Introduction
Towards the end of the year, the Android release code-named "M" is expected. Like its predecessors, it will probably be named after some piece of candy but the final name has not yet been announced. At the Google I/O developer conference last week, an early developer preview of "M" was
made available for select Nexus phones and tablets. I took the opportunity this past weekend of giving it an early spin. This post will not highlight the major additions to this release, but will focus on my experience installing it.
Broken Flash Script
I started with my
Nexus 6 phone. To install, I used the familiar procedure using the
adb and
fastboot command line tools shipped with the Android SDK. These tools are familiar to most Android developers and other technology enthusiasts who like to load different firmware images onto their devices. The first thing that I discovered was that the installation script (
flash-all.sh) for Mac did not work, outputting an error message. This situation is similar to what happened with the Android 5 Lollipop release and it is disappointing that the problem persists. However, a helpful blogger has
described a simple workaround here which involves flashing each image individually.
Stuck at Login Screen
One of the first things that happened when booting up the new release was that I was asked for wifi credentials and then my Google account, as usual when booting an Android device. However, for some reason my Google account details were not accepted, an obscure and general error message being displayed instead along with a message that I should try again. There seemed to be no way of proceeding, though, the phone seemingly stuck at repeated failed attempts to validate my Google account. Eventually I rebooted the phone using the power button and from then on, the remainder of the setup went smoothly.
Initial Impressions
Android "M" at first glance is quite similar to Lollipop. Among the few differences that I immediately noticed was a new application menu with apps alpabetically ordered by initial letter. This was a welcome change as it now appears to be much faster to find a specific app. Other minor things that I discovered was that apps could be un-installed straight from the launcher desktop and that the volume settings have once again been revamped, including making it easier to keep the phone completely quiet and vibration-free at night while still allowing any alarms to trigger.
I've been using the "M" release on a daily basis now since the weekend and for the most part it has been working just fine. However, one major annoyance is that playing music on Google Play Music often crashes the Android Wear app, which manages communication with
my Android Wear smartwatch. When that happens, the song won't play immediately and I have to fuss around with the music app, selecting different songs and switching between screens until suddenly (and arbitrarily) it starts working again for a while. In addition to this annoyance, the music control from the watch is completely broken. It is not completely certain that these problems are caused by Android "M", however. Other possible explanations could be recently introduced bugs in the Android Wear firmware running in the watch (which was also recently upgraded by an automatic over-the-air update) or bugs in the Android Wear app for the phone. However, as I have not previously seen these bugs in Lollipop, I tend to blame "M" for now.
I tried to install Viber from the Google Play Store, but it wasn't visible -- perhaps it has been disabled for "M". I also discovered that I couldn't start the
Uber app which I hadn't used before, but was meaning to give a spin - it forced-closed immediately on startup (it is possible, though unlikely, that the bug presents on Lollipop as well). I'm sure this problem will go away with an update to the app eventually.
I am staying with Android "M" for now, looking forward to future rumoured over-the-air updates as the release matures, but if the Google Music problems in conjunction with Android Wear persist for much longer, I might go back to Lollipop.
Tablet Not Booting
I followed the same procedure to install "M" on my
Nexus 9 tablet. Unfortunately after installation, the tablet won't boot up any longer -- it is stuck indefinitely at the "Android" logo. I do not anticipate problems reverting back to Lollipop but haven't gotten around to it yet. Unfortunately (or perhaps not?), Android "M" is not yet available for the Nexus 7 2013, my favourite travel companion tablet.
[Update: I got my tablet working with "M". I believe I had forgotten to flash the bootloader the first time around.]
