Android L: The future of Android officially unveiled

I echo an excellent article published in humans, with some personal nuances of course.

In these last 7 or 8 years I have had to learn that the versions of the systems have not only the version number, but also a name (codename). I mean, for example, Ubuntu versions have their number (Ex. 10.04) and your name (Eg Lucid Lynx, animals in danger of extinction), the same happens with Debian (Wheezy, Zurgetc, Toy Story characters), and so I create all Linux distros.

Android It is no less, it also gives a name of sweet or candy to each version. All these names make sometimes even I wonder which is mine, sometimes even using logic or looking somewhere for the meaning of names to help me understand the same a little more. The point is that now we get Google with a different "name" than what we are used to.

Android L… the future of Android

Google has just presented what will be the next version of Android In his already famous conference for developers (Google I / O) Sundar Pichai, vice president of Google and supervisor of Android, Chrome and Google Apps, has referred to this new version with the name of Android L, a real facelift for the operating system with the largest market share, currently enjoying one billion active users around the world, according to Pichai himself.

Android L It was undoubtedly the star of the meeting that lasted almost three hours, and although what is shown is not the final version of Google's mobile operating system, which is expected to hit the market at the end of the year, it does constitute a first very important advance, drawing attention to the radical change that they have carried out in Google, with a totally different and very striking interface.

Colorful, lively and polished interface

Matias Duarte is responsible once again for the design of the user interface on Android, Material Design It is the most recent result of work that many consider impeccable; an interface as colorful and lively as it is clean and polished. Even the transitions and animations from one screen to another have been fine-tuned in Android L.

El change from current version of Android 4.4 KitKat to Android L is such that even the design of the buttons that control the interface located at the bottom of the screen have been completely modified, again maintaining that trend of being as clean and minimalist as they are attractive.

Finally, the new Android L also improves the notification system or center, even taking it to the lock screen, and swap the Dalvik virtual machine for the new ART that was already testing from Android KitKat, but now it will be the one that manages the system by default, giving it less energy consumption and full compatibility with the architectures of 64 bits.

Usability and Accessibility

But Android L is not only beautiful, its operation looks excellent, new touch gestures, animations, and new notifications which have received special treatment. This was demonstrated Dave Burke, Android Engineering Director.

Android everywhere

Google has not limited itself to showing what the future of Android on smartphones and tablets, but has also once again shown its ambition to bring the platform everywhere, from the computer to the watch, until the cars.

Android Auto it was billed as the perfect extension of Google's services and applications brought to vehicles. With this new platform, a smartphone with Android L will synchronize with the vehicle and will offer, through its panel screen, access to Google Maps and its GPS navigation system, music through Google Play Music, and even the possibility of making calls, sending text messages and making notes through Google Keep, only using our voice, in a clear response to iOS in the Car which, according to Google, already has 40 vehicle manufacturers such as partners in this project.

Android has also been brought, in a way, to laptops Chromebook and Chrome OS, allowing you to manage mobile notifications on the screen and even going much further, by being able to run Android applications on the Chromebook natively.

They have also presented Android TV, which can be used both from a set-top box, or in a Smart TV from some of the different brands that have partnered with the Internet giant to launch televisions running on this system. Android TV has a very intuitive interface, and offers access to programs, movies and games via streaming or as an application.

Another of the announcements that attracted attention was the official debut and the demonstration during the Google I / O 2014 of A, Google's platform for smartwatches, and the first three models that will hit the market with this system: LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live and Motorola Moto 360.

All these "smart watches" will serve as an extension of the mobile to receive and even answer notifications of text messages or social networks, emails, check the weather, calendar and even, again, make annotations using the voice.

Better graphics, lower battery consumption and higher security.

Android Extension Pack will be responsible for improving the graphic power in games, recreating some geometries that were previously only seen on PC. Another novelty to take into account is Project Volta, a Google initiative to put an end to the problem with the battery life that we currently have in our smartphones through new energy saving modes.

Other details have also been added, such as the system detecting who the person is trying to unlock the device, smart notifications that can be answered from the unlock screen in addition to the Heads up. A new way to unlock the terminal has also been incorporated, since the mobile will know if you are wearing a smartwatch with Android Wear, giving the possibility of customizing the unlocking with the smartwatch for greater security.

New features also arrive in the Chrome browser, with improvements in the animation options and in the design of mobile web pages. At Google they want to get developers to make mobile websites faster and more intuitive.
Finally, it is mentioned that Android L will be much safer against malware, with security updates every week. The new operating system is available today for developers only and for Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 devices. It incorporates more than 5.000 new APIs and promises to be a true revolution in the market for mobile operating systems.

Google shows what Android L will be capable of

rivalry, is a demo made with Unreal 4 running on a device with a processor Nvidia Tegra K1 which in turn is supported by AEP (Android Extension Pack), the new set of APIs capable of extending the functionality of OpenGL ES 3.1. This demo was used by Google as an example of the graphical capabilities that its new version of Android will have.

Big news awaits Android users, even in emerging markets, who with the new program Android One They will also receive different models of smartphones at very attractive prices, emulating actions such as those of Firefox OS, which were already targeting this market.

key note

You can see the full Keynote here:

And if you want to download it (1.4Gb approximately) you can pull the command:

youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtLJPvx7-ys

Pictures to compare

End of article

Personally, Android L draws my attention, I find it not only attractive visually but also promising inside, to see if it improves the performance of the system in low and mid-range devices, unless you have 4 cores or something like that Android ( clear personal opinion) does not work fluid enough.