There were reports late in January that Google will release its latest update to the highly-touted but problem-filled mobile operating system, the Android 5.0 Lollipop in February.
Motorola and Nexus were actually among the mobile devices that were being hyped to receive the first versions of the Android 5.1 Lollipop, which the two companies also did when the Android 5.0 Lollipop was officially rolled out in November 12, 2014.
With less than 10 days to go before February draws to a close, Google has yet to make an official announcement regarding the release date of the Android 5.1 Lollipop.
However, a recent report picked up by NDTV Gadgets indicates that Google will delay the release of the major update to the Lollipop to March and this was actually hinted by an executive of Taiwan-based tech company HTC in the US.
Mo Versi, Vice President of Product Management of HTC, disclosed recently that the next build of Android, a maintenance release actually, is to be released by Google in March although no exact date has been specified by the Mountain View company.
In his recent post in Twitter, Versi replied to a user of an HTC One (M7) GPE smartphone who asked for a fix to the button lights bug. The HTC executive said that the fix would be tied to Google’s next maintenance release in March.
Early release of Android 5.1 Lollipop on certain devices
A maintenance release of Android 5.1 Lollipop has recently been seen in Android One smartphones in countries like Nepal, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Early in February, Android 5.1 Lollipop has also been seen already running on Nexus devices particularly, the Nexus 5, the Nexus 9, and the Nexus 6.
Because the mobile operating system has already been seen in Nexus devices, there were speculations that Google will already announce the release dates of official factory images and over-the-air updates for the Nexus mobile devices. Versi pointed out that it is likely to happen in March.
Days earlier, the Android 5.1 Lollipop was also reportedly seen on the Moto G (2014) smartphone of Motorola.
But all those are merely leaked images and unofficial, which are most likely trial versions of the Android maintenance release on those devices.
Major changes
Based on the leaked images of Android One smartphones running the Android 5.1 Lollipop, some of the changes that the new update would bring include tweaked quick settings for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, an additional arrow sign that further opens up a list while still in the quick settings, among several more new features.
As early as December last year, there were already reports that the changes that Android 5.1 Lollipop would usher include the return of the silent mode, which Android 5.0 Lollipop has done away with, fixes for system availability, improved RAM and battery management, wireless issues, addressing the excessive consumption of network devices when connected to Wi-Fi, and of course bug fixes.