What's Your LAUNCHER

Touchwiz 5.0.1



Well, well, well, what do we have here? It looks like an official TouchWiz take on Android 5.0 Lollipop for 2013's battle-worn Samsung Galaxy S4, one of the best-selling Samsung smarpthones of all time, has just leaked and has been quickly picked up by the eager members of the XDA community. The build in question is based on Android 5.0.1, the latest available representative of Google's OS.

Numerous users report that despite being a Chinese locale, the firmware appears to be authentic. At the time of writing there have been no major bugs found - Wi-Fi, 3G/4G data, NFC, Bluetooth, all sensors, and everything else you might think of seem to be working fine. Still, as we mentioned above, certain system messages will probably appear in Chinese, but that's a price that the eager early adopters of said leaked distribution will have to tolerate.

The build reportedly only works with several versions of the Galaxy S4 - GT-I9500, GT-I9502, GT-I9508, and the GT-I9508v ones, with the notable omission being the Snapdragon 600 variation, the GT-I9505 variation of the former Samsung flagship.

Provided that you're using a Galaxy S4 and can't wait any longer, follow the source link and give this Lollipop build a try. As usual, make sure that you have a handy NANDroid backup in store, you know, just in case something goes wrong.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S5 already took a lick from the TouchWiz-esque Lollipop that Samsung released and we quickly compared it with the older KitKat firmware. The Galaxy S4 will, most probably, receive its own Android update pretty soon.

Google Now

Google Now is one of the more ambitious evolutions of Google's search software. The idea is simple — predict what you'll want or need to know before you know you need or want it, and serve it up in an easy-to-read format. And the execution has been excellent.

Announced at Google I/O in June 2012, it quickly became apparent that Google had big plans for Google Now. For one, it launched the "card design" movement for Android, something you see in any number of products now. And while using your voice with your Android phone had been around for some time, Google Now took it to a whole new level, akin to Apple's Siri.

And starting with Android 4.4 KitKat, Google Now became a part of the home screen launcher itself, tucked away on the far-left. It's not on every device — HTC and Samsung still do their own thing, for example. (And in the exact same spot.) Motorola does things a little different with its Moto X as well, employing full-on voice control, without having to hit the power button first to wake the phone. If you hear someone saying "OK, Google" or "OK, Google Now," you know why.

So what can Google Now do for you? The list is ever-expanding. But it'll show you upcoming appointments. Or tell you when you need to leave to get to that appointment on time. Or it'll give you a preview of your route, with one-button navigation. Or it'll show you friends' birthdays. Or stock quotes. Or weather information. Or news on topics you recently searched for. Or sports scores. ... And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Google Now is growing. Get ready.

MIUI 6
 

Hugo Barra spoke on Xiaomi’s plans for Lollipop, indicating that Mi users would be the first to receive MIUI 6, based on Google’s latest sweet treat. Now thanks to a new post on the MIUI forum, it seems that beta testing is finally getting started.

According to the post, Mi 2/S/A users will be able to try out the beta ROM soon, provided they meet a few requirements such as having “English forums credits over 50” and that they are willing to report bugs to the forum. Of course only a finite number of applicants will actually be granted access to the beta, with a total of 50 testers to be selected by January 30th of 2015. For those wondering why Xiaomi is choosing to focus the beta on an older device, one possibility is that they wished to use older hardware so any performance issues are more visible, though obviously that’s really just speculation on our part. In other words, if the Mi 2 is running flawlessly (performance wise), than getting MIUI 6 working on other devices should be even easier. 

As for what to expect from the Lollipop-based update? While it’s hard to say for sure, we can probably expect new MIUI features alongside many of the under the hood improvements that come with Lollipop. Some of the biggest user-facing changes in Lollipop surround Material Design, although some of the skinned Lollipop ROMs we’ve seen on the market (like LG’s ROM on the G3) have made very little use of the new design language. If an earlier statement from Barra holds true, Xiaomi is working hard to strike a balance between the MIUI skin and the new Material Design elements in Android 5.0. Hopefully this means we can expect the best of both worlds.

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