Whether you like them straight out of the bag, roasted to a golden brown exterior with a molten center, or in fluff form, who doesn’t like marshmallows? We definitely like them! Since the launch of the M Developer Preview at Google I/O in May, we’ve enjoyed all of your participation and feedback. Today with the final Developer Preview update, we’re introducing the official Android 6.0 SDK and opening Google Play for publishing your apps that target the new API level 23 in Android Marshmallow.

Another interesting announcement is that the Google Play Store is now ready to take on Android 6.0 applications. That means that apps that are made with the API 23 will be available to the Developer Preview users.

To download the latest Android M Developer Preview head over to the official website and download it for either your Nexus 5, 6, 9, or Nexus Player. What are your thoughts on the name Marshmallow?

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In order to do so, you have to open up the Google App, or swipe over to your Google Now page. Once there, swipe out from the left and open up the settings. Right on the first page of the settings their is a Home screen tab, and there is a toggle to ‘allow rotation’. This is something that has been missing on the Google Launcher.

The landscape screen has a slightly different layout than the portrait screen. The prevalent Google search bar that is usually placed at the top of the screen has been replaced by a more subtle Google ‘g’ and a microphone. I kind of like the more subtle approach with the microphone and ‘g’ off to the side as it opens up the wallpaper. Not only that, but the app icons appear smaller than when in portrait. I prefer this and wish this would be the default size on the Nexus 6. The current icons seem rather large when comparing it to other QHD devices.

As you can tell from the image above, the “OK Google” prompt takes up much more of the screen in landscape mode.

Below you can see Google Now and the app drawer in landscape mode. Google Now is still the same proportion when rotated. The app drawer in the landscape mode has a grid size of 5×3 versus the portrait grid size of 4×6. They did a good job of leaving some open space to not make it look too cluttered.

So, what are your thoughts of Google adding home screen rotation to the Android M Developer Preview 2? Are you a fan of this feature or is it something that is unnecessary? Be sure to let us know.

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Along with stability for the latest Developer Preview, comes a few new features that have been desired in stock Android for some time. Hopefully they’ll make the cut for the final version come this August, but we won’t know until then. For the mean time, here are the top newest features I have found so far messing with my Nexus 6.

System UI tuner is more stable, has expanded abilities

As predicted, Google has added a few more features to the System UI tuner. In the first developer preview the only available option was to customize the quick setting toggles. It was very buggy and would crash most times, but it is more stable now. When attempting to organize my quick settings in the notification shade, my System UI tuner would always crash. Thankfully that doesn’t happen anymore.

Now, the System UI tuner includes a few new options that will be mentioned below. It also includes a demo mode to show the user what the System UI tuner is capable of without messing with the settings first.

Status bar icons can now be toggled

This is something I thought Android should have had for a long time. The ability to remove status bar icons have been around in custom ROMs and even from some OEMs such as Sony, but Google has never implemented the features into stock Android. The good news is that it is here in the latest preview.

You now have the ability to hide every icon that pops up in the status bar from cellular data, WiFi connection, and my personal favorite, the alarm icon. It always irked me that the alarm icon was always prevalent in the status bar when I know my alarm is set. Especially since Android Lollipop shows the next alarm in the drop-down shade.

Another one was the Bluetooth connection. When having a smartwatch connected, the icon was always there taking up precious real estate. I like to keep my status bar clean and minimal, so this is by far my favorite addition to Android M so far.

Embedded battery percentage

Another feature that most phones are missing out on (except Sony), is the embedded battery percentage. Like I stated earlier, I like to keep my status bar clean, so having a huge 100% in the status bar is pretty annoying. Not to mention Android Lollipop didn’t even have a displayable battery percentage, aside from in the drop-down shade.

Now, it shows up inside the battery in black, so it can always be seen, even if the battery is low. I’m just hoping that Google will eventually get around to implementing  the circular battery icon, that is by far my favorite. For now, this will suffice and I am very pleased Google added it.

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The LG G3 is only a year old and has been running Android Lollipop for some time, but hasn’t been updated to the latest. That may be due to efficiency by skipping over Android 5.1 and jumping straight to Android M (or 6.0). No official word has been outed for Android 5.1, so it seems likely they could bypass it.

Even though this is the latest rumor, don’t get too stuck on the notion. LG could easily swing an Android 5.1 update to G3, but in the meantime we’ll have to be patient. One could safely assume if Android 5.1 is released for the G3, it would hit international variants first.

Source

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With Android Lollipop, Google introduced their largest attempt to improve battery life, which they did. For example, on Android Lollipop, the device will not update applications until it is plugged into a charger. On Android M, Google has taken it a step further.

Google is once again focusing on battery life with Android M, and that comes with the new Doze feature. It essentially puts applications into a deep sleep when the device isn’t in use. As long as the device is not on a charger and has been stationary for a certain period of time, Doze will activate. This is achieved by monitoring device sensors and whether or not the device’s screen is on.

While the Doze mode is enabled, the device will limit the amount of times applications will access data and wake the device. That means network access will be disabled, unless high priority notifications come through. It is a feature similar to that of Greenify, it prevents apps from performing wake locks.

Now that you have an idea of what Doze does, a user over on Reddit was kind enough to post his results from testing Doze. He used a Nexus 5 running the Android M Developer Preview with only stock apps installed on the device. His test lasted four days and the device had notifications active and had cellular access. What his test results showed were quite impressive.

The device was awake for a total of 98.5 hours and only went through 31% of the battery. Remember, that is with a SIM card in the device with all notifications enabled. If you do the math, that comes to .3147% per hour. That is quite impressive because Lollipop would usually lose 3-5% over night for my Nexus 6. The device in the test was only awoken to record the battery percentage, so it could have the potential to last even longer without the slight disturbances.

If he were to run the test until the phone ran out of battery, it would last an estimated 13.24 days. This is something that normally would only be achieved on a device in airplane mode, so it definitely seems Google is on to something.

If you would like to view the full test results, you can see the post here.

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The developer who goes by the name FaserF, has extracted the launcher and some other things straight from the Android M developer preview. He claims that it runs much smoother than the Android Lollipop launcher on both his Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S6, so it may be worth a try. The way to install it is pretty extensive, so be patient. The list of what it includes can be found below.

Features

• Android M Launcher/Velvet
• Android M Camera
• Android M Clock
• Android M Play Services (can bring bugs)
• Android M wallpaper
• Android M boot animation
• Androdi M ringtones

All of these are not recommended for your daily driver, but rather as a way to test drive Android M before its official release this August. It comes as an all-in-one flashable. It does come with some bugs such as HDR+ force closing the camera, “OK, Google” doesn’t work, and Android M Clock will force close on some devices.

Here’s how to install straight from the XDA forum:

…new Google Now Launcher from M:
– Download my Google Now App (Velvet) below
– Download Google Now Launcher from Play Store

…new Google Camera with lib files:
Download Google-Camera.apk and Google-Camera-lib-files.zip. Install the app and then put the lib files to the DeskClock folder in /system/app
Just download the App now from the Play Store!

… Google Play Services
This will only work on Android 5.0 and above, also it won’t work on 64bit systems and it is recommended only to install if you have a 480 dpi device!
Just install the apk on your device.

…new Android For Work App
Download Android-For-Work.zip, put the whole AndroiForWork folder in: /system/app and give the correct permissions

…new Android M Bootanimation:
Way 1: Download: Bootanimation-flashable.zip and flash it
Way 2 [you need CyanogenMod Theme Engine!]: download boot animation app from here
Way 3:

• Copy the bootanimation.zip file on your SD card/ internal storage on your phone
• use a the root explorer, CM File Browser or any other file browser with root access to perform this action
• copy the .zip file into the system/media folder
• give the correct permissons

… Android M Ringtones (note nearly all are the same as in Lollipop!)
Way 1: Download: Bootanimation-flashable.zip and flash it
Way 2: Download my Ringtone.zip and copy the files to system/media/audio to the correct folder

… all other Android M apps

Here is a video tutorial on how to do so as well:

The post Android M Launcher is now available for all devices (XDA) appeared first on FWNED.

I’ve had the Android M Developer Preview on my Nexus 6 since the Developer Preview was released and have been using it is my daily driver. Of course there are a few hiccups here and there, but overall for being in development it is quite stable. I’ve definitely enjoyed my time with it so I decided to put together a list of Android M’s top 5 features.

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The Android M Developer Preview runs from May 27th until the final release, which will come right before the public release in Q3 of 2015. There will be a total of three previews until the final product is released. Here are the dates.

• Preview 1 (initial Preview release, late May)
• Preview 2 (late June/early July)
• Preview 3 (near final late July)

That gives a pretty good expectation of when to expect the final Public Release of Android M. If this holds true, then an mid-August release reported earlier wouldn’t be out of the question.

As far as updating your Developer Preview, you can find out when the latest version of Android M is available by checking the Android Developers Blog, the Android M Developer Community, or checking back here, as we’ll stay updated. The nice thing is that all updates will come via OTA updates, which means no more flashing is necessary.

Here you can view our entire Android M coverage.

Source

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Update: Upon some further digging into my phone and the installed applications on the Play Store app, I noticed Project Fi was installed on the device already. I went to the application drawer and it was nowhere to be found. So, on Android M, Fi comes baked into the operating system and that is why WiFi calling is included.

Google has added tons of things to Android M, but for the first time ever on a stock Android operating system form Google, it includes WiFi calling. WiFi calling is something that T-Mobile already embraces, as it is prevalent on many of their phones. Recently Google and T-Mobile partnered to bring WiFi calling to their carrier, but others are left out. Since Google already implemented WiFi calling into the T-Mobile Nexus 6 factory image, why not share the wealth?

In some areas, WiFi calling is a necessary feature, as service and reception can be sub-par at best. With the ability to enable WiFi calling, a user can use their internet connection to make phone calls, although it still counts against their minutes used.

To check out the WiFi calling settings on Android M, go to settings, more, then tap “WiFi calling”.

Since more and more features keep popping up with Android M, and more to come in the future, what’s your favorite so far? Let us know!

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Android Pay will be available to pay in stores (listing below) by placing your Android device near the merchants contactless terminal.There is no need to open an app, it’s as easy as tap and go. It is all transferred wirelessly via NFC. Once a payment goes through, a notification will pop up and will give you a payment confirmation and all the transaction details.

One feature of Android Pay that is under appreciated, is the ability to connect to loyalty programs effortlessly through your smartphone. For select retailers, Android Pay will keep track of your rewards. For example, when you use tap and go at a Coke machine, it will automatically be applied to your MyCokeRewards.

With Android Pay you aren’t confined to just using it at brick in mortar stores, you can use Android Pay within applications as well. Once in checkout of select apps, all you need to do is select “Buy with Android Pay” and Google handles the rest. This is an excellent way to make sure your in-app purchases are secure and safe.

In order to make Android Pay secure, Google has partnered with American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa, and many others to keep your personal and financial details under wraps. They are setting the industry standard for tokenization and it will be ready when Android Pay launches later this year with Android M.

The full Android Pay compatiblitiy includes over 700,000 store locations and over 1,000 Android apps, and they will continually be adding more every day. Here are a list of the major ones.

Source

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