Pinchai Speaks During His Keynote Address at the Google I/O Developers Conference in San Francisco
Sundar Pinchai, Google's senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps, speaks during his keynote address at the Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco, June 25, 2014 REUTERS

The long-awaited Android L v5.0 release date is near as Google has began rolling out Google Play v5.0 for Android users. Similar to the significant design change seen in Android L, Google Play v5.0 will also flaunt the brand new "Material Design." To be precise, the new version is 600 percent more of Material Design.

Interested readers who would like to get a glimpse of Android L software can get a preview of Google Play 5.0 as both software updates share similar designs. Back in September, a new version of the Google Play store update was making rounds. However now, the latest software update provides a detailed view of the user interface that would be part of almost all compatible Android devices upon release, according to NDTV.

Android Police has made the official Google Play 5.0 apk available on its site, which can be downloaded and installed on any compatible Android smartphones. The Google Play store download with version number v5.0.31 has been signed by Google; hence, it is safe for download. Nevertheless, users running the Android L Preview version on their handsets should note that downloading the Google Play v5.0 might crash the device, as reported by many users. Apart from the obvious design change, Android L comes with brand new icons, What's New section has been moved to the top, new icons have been added to widget selection and the update now shows file size history.

Furthermore, Google has released an Android L v5.0 64-bit emulator for x86 Intel CPUs, according to GSM Arena. This 64-bit emulator will help app developers optimise and develop the currently available apps to be compatible with the forthcoming software update and the new 64-bit architecture. If reports are true, the 64-bit architecture will apparently increase memory space apart from allowing larger numbers of registers and instruction sets for app developers. Specifically, apps built on Android NDK will require code optimisation, whereas the apps built on Java will not require any changes and it will be compatible with the 64-bit architecture automatically.

The caveat, however, is that the new Android L emulator can only be utilised to develop apps for handsets that are powered by Intel's Bail Trail and Atom chipsets. The search giant has not released an emulator for 64-bit ARM v8 architecture. The aforementioned architecture is the foundation for NVIDIA's 64-bit super-powerful K1 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 processors. Lastly, the Android L v5.0 release date is pegged for Nov.1.

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