Android 5.1 Lollipop Announced. Keep on Licking.

Long gestating in the hearts of minds of the Android faithful, today Google officially announced the update for Android Lollipop to version 5.1. No more extra decimal points for you.

The update, announced via the official Android blog by VP of Android Platform David Burke, brings with it a number of subtle refinements aside from the usual stability and performance improvements. Android 5.1 actually allows the use of more than one SIM card on devices with multiple SIM slots. The image above shows an example of this at work, giving the user a choice of which phone line to use to make a call. Pretty nifty.

Device Protection will allow a lost or stolen device to remain locked until one signs in with a Google account, even if a ne’er-do-well attempts to perform a factory reset.

Another new addition is high definition voice calling on compatible devices. The Android team doesn’t specify, but we assume this is voice carried over data and not the usual cellular connection. But we could be wrong.

Bluetooth connections will now be able to be managed directly from Quick Settings. No longer will you need to go through a whopping two levels of UI to reach those precious connections. But really, it’ll be nice to have that in the forefront.

Surely other updates will come to light as 5.1 starts rolling out, presumably first to Nexus devices, but sometimes other manufacturers, like Motorola, even manage to beat Google to the punch.

Let us know if you get an upgrade notification. Google’s notice says that “today” they are “rolling out” a new version of Android, but it’s unclear whether that means “rolling out” in the sense of a big reveal or actual OTA updates. So just hit your “Check for Updates” button over and over and over until something happens.

Source: Official Android Blog

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