Android 5.0 Lollypop (1 Viewer)

[DBK]

My Nexus 7 tablet has just been upgraded to the latest 5.0 Android flavour. No problems noticed so far but it does seem a little slower. This might be my imagination but it could also need more processing power. Visually it looks a bit different but not strikingly so. The little buttons along the bottom of the screen are different and it seems to turn off with a single click, so to speak. No need for the confirmation the older system wanted.

 

[hilldweller]

Have you spotted the gotchas yet ?

Apart from speed which is almost inevitable - look for things to turn off.

They've not rolled it out just to please you.

 

[Tootles]

Mines the earlier model with the frozen Jubbly.

 

[DBK]

Seems to start with a little advert now, a bit like the old windows tip of the day. First one was pushing Google backup and the next "gift ideas from Google play"

Unsurprisingly, no obvious way to turn them off!

 

[DBK]

I'm not sure what the policy is for upgrades. As mine is a Google device I expected the upgrade to arrive sooner later although I wasn't certain my device would be compatible.

If you have a device from Samsung or whoever do Samsung have to pay for the upgrade? I may yet be surprised but I'm not expecting it to arrive on my wife's Hudle any time soon. Tesco will want her to buy a new one!

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[DBK]

Seems to start with a little advert now, a bit like the old windows tip of the day. First one was pushing Google backup and the next "gift ideas from Google play"

Unsurprisingly, no obvious way to turn them off!

I now realise what I thought was an advert was a link to the latest email although only in Gmail, which I don't use so as much use as a chocolate teapot.

 

[hilldweller]

Unsurprisingly, no obvious way to turn them off!

I moan about Apple's attitude but let's face it, they are all out to screw as much out of us as possible.

Time to be looking up root Android 5.

Which produced ......
The numerous issues unearthed while rooting Android 5.0 have been attributed to the enhanced security features built into Google's new software with tweaked implementation of SELinux.

I can't help but think "grooming". Google have been giving us sweets for a long time now, when will we hear "this won't hurt...."

 

[DBK]

No problems so far although apparently there have been problems reported by others on the Nexus 7.

What I have discovered, and it is proving useful, is if I select to edit a post here the caret has a little blue blob below it and if I touch this with my finger I can move it about anywhere on the page, just like it had a mouse. This makes it easier to put the caret exactly where needed for the edit.

 

[DBK]

No problems so far although apparently there have been problems reported by others on the Nexus 7.

What I have discovered, and it is proving useful, is if I select to edit a post here the caret has a little blue blob below it and if I touch this with my finger I can move it about anywhere on the page, just like it had a mouse. This makes it easier to put the caret exactly where needed for the edit.

I spoke too soon with the above. Although the update seemed to be without problems I soon found my Nexus 7 responding so slowly it almost became unusable. Evenutally I found a description of a method which promised to sort things out, which involves wiping the cache. I've just followed tis procedure and the first impressions are the thing is now running as it should.

This problem mostly seems to affect 2012 models, later models have had a 5.01 update released. Why Google couldn't sort this out themselves I can't understand.

If anyone has this problem the procedure to follow, which sounds a bit fiddly but wasn't is as follows:

• Turn off your device.
• Press and hold Power and volume down buttons simultaneously until you see a large arrow at the top of your screen.
• Press the volume down button repeatedly until you see “Recovery” in the arrow.
• Select it by pressing the power button.
• You’ll see an android mascot with a red triangle and exclamation mark.
• Hold down the power and press the volume up button once and then release the power button.
• Press the volume down button repeatedly to select “erase or wipe the cache partition” from the list of options.
• Wait for the process to complete and then restart your device*

*I did this by selecting power down from the menu and then starting normally. There was also an option to reboot the device on the menu which probably would directly start it but I felt it safer to turn it off first.

And yes, in the title of this thread you can see I can't spell Lollipop!

 

[Neilfg]

I had similar issues with my Nexus 5, Gmail especially kept freezing when accessed, once apps were loaded they ran fine but the start times and switching apps was slow.

Received the 5.0.1 upgrade and it now appears much better.

Thanks for the procedure, one to file away.

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[DBK]

The latest instalment is clearing the cache only worked for a while, then the thing started to slow up again. So I downloaded CCleaner for Android and this could be used to see what the problem might be - which I think is the device has insufficient RAM. My Nexus 7 only has 1 GB of RAM and the latest ones have 2GB. CCleaner was telling me I was sometimes using 75% of the available RAM with the thing just sitting idle in my hand. Using the app I was able to stop processes that weren't needed and reduce this to around 50% usage of RAM at which point the device worked well - but it would soon start to slow up again and sometimes crashed.

Now the device has downloaded and is installing Android 5.0.2. This claims to have addressed stability and performance issues. We shall see.

To be continued...

 

[MR. FUSION]

Still waiting for my 5.1 upgrade from Samsung.......

 

[Hymie]

Downloading it now on a Galaxy Mega, only has 1gb of RAM, we'll see what happens.

Hymie.

 

[hilldweller]

Downloading it now on a Galaxy Mega, only has 1gb of RAM, we'll see what happens.

Hymie.

HA ! Only 1GB.

I can recall the earth shattering time when I started selling business computers with 640k of RAM. For years we had to get by on 32k. Later on I upgraded 32k control systems to PC based 640k and the only difference was a more user friendly screen, progress !

32,000 to 640,000 to 1,000,000,000.

 

[Welsh girl]

I have the mega. I'll be interested in the update.Hymie
p's. I have 8gb of ram.

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[hilldweller]

I have 8gb of ram.

Are you sure ?

 

[Welsh girl]

Yep. Here's a screen shot. Unless it's ??? And I'll bow to your superior knowledge.
oops. Now I realise. Is the speed isn't it not the actual space?

 

[GJH]

HA ! Only 1GB.

I can recall the earth shattering time when I started selling business computers with 640k of RAM. For years we had to get by on 32k. Later on I upgraded 32k control systems to PC based 640k and the only difference was a more user friendly screen, progress !

32,000 to 640,000 to 1,000,000,000.

Obviously a late starter in IT with machines that massive

 

[hilldweller]

Obviously a late starter in IT with machines that massive

Well my first taste of microprocessing was 1K of ROM and 256 byes of RAM and a Motorola 6800. All code hand assembled on paper. I binned this only recently with a lump in my throat.

Now I regularly use the ATmega chips, size of my thumb with 8K RAM and 128K ROM and without windows bloat it's amazing what can be done with them. One runs our MH and uses only a quarter of the ROM. Our door bell, for 2 doors, has a 16 bit processor, runs over a year on batteries. A 16 bit processor for a doorbell ? Well a ready to use board, size of a 50p piece is under a fiver, so why not. All now programmed in plain C.

 

[DBK]

I think if your tablet has only 1GB of RAM don't install the 5.0 upgrade. My early Nexus 7 is working now but it is slow to boot and after it has gone to sleep it freezes for a minute or two before it will connect with the web and also insists on relogging on to the wifi, which it never did before. The new OS probably runs fine on a Nexus with 2GB - but it would be interesting to hear from someone who has such a device and can say how they are getting on with 5.0.

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[DBK]

Yep. Here's a screen shot. Unless it's ??? And I'll bow to your superior knowledge.
oops. Now I realise. Is the speed isn't it not the actual space?

The 8GB you have is probably the space for storing pictures, music etc. The actual amount of RAM available for the Operating System (OS) is probably 1 or 2 GB and may not be included in the 8GB in your screen shot but may be visible somewhere else.

If you download and install the CCleaner app (free) and let it analyse your device it will tell you exactly what you have and what it is being used for.

 

[Hymie]

I have the mega. I'll be interested in the update.Hymie
p's. I have 8gb of ram.

The bit you were looking at was storage, where you keep your apps/photo's, etc, got a 64gb micro sd card in mine.

On reboot about 30 apps were missing, it has updated some of these but still about 10 say they are uninstalled, including Kingsoft office, MX player and my 3 connection.

I also have a new system icon, Reading Mode, which keeps switching itself back on after I turn it off, about 8 times now.

Will let you know what else i find,

Hymie.

 

[golly]

Updated on my Nexus 7, and it was practically un-usable with it freezing every 5min , in desperation did a factory re-set thinking it would revert to the earlier version, but no, 5.0 was installed. However since the reset, it is working somewhat better, but still SLOW

 

[hilldweller]

Yep. Here's a screen shot. Unless it's ??? And I'll bow to your superior knowledge.

I thought this was the case. You have 3 areas if storage.

RAM - fast working memory, usually up to 1GB, all is lost when you turn off.

FLASH - This is your bulk storage, like the chips in USB sticks, holds data when turned off. Here expect 4G, 8G, 16G, 32G, 64G. It's similar to a hard drive.

SD card. This is FLASH again and is equivalent to removable hard drive. 32G, 64G not sure if 128K is possible now.

 

[hilldweller]

The new OS probably runs fine on a Nexus with 2GB.

They never learn. Bloat bloat bloat. Android was launched as small and quick for cheap phones, now look what they've done.

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[DBK]

Updated on my Nexus 7, and it was practically un-usable with it freezing every 5min , in desperation did a factory re-set thinking it would revert to the earlier version, but no, 5.0 was installed. However since the reset, it is working somewhat better, but still SLOW

There is, as far as I know, no way to revert to the old operating system. You should have 5.02 installed, but worth checking.

 

[Gromett]

Came with it already installed on my Nexus 9. Nice bit of kit but Lollipop on Nexus 9 doesn't like iPlayer so I have to boot laptop or watch on my phone.

 

[Welsh girl]

The 8GB you have is probably the space for storing pictures, music etc. The actual amount of RAM available for the Operating System (OS) is probably 1 or 2 GB and may not be included in the 8GB in your screen shot but may be visible somewhere else.

If you download and install the CCleaner app (free) and let it analyse your device it will tell you exactly what you have and what it is being used for.

I have downloaded cc cleaner thanks. And a battery optimiser that gives me an extra 4hr.12 minutes.
How do you find out my RAM on my mega please?
I have lollipop on my Samsung s tablet. Don't like it as I cannot transfer item to sd card. Unlike my mega which has sandwich.

 

[GJH]

Well my first taste of microprocessing was 1K of ROM and 256 byes of RAM and a Motorola 6800. All code hand assembled on paper. I binned this only recently with a lump in my throat.

Now I regularly use the ATmega chips, size of my thumb with 8K RAM and 128K ROM and without windows bloat it's amazing what can be done with them. One runs our MH and uses only a quarter of the ROM. Our door bell, for 2 doors, has a 16 bit processor, runs over a year on batteries. A 16 bit processor for a doorbell ? Well a ready to use board, size of a 50p piece is under a fiver, so why not. All now programmed in plain C.

Ah, toys The first mainframe I worked on at college (IBM 1620) had 4K core storage but kt was a proper business machine. The IBM 360 in my first job had a massive 32K

 

[hilldweller]

Ah, toys The first mainframe I worked on at college (IBM 1620) had 4K core storage but kt was a proper business machine. The IBM 360 in my first job had a massive 32K

And the thing is you did real work with that equipment. GUI could be the worst and best thing ever invented.

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