Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient
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Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient
#2If you are not paying for the product, you are paying in other ways, this just puts a number on it. If you consider the implications, you are paying quite a bit in power in addition to privacy issues.
This is why:
a) my gps AND network location is turned off 99.99% of the time.
b) I have ad-blocking software which prevents lots of this network overhead.
^^ the above is justified because it actually costs me, want to serve me ads? fine, but not when they come at a price.
Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient
#3I'm surprised that the ad sevices aren't smarter. Wait until on wifi, cache a bunch of ads, share those ads amongst all the apps that use your service. Is this feasible?
Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient
#4Why do "journalists" always forget to link to the primary source?
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/mzh/eurosys-2012.... is the original research paper and also provides interesting insights for smartphone app developers.
[edit] Oops, I completely ignored that orange/light grey markup. Must have been an over-active form of ad-blindness.
Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient
#5If you are not paying for the product, you are paying in other ways, this just puts a number on it. If you consider the implications, you are paying quite a bit in power in addition to privacy issues. This is why: a) my gps AND network location is turned off 99.99% of the time. b) I have ad-blocking software which prevents lots of this network overhead. ^^ the above is justified because it actually costs me, want to…
My primary reason to get root on my Android was... well, let's be honest, like every other HN denizen I wanted to explore and control it. But among my other reasons was to be able to run DroidWall, an interface to iptables firewalling.
Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient
#6I'm surprised that the ad sevices aren't smarter. Wait until on wifi, cache a bunch of ads, share those ads amongst all the apps that use your service. Is this feasible?
I'm not. There is no incentive for better energy utilization.
[edit] for advertizement driven software. Energy efficiency is something which goes to the bottom line of handset manufacturers. That this research comes from Microsoft, not Google, shows how different the incentives in regards to energy management are for the two companies' mobile OS's.[/edit]
[edit 2]It also illustrates the problem of the commons inherent in the app model. Lots of contact with the ad server is great for each app and poor for overall energy efficiency.[/edit 2]
Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient
#7With out a screen your phone could run for weeks.
Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient
#8If you are not paying for the product, you are paying in other ways, this just puts a number on it. If you consider the implications, you are paying quite a bit in power in addition to privacy issues. This is why: a) my gps AND network location is turned off 99.99% of the time. b) I have ad-blocking software which prevents lots of this network overhead. ^^ the above is justified because it actually costs me, want to…
> the above is justified because it actually costs me, want to serve me ads? fine, but not when they come at a price
How do you expect them to serve you ads? They have to get to your phone _somehow_ so there will always be network overhead. This just feels like an attempt to justify using applications while removing their revenue stream based on impossible requirements.
Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient
#9I'm surprised that the ad sevices aren't smarter. Wait until on wifi, cache a bunch of ads, share those ads amongst all the apps that use your service. Is this feasible?
It should be. But until there's some competitive pressure for them to do that, they won't.
Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient
#10I'm surprised that the ad sevices aren't smarter. Wait until on wifi, cache a bunch of ads, share those ads amongst all the apps that use your service. Is this feasible?
Feasible in a centralised, OS-level ad system, yes. iAds may do it, I have no idea. But most ad systems are embedded at the app level, so when that app is turned off, no downloading can take place.