Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Android P

blog.google

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 316 posts

Re: Android P

#11

Post by bitwize »

craftyguy wrote: post #4
joosters wrote: post #3

... Say you connect your headphones to your device, Android will surface an action to resume your favorite Spotify playlist ... ... but what if we could surface part of the app itself ... What is it with the repeated usage of 'surface' here, instead of the more obvious and common word 'show'? Is it something to do with Android API naming, or something else?

As far as I can tell, it's an Android thing. They even call their display manager thing (I don't know the right term for it) SurfaceFlinger: https://source.android.com/devices/graphics/

The surface in SurfaceFlinger is in the context of "drawing surface", a term of art in computer graphics to refer to a window, bitmap, or other thing that can be drawn on/blitted to.

Re: Android P

#12

Post by puzzle »

joosters wrote: post #3

... Say you connect your headphones to your device, Android will surface an action to resume your favorite Spotify playlist ... ... but what if we could surface part of the app itself ... What is it with the repeated usage of 'surface' here, instead of the more obvious and common word 'show'? Is it something to do with Android API naming, or something else?

It's corporate lingo. More specifically, PM/UX speak. "I'll ping you on gChat the slides on what to surface when users tap on the map. Then we can ideate together."

Only a slight exaggeration, based on my observation of specimens in the wild (many years at Google).

Re: Android P

#13

Post by nneonneo »

joosters wrote: post #3

... Say you connect your headphones to your device, Android will surface an action to resume your favorite Spotify playlist ... ... but what if we could surface part of the app itself ... What is it with the repeated usage of 'surface' here, instead of the more obvious and common word 'show'? Is it something to do with Android API naming, or something else?

My interpretation of this is that “Surface” carries the connotation of “bring to the surface”, i.e. it’s some existing object that is being highlighted or displayed more prominently. This is terminology that often gets used with search results (e.g. the headline “Google’s new search mode surfaces results from apps on your Android device”).

Re: Android P

#15

Post by fooker »

I'm almost tempted to try out the beta on my daily driver Pixel. Seems like a stupid decision though.

Is there an easy way to manage this from a worktation? Completely backup my current state and restore it afterwords?

Re: Android P

#17

Post by loafoe »

fooker wrote: post #15

I'm almost tempted to try out the beta on my daily driver Pixel. Seems like a stupid decision though. Is there an easy way to manage this from a worktation? Completely backup my current state and restore it afterwords?

installed it about 3 hours ago and it definitely feels good enough to use as a daily driver

Re: Android P

#18

Post by arthurcolle »

loafoe wrote: post #17
fooker wrote: post #15

I'm almost tempted to try out the beta on my daily driver Pixel. Seems like a stupid decision though. Is there an easy way to manage this from a worktation? Completely backup my current state and restore it afterwords?

installed it about 3 hours ago and it definitely feels good enough to use as a daily driver

famous last words

Re: Android P

#19

Post by 3steve »

I thought Project Treble was supposed to make the updating process easier from an OEM point of view. If so I wish they supported the Nexus 5X and 6P for one more version.
Post reply on HN