is the new API open source or vendor-lock-in so app developers are forced to stick with google
Introducing Android 9 Pie
121–130 of 367 posts
Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie
#122Can we please get a choice of a non-infantile UI in Android in the future? The candy-style material UI just pushes me not to use Android for serious work, more for fire-and-forget tasks I don't care about, as interfacing with it is extremely unpleasant (only slightly better than WP8).
Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curious what others think of samsung hardware on HN. Ive had: >S5 phone whos charging port broke and had terrible battery life. But hey, when I bought the phone the screen was bright and beautiful... I feel like I was tricked >My SSD failed in a year >My grandpa's 1,000 dollar samsung TV he bought in 2018 has an irresponsibly slow smart TV. And I read some horror stories about samsung home appliances when I was looki…
I used my Note 4 for three years and it's still in perfect shape, aside from the headphone jack. I've got several of their SSDs, they're all good so far. I just got a scratch and dent 2017 year entry level Samsung TV running Tizen, the UI is much faster than what I've seen on other devices. My Samsung microwave had issues within the first year, a local service depot sent a person to the house to fix it. I don't like…
Samsung is the only real competition to Apple right now. As much as Google wishes it can say it controls android it barely has a grip on it. Samsung has carefully de googled most of it's phones and created it's own line of tizen products running a much lighter OS. Nobody can honestly look at samsung in current year and not be impressed by their computing platforms and chip quality.
Hands down if I want an OLED phone the panel isn't coming from LG.
Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Aside from the unnecessary jargon, this irks me how it portrays the user as some passive consumer. It really drives home how Google is, first and foremost, an advertising company. It's amusing that you're taking a quote from the Android Developer blog (a blog, you know, for developers) and trying to misconstrue it as a public facing comment for users. Here's their public facing comment that is aimed at users: Androi…
> It's amusing that you're taking a quote from the Android Developer blog (a blog, you know, for developers) and trying to misconstrue it as a public facing comment for users. I did no such thing--to the contrary, my point is that how Google talks about users "behind their back" reveals a lot about how it views users as passive eyeballs. Note that the Apple copy I linked is from Apple's developer site as well.
This is just our own bias. Apple dumbs down their marketing to users.
Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie
#125I'm no longer surprised that Samsung doesn't feel the need to update to the latest version of Android! Grace UX (their skin) already had all of these features as of last year. I do not see anything worth upgrading for here. Potentially huge for people buying the notched phones. The support for that did improve in this update.
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.
> desperate attempts to differentiate itself from other Android handset OEMs
yes. i can see it that way.
OTOH, I can also see this as the natural tension between Google's desire to force uniformity onto the entire Android ecosystem (good for consumers who want to switch between different handsets with less friction/confusion), and the handset maker's desire to prevent Google from controlling the Android user experience completely (good for consumers who don't want to be totally trapped in Google's vision and Google's service offerings.)
Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie
#126Reading 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.
Exactly my thoughts. There is nothing exciting at all in this update. Just the usual 'more battery saving by doing less', and as you said, for some reason, every update keeps on making my phone slower and more battery consuming, if anything.
Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "privacy" and "security" features also mean a less powerful computer. Which is probably the right trade-off for most users but a pain in the ass for more niche use cases.
Most of that data is still available, just gated behind permissions that require explicit consent from user now.
I hope that the permissions are better to understand and control than the current ones. Right now they seem to be designed to give the appearance of giving users control but the implementation is pretty bad and user unfriendly.
Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie
#128Surprised not to see mention of the cutout stuff yet. It seems pretty dumb to me that Google is jumping on board with this ridiculous feature. Maybe this'll be one of those Dropbox-style HN comments which in hindsight looks misled, but I honestly can't find any redeeming factors to the cutout idea.
People loved it when Apple did it which gave everyone else the okay to go ahead and do it themselves. It allows phone manafacturers to advertise higher screen to body ratios and is really just a step in the progression towards bezelless phones. There's definitely a loud group of people who strongly dislike it but I think most people are okay with it
Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie
#129I can't be the only one getting a chill down my spine when I read this. Google, a company "committed to reach and engage the right users safely and cost-effectively around the world", doing deep analysis of my every input and my context in order to "drive engagement" and "surfacing the best parts of the apps [I] use all the time"? I hope this stuff is kept out of AOSP. Yes, I know it seems like at least some of the c…
They already do this with your searches and geolocation data. Why not this?
I can still dodge those by disabling Location Services and using something else than Google app-wise.
It is not clear how opt-out this will be. Even if it can be disabled today it might become pushed harder as time goes.
Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie
#130* 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.
If I remember correctly, developers had to do it manually themselves before. It was considered a best practice