Microsoft looks set to end the Nokia X lineup of Android-powered smartphones acquired by the company with its Nokia acquisition although some of the devices may be "shifted" to become Windows Phone-powered Lumia phones.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella writes in his email to Microsoft employees today, after announcing the redundancy of 18,000 workers, that"We plan to shift select Nokia X product designs to become Lumia products running Windows. This builds on our success in the affordable smartphone space and aligns with our focus on Windows Universal Apps."
Former Nokia CEO, now an executive at Microsoft, echoed the remarks, saying that "additional lower-cost Lumia devices" can be built by "shifting select Nokia X designs and products to Windows Phone devices.

From Nokia X Android To Nokia X Windows

It appears that the changes will be seen very quickly as he adds, "We expect to make this shift immediately while continuing to sell and support existing Nokia X products." The announcement comes less than a month after the launch of Nokia's latest Android-powered phone, the X2, but analysts have been wondering for a while how the X lineup would fit into Microsoft's Windows-dominated ecosystem. The answer, it seems, is what many anticipated: it simply won't.

Apparently, Microsoft has no interest in developing Android handsets and would much rather continue producing Windows Phone devices with its own software. Of course, this is no surprise as a manufacturer cannot be expected to endorse a competitor's product, but the launch of the X2 was seen by soon as a committal by Microsoft to keep the Android-powered Nokia's alive although many, including myself, were rightly skeptical of what the launch concealed, it seems.

Galaxy Apps Store To Ecliped Google App Store

Samsung has created Galaxy Apps, an app store that eliminates the need for Galaxy owners to turn to Google Play.

Samsung's Android-running Galaxy devices have helped make it the world's top-selling smartphone maker. But in what could easily be interpreted as its latest move to put space between itself and Android-maker Google, Samsung has introduced Galaxy Apps, an online app store that Galaxy device users can turn to instead of Google Play.

Samsung introduced the store in a July 11 blog post, saying it "features hundreds of exclusive apps," will offer Galaxy device owners greater customization, and will make promotions and discounts more easily and obviously available to owners of Galaxy devices.

"At Samsung, we continuously strive to create value for our customers by providing differentiated solutions and services coupled with innovative devices," WonPyo Hong, president of Samsung's Media Solution Center, said in a statement. "Samsung Galaxy Apps is an extension of that promise, as it offers our customers exclusive apps to enrich their experience.

Galaxy Apps is divided into three sections: Staff Picks, Exclusives and Top. The Staff picks section doesn't feel so inspired—there's no sense of actual staff members making recommendations. Top, as expected, offers views of the most downloaded apps, sortable by pricing or popularity.

Exclusives is the key area and likely a major motivation for the store's existence. (Knocking the Google name out of the picture, and encouraging users to think of apps in terms of Samsung, not Google, is surely another.)
The Exclusives section looks the most originally Samsung and the most polished. It includes sections such as Essentials, Gifts, Apps for Professionals and Specials. Essentials includes apps such as Milk Music—Samsung's new streaming music app, introduced at the launch event for Samsung's newest flagship device, the Galaxy Tab S—and SideSync, a nifty app for owners of both a Galaxy tablet and a Galaxy smartphone.

Specials offers apps that were specifically created using Samsung SDKs, the company explained in its blog post, suggesting a better user experience than standard Android apps.
The Gifts section includes free apps, as well as notable ones such as "samplers" from GQ, Vogue, and Vanity Fair that come courtesy of a special deal (also announced at the Tab S event) between Samsung and the magazines' publisher, Conde Nast. More than just excerpts, or views of magazine page layouts, the samplers are beautifully and specially rendered versions of articles made for Samsung devices.

Other gifts include exclusive offers for Galaxy device owners, such as a Wall Street Journal application that comes with a free six-month subscription.
"The battle for tablet market share isn't just about things like HD anymore; it's about making an effort on content as well," Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar WorldPanel, explain to the media at the unveiling of the Tab S, which comes with Galaxy Apps installed and basically also uses it as one of its Home screens."That's refreshing," Milanesi added. "It means that if you don't bring all the fancy specs to life with great content, you're failing."
Samsung, in its blog post, said Galaxy Apps will eventually be available across 161 countries and to more than 130 million users.

Moving Away from Google

In February, Samsung refreshed its Galaxy Gear smartwatches, slimming them down but also transitioning them from Android to Tizen, its own mobile operating system (with roots back to Intel and Nokia). 

Later, in June, Samsung introduced the Samsung Z—its first smartphone to run Tizen. The phone's introduction was timed to the third annual Tizen Developer Conference in San Francisco, where the Tizen Association—which has representatives from Samsung, Fujitsu, Huawei, LG, Intel and five wireless carriers on its board—encouraged developers to create for the OS.
Intel Managing Director Christopher Croteau, at the time of the Gear smartwatches' debut, said in a statement that Intel sees a "unique role for Tizen in the industry to create and to grow a new, open and flexible mobile operating system.

The Samsung Z debuted in Russia, and reports have suggested that the next Tizen smartphone could arrive in India, where loyalty toward Android isn't yet strong.

Look, not every tip needs to be about extending battery life or accessing things more easily. Today we've got some smiley faces and stuff. It turns out you can use Emoji in homescreen folder names, which is neat.

Just pop open a folder and tap on the title like usual, then (on the Google Keyboard) long-press the 'Done' button to switch to Emoji. This might be different if you're not using the Google Keyboard, though. The only issue you have to deal with is a weird rendering quirk when the folder is closed – a few dark lines behind the Emoji. It looks a little odd, but it's not as noticeable on all images. There'sa bug in the issue tracker for it.

This works best on Android 4.4, which has proper support for colorful Emoji, but you might have some luck with Android 4.3 as well. Have fun.

Besides a larger display, Apple's upcoming iPhone 6 also may feature a faster A8 processor that pushes the system-on-a-chip beyond the 2.0 GHz threshold, claims GforGames citing Chinese media source cnBeta [Google Translate]. 

According to the latest information, Apple will reportedly increase the CPU frequency of its next-generation SoC to 2.0 GHz or higher per core, up from the 1.3 GHz (iPhone 5s and Retina iPad mini) or 1.4 GHz (iPad Air) of the A7 processor. The chip will keep the 64-bit, dual-core architecture of the current generation A7 CPU, but will be manufactured with a 20-nm process instead of the A7's 28-nm. TSMC and Samsung are thought be the primary manufacturers that are producing the A8 chip for Apple's upcoming iOS devices. 

Though competing phones ship with quad-core processors, Apple's possible decision to stay with a dual-core design may be the result of the company using a custom-designed chip optimized for iOS and not an off-the-shelf solution. This optimization already has been shown in the current dual-core A7, which offers "desktop class" performance that outperforms other players in the mobile phone marketplace. In its detailed analysis of the A7 after launch,Tech Analyst found that even though the A7's performance is top-notch, there was still room for improvement as almost no iOS app took full advantage of A7's available processing power.

South Korea's leading tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday it has renovated its application store as "Galaxy Apps" to provide users with a wider choice for customization of mobile devices.

The version is an update from the company's previous "Samsung Apps" store and offers hundreds of apps exclusively available to users of Samsung Galaxy smart devices. Samsung said the new app store will be available to 130 million users in 161 countries.

"At Samsung, we continuously strive to create value for our customers by providing differentiated solutions and services coupled with innovative devices," said Hong Won-pyo, who heads Samsung's Media Solution Center.

"Samsung Galaxy Apps is an extension of that promise, as it offers our customers exclusive apps to enrich their experience," Hong said.

Samsung said the new application store will provide users with intuitive interface. The main page is divided into three categories -- Best Picks, Top and For Galaxy -- where users can find Galaxy-only apps including Samsung Contents Viewer and Samsung Wallet.

Screen Display Comparison

Display types, benefits, resolutions and preferences can be pretty confusing. With our guide you'll know how each display works, what it's good for and how to pick one.

Super AMOLED vs LCD vs Retina display: When we talk about the Galaxy S5, Tab S LG G3 or iPhone, you may hear us rambling on about IPS, AMOLED, Retina and LCD.Well, today we're going to clean that confusion right up for you as we break down how each display type works, what they're good at and which is best for you. LCD LCD means Liquid Crystal Display. As you can probably figure out, LCD is made up of an array of liquid crystals that get illuminated by a back light. Because LCDs don't require much energy to power a screen, the technology is very popular in portable devices. Likewise, because LCDs are back lit, they tend to perform quite well in direct sunlight, as the entire display is being illuminated, so they are ideal for smartphones. However, this back lighting means that blacks tend to appear gray and they therefore have less contrast than some other display technologies. There are two main types of LCD: TFT and IPS. TFT stands for Thin Film Transistor and they are an advanced version of LCD that uses an active matrix (like the AM in AMOLED). Active matrix means that each pixel is attached to a transistor and capacitor individually. Their main advantage is their relatively low production cost and increased contrast when compared to traditional LCDs. Their disadvantage is more excessive energy consumption than some other LCDs, and less impressive viewing angles and color reproduction. IPS stands for In-Plane Switching and it is an improvement of TFT LCDs. To summarize very roughly, the way the crystals are electrically excited is different and the orientation of the crystals array is rotated. This change improves viewing angles, contrast ratio and color reproduction. Energy consumption is also reduced compared to TFT LCDs. Because IPS LCDs tend to be better than TFT LCDs, they are also more expensive when put on a smartphone. To identify whether a smartphone has an IPS or TFT screen, just look at the technical specs: if they simply say it is an LCD then you know it's a TFT LCD; IPS LCDs are always labeled as such. Retina A Retina display is not defined by any particular characteristic, other than that they are supposedly of sufficient resolution that the human eye can't discern pixels at a normal viewing distance. This measurement obviously changes depending on the size and resolution of the display. Apple popularized the concept with the iPhone 4, which had a 960 x 640 pixel resolution on a 3.5-inch IPS LCD screen, resulting in 330 pixels per inch. Considering the current 5.5-inch QHD displays sit at 534 ppi you can see that in the Android world they've moved on a bit from the iPhone 4. Apple, on the other hand, have stayed true to Steve Jobs' dictum and the current iPhone 5, 5c and 5s all have a Retina display with 1136 x 640 pixel resolution for a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch. With a rumored large-screen iPhone 6 coming up, we'll have to see just what resolution Apple opts for in a device that will have to go head to head with the best Android displays available. With a 577 ppi Galaxy S5 LTE-A being released in China, a 300 ppi iPhone 6 would be a prime target for criticism. AMOLED AMOLED stands for Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. While this may sound complicated it actually isn't. We already encountered the active matrix in TFT LCD technology, and OLED is simply a term for another thin-film display technology: OLED is an organic material that, like the name implies, emits light when a current is passed through them. As opposed to LCD panels which are back lit, OLED displays are ''always off'' unless the individual pixels are electrified. This means that OLED displays have much purer blacks and consume less energy when black or darker colors are displayed on screen. Because the black pixels are off, the contrast ratios are also higher than LCD screens. AMOLED displays have a very fast refresh rate too, but on the down side are not as visible in direct sunlight as back lit LCDs. Screen burn-in and diode degradation (because they are organic) are other factors to consider. What's the difference between AMOLED and Super AMOLED? Super AMOLED is the brand name given by Samsung to its range of displays that, like IPS LCDs, improve upon the basic AMOLED recipe. Super AMOLED displays reduce the thickness of the screen by integrating the touch response layer with the display itself. Super AMOLED displays handle sunlight better than AMOLED displays and are also better on power consumption. As the name implies, Super AMOLED is simply a better version of AMOLED. which screen display is better? As we have seen, each term is not restricted to one manufacturer: AMOLED is not always Samsung and Retina is not all Apple. iPhone IPS LCD displays are currently manufactured by LG, Samsung has built screens for the iPad and not all Samsung devices are AMOLED either. As is probably clear from our explanations above, it is not simply a case of which display is better: it's all a trade off between pros and cons. All of this is to say two things: numbers and technical data are obviously important when comparing the screens on two smartphones, but equally important is the real-world performance of these displays. It is impossible to gauge a display on paper, you really need to see it in real life to know if it is too cool or warm for you, is too saturated or has too poor contrast, brightness, viewing angles and so on. Don't fall into the trap of believing the marketing hype. Analyze the displays for yourself, ask other users, or if a device is not yet available, then seek the advice of websites whose opinion you trust. Finally, know your usage habits and select accordingly: if you are a couch potato all night and are desk-bound all day, then the daylight viewing benefits of LCDs are probably not so important for you, but if you're an outdoors type then maybe they are. If you're crazy about squeezing every drop of life out of your battery or are simply obsessed with eye-popping color, then take a look at Super AMOLED plus, in some ways the grass will always be greener, but you can still make informed choices that tick as many boxes as possible for you. What kind of display do you think is the best?

Cortana is now 14-0, and is on an unprecedented prediction streak. She has successfully picked the Winners of the last 14 matches of the World Cup in Brazil. Her semi-finals match predictions were her biggest test, and she passed with flying colors.

As for the World Cup finals game, we now have the winner picked! Cortana cautiously predicts that Germany will win the 2014 World Cup over Argentina and Brazil will take 3rd place. 

This World Cup has been a wild ride for Soccer fans and for Microsoft machine learning engine. Can Cortana get away with a perfect 16-0 record? If so, this is a huge win for Microsoft’s Windows Phone Personal Assistant Cortana and Bing’s machine learning software.

Bing is Google’s main competitor, and although most people are using Google for their internet searches, this is not because Bing is inferior, but because of habit. The term “Google it” is synonymous with looking things up on the internet, and this is very hard for Bing to overcome.

Microsoft’s prediction engine has recently been putting a positive face to Bing, and this is something that Bing needs. Regardless of what happens with Cortana’ s prediction, this recent publicity is an example of how Bing’s presence will grow in the mind of consumers.

Will she be proved wrong this time around or will she further cement her growing reputation as the most outstanding predictor of World Cup games since "octopus Paul.

If this prediction does come true, then it will be Germany's first World Cup title since the country's win was against Argentina in the 1990 final.

Following last night's semi-final which Argentina won on penalties, jonesarena asked:

"Who will win the match between Argentina and Germany?"

Cortana, which is available on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1 software, replied:

"Probably Germany. But you never know what can happen in the beautiful game..."

Cortana vs Paul the Octupus

The digital assistant's count of accurate predictions has exceeded those of Paul the Octopus - the sea creature which supposedly had psychic abilities and went on to predict the winning team in eight of the matches at the lat World Cup - including the final.

Cortana's gets its predictions from Microsoft's Bing search engine, which has been configured to offer World Cup predictions. Also worth noting is that the predictions aren't restricted to just sports events. The search engine has also forecast the outcomes of several reality-TV shows, including The Voice, Dancing With The Stars and American Idol.

How Does Cortana Predict World Cup 2014 Match Outcomes?

"The process of predicting outcomes of sporting events is unlike voting show predictions, as popularity and some sentiment signals do not play similar roles in determining who wins a contest", said Microsoft in a blog post.

"Rather, the actions and performances of a handful of individuals solely determine who wins, loses, or ties. For the tournament, our models evaluate the strength of each team through a variety of factors such as previous win/loss/tie record in qualification matches and other international competitions and margin of victory in these contests, adjusted for location since home field advantage is a known bias."

Chinese media sources have joined the debate as to how much the iPhone 6 and iPhone Air might cost this fall – and it ain’t good news for penny-pinchers!
Here at jonesarena we try to keep you tight on latest stories as it happens, so you are on track.

It’s been suspected for some time that the iPhone 6 and the larger iPhone Air will pack a pretty painful punch to the pocket. Analysts have backed all manner of leaks throughout the year so far tipping a higher purchase price for both devices on and off-contract than those of the iPhone 5S and 5C.

And if a recent tip-off from a Chinese media source is anything to go by, all but the market’s highest-rollers need not apply.

G4Games quotes industry sources from China as suggesting that the Chinese market will be one of the first to get its new hands on both variants of the new iPhone. As such, some of those expecting the early delivery insist they’ve already been informed of each device’s respective price.

Starting with the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, the entry-level model which this time will apparently be the 32GB version has been tipped for a price of 5,288 yuan, which given the exchange rate right now equates to about $850. As for the 5.5-inch iPhone Air, the same 32GB version will apparently begin from around the 5998 yuan mark, which takes things worrying close to the $1,000 barrier.

These are of course the unlocked off-contract prices for the devices – when taken with a two-year service agreement buyers will be looking more in the region of $249 to $399.

Of course, the fact that the US dollar isn’t doing too well right now might see the prices come down a little prior to the September launch festivities – plus it’s not unusual for different prices entirely to apply to different markets.

Launch date : September 15 Unveil

Would you be willing to ditch out up to $1,000 for the first ever iOS Phablet?

Best Way To Root Your Android

Ever wonder how you could root your device without having to risk voiding the warranty? Well, with VRoot, you can have your cake and eat it too.

However, how many of you haven’t bothered touching this type of things for fear of voiding the warranty on your device?  How about being worried that you might do something wrong and brick your device? Well, if that’s the case, you can now sleep soundly and attempt root yourself with the help of VRoot. This is a bundle of software that allows rooting devices with one click without the fear of voiding your warranty.

Note: This procedure is only available for devices that are running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or higher. This also works on devices that have built in security software, such as Samsung’s and Knox.

Forget the cumbersome procedures having to use Odin, searching for flashable recoveries, and all the rest. Once your device is recognized (in a database of over 8000 devices), the VRoot will enable permissions using root exploits and will do it all with a simple click of the button.

Software Required

• VRoot: PC Software that will do everything for you
• Drivers of your device installed on your PC. The easiest way to get them is by using the management software that comes with your device (Kies for Samsung, Sync for HTC, etc) or searching on the internet for your appropriate model.

Procedure

1. 1*  First, if you’ve got a Samsung phone with Knox enabled, make sure that you go into Settings > Security and disable Lock Reactivation first.
2. 
   
3. 2*  Install and open VRoot (don’t be alarmed by the Chinese characters, all the important stuff is in English)
4. 
   
5. 3*  Make sure that you have USB Debugging Active on your device. You can enable this by going into Developer Options and enabling this setting. If you don’t have Developer Optionsshowing in your Settings, enable this by going into About Phone and tapping on Build Number 7 times.
6. 
   
7. 4*  Connect your device to your PC.
8. 
   
9. 5*  VRoot will look for your device in the database and if recognized, the root button will appear.
10. 
    
11. 6*  Click Root. The procedure will start after a few seconds and your device may restart.
12. 
    
13. All done! You can check to see if you successfully got root permission by using the Root Checker application that is available in the Google Play Store.

Enabling SuperSU

By default, when you use VRoot, there is another program that handles superuser privileges on your now rooted device. If you’d like to change this out for the amazingly popular SuperSU, just use the following steps:

1. 1*  Install SuperSu from the Play Store
2. 
   
3. 2*  Open SuperSU. Superuser permissions will be requested, click on OK or允许 (the option on the right).
4. 
   
5. 3*  SuperSu will prompt the user to install the SU Binary. click ok.
6. 
   
7. 4*  Install Titanium Backup from the Play Store.
8. 
   
9. 5*  Open Titanium Backup and freeze the native superuser app that was installed by VRoot.
10. 
    
11. 6*  Reopen SuperSU and reinstall the SU Binary.

If everything was done properly, you’ll have a rooted device without a modified kernel, which shouldn’t raise any flags in regards to warranty issues.

Let us know your comments!

Android L APK apps

There’s a lot of focus right now on Android L, the next major upgrade to Google’s Android operating system, which was officially introduced at the recent Google I/O conference. The update is due to release to the public in fall and is currently in the hands of developers with the preview build. Now we have news that will interest some readers, as there’s a way to download all Android L apps with APK’s.

A few days ago we gave readers some information on the Android L, and now the team at XDA has come up with a list of each Android L app APK. You can choose to either download them in one bunch or can hit individual app links to download, as you’ll find some of these more valuable to you than others.

f you want to download the Android L apps all at once head here, or for individual apps head here. If you want to check out more information click on the XDA source below.

Here is a YouTube video showing some of the best features of Android L so why not check that out too. Are you pleased to learn that you can download all of the Android L apps in bulk or individually? Let us know how you got on and what you think of the changes that Android L is bringing to the table by sending your comments to us.

Source: XDA Developers

Facebook Messenger is among the most popular instant messaging applications on the market today. With Facebook’s ever-growing user base, chances are that most of your friends are on Facebook, so Facebook Messenger has quickly managed to become the go-to app for keeping in touch with friends, family, and co-workers.

The Messenger application is present on all platforms (Android, iOS, and Windows Phone, as the top three) and you can use the client on both your smartphone and tablet. The iOS client has been available for ages for the iPhone, but those who wanted to use the application on their Apple tablet, had no dedicated version for their iPads. Sure, these iPad users were able to keep in touch with others using the official Facebook app (messages and messaging was buried inside the official Facebook application), but now there is a dedicated Facebook Messenger application for the iPad.

The client was released on July 3, and it is version 7.0. If your iPad (or iPhone) runs iOS 7, or later, you’ll be able to install and use the new Facebook Messenger without a problem.

The officially published change log is not extensive. You’ll find the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, in addition to other fixes which “make the app more reliable”. If you shoot a video over to a friend from within the Facebook Messenger application, those videos will now be saved to your Camera Roll. However, the most important entry is the iPad availability.

The application now takes advantage of the iPad’s larger screen and resolution, in order to offer a full tablet experience for those using Facebook Messenger. This is done by using a split view of displaying a full, scrollable, list of your messaging threads on the side, while the other side will display the currently selected (ongoing) conversation you’re having with your contacts. The same calling features present on the iPhone client are also included in the iPad version, and, of course, you can express yourself by using one of Facebook’s supported stickers, right from your new iPad app.

You can check with your App Store on your iPad, to get the new Facebook Messenger app for the iPad.

Source: Apple iTunes App Store

Eventually everyone has heard of Paul Octopus but Cortana could be a new word to you. However, if you are a huge fan of the Halo series on the Xbox Computer Entertainment System, Cortana shouldn’t be alien to you.

In the Halo games, Cortana is an artificial intelligence that goes wrong but the recent build by Microsoft has turned the program into a monster.
What is Cortana?Cortana was the codename for the newly announced intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator for Windows Phone 8.1. We didn’t know Microsoft was going to adopt and keep the codename which would now become a rival to Apple’s Siri and Google Now.
According to Microsoft, Cortana would be completely changing the social world; it is designed to be socially intelligent. For example, you can set a reminder on Cortana to ask a friend about something, and anytime you initiate an interaction with your friend, either through call or text, the reminder pops up.


So, Microsoft has been having fun with Cortana lately, especially in relation to the World Cup and the results thusfar has been absolutely mind-blowing.

As a result, Cortana has been receiving unexpected attention after it correctly predicted winners of the World Cup fixtures. The 100% accuracy is made possible by enabling Bing prediction engine on Cortana.

The Bing prediction engine uses a complex algorithm to process different inputs, such as team’s history, game history, home-team advantage, win/loss records, user searches and much more.

Here is Cortana's prediction for today’s match.
Currently, its 10-0 for Cortana, should the program prediction for today’s fixture go as planned, it would become 12-0 for Cortana. Let’s see what goes on today and we would continue to give you updates about Cortana.

One of the most interesting parts of the developer preview of Android 5.0, or L release, or Lollipop (or whatever we're going to call it until Google announces it will finally be called Lamington), was just how many features the new stock Android has absorbed from custom ROMs, third-party apps and manufacturer skins. While this is perfectly acceptable given the open source nature of Android and can be seen as an enriching of the core experience in Android based on what users actually want, it also steps on the toes of a lot of developers in the business of Android ''add-ons''. So will the new stock Android be better than all three?

Android L release date and features

Android L is here, and it's brought a raft of new changes, with Sundar Pichai, head of Android, proclaiming it to be one of the biggest upgrades to Android yet.

It's going to have a radical new design, 5000 new APIs, will be available for developer previews soon, and it's going beyond the mobile form factor. Android L will be contextually aware of its surrounding, plus voice is going to me a major input source.

The experience will also be seamless, so Android L devices communicate properly, although Pichai was at pains to point out the mobile phone will always be the priority.

Release date

Here's what most of you will be wanting to know: when can I get it on my phone? Well, if you're a developer with a Nexus 5 or Nexus 7 then its easy, as it's now available as of June 26 to developers only.

For the rest of the world, it's coming 'this fall', which means that this is very much a preview to appease those that want to get cracking on development, and launching it at Google IO makes sense.

HTC has already been in contact, giving the following statement about it's forthcoming upgrade to Android L:

"HTC is excited about the new features in Android L and we can't wait to share them with our customers. We are committed to updating our flagship HTC One family as fast as possible.

"We will begin rolling out updates to the HTC One (M8) and HTC One (M7) in regions worldwide within 90 days of receiving final software from Google, followed shortly thereafter by other One family members and select devices."

Remember, this doesn't mean the developer preview, but the final version later in the year. So expect Android L on your HTC One M8 and M7 around Christmas.

We'll update you as soon as we find out any more information from the other manufacturers about their plans for Android L release schedules.

Features

Floating notifications

I'm a huge fan of mini apps and popup notifications and the popup feature on instant messengers like Viber, also drop down preview of text messages as they come in. In the developer preview we saw just how cool the ''heads up'' notifications in the next version of Android will be.

Kill switch

I've been following the progress of the legally required kill switch in smartphones for a while now. Google already had Android Device Manager as a default location and remote wiping tool, but now the feature will be a core component of the operating system and not an add-on service. Plenty of other tools are available but it seems unlikely any will work as well as the built-in version.

Lockscreen notifications

 Lock screen notification apps like Dynamic Notifications and Peek are a good example, being able to access and respond to your notifications directly from your lockscreen in stock Android is a great move in my opinion. Add to this the debut of Android Wear and you ll hardly need to unlock your phone again.

Multitasking

Anything that cuts down on endless app switching is going to get lots of attention. The new Rolodex-looking, card-based recent apps setup along with smarter Google Search and dialer predictions are all great things for users.

Privacy settings

privacy settings are a blessing and nothing would go anywhere without Permission Manager and Permissions Observatory. In the upcoming Android release we'll see built-in app privacy settings via Universal Data Controls and ''on-the-spot'' permission requests, so you don't need to add any third-party apps, custom ROMs or settings to take control of your privacy. Is Google just skimming from the great ideas of others?

Power saving mode

With the next version of Android coming with a stock battery saving mode and battery historian for developers (and surely users) to monitor the battery consumption of their apps and optimize (or just plain kill) the power-hungry ones. Will manufacturers let these features seep through to their skins or stick with their own?

Google Fit

Other than being able to get a pedometer on your Nexus 5 there's not much in the way of health integration in the current Android. Google Fit in the next version of Android makes a lot of these third-party options unnecessary and puts up a big challenge to the likes of S Health and LG Health. So who will do it better?

Personal unlocking

Google wants your apps to be able to talk to one another - it used the example of searching for a place, only to have it served up in Google Earth, which is where it originally was being looked at. The idea goes much deeper than that though, to have my phone know when I'm at an unlock-friendly place (like work) or to know that it's me picking up my phone because of my Bluetooth headphones or smartwatch makes it even easier, especially when it's baked into the core system. Just how much of this is for convenience and how much to push wearables?

Performance

Everyone love tweaking things and customizing system settings to get the absolute best performance out of their smartphone. Most nerds have been running ART since it debuted ages ago, but not every app was running properly and it was, of course, a developer option that wasn't quite finished, even if it did speed up your performance significantly. Making ART the default runtime (that can also handle just-in-time compiling of older apps) makes it the perfect solution, it also supports 64-bit processing.

Themes

Many actually likes CyanogenMod's Themer engine and the many different custom launcher themes you can switch things up with. Android tends to look quite disparate due to its open-source nature, so it's not always easy to get a streamlined, harmonious experience. By introducing the Material theme to their own apps, Google is providing a unified example, and Project Polymer makes it easier for developers to create apps in the Material Design language via reusable web components. This should hopefully make the entire ecosystem a lot more stylistically consistent but will it make Android look like iOS?

What do you think of Android 5.0 Lamington?