Android news # 1: Android N expectations and Project Tango – Android Planet

Android Planet provides you with seven days per week from the best and most current news, but it can happen that you miss an important development now and then. Therefore, there is every Saturday with the news Android news!

This week was mainly dominated by electronics CES. Do you can not attend the event, please check the CES 2016 roundup in which we put the highlights in a row.

These are our initial expectations Android N

Although we do not even know the official name of Android N, which can not stop us from thinking already about what will bring this new Android version for new features. So it will be with this version finally time for a splitscreen mode that allows two apps at the same time you turn on your screen. For example, Netflix and Twitter, for multitaskers among us. We hope that the new version of Android will also finally bring independent updates that can be rolled out to all Android devices and not just the Nexus platforms. In this article you read all our expectations Android N.

Lenovo and Google make Project Tango smartphone for the masses

This summer brings Lenovo in collaboration with Google, a Project Tango smartphone. Which is also the need to make it possible for consumers to make use of a wide range of augmented reality applications. Thanks to a camera module at the rear of the Tango Project smartphone with depth sensors, a regular camera and a camera with fisheye lens, precisely in 3D spaces can be mapped. Lenovo and Google have worked in their own words a year to perfect the technique, which now is small enough to fit into the smartphone. The device will also be given a screen of between 6 and 6.5 inches, a chipset from Qualcomm and a price tag of around $ 500.

BlackBerry is working on second Android device

Although the BlackBerry Priv not yet the sales success hoped for, it seems that there still is a second Android BlackBerry. Rather hinting CEO John Chen already on a second smart phone and during an interview at CES in Las Vegas this was reconfirmed by the CEO. According to Chen, is 2016 the year in which BlackBerry switching on Android. It is anyway one new device released that runs on the open source operating system, but there is a chance that we can still expect a second one. Chen did further not comment on sales figures from the Priv, but let know to be “cautiously optimistic.”

Adoption Marshmallow lays problem Android bare

Despite the fact that more and more devices to receive the update to Android Marshmallow, the remains adoption of the Android version is limited. But 0.7 percent of all handsets running on Google’s latest mobile operating system. Lollipop (5.x) recorded a higher share of 32.6 percent. The most widely used version of Android is still KitKat (4.4), which stands at 36.1 percent of the devices. Android remains highly fragmented, which is problematic for both users and app developers. The first group often do not know when (and at all of) their device gets an update, while developers to optimize their applications to take into account many different devices and versions.

Lenovo’s Motorola brand phasing

Lenovo, which in 2014 took over Motorola by Google, phasing out the brand of the company. The smartphone branches are brought together under the Lenovo flag, where the ‘Moto’ brand it will still be used for high-end products. Cheaper handsets from Lenovo will be released under the Vibe brand. According to Lenovo CEO Rick Osterloh Motorola will slowly but surely disappear for consumers, though the name is from a business perspective used to describe the business unit within Lenovo. Future phones will however bear the Lenovo logo and “M” that we know of smartphones in the Moto series.