Android N gets a focus on performance, security and productivity

Google is letting the public offer its naming suggestions for the next version of Android — I'm #TeamNougat — but it still offered up plenty of new details about Android N at its developer conference.

Android N was first announced in March, several months earlier than expected. Google did that, it says so that developers and OEMs could start offering their feedback earlier. 

In addition to some of the features we've already seen with N, Google said at I/O that its focus on the operating system would focus on performance, security and productivity.

On the performance side, Android N has a new graphics API known as Vulcan. This is similar to what Apple did with Metal, its graphics engine launched at WWDC 2014. Although Vulcan really works well for games, it can also improve graphical performance on regular apps by 30-60%. Read more...