Android Material Design Apps

One of the big improvement with Android Lollipop is the introduction of material design concept.
Here is the community forum where people are showcasing apps designed around material design concept..
https://plus.google.com/communities/108905768919281054977

Google makes full-disk encryption optional for Android devices

Earlier Google had announced that devices shipping with Lollipop pre-installed would have encryption as "out of the box" option.Nexus 6 smartphone and Nexus 9 tablet are shipping with encryption activated. However recently announced Lollipop devices such as Mot E and Samsung Galaxy S6 aren't being fully encrypted automatically. There have been performance concerns regarding enabling full-disk encryption as noted in reviews of  Nexus 5 devices.

Android Pay - Google's Payments platform

Google has launched mobile payments framework called Android pay. It enables developers to integrate mobile payments in to their apps using an API layer. The credit card data will be stores locally so that no data connection is needed for making payments. To prevent fraud, Android pay will use "tokenized" card numbers - which means that a one-time credit cad number will be generated for each transaction.

Android for Work

Google had introduced Android for Work, which is aimed at corporate apps, It is common nowadays for employees use their personal phone for work-related acclivities as well. Google is making it easier to do that by having the work-related apps marked with Android badges that will distinguish them from other Apps. As a part of this effort, it is also introducing Android for Work, an online store for business apps.

Some challenges for Google,
  - Google is focused on consumer mass-market, not a strong enterprise presence
  - According a analyst, many enterprises believe that the Android OS is not secure enough. According to research from Good technology, Apple has 73% of enterprise activations, while Android has only 25%.
  - Android Lollipop (which is required for Google for Work feature) has only been adopted on 1.6%  of Android devices.

Is Android phones better?

Gottabemobile explains why Android platform is better than iPhone,
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/02/17/nexus-5-android-5-1-lollipop-update-details/

1. More choice with Android - Tons of Android phones for sure..
2. Micro SD Card Support - Useful for additional storage espacially if you take lots of videos or photos
3. Google Maps
4. Easy to clear cache to get space back - On iPhone you need to delete teh app and re-install to get space back
5. Widgets - On Android users can choose widgets to show the lock screen and on their home screen
6. Android customization - This I think is a double-edge sword...
7. Default App choices - This is true, iPhone does not let you choose nre default apps.
8 . Split screen multitasking - IPhone does not let run 2 apps run on the same screen, but you can do that with Android.
9. Multiuser mode - You can create a separate account with limited access for your kids, iPhone doesn't support that.,
10. App source - Android makes it easier to install app from sources other than the Apps store (ex side loading)
11. Use phone a remote control - Some Android phones have IR port that lets you control TVs, cable boxes etc..iPhone needs separate accessory to do that,,
12. Download music/movies from anywhere - On iPhone the choice is limited to iTunes, On Android there are more choices.
13. Google Now - Better than Siri, as some claim..
14. Mobile payments & NFC - iPhone is limited to Apple Pay
15. Notifications - Gottabemobiel claims it is better in Android, Not sure about that, it seems subjective.

Note - Above is list of items as reported by Gottabemobile with my thoughts on those items..

Stetho : New Android debugging platform from Facebook

Facebook has released a new open source debugging platform for Android. According to Facebook, "
https://code.facebook.com/posts/393927910787513/stetho-a-new-debugging-platform-for-android/

The integration to Stetho within the Android application is simple enough, fee calls to link the library and one of the network helpers.

It uses the Chrome Developer Tools to serve the UI,

IOS 8 Vs Android Lollipop

Here is an interesting review of IOS 8 Vs Android Lollipop OS from Mashable,
http://mashable.com/2014/11/15/ios-8-vs-android-lollipop/

Summary.
 - Feature-wise both OSs are on parity. Google provides lot of options to replace the default Google's built-in tools (browser, mail client or chat client). Not so much with IOS.
- Look and Feel - Google has introduced the concept of mateiral design with the release of Lollipop. But bigger OEMs (Samsung, HTC, Xiomi) use their own skins. Apple introduced massive UI changes in IOS 7.
- User Experience - With Google Now, Android wants to anticipate user's next move. Apple has kept Siri as a background player that comes up primarily on command..Apple's focus has been on use-of-use and working seamlessly on other devices.