If you own an Android device, find four similarly outfitted friends and line up, shoulder-to-shoulder. Look to your left. Look to your right. Chances are, one of you has Lollipop, the latest Android mobile operating system. Twenty-one percent of Android devices use Lollipop, according to the company’s own breakdown . This figure is up significantly from May, when Android reported just nine percent of its devices used the new OS. The largest share of the Android OS pie goes to Kit Kat, with 39 percent, followed by Jelly Bean with 32 percent. Android’s next update is called ” Marshmallow ” and while it doesn’t yet have a release date, it should hit devices soon. Marshmallow’s focus is ” polish and quality , ” according to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. We checked out the M Preview version in June and found that ” when M works well, it works really well .” A few notes regarding today’s numbers: The Nexus 9 , Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge all come with Lollipop right out of the box. Also, Android’s figures reflect “devices running the latest Google Play Store app, which is compatible with Android 2.2 and higher.” That means older devices, or those without Google Play, aren’t counted in this particular survey. Filed under: Gaming , HD , Google Comments Via: VentureBeat Source: Android Tags: android, google, hdpostcross, lollipop, marshmallow, OS
Continue Reading:
Android Lollipop is the OS of choice for one in five users
1sockchuck writes: Facebook faces unique storage challenges. Its users upload 900 million new images daily, most of which are only viewed for a couple of days. The social network has built specialized cold storage facilities to manage these rarely-accessed photos. Data Center Frontier goes inside this facility, providing a closer look at Facebook’s newest strategy: Using thousands of Blu-Ray disks to store images, complete with a robotic retrieval system (see video demo). Others are interested as well. Sony recently acquired a Blu-Ray storage startup founded by Open Compute chairman Frank Frankovsky, which hopes to drive enterprise adoption of optical data storage. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
An anonymous reader writes: Some Blu-Ray disc interactive features use a Java variant for UIs and applications. Stephen Tomkinson just posted a blog discussing how specially created Blu-Ray discs can be used to hack various players using exploits related to their Java usage. He hacked one Linux-based, network-connected player to get root access through vulnerabilities introduced by the vendor. He did the same thing against Windows Blu-Ray player software. Tomkinson was then able to combine both, along with detection techniques, into a single disc. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
An anonymous reader writes Details have emerged on the new UHD Blu-ray spec and players set to start shipping this summer. UHD promises resolutions 4X greater than Blu-ray 1080p as well as much higher data rates, enhanced color space and more audio options. But, will consumers care, and will they be willing to upgrade their HDTV’s, AV Receivers, and Blu-ray players to adopt a new format whose benefits may only be realized on ultra large displays or close viewing distances? The article makes the interesting point that UHD isn’t synonymous with 4K, even if both handily beat the resolution of most household displays. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
itwbennett writes “Facebook said last year that it was exploring Blu-ray for its data-center storage needs, and on Tuesday it showed a prototype system at the Open Compute Project summit meeting in San Jose, California. It designed the system to store data that hardly ever needs to be accessed, or for so-called ‘cold storage’ (think duplicates of users’ photos and videos that it keeps for backup). The Blu-ray system reduces costs by 50% and energy use by 80% compared with its current cold-storage system, which uses hard disk drives, said Jay Parikh, Facebook’s vice president of infrastructure engineering.” It’s a prototype, and they’re also evaluating low power flash as another alternative to keeping seldom accessed data on hard drives. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
An anonymous reader writes “Sky gazers at CU-Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium are getting better, clearer and deeper views. And not just of astronomy anymore. The planetarium has been upgraded, transforming it into a digital IMAX-like theater that’s open to the public every Saturday and Sunday with a variety of programs including shows for children. ‘Fiske’s refurbished video system projects ultra high-definition pictures at 8, 000 by 8, 000 pixels in size, giving audience members a crystal-clear 360-degree view on the dome’s 65-foot screen. “The size and quality is the equivalent of 40 Blu-ray players projecting 40 sections of one video image at once, ” said [Doug Duncan, director of Fiske]. This gallery of images shows a behind-the-scenes look at the Planetarium’s brand new 8k Fulldome projection system. ‘ In addition to space odysseys and laser shows — longtime favorites of audiences — movies are now part of the Fiske lineup. ‘Just like at an IMAX theater, we can take you near a black hole, through the Grand Canyon, under the ocean, or up to a super volcano, ‘ said Duncan. “The sky is no longer the limit.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.