Lollipop or Marshmallow?

Earlier this week, I received a notification on my android phone. Google was offering to upgrade my mobile OS from Lollipop to Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

"Upgrade available!" is not exactly a great pick-up line - especially for those who have survived the whims and fancies of Microsoft OS upgrades. The message from Google also assumes that its customers are eagerly waiting for an upgrade. I am certainly not one of them. I am quite happy with my lollipop, and especially so when the advantages of moving from one confectionery to another is not quite clear.

Still, curiosity got the better of me and I checked the web for possible advantages of an upgrade. According to the Android homepage, Marshmallow offers -

• more control on permissions for apps
• fingerprint recognition - more secure
• more intuitive user interface
• better battery management 

Well, so?

I already have some control of permissions for apps from the Setup; Fingerprint recognition may help me in keeping my kids off my mobile, but do I really need it all the time? No. Also,"more" and "better" does not give me sufficient data on either the new user-interface, or battery management.

The final clincher comes from a number which is readily available: the download is 1657 MB. Data download costs money and when the download is more than 1.6 GB you certainly want to wait until there is spare data

Google also promises you that the upgrade process will take "a long time" during which the device will restart several times.

So there you are. Time and money. The Lollipop tastes even better now...

POSTSCRIPT (22 April 2016)

A few days ago, at the fag end of my monthly data subscription (25 GB), I decided to take the plunge and upgrade. Despite a connection speed of 5mpbs+ the download (1.78 GB) and upgrade took about eight hours.

Since I had been warned that all the contents of my SD card would be erased, I had taken a backup. Even after taking the required precautions, it is quite disappointing to see the following bugs after the upgrade from Lollipop to Marshmallow:

• CamCard - My entire collection of visiting-card scans has disappeared. I get an image of the cards on Google Contacts, but the CamCard app seems unprepared for Marshmallow
• Scheduled Power On & Off: After the upgrade my phone does not turn itself on at the designated time - 05:30 . Now it has to be turned on manually.
• Many app now show that they were "designed for an earlier version of Android"
• The contact list has got messed up - each entry seems to have got duplicated :((
• There is no sign of the promised "Fingerprint Security" option
• In "Scheduled Power On & Off", I have my mobile turned off between 12:00AM and 05:30AM. Ever since I upgraded to Marshmallow, the phone does not turn on automatically. I need to do this manually, every morning :(
• Everytime the mobile reboots, "Data Comm." gets turned on automatically, even if the WiFi is already on. Very annoying.

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LINKS

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Marshmallow

- https://www.android.com/intl/en_in/versions/marshmallow-6-0/