Android 5.0 L Developer Preview and Android 5.0 SDK for Google Nexus 5 and 7 Now Live for Download

Android 5.0 SDK for Google Nexus 5 and 7 Now Live for Download

Google has released the official Android 5.0 SDK and the Android 5.0 Developer Preview final build. Check them if you’re a developer and you wish to start working on optimizing your applications for the full Android 5.0 Lollipop release that should take place early November.

With the Android 5.0 SDK released now all the developers can move on from the previous preview builds and start testing the real deal. The new API number for SDK 5.0 is 21 and it comes with a brand new Camera 2.0 API, better performance, support for DNG, improved JobScheduler, new Material Design capabilities. Check more info about the Android SDK 5.0 here.

The Android 5.0 Developer Preview final builds have been released for the 2013 Nexus 7 tablet and for the Nexus 5 smartphone. These new system images can be installed by anyone before Google decides to launch the official Android 5.0 Lollipop factory images and the OTA Updates. First, we will surely get the factory images for the Nexus 4, 5, and 7 devices in early November, while the OTA Updates for Android 5.0 Lollipop will surely be available for all these models shortly after that.

Installing an Android 5.0 Developer Preview final build should be done mostly by developers and other users who wish to only test the new OS, as after the full Android 5.0 Lollipop OS upgrade is launched in one form or another, then you will again have your Nexus device wiped clean of all files in the installation process.

Here are some important features of the Android 5.0 L Final Developer Preview build: Material Design UI theme, new APIs, improved Notifications, OpenGL ES3.1, Android Runtime (ART) , and others more. You can download the Android 5.0 L Developer Preview Final with firmware version set to LPX13D from here for both Nexus 5 “hammerhead” and Nexus 7 2013 Wi-Fi “razor” models.

Installing a Developer Preview build can be done just as you did with previous Android factory images: make sure to have installed the Android SDK 5.0 on your PC, all the USB Drivers for your Nexus 5 or Nexus 7, then boot the devices in Bootloader Mode and connect them to your PC. Download the Android 5.0 LPX13D Preview system image designed for your Nexus device, unpack the .tgz archive and execute the ‘flash-all.bat’ for Windows or the ‘flash-all.sh’ for Mac.

If you wish to avoid wiping the data from your device while installing the new Android 5.0 preview images, then you should edit the script file and remove the “-w” from the “fastboot update image-hammerhead-lpx13d.zip” line of code. Install the developer preview system image of Android 5.0 L Final only for testing purposes.