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Android M Developer Preview and Tools

android-developers.blogspot.com

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Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#81

Post by rob_lh »

CardenB wrote: post #45
rob_lh wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious if this will be a source of friction with app developers. If Google is scraping app data usage for both content and context ostensibly to extend the benefit of that app's data and utility, wouldn't that make it considerably easier for them to clone the app and improve upon it?

I don't think the same engineers that work on products like some new app even have access to the kind of data that would come from that feature, nor does that sort of snooping even occur at google. It's not the NSA

I would hope this to be correct, but I didn't see Google address it at all. A lack of transparency is a great way to foster FUD and a bad perception of what could be a great piece of tech. I get that they're building the marketing hype first, so hopefully it will be forthcoming.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#82

Post by christop »

nly wrote: post #23
runjake wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article this submission is linked to: "The M Developer Preview includes an updated SDK with tools, system images for testing on the official Android emulator, and system images for testing on Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Nexus Player devices." So, no.

I don't think they released the Android L previews for the the N4 either? Maybe someone can confirm.

They didn't, but by the time Android M comes out, the Nexus 4 will be approaching three years old.

As a Nexus 4 user, I'm not holding my breath (and my N4 isn't holding its charge).

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#83

Post by on_and_off »

hyperion_ wrote: post #75
frik wrote: post #37

Permissions "We are giving users control of app permissions in the M release. Apps can trigger requests for permissions at runtime, in the right context, and users can choose whether to grant the permission. Making permission requests right when they’re needed means users can get up and running in your app faster. Also, users have easy access to manage all their app permissions in settings." Great, finally Google got…

Using the developer preview now there is no difference when installing new apps, so do developers all have to make manual changes in their apps for it to work, or will Google flip a switch at some point? Currently you can change app permissions once an app is installed, but they gain all the permissions they ask for when installed. If each app has to be updated by the developer for the changes to take place, it might…

The app needs to target M in order to access to these granular permission. An app targeting a lower API level will work in legacy mode where it gets its permissions at install time, like before. I guess it makes sense in order to give enough time to the devs to update their apps to this new system. As long as the checking/warning becomes more aggressive in N, I am fine with that choice.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#84

Post by magicalist »

digi_owl wrote: post #69
wongarsu wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As for Internet, they leave that out of their "improved" Play store permissions as well (and the M groupings seems like a carbon copy). Why would they do that? On it's own "Internet" may not seem to be an important category, but I am willing to give apps many more permissions if I know that they can't phone home. For tools, the Internet permission is often the deciding factor for me.

Everyone with a pulse has asked themselves that already, and come up blank. All we have are potential conspiracy theories revolving around ad revenue for both Google and app devs.

Except all the mobile operating systems do this?

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#85

Post by krschultz »

hadrien01 wrote: post #53

> Android Design Support Library - Making Material design apps gets even easier with the new Android Design support library. We have packaged a set a key design components (e.g floating action button, snackbar, navigation view, motion enabled Toolbars) [...] Finally! I had to start developing for Android not too long ago, and I couldn't stand seeing "mandatory" material components for certain usages that weren't supp…

Nothing is mandatory. Material guidelines are a suggestion and a set of tools to make the baseline app better by default.

In general the UI components are moving out of the SDK into the support libs or the community at large. RecyclerView & Toolbar are examples of Google untangling the foundation from the look & feel, and letting the community come up with the final implementation of things.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#86

Post by magicalist »

EddieRingle wrote: post #10
tdkl wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new permission system will be available on devices running M only. So a dev will have to support both when targeting M.

Well that goes without saying. I'm just trying to say that applications running on M and later that still target an older SDK will not use the new system.

According to the android session this morning even apps compiled against older SDKs will still have permissions that can be disabled when run in M, so they were encouraging everyone to test apps on M even if they weren't going to release their app built against the M SDK anytime soon.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#87

Post by krschultz »

27182818284 wrote: post #28

Google is showing off Android M dev previews while devices sold new last fall in major US retailers are still running KitKat with no updates from Google or their providers. They continue to actively create the "fractured" world of Android. In other words, that's cool about Android M, but most people aren't even using L. (40% on K, 9% on L whose preview was the 2014 IO) Can Google not poach one or two of Apple's negot…

Damn lies and statistics. The Android dashboard numbers are always super pessimistic on upgrade rate.

I am the lead for an app with >250,000 installs. Over 45% of our usage is coming from Lollipop. The rest is JB & KK. We see I know other major apps that have even better numbers.

Looking at my data, L usage was basically nil in January 2015. There was slow growth from there until April, when we saw an inflection point in the number of Lollipop users. This aligned with the release of several Samsung updates that pushed Lollipop to some of the most popular devices out there.

If you want publicly available numbers, I would rely on Mixpanel[1] not the Android dashboard. And even this understates it, as of writing this comment Mixpanel is not including 5.1 in the Lollipop numbers which is cutting 2-3% off that. [2]

[1] https://mixpanel.com/trends/#report/android_os_adoption [2] https://twitter.com/mixpanel/status/604025242529308672

The narrative about Android fragmentation is really out of touch with what I experience on a daily basis.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#88

Post by austenallred »

vardump wrote: post #52
27182818284 wrote: post #28

Google is showing off Android M dev previews while devices sold new last fall in major US retailers are still running KitKat with no updates from Google or their providers. They continue to actively create the "fractured" world of Android. In other words, that's cool about Android M, but most people aren't even using L. (40% on K, 9% on L whose preview was the 2014 IO) Can Google not poach one or two of Apple's negot…

> Can Google not poach one or two of Apple's negotiators to go to the right meetings at Motorola, Verizon, etc to talk about updates? I don't understand why things like these are necessary in the USA. Why should network operator have control to which version you're running? Most other places you can just get new firmware directly from manufacturer.

The thing that's confusing to me is that the carriers don't automatically default to the newest version of the OS.

Even if it weren't a contractual obligation, I can't imagine, say, the AT&T store loading a phone right now with iOS 7

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#89

Post by krschultz »

serve_yay wrote: post #63
27182818284 wrote: post #28

Google is showing off Android M dev previews while devices sold new last fall in major US retailers are still running KitKat with no updates from Google or their providers. They continue to actively create the "fractured" world of Android. In other words, that's cool about Android M, but most people aren't even using L. (40% on K, 9% on L whose preview was the 2014 IO) Can Google not poach one or two of Apple's negot…

The situation is so bad that they announce all this new stuff, and I think, that's great and all but who cares. A few thousand people will use this stuff and everyone else is 2-3 versions back. And they don't care, either.

What are you basing this comment on? The app I build had thousands of Lollipop users today alone.

Depending on how you define "version", 2 versions back is Jelly Bean. 90% of our users are on Jelly Bean or newer.

3 versions back is Ice Cream Sandwich, which in my case includes 99% of our users, and we only dropped Gingerbread support Christmas of 2014.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#90

Post by NeutronBoy »

digi_owl wrote: post #33
jaredmcateer wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The keynote claimed they took two identical Nexuses side by side with Lollipop and M loaded it up with a bunch of common apps. The standby battery time with M was around double.

Apparently apps could use priority notifications got wake devices up early. Expect Facebook and the rest to go priority priority priority...

The user sets which applications are 'priority' applications.
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