2014 Nexus 6, Nexus 9, Nexus Player, and Android 5.0 Lollipop: all you need to know

The new, 2014 Nexus family

The biggest day for Android in 2014, October 15th, brought us a brand new family of Nexus devices: the first Google phablet, the Nexus 6, a powerful Nexus 9 tablet with a 64-bit Tegra K1 chip under the hood, and an interesting mix between a set-top box and a console - the Nexus Player.



However, it is the platform that powers all of these that will truly make a difference: Android 5.0 Lollipop. Yes, Google did confirm that Lollipop is the new sweet treat, and the 5.0 indicates that we’re looking at a major new release.

Android 5.0 Lollipop: “be together, not the same”

Android 5.0 Lollipop is officially here: Material Design, ART, power saving and more

15 Oct 2014

Without any precursory buzz at all, Google has just made an official introduction of the so-called Android...

Android 5.0 Lollipop: the new features

15 Oct 2014

It's been less than a year since the last major Android version was announced, under the inconspicuous...

First things first, Android 5.0 Lollipop aims to unify the experience across all Android devices and screen sizes. Changes in Lollipop start with the outwards appearance that has now adopted a new ‘Material Design’ with flat looks, real-life mimicking shadows and less visual clutter. Add to this a new set of speedy animations and refreshed icons, and you have the new Lollipop looks.



Android 5.0, however, has undergone big changes under the hood as well: Google introduces a new ART runtime and the system is now 64-bit optimized, with all first-party Google apps being naturally updated for this change, while Java apps are getting the benefits of 64-bit without the need for developers to update them.