back to article Aboard the GOOD SHIP LOLLIPOP, there's a Mobe and a Slab and a TELLYBOX

Google has released its latest iteration of the Android OS, plus a triple deployment for the new software in three new devices – a trendy big phone, a slablet and a telly box. Nexus Family New Nexus family to go with the new OS Android 5.0, codenamed Lollipop, got an extensive preview during June's Google I/O conference, …

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  1. dogged

    The first smartphone to run Android 5.0 will be the Nexus 6 phablet, built by Google subsidiary Motorola.

    Ummmm no.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You beat me too it.. he obviously missed the memo!

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        It would appear that Google don't hand over the keys to Lenovo until later this year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Mobility#Acquisition_by_Lenovo

  2. Bloodbeastterror

    Explain?

    Maybe mine was when I loaded L Preview on my Nexus 5, but maybe that's not what your cryptic message maens...?

    1. Andrew Jones 2

      Re: Explain?

      He means Motorola is not owned by Google. It's owned by Lenovo. (or will be)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Explain?

        At this moment in time it's Google's

      2. Stuart 22

        Re: Moto Heaven

        Moto have loyally announced that all versions of the Moto G plus some other kit will be licking Lollipops.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nexus 6: oh yes! I was looking for something cool to blow my xmas bonus on (that I get in Janurary, ffs).

    Nexus 9: urgh, looks like a surface, needing the keyboard as a crutch.

    1. David 138

      The keyboard is what tablets are missing if you want to do any actual work.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The keyboard is what tablets are missing if you want to do any actual work.

        I have an actual computer for doing actual work.

      2. Craigness

        As a former Asus Transformer owner I prefer to do actual work on an actual computer. Adding a keyboard is great but isn't enough.

  4. Anonymous John

    So the tablet has half the storage of the phone? Why?

    1. Anonymous Bullard

      That's odd, isn't it?

      No micro-sd slot, either - not that I ever make use of one, I just like the chance to.

      1. qwarty

        Been looking forward to the Nexus 9 so very disappointed no 64Gb storage option, the +$80 for the few dollars worth of SSD to make for the should-be-entry-level 32Gb option, and with no SD slot, its a no go here. Had been expecting to buy one for 64bit Android development but guess that can wait a few months until something more suitable is on the market.

    2. Dave 126 Silver badge

      >So the tablet has half the storage of the phone? Why?

      Tablets, unlike phones, tend to live within range of a local network and media servers etc

      One survey suggested that 3/4s of iPads rarely leave the owner's house. It seems reasonable to apply this finding to other tablets of a similar size, and surmise that the tablet can call upon media over the local network.

      1. Ted T.

        So that's why Apple sells 128GB iPads, cause no one needs the storage?

        Judging by the NYC subways, not to mention every single airplane I've been on in the last 3 years, a ****load of iPads leave the house.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          So that's why Apple sells 128GB iPads, cause no one needs the storage?

          They also sell 16GB, because everyone stores their entire collections on a tablet?

          Judging by the NYC subways, not to mention every single airplane I've been on in the last 3 years, a ****load of iPads leave the house.

          You're looking at the most common use case of using a tablet outside: Waiting for/on public transport, needing to occupy yourself.

          What about those iPads you don't see? Judging by the UK roads, I only see a few drivers using their iPads.

          Different people have different needs.

          1. Mark .

            "Different people have different needs."

            Well yes, exactly, that's why a 64GB or more options would be nice. No one's saying they should scrap the smaller options. (Though I'm thankful that at least we get a 64GB Nexus 6 - it now becomes a viable option for my next phone, which I'd like to store my music on.)

            I don't what ipad users do, but one of the most obvious uses for a tablet is for playing videos - there's a reason why in the 2000s, tablets were instead often called "media players". At home, I have a 42" media player for watching videos - a tablet's strength is its portability.

      2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        One survey suggested that 3/4s of iPads rarely leave the owner's house. It seems reasonable to apply this finding to other tablets of a similar size, and surmise that the tablet can call upon media over the local network.

        While it's true that most pads never leave to home, wifi in the home is often pretty patchy so local storage is a good idea for many. Can't help thinking Google has missed a trick not going head to head with Apple on storage but with significantly lower pricing. For watching films an 8.9" screen is better than an I-Pad – it's just as wide but doesn't need to letterbox the film.

        1. BamboozledByButtons

          The Nexus 9 has a 4:3 ratio screen (or close enough) making it exactly the same as an iPad for watching video... letterboxing and all I'm afraid.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Though shalt consume thy cloud

      Though shalt store your data in the cloud, because it is good for you. And for the people who foot the bill. And for your overseers who do not have an overseer.

      1. Anonymous Bullard

        Re: Though shalt consume thy cloud

        For the common folk, the cloud is good. They can't look after their own data.

  5. jason 7

    Nexus 6

    I was hoping for a non-phablet 4.7-5" phone.

    Such a shame. Will have to try to pick up a Nexus 5 if/when they go on discount.

    1. getHandle

      Re: Nexus 6

      I can heartily recommend the Moto G 2nd gen. It's not "top end" but nothing about it has disappointed me so far.

      1. Ralph B

        Re: Nexus 6

        Ditto.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Nexus 6

      They won't. The Nexus5 will continue to be sold, with Android 5.0... It's still a fantastic phone at a killer price.

      1. jason 7

        Re: Nexus 6

        Well the Nexus 4 got a big discount at the end so who knows.

    3. roblightbody

      Re: Nexus 6

      At £299, the Nexus 5 has always been 'on discount'. I think it will stay at this price for a time yet, its still highly competitive.

      1. jason 7

        Re: Nexus 6

        Looks like the Nexus 6 isnt following that price trend unfortunately.

        End of an era! Sweet while it lasted.

  6. h3

    The Nexus Player is that finally something using the new really good Atom ?

  7. BleedinObvious
    Unhappy

    So Nexus 6 still 32-bit

    1. GregC

      Re: So Nexus 6 still 32-bit

      And...?

      What exactly is 64bit going to achieve in a 3Gb RAM environment?Don't get me wrong, if there are actual real world advantages to be had them I'm all over it, but it looks to me - for now at least - like it's just a pissing contest between Apple & Google.

      1. ThomH

        Re: So Nexus 6 still 32-bit

        64-bit ARM refashions quite a lot of the architecture so as to achieve advantages quite distinct from just having a larger address space. Including:

        • approximately twice as many integer registers (28 general purpose versus 13);

        • more, and wider, classical floating point registers;

        • double precision SIMD; and

        • better synchronisation primitives.

        There are also some performance-oriented subtractions. ARM used to be famous for making every instruction conditional and allowing each to include a barrel roll. Both of those things are gone in favour of a shorter pipeline.

        Also, AES, SHA1 and SHA256 are now implemented in hardware.

        There's also the nature of both Objective-C and Java: they're both objects-on-the-heap languages with object types like Integer or NSNumber that are often used just to wrap primitive types like int.

        Apple uses 64-bit support to implement tagged pointers: pointers that aren't correctly aligned, i.e. are identifiably not actual valid pointers, actually directly contain the data. So e.g. a 64-bit pointer to an NSNumber that contains a 32-bit value is actually the value itself in the pointer plus some meta content. Nothing is put on the heap. That tagged pointer then effectively gives life on the stack to objects without affecting the semantics of objects on the heap. Which, besides anything else, is good for avoiding page faults. I assume ART will or does do something similar.

        So the 64-bit pointers provide benefits unrelated to simply being able to point to a wider area, potentially for both of the main platforms.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: So Nexus 6 still 32-bit

          We're all aware of the technical advantages... but those are hardly killer features for the masses - especially when you're probably going to pay extra for them.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: So Nexus 6 still 32-bit

            This being a technical site (sort of) you are supposed to infer the consumer advantages.

            The points made above mostly relate to improved performance meaning speeding up actions for more responsiveness or increased battery life. Faster SIMD instructions are useful for aspects of image processing and 3D imaging for instance, sometimes considerably so. Applies to simple everyday camera functions such as time it takes to process an image meaning can offer faster burst modes, HDR, anti-shake and other automatic processing to yield better images (of course GPU or custom silicon can factor in here too).

            There are a few memes around about 64 bit somehow offering few processing advantages, hopefully most people here understand that's a myth from early days of AMD/Intel x64 and not applicable nowadays to either x64 or ARM.

            And once dust settles, likely not much of a cost issue here either.

        2. druck Silver badge
          Unhappy

          Re: So Nexus 6 still 32-bit

          ThomH wrote:

          There are also some performance-oriented subtractions. ARM used to be famous for making every instruction conditional and allowing each to include a barrel roll. Both of those things are gone in favour of a shorter pipeline.

          Yes, they've destroyed the beauty of the original 32bit ARM instruction set, the 64bit set has no character and could be anything. But then who actually programs in assembler any more to notice such things.

        3. Mark .

          Re: So Nexus 6 still 32-bit

          There are potential technical advantages, but if Google can achieve the same end user experience with a 32-bit CPU, it doesn't really matter to the end user.

  8. Haku

    Philip K. Dick

    So did the Dick lawyers have no grounds for the Nexus name or did Google pay the estate an undisclosed sum?

    1. returnmyjedi

      Re: Philip K. Dick

      I can't tell if you're being serious or not.

      1. Alan Edwards

        Re: Philip K. Dick

        The estate of Philip K. Dick kicked off when the Nexus One was launched in 2010. The replicants in Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep (filmed as Bladerunner) were called Nexus 6s.

        Given they are still calling things Nexus I'm guessing they sorted it out, but a quick Google didn't get me any details.

    2. Lamont Cranston

      Re: Philip K. Dick

      I ordered my Nexus 6 from John Lewis. Good thing they have such a good returns policy, as I was shocked to find that it wasn't a Replicant.

      1. Rob
        Coat

        Re: Philip K. Dick

        How do you know it wasn't? Did you test it by asking what it would do if it came across a turtle on its back in the desert ;-)

  9. Neoc

    I think I'll give the Player a miss - based on their own promo page the damn thing doesn't access local content, only internet-based content. I'll stick to my HTPC running MediaPortal with NetFlix plugin, thank you.

    1. ThomH

      With this and the Nexus 9 going after the market for laptop-type-things, do you get the feeling that perhaps the Android and Chrome teams aren't the best of friends?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        If they were cannibalizing from each other? Yeah, might be an issue. If they are capturing customers from market competitors? No. I don't see a Surface Pro in my future or anything Apple. Nor a Chromebook. The Nexus 9 or Samsung Note Pro? Yeah.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      I quite like the idea of using it to stream directly from any Android device, which presumably does have local storage or a DNLA client. If that is how it works then it's added simplicity at the cost of running down the battery of the "remote" faster.

    3. Old Tom
      Stop

      'the damn thing doesn't access local content'

      If there isn't something already installed, simply go to Google Play and install an app that accesses local content.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I think if it'll run XBMC i'll probably get one.

      The main thing i'm disapointed about is the lack of wired network socket. Wifi is great for some things, HD video streaming is not one of them.

      1. Craigness

        Chromecast is great for HD streaming over wifi. I doubt the new thing will be worse.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        lack of wired network socket

        is there a usb socket...?

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