HTC Sense 6.0 UI - Lollipop vs KitKat comparison

Earlier this month HTC has released Android 5.0 for the HTC One M8 together with the HTC Sense 6.0. New Over The Air (OTA) update started rolling out for WWE unbranded devices on Wednesday (28.01.2015), so during these few days I had a chance to look closely at the user interface changes after the update. I didn't expect many, because HTC Sense version is still the same, but Android Lollipop is quite a big platform upgrade, so some major and some little visual changes are all over the place.

I hope you'll enjoy reading!

HTC One M8 receives official Lollipop OTA update [WWE & T-Mobile]

If you were waiting for the official Lollipop OTA updates for your HTC One M8 – wait no more! Today HTC has started rolling out update for the .401 WWE (World Wide English) devices and - which is surprising - for the T-Mobile carrier in various European countries (f.g. 118 - PL, 111 - DE).

Android 5.0 Lollipop is available for the HTC One M8 since few days already - we wrote about it here: HTC One M7 & HTC One M8 Android Lollipop stock system dumps and here: HTC One M8 received Android 5.0.1 Lollipop with the HTC Sense 6 UI but since today the gates are open for owners of the unbranded WWE devices too! Previously OTA was available only for  the M8 Developer Edition variant.

OTA package for WWE devices is 782MB (4.16.401.10) and can be downloaded from here.

If you are looking for an optimized stock ROM with ROOT access just navigate to this thread and download latest Android Revolution HD for the HTC One M8.

Do you have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

For latest news follow Android Revolution HD on popular social platforms:

HTC One M7 & HTC One M8 Android Lollipop stock system dumps

Android 5.0 "Lollipop" has been unveiled on June 25, 2014 and it’s the latest version of the Android mobile operating system developed by Google. Only few months later the HTC One M7 - the best smartphone of the 2013 and the HTC One M8 - the best smartphone of the 2014 are already running Android Lollipop together with the most powerful Android custom UI - HTC Sense 6.0.

How to: Unlock external SD Card writing for all apps in Android 4.4 and 5.0

In Android 4.4 "Kitkat" (API 19) Google has changed the default permissions for the external SD Card (usually microSD). Since that Android OS version third-party apps have no more access to write on the SD Card. It's a bit problematic, because now you might not be able to use your favourite Files Manager to move or copy files on the external storage.

HTC’s Android Lollipop update roadmap

According to the HTC-Vietnam site, Android 5.0 Lollipop update with the HTC Sense UI on board is suppose to land on multiple HTC devices in 2015. Thanks to HTC's impressive update timing we can already enjoy Lollipop taste on the HTC One M7 and the HTC One M8 in both Sense and Google Play Edition flavours. Earlier in 2014 we already wrote about possible roadmap in this article: "HTC devices to receive Android 5.0 "Lollipop" update". Here are some fresh details:

How to: Fix no access to the virtual SD card after Android Lollipop update

This solution is based on the experience with some HTC and Nexus devices, however it will work on any device running Android Lollipop or newer/older Android OS with SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) kernel security module.

What's the problem? Sometimes you might not be able to access the content of the internal userdata memory, also known as "virtual SD card" - located as /data/media/0 on the userdata partition. The "bad" workaround is to boot the device in a recovery mode and gain the access to all files from there, but this doesn't solve the problem at all.

Repair Process
Note: root required!

1. Download this mini-sdk package and extract it to c:\mini-sdk
2. Connect your device to the PC
3. Start up the device normally, wait until system is fully loaded
4. Open a command prompt on the PC (cmd.exe), type and confirm each command with ENTER:
5. cd /d c:\mini-sdk
6. adb shell
7. su
8. restorecon -FR /data/media/0
9. exit

What's going to happen? Restorecon is a program used to restore file(s) default SELinux security contexts. It can be run at any time to correct errors or to add support for new policy. With a corrected SELinux security context for the /data/media/0 you will be able to access the content of the virtual SD card again.

Do you have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

For latest news follow Android Revolution HD on popular social platforms:

HTC One M8 received Android 5.0.1 Lollipop with the HTC Sense 6 UI

The best smartphone of the 2014 – the HTC One M8 is already running Android 5.0.1 with the HTC Sense 6.0 interface. Thanks to the OTA update package from the 13th January HTC One M8 owners can already enjoy all the goodies that comes with one of the biggest Android platform update – Lollipop.

The UI is slightly refreshed, but it’s still HTC Sense 6.0 after all. However, HTC is already working on the HTC Sense 7 update that will become official together with the HTC One M9 premiere (if that’s the proper name).

Currently only the HTC One M8 Developer Edition is getting Lollipop OTA and it’s tagged as 4.16.1540.8. WWE Edition (.401) is around the corner too, and it should appear later this week. It will be tagged as 4.16.401.8. But don’t be disappointed, you can already have Android 5.0.1 Lollipop running on your device, even if it’s not the Developer Edition. Just head to this thread and install the latest Android Revolution HD 30.1 based on the 4.16.1540.8 update. It should work on most variants of the HTC One M8, except the U.S. models.

One of the biggest changes in Android 5.0 is ART (Android Runtime) - an application runtime environment used by the older Android mobile operating system. ART replaces Dalvik, which is the process virtual machine originally used by Android, and performs transformation of the application's bytecode into native instructions that are later executed by the device's runtime environment. ART brings improvements in performance, garbage collection, applications debugging and profiling. Among with a tones of security fixes and other major changes, Android 5.0 Lollipop also contains major new platform features for developers, with over 5,000 new APIs added for use by applications.

It's definitely one of the most important system update in the Android history. And since HTC One M8 is the best Android device up to date, it's a must have update for every HTC One M8 owner.

Android 5.0.1 Lollipop with the HTC Sense 6.0 for the HTC One M8 (4.16.1540.8) - link

Do you have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

For latest news follow Android Revolution HD on popular social platforms: