A lollipop that really sucks

[chris webster]

Dear Google

Thank you for the new Android 5.0 update to my Nexus 7 tablet.

Thank you for turning my useful and responsive Nexus 7 tablet into a sluggish and stuttering paperweight.

Thank you for giving me more time away from the screen by spontaneously crashing my Nexus 7 at random intervals.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to re-consider my earlier conviction that by choosing Google branded devices, I could avoid the bloatware of third-party Android providers.

Thank you for allowing me to beta-test your POC (piece of c**p) new operating system, because as a developer I don't get enough opportunities to wrestle with broken and poorly performing code.

Thank you for allowing your non-developer customers to share this experience - I bet they're delighted.

Thank you for giving me a Windows-style experience on a Linux device. That's not a compliment, by the way.

Thank you for sharing your own answer to Windows 8: Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Thank you for the message to your customers implicit in the name "Lollipop": "Suck on that!".

Yours - but probably not for much longer,

Another potential Apple customer

[Jesper de Jong]

I have a Nexus 5 phone and a Nexus 7 (2013) tablet. They are both currently running Android 4.4.4 and I didn't get the Android 5.0 update yet, but most of the Google apps have already updated (Gmail, Calendar, Maps, Keep, etc.).

Apparently Google started rolling out the Android 5.0 update here in the Netherlands and then found that some people cannot send SMS messages anymore after updating. So they stopped the updates and are fixing bugs now.

Did you upgrade your devices manually or did you get them via the automatic update mechanism? Maybe it's good to wait a while until Google fixes the bugs.

The only complaint I have until now is the Calendar app, especially on my phone the UI is a lot worse than the old version. The week view only shows 5 days instead of 7 days and you can't zoom in/out vertically anymore. The day numbers and time labels take up much more screen space than in the old version. The month overview is also gone. This is only on my phone - on my tablet there are still 7 days and a month view. Apparently the app decides that on a phone the screen is too small and displays differently. I hope Google will improve the Calendar app.

[chris webster]

I updated my Nexus 7 (2012 model) and Nexus 5 over the air when the devices prompted me to do so yesterday. Doh!

The phone is still reasonably OK so far, although it seems a little more sluggish. But the tablet is really slow and unresponsive e.g. it takes ages to load an app, the apps themselves are sluggish, and the screen rotation is incredibly slow. It also crashes intermittently, which has never happened before. The new look-and-feel is OK, but I was happy with the old one and I'd much rather have a working tablet than a new interface. Unfortunately, you can't easily downgrade back to 4.4, so I'm stuck with 5.0

If I were you, I'd wait as long as possible before upgrading your devices. There seem to be a lot of people reporting problems with Android 5.0, especially on the Nexus 7, so maybe Google will issue some fixes soon. I hope so!

[chris webster]

PS - I just tried out the Calendar on my phone and I see what you mean - it's dreadful.

PPS - But I just installed Calengoo, which I've been using on my tablet for a while, and it seems to work OK on the phone too. Much more flexible.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Yeah, the calendar app sucks. I had bought Business Calendar Pro by Appgenix some time ago, but only used it for its widgets - it may be time to start using the app as well.

I had been looking forward to receive Lollipop on my Nexus 7 (2012); I guess I'll contain my enthusiasm a bit longer until the kinks are ironed out.

Chris, by "bloatware", do you mean just Android, or did it install unwanted 3rd party apps?

[chris webster]

Ulf Dittmer wrote:Chris, by "bloatware", do you mean just Android, or did it install unwanted 3rd party apps?

No, it didn't install any extra apps (as far as I can tell). But the new Android version just *feels* really bloaty, like many 3rd party Android "skins".

[chris webster]

I've given up on Android 5.0 on my old Nexus 7, and just spent an hour or so downgrading to 4.4. Not too painful, considering I've never done this before. And now my tablet works properly again. Mmm...lovely KitKat...

I'll leave Android 5.0 on the Nexus 5 phone as it's not so bad and I'm hoping Google will be more inclined to fix the problems for a more recent device.

It's been interesting how Google has responded - or rather failed to respond - to this screw-up. They seem to have a tendency to go to ground and sit with their fingers in their ears going "Lalalala we can't hear you!" when stuff like this happens. I suspect Apple might have been quicker to respond, and Microsoft would simply have insisted the totally borked new OS was what we wanted all along...

[Jesper de Jong]

My Nexus 5 phone already got the update last week, but for my Nexus 7 (2013) there is still no update available (and I don't want to update it manually, I'm going to wait until it the update notification appears). I wonder why it's taking so long before it's available for the Nexus 7.

Android 5.0 works fine on my phone, it's not slow at all and there are some new features such as a flashlight function and battery saving function that I didn't have before. And ofcourse notifications on the lock screen, which is a nice feature. The graphical design is quite different from older Android versions.

[Ulf Dittmer]

A short piece on the Register.com podcast talks about a) the removal of the generic email client (which can be addressed by installing a 3rd party client of you don't want to use the Gmail app), and b) that notifications are either buggy or very hard to configure correctly (it wasn't clear to me which) as the major problems with Lollipop.

A first release of Android 5.0.1 can be found in the source repositories, but no word yet on what that fixes, or when it's going to be available.

[Jesper de Jong]

Yesterday evening the update was finally available for my Nexus 7, and it's version 5.0.1.

No problems at all, it's still as fast as it used to be.

[Ulf Dittmer]

I have a Nexus 7 (2012), and while 5.0 factory images are available for it, they apparently stopped rolling them out OTA due to its various issues, so I didn't get it. Now waiting for 5.0.1...

[chris webster]

I think I'll hold off for a couple of months, now I've rolled back to KitKat on my 2012 Nexus 7. You guys can do the beta-testing this time!

[Md Hasan Kaif]

How much time to need release Android 5.0 lolipop

[Al Finlay]

Thanks for bumping this, it made me smile. I'm thinking of posting a link here on Amazon.

"Spent an hour rolling back".
- He he.

Java breaks something on every update, I thought you'd be used to it by now ..?
< only joking >

[Jesper de Jong]

Md Hasan Kaif wrote:How much time to need release Android 5.0 lolipop

What do you mean? It is already out, but when or even if you get an update depends on the manufacturer of your phone.

If you have a Google Nexus phone or tablet that's not too old (Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7) you should have gotten the update by now.

If you have another brand or model of Android phone, then it depends on the manufacturer of your phone.

[Tapas Chand]

On 2nd july my moto x 1st gen received 5.1(finally)
note:it never got 5.0/5.0.1 as the moto devs had a hard time to make the chipset and OS talk to each other. So it directly upgraded to 5.1 from 4.4.4
After 2 days of use I can say that there are new features...thats good.
Look n feel is refreshing.
I can not see any performance improvement.
And I hope they have fixed all the bugs found in 5.0/5.0.1(never used 5.0/5.0.1)

[Paul Clapham]

I got the Android 5 update on my Samsung tablet a couple of weeks ago. Some things look a bit different but I haven't noticed any performance changes in either direction. It doesn't crash either.