Android M in 2015

 Android M  in 2015

After the comprehensive redesign and under the hood changes in Lollipop, Android M brings a greater focus on bringing greater polish to Android and improving the user experience.

Today Google formally announced the next version of their Android operating system at their Google I/O developer conference. Much like how Android Lollipop was originally previewed under the name Android L, the next major release of Android is being referred to as Android M.

During the keynote Google outlined six major areas that they had targeted for improvement in Android M.

The first area of improvement is permissions. The permissions system on Android has been less than optimal since its earliest days. The big issue has always been that applications have to ask for permissions access at the time of install. This means that if a user wanted to install an application like Skype, but didn't want to give it access to their microphone, then they would not be allowed to install the application at all.

 Android M  in 2015

Android M changes the existing permissions system this by breaking down user permissions into specific categories, and having apps ask the user for permission at the time access to a feature is required. You can see an example of this above, where an application like Whatsapp will ask for microphone access when the user tries to do something that requires it. This means that the user can grant applications some permissions but not others, and they can manage permissions access after the fact. It also makes it more clear to the user what an application is asking to do.

The new permissions system in Android M is only available for applications that target Android M with the new version of the Android SDK. Unfortunately, this means that it won't be automatically available to existing applications when users update to Android M.

The next area of improvement in Android M is to the behavior of web views within other applications. This is through a feature called Chrome Custom Tabs. Essentially this feature allows applications to have the Chrome browser run atop their app whenever the user clicks on a link. This means that all of a user's autofill data, passwords, and cache are available when they open links within that application.

 Android M  in 2015

The third major improvement Google is making in Android M is to how Android Intents handles web links. Because many web services now have native applications, selecting a link in an application will often bring up a menu asking the user whether they would like to open that link using a web browser, or whether they would like to have an app on the phone handle it.

With Android M, app developers can now have the operating system verify that certain types of links are meant to be opened with their app by checking with the web server that those links point to and verifying that it is meant to be opened with that app.

 Android M  in 2015

Google's next two areas of focus relate strongly to Android Pay, the mobile payments system they announced at MWC earlier this year.

Android Pay is not strictly an addition to Android M, as it will be available on devices that run KitKat or newer. However, Android M will allow a greater degree of security when using Android Pay through a new API to standardize fingerprint sensors on Android devices.

This means that users will be able to authorize Android Pay transactions both at stores and in apps using their fingerprint. It also means that app developers will be able to use a user's fingerprint for verification, which is currently not feasible with the various different standards and implementations for fingerprint scanners on Android devices like Android TV Box

 Android M  in 2015

The last area of focus in Android M is arguably the most important. It's a focus on power usage, and more specifically, the power that a device uses when it's idle. With an OS like Android which supports multitasking, there's always a delicate balance between managing power and keeping applications running in the background updated.

With Android M, Google is introducing a new feature called Doze. Doze uses motion detection to see whether or not a device has been left idle for a long period of time, such as when it's sitting on a table or in a dock. If it has been left idle for a long period, the operating system will greatly scale back background activity in order to reduce idle power usage. According to Google, they've seen up to 2x longer idle battery life on the Nexus 9.

In addition to improvements in power usage, Google is implementing new charging options for future devices that use USB Type C. Type C allows devices to negotiate whether they should be the device being used to charge from, or the device being charged, and this will be supported in Android M. This means that a user can use their tablet's battery to charge their smartphone from.

Android M looks like a more minor release than Android Lollipop was. However, what Google has detailed here is only scratching the surface of the many small improvements and bug fixes that it will bring to Android. Other improvements include changes to how text selection works, and further changes to the not very popular changes to the volume controls that were made in Android Lollipop.

Much like when Android Lollipop was announced at Google I/O last year, this year's release is accompanied by a preview for developers so they can test their apps and give Google feedback on the changes that they are making to Android. The Android M developer preview will be available today for the Nexus 5, the Nexus 6, and the Nexus 9.

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Mobile, the Metatrend of the Decade

Mobile, the Metatrend of the Decade

Four billion people are buying new smartphones every two years, massively outpacing the PC industry (where we buy 1.6 billion PCs every five years).

Our desire for the most powerful, newest tech in our pocket is the beginning of a symbiotic merger between human and machine.

Check out the explosive growth curves below. They demonstrate why tech will infiltrate you, your business, your family, and every aspect of your life.

How many of us don't let our mobile phones get out of our sight? How often are they more than a meter or two from our grasp?

The data comes from a fantastic presentation by Benedict Evans from Andreesen-Horowitz called "Mobile is Eating the World."

Growth of smartphones vs. PCs

Infinite Computing & Sensing

The power of smartphones comes from the unique mix of connectivity, computing and sensors it brings into our lives. Let's take a look.

With a glimpse of what's to come, Sprint has already demonstrated an over-the-air speed of 1 gigabit per second at their Silicon Valley lab.

    Connectivity: As I discuss in my next book BOLD (February 2015), consider that in 1991, early 2G networks clocked in at a hundred kilobits per second. A decade later, 3G networks hit one megabit per second, while today's 4G networks sport up to eight megabits per second. But in February 2014, Sprint's CEO Dan Hesse (now retired) announced plans for Sprint Spark, a super-high-speed network capability able to deliver 50 to 60 megabits per second to your mobile phone.
    Computing: Just three or four decades ago, if you wanted to access a thousand core processors, you'd need to be the chairman of MIT's computer science department or the secretary of the U.S. Defense Department. Today the average chip in your cell phone can perform about a billion calculations per second. Yet today has nothing on tomorrow.As MIT Technology Review points out, "Generations of chip-making technology are known by the size of the smallest structure they can write into a chip. The current best is 14 nanometers, and by 2020, in order to keep up with Moore's Law, the industry will need to be down to five nanometers.

    This is the point where IBM hopes nanotubes can step in. The most recent report from the microchip industry group the ITRS says the so-called five-nanometer 'node' is due in 2019."

    Beyond the processing power in your phone (a super computer by all standards), your smartphone has access to truly infinite computational power on the cloud over its multi-megabit linkage.
    Sensors: Sensors are the real magic. The growing suite of sensors in our phones is extending our abilities, slowly making us superhuman. The smartphone is our future JARVIS, making us future Tony Starks. For example, in an iPhone, the basics include a proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, accelerometer (senses the orientation of the phone), magnetometer (measures the strength and/or direction of the magnetic field), and a gyroscope.Of course we also have an incredible 8-megapixel camera and microphone to look and listen.

    Beyond what's packed into the phone, your device can connect to the Internet of Everything surrounding you, extending its "sensing capabilities" by orders of magnitude.

    What's next? Sensors that measure your blood chemistries, the quality of the air your breathing, the nutrient content of the food you're eating, even the DNA of the food you're eating (is it shark or swordfish?).

Every new sensor creates a new business.

The Android app store has 1.3 million apps.

Apple's app store has 1.2 million.

While a significant portion of these apps are useless, more and more truly powerful apps are being developed that take advantage of the sensing and computing capabilities of smartphones.

And these apps are sticky.

We spend a lot of time on them.

Heck, today there's more time spent on mobile apps than on the entire Web.

Time spent on Mobile Web vs. Apps vs. Desktop

Small teams can leverage this platform in big ways

I often talk about exponential organizations – small teams of people leveraging exponential technologies and resources to scale quickly and disrupt slow-moving incumbent businesses.

Mobile and infinite computing are one of the core drivers allowing this to happen.

Instagram was acquired for a $1 billion with a team of 13 employees.

There are 1.5 trillion SMS messages sent between smartphones globally every year.

WhatsApp, an app that was built by a team of 30 people and acquired by Facebook for $19 billion, processes 7.2 trillion messages a year.

In 2000, a business with 100 employees would need to raise $10 million to reach 1 million people.

Today, we see many examples of teams of around 10 people raising $1 million and reaching 10 million people.

Or, in the case of the silly app "YO," one person raises $0 and reaches 1 million people in months.

How are you leveraging these platforms?

The opportunity these technologies present to solve the world's grand challenges are incredible.

Don't build dumb apps. Build problem-solving apps.

At XPRIZE, we've launched a $15M Global Learning XPRIZE to incentivize teams to create a piece of software on a tablet that can teach any child anywhere in the world how to read, write, and do basic math.

Today teams are competing to win the $10M Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE to build a mobile device that can diagnose you better than a board-certified doctor.

This is really just the beginning.

Cr.Singularity Hub