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Break me off a piece of that: Android 4.4 KItKat officially released

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G

gutshot

Member
Google officially unveils its latest update to Android, verison 4.4 dubbed "KitKat".

http://www.android.com/versions/kit-kat-4-4/

image17.jpg


http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/android-for-all-and-new-nexus-5.html

Just in time for Halloween, we have two new treats for Android fans. First, we're excited to unwrap our latest platform release, KitKat, which delivers a smarter, more immersive Android experience to even more people. And second, we're introducing Nexus 5—a new Nexus phone developed with LG.

The first thing you’ll notice about KitKat is we’ve made the experience much more engaging: the book you're reading, the game you're playing, or the movie you're watching—now all of these take center stage with the new immersive mode, which automatically hides everything except what you really want to see.

Bringing more Google smarts to Android
Behind the polish on the screen is the power under the hood. Take the Phone app, which for most people hasn’t really changed since the days of flip phones. Now, we’re making calling easier than ever, by helping you search across your contacts, nearby places, or even Google Apps accounts (like your company’s directory), directly from within the app. And with the new Hangouts app, all of your SMS and MMS messages are together in the same place, alongside your other conversations and video calls, so you’ll never miss a message no matter how your friends send it. This is just a small taste of KitKat—learn more on our site.

Google has always focused on helping users get immediate access to the information they need, and we want to bring this same convenience and power to users on Android. With the new Nexus 5 launcher, Google smarts are deeply integrated into the phone you carry around with you, so getting to the information you need is simple, easy and fast. Swipe once from the home screen to get Google Now literally at your fingertips. Put Google to work for you by saying “OK, Google” to launch voice search, send a text, get directions or even play a song you want to hear. And in the coming weeks, we’re enhancing Now with important new card types that bring you information about contextual topics that interest you such as updates from a favorite website or blog.

Reaching the next 1 billion users
Building a platform that makes mobile phones accessible for everyone has always been at the heart of Android. Until now, some lower-end Android phones couldn't benefit from more recent Android releases due to memory constraints. With KitKat, we've slimmed down Android’s memory footprint by doing things like removing unnecessary background services and reducing the memory consumption of features that you use all the time. We did this not only within Android but across Google services like Chrome and YouTube. RAM (or memory) is one of the most expensive parts of a phone, and now Android can run comfortably on the 512MB of RAM devices that are popular in much of the world, bringing the latest goodies in Android 4.4 within reach for the next billion smartphone users.

Introducing Nexus 5
Along with our sweet naming tradition, we also introduce a new device with each platform release to showcase the latest Android innovations. For KitKat, we partnered with LG to develop Nexus 5 -- the slimmest and fastest Nexus phone ever made. Its design is simple and refined to showcase the 5” Full HD display. Nexus 5 also keeps you connected at blazing speeds with 4G/LTE and ultra fast wifi. The advanced new lens on Nexus 5 captures more light for brighter night and sharper action shots. And with optical image stabilization, you no longer have to worry about shaky hands and blurry pictures. A new HDR+ mode automatically snaps a rapid burst of photos and combines them to give you the best possible single shot. Learn more on our site.

Nexus 5 is available today, unlocked and without a contract, on Google Play in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea (and coming soon to India), starting at $349. Just in the time for the holidays, Nexus 5 will be available soon at the following retailers: Sprint, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy and RadioShack.

Android 4.4, KitKat, which comes on Nexus 5, will also soon be available on Nexus 4, 7, 10, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks.

How’s that for a treat?

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps
Click to expand...

DSC_9396-1024_large_verge_medium_landscape.jpg


Articles
Android 4.4 KitKat arrives, focuses on budget phone performance - Engadget
Android 4.4 KitKat: Google's simpler, integrated operating system designed for every phone - The Verge
Google Unveils Android 4.4 KitKat and the Nexus 5: The new Android has lots more features -- but fits into less memory. - TIME.com
Google Now and speech recognition get big updates in Android 4.4 KitKat - The Verge
Android 4.4 KitKat comes with smarter, more connected phone dialer - The Verge

Videos
Android 4.4 Hands-on - The Verge
Top 5 Android 4.4 Kitkat Features! - Marquess Brownlee

Lots of geeky details over on the official Android Developers website.

http://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html

Graphical representations of some of the new features in KitKat:

slides.008-001.png

slides.009-001.png

slides.010-001.png

slides.013-001.png
Click to expand...

When will my phone/tablet get KitKat?

Nexus 4: OTA updates began 11/21
Nexus 7: OTA updates began 11/12
Nexus 10: OTA updates began 11/12
Galaxy Nexus: never :(

HTC One: Jan 2014
HTC One unlocked/Developer Edition: end of Nov 2014
HTC One Google Play Edition: OTA updates began 11/25

Galaxy S4: Jan 2014
Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition: OTA updates began 11/25
Galaxy S3: April 2014
Galaxy Note 3: Jan 2014
Galaxy Note 2: April 2014
Galaxy Tab 10.1: unknown

Moto X: OTA updates began 11/19
Droid Ultra: coming eventually
Droid Maxx: coming eventually
Droid Mini: coming eventually

LG G2: unknown

Android 4.4 APKs

Want to feel like you have KitKat without actually installing the whole OS? Grab these APKs and sideload them onto your phone/tablet. Word of caution: these are unofficial apps taken from the Android 4.4 code and built for the Nexus 5. They may be buggy or not work at all on your device.

Also, to get the new launcher you actually have to install three different apps: Google Play Services, Google Search and Google Home.

Google Play Services (v4.0.30)
Calendar (v201308021)
Clock (v3.0.0)
Email (v6.0-893803)
Gallery (v1.1.40304)
Gmail (v4.6.1)
Camera (v2.0.001)
Hangouts (v2.0.012)
Keep (v2.0.50)
Google Keyboard (v2.0.19003.893803a)
Google Search (3.0.17.886092)
Google Home (0.9.6.886092)
Wallpapers
 
B

BertramCooper

Banned
The dialer sounds freaking amazing.

For unrecognized calls, it does a web search as the call comes in to try to match a name/business with the number.

So cool. Can't wait to try it out.
 
E

Elija2

Member
They lowered the memory footprint in 4.4 so that older phones can run it, but my Galaxy SII will still be stuck on 4.1. Fuck you Samsung.
 
D

DUFFMCWALIN

Member
Elija2 said:
They lowered the memory footprint in 4.4 so that older phones can run it, but my Galaxy SII will still be stuck on 4.1. Fuck you Samsung.
Click to expand...

Root it man, I think thats what I'm going to do this weekend (if it actually works and theres something out for us verizon users).
 
D

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
I'm still on 4.1.2 on my S3 on Verizon. :-/ Every day I check for updates but there is nothing.
 
T

timcsavage

Member
SimleuqiR said:
512MB RAM.

Goddamn Googy! That's like the opposite of what Apple does with their updates (rendering old hardware almost unusable ).

This should make those still on the Galaxy Nexus (GSM) very happy.
Click to expand...

the release implies galaxy nexus users won't get it. I think I might have to wait for Cyanogenmod to release their version of kitkat
 
K

Khalifa Jayy

Banned
BertramCooper said:
The dialer sounds freaking amazing.

For unrecognized calls, it does a web search as the call comes in to try to match a name/business with the number.

So cool. Can't wait to try it out.
Click to expand...

That's the most exciting thing for me so far. That sounds like a great improvement on the incredibly stagnant phone dialers we have been treated to the last few years. I can't wait to see it in action.
 
J

jokkir

Member
Galaxy Nexus & Android 4.4 (KitKat) FAQs

Is Google releasing Android 4.4 as a system update for Galaxy Nexus?

No, Galaxy Nexus phones won’t be receiving the update for Android 4.4 (KitKat).

Why isn’t Galaxy Nexus receiving the update to Android 4.4?

Galaxy Nexus, which first launched two years ago, falls outside of the 18-month update window when Google and others traditionally update devices.
Click to expand...

https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/3468085?hl=en&ref_topic=3415518

lol RIP Galaxy Nexus
 
gimmmick

gimmmick

Member
SimleuqiR said:
512MB RAM.

Goddamn Googy! That's like the opposite of what Apple does with their updates (rendering old hardware almost unusable ).

This should make those still on the Galaxy Nexus (GSM) very happy.
Click to expand...

womp womp womp. It's really odd that google isn't updating the galaxy nexus to 4.4. Shit even apple updates 3 year old hardware like the iphone 4 to it's present day OS.
 
C

Cipherr

Member
BertramCooper said:
The dialer sounds freaking amazing.

For unrecognized calls, it does a web search as the call comes in to try to match a name/business with the number.

So cool. Can't wait to try it out.
Click to expand...

Indeed, it also seems to search the web when you are dialing a number to try and help you find what you are looking for. Building the yellow pages into the dialer is some slick shit.
 
E

Elija2

Member
DUFFMCWALIN said:
Root it man, I think thats what I'm going to do this weekend (if it actually works and theres something out for us verizon users).
Click to expand...

My phone is rooted, but there are no stable roms for any Android versions past 4.1 because my version of the SII (the international version) has the Exynos chip which Samsung refuses to release the source code for.
 
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