The history and future of Android (infographic)

The rise of everyone's favourite little green mascot!

The rise of Android is one of the "sweetest" stories in modern mobile history, and one that has captured the hearts and minds of millions around the world.
The king of operating systems in the mobile world is represented by the little green mascot that has presented mobile users with a bunch of tasty flavors throughout the years, each year becoming that much sweeter!

The sweet history of Android:

Quick settings that puts users firmly in control:

The latest update provides users with Our favorite new change has to do with Quick Settings. For those that don't even know, pulling down the notification bar twice (or once with two fingers) brings up a Quick Settings menu. From here you have access to screen brightness, and toggles for WiFi, Bluetooth, a flashlight, airplane mode, auto rotate settings, location, screen casting, and more quick toggles appear as you use them. Like hotspot control, and more.
In all of our slides Android 5.1 is on the left, with the older Android 5.0 screenshot on the right.

With Android 5.1 Lollipop Google made quick settings even better. Once you swipe down twice or once with two fingers, you'll have easier access to controlling WiFi or Bluetooth and connections. Rather than fumble through settings, simply tap the little drop down arrow, and you can connect to WiFi or Bluetooth devices all from here. This is a small but very convenient change, and one of our favorites.

New animations that add life to your mobile:

With Android 5.0 Google added tons of animations and effects to the interface to make things smooth, fluid, and more lively. However, Android 5.1 added even more. They're small changes, but nice little touches that everyone can enjoy.
Tapping WiFi, Bluetooth, or most noticeable, the auto rotate button, you'll see nice little visual animations that the setting has been selected. Again, nice little changes. These same animations can be found throughout the Clock app for alarms, timers, and more. It's the little things!

Screen pinning:

With Android 5.0 Lollipop Google introduced an excellent feature called Screen Pinning. Once turned on, this allows parents or users to pin a certain app to the screen, and lock it there. Meaning you can hand someone your phone with the dialer app open, and they won't be able to tap home and go through your device. Kids can't exit games and mess around, and more. You get the idea. It pins the app you choose to the screen, and a combo of buttons or even a password is the only way to get out of it.
With Android 5.1 the details and instructions are more clear, making this feature easier to use. Many still can't figure it out, so here's how. Go to settings > security, and scroll down and enable screen pinning. Then simply open the browser or any app you want to pin, then tap the multi-tasking (recent apps buttom) and scroll up. You'll see the pin, and just tap it. It then gives you even more details as to how this works, how to unpin the screen, and just makes this easier to understand for beginners.

Device protection:

With Android 5.1 Google added even more protection for lost or stolen devices. And while this can't be seen in settings, if you have a password, pattern, or PIN enabled, Device Protection will be working for you.
With Device Protection, your lost or stolen device will remain locked until you sign in with your Google account - even if someone erases the device using the factory data reset option in settings. This feature will be available on most Android phones and tablets shipped with Android 5.1 in addition to Nexus 6 and Nexus 9.

Similar to the iPhone iCloud protection, once a pin in set if you factory reset your Android device you'll need to sign into your Gmail account to use the phone. Meaning there should be a lot less smartphone theft, knowing that many Android 5.1 devices will be unusable to the thief.