Google releases Android Things Developer Preview 4.1

Google has released Developer Preview 4.1 of Android Things, the company’s Android-based OS for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The update adds new supported hardware and provides bug fixes for the platform. Anyone can download the images of the latest developer preview from the downloads page but Google is asking that testers file bug reports and feature requests.

According to Google, the improvements are as follows:

“DP4.1 also includes some performance improvements since DP4, such as boot time optimizations that improve the startup time of i.MX7D based hardware. This Developer Preview also includes a version of Google Play Services, specifically optimized for IoT devices. This new IoT variant is a lot smaller and optimized for use with Android Things, and requires the use of play-services 11.0.0 or later in your build.gradle.”

Google said that it has also released a new Pico i.MX6UL revision B board. It supports many common external peripherals such as Adafruit and Pimoroni. The prototype Pico i.MX6UL boards which Google released to some early beta testers will not be compatible with the new developer preview.

The Developer Preview 4.1 is available on the Intel Edison, Intel Joule, NXP i.MX7D, NXP i.MX6UL, and Raspberry Pi 3 development boards.

Source: Android Developers Blog