diff --git a/.idea/codeStyles/Project.xml b/.idea/codeStyles/Project.xml
index 45b565415..88ea3aa1e 100644
--- a/.idea/codeStyles/Project.xml
+++ b/.idea/codeStyles/Project.xml
@@ -1,8 +1,5 @@
 <component name="ProjectCodeStyleConfiguration">
   <code_scheme name="Project" version="173">
-    <AndroidXmlCodeStyleSettings>
-      <option name="ARRANGEMENT_SETTINGS_MIGRATED_TO_191" value="true" />
-    </AndroidXmlCodeStyleSettings>
     <JetCodeStyleSettings>
       <option name="CODE_STYLE_DEFAULTS" value="KOTLIN_OFFICIAL" />
     </JetCodeStyleSettings>
diff --git a/.idea/gradle.xml b/.idea/gradle.xml
index 169fd0dd9..674414fca 100644
--- a/.idea/gradle.xml
+++ b/.idea/gradle.xml
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <project version="4">
+  <component name="GradleMigrationSettings" migrationVersion="1" />
   <component name="GradleSettings">
     <option name="linkedExternalProjectsSettings">
       <GradleProjectSettings>
+        <option name="delegatedBuild" value="false" />
+        <option name="testRunner" value="PLATFORM" />
         <option name="distributionType" value="DEFAULT_WRAPPED" />
         <option name="externalProjectPath" value="$PROJECT_DIR$" />
         <option name="modules">
@@ -12,7 +15,6 @@
           </set>
         </option>
         <option name="resolveModulePerSourceSet" value="false" />
-        <option name="testRunner" value="PLATFORM" />
       </GradleProjectSettings>
     </option>
   </component>
diff --git a/.idea/jarRepositories.xml b/.idea/jarRepositories.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a5f05cd8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.idea/jarRepositories.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<project version="4">
+  <component name="RemoteRepositoriesConfiguration">
+    <remote-repository>
+      <option name="id" value="central" />
+      <option name="name" value="Maven Central repository" />
+      <option name="url" value="https://repo1.maven.org/maven2" />
+    </remote-repository>
+    <remote-repository>
+      <option name="id" value="jboss.community" />
+      <option name="name" value="JBoss Community repository" />
+      <option name="url" value="https://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/repositories/public/" />
+    </remote-repository>
+    <remote-repository>
+      <option name="id" value="BintrayJCenter" />
+      <option name="name" value="BintrayJCenter" />
+      <option name="url" value="https://jcenter.bintray.com/" />
+    </remote-repository>
+    <remote-repository>
+      <option name="id" value="Google" />
+      <option name="name" value="Google" />
+      <option name="url" value="https://dl.google.com/dl/android/maven2/" />
+    </remote-repository>
+  </component>
+</project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.idea/misc.xml b/.idea/misc.xml
index 39c65f649..d5d35ec44 100644
--- a/.idea/misc.xml
+++ b/.idea/misc.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <project version="4">
-  <component name="ProjectRootManager" version="2" languageLevel="JDK_1_7" default="true" project-jdk-name="1.8" project-jdk-type="JavaSDK">
+  <component name="ProjectRootManager" version="2" languageLevel="JDK_1_8" default="true" project-jdk-name="1.8" project-jdk-type="JavaSDK">
     <output url="file://$PROJECT_DIR$/build/classes" />
   </component>
   <component name="ProjectType">
diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index e7369c7e1..bb7614f63 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 
+* assert() is apparently a noop - change to use my version of assert
+* make frontend using https://developer.android.com/jetpack/compose/tutorial
 
 # Medium priority
 
diff --git a/app/build.gradle b/app/build.gradle
index 44b5570a1..ffaab4993 100644
--- a/app/build.gradle
+++ b/app/build.gradle
@@ -21,6 +21,22 @@ android {
             proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
         }
     }
+
+    buildFeatures {
+        // Enables Jetpack Compose for this module
+        compose true
+    }
+
+    // Set both the Java and Kotlin compilers to target Java 8.
+
+    compileOptions {
+        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
+        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
+    }
+
+    kotlinOptions {
+        jvmTarget = "1.8"
+    }
 }
 
 dependencies {
@@ -33,4 +49,9 @@ dependencies {
     testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
     androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.ext:junit:1.1.1'
     androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.espresso:espresso-core:3.2.0'
+
+    // You also need to include the following Compose toolkit dependencies.
+    implementation 'androidx.ui:ui-tooling:0.1.0-dev02'
+    implementation 'androidx.ui:ui-layout:0.1.0-dev02'
+    implementation 'androidx.ui:ui-material:0.1.0-dev02'
 }
diff --git a/app/src/main/java/com/geeksville/meshutil/SoftwareUpdateService.kt b/app/src/main/java/com/geeksville/meshutil/SoftwareUpdateService.kt
index 12f21e72e..4edd556b4 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/com/geeksville/meshutil/SoftwareUpdateService.kt
+++ b/app/src/main/java/com/geeksville/meshutil/SoftwareUpdateService.kt
@@ -43,17 +43,15 @@ class SoftwareUpdateService : JobIntentService() {
     lateinit var firmwareStream: InputStream
 
     fun startUpdate() {
-        if (updateService != null) {
             totalSizeDesc = updateService.getCharacteristic(SW_UPDATE_TOTALSIZE_CHARACTER)!!
 
-            firmwareStream = assets.open("firmware.bin")!!
+            firmwareStream = assets.open("firmware.bin")
 
             // Start the update by writing the # of bytes in the image
             val numBytes = firmwareStream.available()
             assert(totalSizeDesc.setValue(numBytes, BluetoothGattCharacteristic.FORMAT_UINT32, 0))
             assert(updateGatt.writeCharacteristic(totalSizeDesc))
             assert(updateGatt.readCharacteristic(totalSizeDesc))
-        }
     }
 
     // Send the next block of our file to the device
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 819d034aa..ae5f18304 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ buildscript {
         
     }
     dependencies {
-        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.5.3'
+        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:4.0.0-alpha09'
         classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:$kotlin_version"
         // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
         // in the individual module build.gradle files
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index 11a39a9b2..569a73541 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-#Mon Jan 20 16:09:06 PST 2020
+#Tue Jan 21 19:05:09 PST 2020
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-5.4.1-all.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.1-rc-1-all.zip