Google officially announced the new Nexus 5 and Android 4.4
So, it happened. The new Nexus 5 smartphone has already managed to get completely bored by technographers, as it leaked into the network in all possible and impossible views from September, and Google was dragging on with the announcement. Moreover, a week ago, the smartphone was right in the official online store Google, but then it was promptly drunk. Now the cards are finally revealed. In addition, the source code of the new Android 4.4 Kit Kat operating system is officially available with numerous improvements.
Google Nexus 5, like last year's Nexus 4, was developed in partnership with LG. However, over the year the smartphone has changed beyond recognition. The developers decided to abandon the plastic Gorilla Glass on the rear panel in favor of the usual soft-touch plastic. Due to the enlarged screen, the smartphone has increased in size. Characteristics of the device are as follows:
There are two versions of Nexus 5 with LTE:
one). D820 . North American:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
CDMA: Frequency Bands: 0/1/10
WCDMA: Frequency Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8/19
LTE: Frequency Bands: 1/2/4/5/17/19/25/26/41
2). D821 . International:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
WCDMA: Frequency Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8
LTE: Frequency Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/20
')
To get LTE support in Russia, you need a version of D821 , which will be sold in European and Asian Play Store, or retail chains in Russia, but you must wait for LG Russia, which will be engaged in distribution in the Russian Federation.
Buy here .
Upgrade to Kit Kat will get the Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10, as well as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One, released in conjunction with Google (Google Play Edition). About Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 on Tegra 3 nothing is yet known. There will probably not be an update.
While the following is known:
Despite the fact that Google apparently wants to promote Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 2012 users with the update, the company claims that Android KitKat now provides utilities for optimizing the system and applications for low-power devices. What does this mean? OEM has the ability to change the Dalvik cache over a wide range, swap in zRAM, use KSM Linux kernels, and much more. The new API ActivityManager.isLowRamDevice () will allow application developers to optimize their programs to work in different amounts of RAM. Instructions here .
Finally, Google was able to integrate Chromium as a standard WebView for Android. What does this give? Broad support for HTML5, CSS3, as well as the full power of the V8 virtual machine. Chromium WebView supports remote debugging via PC. That is, using desktop Chrome, you can debug your mobile project. Previously, it was possible only in the Chrome browser for Android, now it is out of the box in the system. This is a plus for developers of non-native applications on PhoneGap. Maybe they will finally stop lagging? %)
Finally, Android got a perfectly valid printing solution. Android did not have a single system solution for printing data, but now it has appeared. Google provides an API for creating plug-ins to add support for different printers. The OEM had the opportunity to distribute these plugins through the Play Store, so that there would be no fuss with the drivers on the sites.
Now there is a powerful API for integrating applications with different types of data storage: local and cloud. Moreover, data exchange methods are unified, so cloud service developers will be able to develop their own plug-ins, which virtually any application can pick up. Although the documentation is some kind of hell, and at night looking, I don’t understand anything, so smoke yourself :)
Android 4.4 includes a set of APIs that allow the developer to optimize their SMS application for default operation. Previously, installing a third-party application led to periodic duplication of incoming messages and a general mess in the notification panel. Now the installation of SMS / MMS applications by default actually disables the previous one by full system-wide interception of messages.
Now developers have a standardized API that allows you to completely hide all interface elements, including the notification panel and touch keys that are used on Nexus devices, tablets and some other smartphones. You can return to the system UI with a special gesture from the edges of the screen (upper or lower).
The Google RenderScript bike, replacing the Orthodox OpenCL in vanilla Android, has been significantly improved in terms of both performance and usability. Hardware acceleration, which was previously only available for Nexus 10, now works with Nexus 4, Nexus 7 (2013). Nexus 5, of course, is also not deprived of concern. In addition, Renderscript can now be called directly from the NDK through the new C ++ API, so this technology can now be used for resource-consuming native applications.
Android 4.4 has significantly improved SurfaceFlinger, which used the pre-existing OpenGL ES 1, now updated it to meet OGL ES 2.0 specifications. Profit in increasing performance when multitextuing, and also improves the quality of color calibration and adds support for more sophisticated special effects within the system. The new Hardware Composer now enables hardware composition for virtual desktops, and also improves interaction with OpenGL ES.
The SELinux module has been switched from Permissive to Enforcing, so actions that violate security policies will now be blocked, not just logged. In addition, improved cryptographic algorithms used to fully encrypt the device, and also added a new algorithm - ECDSA . For multi-user systems, VPN is now applied per user. That is, the system-wide traffic sent via VPN will affect only one user, and not all.
The new Android is compiled using the new FORTIFY_SOURCE 2 flag. In addition, this flag can be used with the clang.
A complete list of changes can be found here .
Nexus 5
Google Nexus 5, like last year's Nexus 4, was developed in partnership with LG. However, over the year the smartphone has changed beyond recognition. The developers decided to abandon the plastic Gorilla Glass on the rear panel in favor of the usual soft-touch plastic. Due to the enlarged screen, the smartphone has increased in size. Characteristics of the device are as follows:
- SoC : Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974
- CPU : Qualcomm Krait 400 @ 2.3 GHz (4 cores)
- GPU : Qualcomm Adreno 330 @ 450 MHz (4 computing units)
- RAM : 2 GB
- ROM : 16/32 GB without memory card slots
- Screen : 5 "IPS + with a resolution of 1920x1080. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 is protected
- Communications : Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac MIMO, Bluetooth 4.0 + LE, NFC, Miracast, USB OTG
- Camera : 8 MPiks, autofocus, flash, optical and digital image stabilization, geotagging. Frontal with 1.3 MPi resolution
- Sensors : gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer, proximity and lighting sensors, compass, GPS / GLONASS
- Dimensions : 137.9x69.2x8.6 mm
- Weight : 130 g
- Battery : non-replaceable for 2300 mAh with the possibility of wireless charging according to the Qi standard
- Price : $ 349/399 (16/32 GB)
There are two versions of Nexus 5 with LTE:
one). D820 . North American:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
CDMA: Frequency Bands: 0/1/10
WCDMA: Frequency Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8/19
LTE: Frequency Bands: 1/2/4/5/17/19/25/26/41
2). D821 . International:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
WCDMA: Frequency Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8
LTE: Frequency Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/20
')
To get LTE support in Russia, you need a version of D821 , which will be sold in European and Asian Play Store, or retail chains in Russia, but you must wait for LG Russia, which will be engaged in distribution in the Russian Federation.
Buy here .
Android 4.4
Upgrade to Kit Kat will get the Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10, as well as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One, released in conjunction with Google (Google Play Edition). About Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 on Tegra 3 nothing is yet known. There will probably not be an update.
While the following is known:
Optimization
Despite the fact that Google apparently wants to promote Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 2012 users with the update, the company claims that Android KitKat now provides utilities for optimizing the system and applications for low-power devices. What does this mean? OEM has the ability to change the Dalvik cache over a wide range, swap in zRAM, use KSM Linux kernels, and much more. The new API ActivityManager.isLowRamDevice () will allow application developers to optimize their programs to work in different amounts of RAM. Instructions here .
Chromium
Finally, Google was able to integrate Chromium as a standard WebView for Android. What does this give? Broad support for HTML5, CSS3, as well as the full power of the V8 virtual machine. Chromium WebView supports remote debugging via PC. That is, using desktop Chrome, you can debug your mobile project. Previously, it was possible only in the Chrome browser for Android, now it is out of the box in the system. This is a plus for developers of non-native applications on PhoneGap. Maybe they will finally stop lagging? %)
Printable Framework
Finally, Android got a perfectly valid printing solution. Android did not have a single system solution for printing data, but now it has appeared. Google provides an API for creating plug-ins to add support for different printers. The OEM had the opportunity to distribute these plugins through the Play Store, so that there would be no fuss with the drivers on the sites.
Framework for storing and opening data
Now there is a powerful API for integrating applications with different types of data storage: local and cloud. Moreover, data exchange methods are unified, so cloud service developers will be able to develop their own plug-ins, which virtually any application can pick up. Although the documentation is some kind of hell, and at night looking, I don’t understand anything, so smoke yourself :)
SMS provider
Android 4.4 includes a set of APIs that allow the developer to optimize their SMS application for default operation. Previously, installing a third-party application led to periodic duplication of incoming messages and a general mess in the notification panel. Now the installation of SMS / MMS applications by default actually disables the previous one by full system-wide interception of messages.
Full screen mode
Now developers have a standardized API that allows you to completely hide all interface elements, including the notification panel and touch keys that are used on Nexus devices, tablets and some other smartphones. You can return to the system UI with a special gesture from the edges of the screen (upper or lower).
RenderScript Compute Improvements
The Google RenderScript bike, replacing the Orthodox OpenCL in vanilla Android, has been significantly improved in terms of both performance and usability. Hardware acceleration, which was previously only available for Nexus 10, now works with Nexus 4, Nexus 7 (2013). Nexus 5, of course, is also not deprived of concern. In addition, Renderscript can now be called directly from the NDK through the new C ++ API, so this technology can now be used for resource-consuming native applications.
Grafon
Android 4.4 has significantly improved SurfaceFlinger, which used the pre-existing OpenGL ES 1, now updated it to meet OGL ES 2.0 specifications. Profit in increasing performance when multitextuing, and also improves the quality of color calibration and adds support for more sophisticated special effects within the system. The new Hardware Composer now enables hardware composition for virtual desktops, and also improves interaction with OpenGL ES.
Security
The SELinux module has been switched from Permissive to Enforcing, so actions that violate security policies will now be blocked, not just logged. In addition, improved cryptographic algorithms used to fully encrypt the device, and also added a new algorithm - ECDSA . For multi-user systems, VPN is now applied per user. That is, the system-wide traffic sent via VPN will affect only one user, and not all.
The new Android is compiled using the new FORTIFY_SOURCE 2 flag. In addition, this flag can be used with the clang.
A complete list of changes can be found here .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/200410/
All Articles