Google Just Gave Photographers A Big Reason To Choose Android Over The iPhone

Google's new Android software comes with an important feature for photography enthusiasts: the ability to shoot raw images.

This means users will be able to see what photos look like before the phone's camera processes it and translates it to a JPEG file.

The ability to shoot in raw is common on high-end DSLR cameras, but hasn't made its way to mobile until now.

So why does this matter? The average person probably doesn't care much about shooting photos in raw.

In fact, it would probably be more of an inconvenience than an improvement. The camera software in phones are built to compress and translate images into a JPEG or similar file format since it's easy to share and edit.

But those who do know a thing or two about photography could benefit greatly from the new feature. Unlike JPEG or PNG, raw gives you the freedom and flexibility to edit and manipulate particular parts of an image.

Raw photos are essentially pure image data captured through a camera without any compression or modifications — meaning photographers can fiddle with it any way they want using software like Photoshop, as Shankland explains. In other words, when you're shooting in raw the camera's software doesn't make any assumptions about how colors and other elements of an image should look. 

It might not be the most noticeable addition to Android, but it opens up the door for mobile phones to replace professional cameras in certain circumstances. And, it certainly gives Android a leg up over the iPhone in that particular regard. Although the iPhone takes fantastic images, it doesn't allow you to shoot in raw like you can with phones running Android 5.0.

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Google Already Rolling Out Android 5.0.2 to 2012 Nexus 7

It’s been less than two months since Android 5.0 made its public debut, and already Google is rolling out its second patch. An Android 5.0.2 factory image has just been made available for the 2012 Nexus 7, fixing a number of issues that have been plaguing users since Lollipop first arrived.

The new release comes with the “LRX22G” build number, and it replaces the Android 5.0.1 patch for the 2012 Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi). It includes both the changes made in that release, as well as some other welcome bug fixes.

“Most of these are adjustments in the kernel and startup scripts to boost CPU activity and maintain a bit higher performance,” Android Police reports. “There has also been another fairly significant update to fstrim, the process responsible for pruning the filesystem of unused blocks to prevent lag when attempting to write to a location in NAND storage containing outdated data.”

Google has also addressed an issue with AlarmManager, a process responsible for waking the device when apps and services need to perform different activities.

If you’ve been experiencing strange issues with your 2012 Nexus 7 since upgrading to Lollipop, then you’ll want to get your hands on this release as soon as possible. It’s only available as a factory image for now, so you’ll need to flash it manually, but we expect the over-the-air release to come soon.

We also expect Android 5.0.2 to be made available to other Nexus devices in the coming days and weeks.

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Nexus 7 (2012) Wi-Fi: Android 5.0.2 update now available to download

When it rains, it pours, and such is the collection of confectionery confetti that is flowing down from the Mountain View candy land. Released in October, Android 5.0 landed with the Nexus 9, yet just a few weeks later 5.0.1 was already on its way, a small update to address bugs, but which also included fast and slow-motion video recording.

LRX22G has just been released by Google, which brings the hard candy’s teeth-talking tally to 5.0.2. The update is currently only available for the Nexus 7 (2012) Wi-Fi version. Google has since pulled the device’s 5.0.1 patch.

According to XDA Developers, the 5.0.2 update addresses “issues with MountService which should now start before performBootDexOpt [and] changes related to NAND have also been pushed. Fstrim, introduced in Android 4.3, caused some serious issues on Lollipop… devices with slow NAND should now have a noticeable performance boost.”

Lollipop is definitely shaping up to be the most unusual of all Android releases so far. Google released an unprecedented Developer Preview (Android L) earlier this year, and has now pushed out two patches within a very short span of time. Additionally many users have reported major problems with their older hardware upon updating, especially when it comes to poor power management.

The existence of yet another update will also mean that OEMs desperately scrambling to get their Lollipop builds in order have yet another new version to test when conceivably the original 5.0 still hasn’t been given the green light to push OTA.

If any of our readers feel compelled to manually update, please feel free to share your comments below and let us know if there is any noticeable improvement in the software experience.

The factory image can be found here, and is officially signed by Google. Please note that the Android SDK is required to install it, as is a more advanced understanding of sideloading.

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