JoltVib

Some of these changes, it must be said, make Android work a little bit more like the iPhone than it did before. For example, app permissions have gotten a huge overhaul in Marshmallow. The biggest change is that (once developers have updated their apps to support it) they'll only ask for permission to do stuff like access the camera when they need it instead of presenting you with a wall of arcane requests on first install. That's how the iPhone has done it, and it's good to see Google finally follow this model.

The other thing about permissions is that it's way easier to dig in and turn stuff off. You can dig into settings and remove permissions app by app or go into, say, location settings and see every app that can access it. (For apps that don't support the new system, doing this could break things.)

Other stuff borrowed from the iPhone? You got it: there's built-in support for a fingerprint sensor that lets developers plug into it in a secure way. Cut / Copy / Paste buttons now appear directly above your highlighted text instead of being arcane and unknowable icons at the top of the screen (though in some apps those old, annoying icons still appear).

But the most important iPhone inspiration is a little more philosophical. Android is finally getting around to keeping third-party applications in check in a more automated way. There are two features called "Doze" and "App Standby" that shut down apps in the background more aggressively when they're not being used. It’s the sort of thing device makers have tried to do as add-ons, but now it’s baked right into the system.

Doze pays attention to whether your Android device has been used or if it's just sitting on a table. If it's the latter, Marshmallow will tell many of your apps to just chill until it moves again. It won't radically improve your battery life during actual use, but if you have a tablet that sits on your coffee table, it will have a much better chance of being alive the next time you pick it up.

App Standby is a little different. It works to actively shut down apps that you haven't used in a long time (unless you're plugged in, then it's fair game). If you've done the settings dance of "disabling" a bunch of carrier apps that you don't want, think of App Standby as basically automating the process.

There is one wrinkle with these features, though. Developers can set their apps as "priority," which will get around these management features. As Ars Technica notes, there's a real risk that developers will assume their special flower of an app deserves to notify you no matter what.

A feature I wish Google had taken from iOS: split-screen apps. Even on the tablet, there's no way to put apps side by side. It's mystifying, and even more mystifying when you consider that the newly announced Pixel C tablet seems tailor-made for the kind of work you can only do when you have multiple apps open on your screen.

One more thing Google needs to learn from Apple: OS updates for existing phones. Android has taken a beating with security issues lately, and so Google has taken steps to mitigate that by securing promises from the industry to push security updates out. But I have little-to-no faith that full-on updates will come to non-Nexus phones in a timely or reliable manner.

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