The latest update to Android's Lollipop operating system is available in a public release of version 5.0.1 to fix a few lingering launch bugs that have already plagued early adopters and prevented other devices from making the upgrade to the highly anticipated new OS.
As of right now, Android 5.0.1 Lollipop is available for the Nexus 6, Nexus 4, Nexus 9, Nexus 10, Nexus 7, and the Google Play editions of the HTC One M8, HTC One M7, and Motorola's Moto G (2013).
If you notice, there's not yet an update available for the Nexus 5, but Google is expected to make that upgrade soon. As for the rest of the growing list, 5.0.1 is available as an over-the-air (OTA) download via a prompt that will pop up on your device. If you have one of these products and didn't receive the automatic notification or update yet, you can still manually install 5.0.1 quite easily. Android Central has a comprehensive guide to manually updating your Nexus device that should help ease the pain.
Android 5.0 Lollipop is the latest operating system upgrade for Google's popular Android platform. It introduces a newly redesigned user interface built around a design language called "Material Design," and features improvements to the notifications system, app performance, battery life, and more. It was first introduced in June of 2014 as simply Android L, but was officially given the Lollipop name in October when its main features were unveiled.
This incremental 5.0.1 update was first noticed as a quiet patch last week, but this OTA edition allows more users to make the easy upgrade on more devices.
"Among the changes in this version is an increase to the amount of memory allocated for video playback on Nexus 7 users, which often manifested itself on YouTube as the now-infamous 'There was a problem while playing the video. Touch to retry' error," according to a report at ZDnet. "Users on the bug have reported that the update has fixed the issue."
A Google spokeperson spoke to the publication about a factory reset bug that was considered isolated to specific users. "Another issue fixed in this release is avoiding accidentally factory resetting a device configured to wipe itself after a number of failed access attempts," the article stated. "Lollipop now does not count password or patterns with less than four elements as attempts to access the device."
While this update is certainly good news for those Lollipop users who have already been enjoying the fresh new OS, the majority of Android users aren't even using anything close to Lollipop. According to a surprising report from Google, "34 percent of Android users now run Android 4.4 KitKat, 49 percent run a version of Jelly Bean, while 9 percent are stuck on Android 2.3 Gingerbread." These numbers are presumably due to worldwide carrier limitations and a lack of communication with some users on the benefits of upgrading their device.
This latest bug fix should help bridge the gap between more devices and help bring those user numbers up so more Android devices are using updated software.
