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Introducing Android 9 Pie

android-developers.googleblog.com

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Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#51

Post by sjm-lbm »

fixermark wrote: post #39
hateful wrote: post #36

> We partnered with DeepMind on a feature called Adaptive Battery that uses machine learning to prioritize system resources for the apps the user cares about most. You know what mind I would like to control what apps get more resources? Me

Not most people though. There was a time when in MacOS, one could manually limit the amount of memory a program was launched into by setting the required and preferred memory footprint. But that kind of low-level stuff isn't something most people care about or want to do. They just want the damn thing to work.

Furthermore, isn't the idea here to put the control into the user's hands?

Think of it as a resource manager controlled by you, but with the only interface that the general market will be able to use for something with a fair amount of technical nuance - ML.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#52

Post by binomialxenon »

unethical_ban wrote: post #6

* It looks like they've taken away the "apps" homerow button and swapped it for "swipe up from anywhere". So that is one less gesture available to apps, unless you install an alternative desktop. * Wi-Fi RTT sounds pretty neat, I had not heard of that before. * Shutting mic, camera and sensor data off for idle/background apps is neat, though I'm shocked that wasn't an option before.

> Shutting mic, camera and sensor data off for idle/background apps is neat, though I'm shocked that wasn't an option before.

I wonder if they'll ever get around to letting the user limit or deny internet access to applications, something that Cyanogen/Lineage has had for years.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#53

Post by vesinisa »

As a developer working with an app that integrates fingerprint authentication - thank god for BiometricPrompt! It sounds awesome - finally a cross-OEM official API to do fingerprint auth with one callback and with a uniform, "standard" UI. Does anyone have any idea if and when will it be backported to the support library?

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#54

Post by binomialxenon »

tjungblut wrote: post #8
abhiminator wrote: post #5

Surprised with the naming, did Google just miss a great opportunity for collaborating with candy manufacturers like they did with Nestle for Android 4.4 'KitKat'?

me too, but what would be a world-renowned candy that starts with 'P'?

Why not Popsicle? It doesn't have to be strictly candy.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#56

Post by izacus »

wvenable wrote: post #23
sigfubar wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung's modifications to the stock Android experience aren't "features"; these are desperate attempts to differentiate itself from other Android handset OEMs. The resulting need to reconcile two codebases leaves users as the losers: they wait forever for general advancements in the Android ecosystem.

The general consensus amount Samsung users from my experience is that that they do these features better than Google. Samsung's multi-window support was better than eventually came to Android. Samsung's handling of app badges was WAY better (message counts!) and that went away with Oreo's terrible implementation (a dot indicating un-dismissed notifications). My impression after upgrading to Oreo and getting more Goog…

My experience moving from a Pixel XL to Samsung S9 has been the exact opposite though. Samsung is a significantly dumber phone that requires way more constant fiddling and care to be a good companion.

Examples:

- Samsung removed timed audio profiles. I no longer can say "silence for 1 hour" when I'm giving a talk. Now I need to babysit my phone and if I forget to put it back on loud, I'll miss calls.

- Samsung removed the automatic power save mode switch. Instead of stretching the last 15% of battery in the evening so I can call a cab... I now have a dead brick.

- Samsung broke handling of notifications in Work profile. They're not longer reliably working on my Wear watch.

- Samsung removed the ability to browse music in the car via AVRCP. Worked fine on Pixel XL.

- There's no way to set your phone to DnD mode while in a meeting automatically. Pixel had it.

And I could go on. Saying that Samsung just adds and improves on Googles' features is misleading. They also break a lot of things.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#57

Post by dingo_bat »

Reading through the list of improvements leaves me quite underwhelmed. I thought the Oreo upgrade was basically useless, but this is literally a service pack style update. Also amusing to see "battery improvements" in every release without anything to show for it.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#59

Post by DennisAleynikov »

NSAID wrote: post #48
DennisAleynikov wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, but Samsung features go beyond UI changes. I am locked into the Samsung ecosystem by a few of these intangibles. Like: Samsung Pay (works on credit card readers) Samsung DeX (Chromebook in your pocket) Samsung Pass (auto fill with Iris scanning) Some of these features are made by other companies like, Huawei makes a Chromebook style UI too, but Iris scanning and Magnetic Payments are exclusive to Samsun…

> Samsung Pay (works on credit card readers) I hadn't heard of that before. That's pretty cool. "Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) is a technology that emits a magnetic signal that mimics the magnetic strip on a traditional payment card. MST sends a magnetic signal from your device to the payment terminal's card reader (to emulate swiping a physical card without having to upgrade the terminal’s software or hardware)…

It's literally the most epic thing, I feel like Harry Potter when I go into stores and wave my watch over their credit card reader :)

I actually gave up my wallet 3 years ago to only use this and it's not let me down yet. Also nice to not have a wallet bulge in my back pocket cuz I do sit a lot and it's taken a toll on my spine being disaligned.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#60

Post by pjmlp »

mmastrac wrote: post #4

One of the quieter features of Android 9 is that they are reducing the API surface of Android by explicitly black-listing and white-listing various APIs and fields that previously required reflection to access. None of these APIs were documented, but none of them were explicitly "off limits" before Android P. That suggests that the life of Java as Android's primary language might be really coming to an end, even thou…

Apparently you haven't been paying attention, declaring off limits APIs started with Android Nougat for NDK developers.

Because Linux APIs were never really intended to be called by NDK developers, only the POSIX subset and Android public native APIs.

Likewise with Java, which is only a subset of proper Java.

In any case, it might relate more to an eventual future support of Java 9 module system, where private really means private, than anything else.

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