise features: This includes Samsung Knox integration, bulk app deployment and better data separation and security.