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Nexus 9

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Re: Nexus 9

#151

Post by lgeek »

szatkus wrote: post #115
lgeek wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The companion core of the ARMv7 TK1 is a low power Cortex-A15, like the grandparent comment says. This is different from ARM's big.LITTLE which uses different microarchitectures for the two clusters, i.e. Cortex-A15 + Cortex-A7 or Cortex-A53 + Cortex-A57.

It's too small to be A15. I found the information that the companion core was A15 in Tegra 4, but it's similar size to other cores[1]. [1] http://cnet4.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2013/01/06/318d69ea-fdb7-1...

Sorry, but that looks more like an artist's vision of a die shot than an actual die shot. The TRM is pretty clear that it's an A15: http://i.imgur.com/Fvh2KVT.png

Re: Nexus 9

#152

Post by DominikR »

anigbrowl wrote: post #143
s9ix wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not quite sure the 'app gap' exists still, does it? Recently switched from iPhone 5S > HTC One M8, and nothing reallllly I miss.

It's a big problem for music apps. Android has not delivered low-latency MIDI/audio up to now, allowing Apple to own that market (much like it did with Mac v windows for a long time).

What kind of music apps are you referring to, and how big is the audience?

Re: Nexus 9

#153

Post by lgeek »

voltagex_ wrote: post #120
lgeek wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did a long weekend project a few months ago bringing up GNU/Linux on a low cost tablet. Here's a picture of it running XFCE: http://i.imgur.com/jmh8N0W.jpeg If you at least have a kernel source for the SoC, it's doable. However, especially if you don't have the source for your specific device (because manufacturers play fast and loose with the GPL), you'll probably spend the first few days getting it working and th…

Did you use libhybris for this? What bootloader did your device have? How did you do the initial bringup without being able to see the console? (or did you have UART?) Basically, do you feel like doing a longer writeup? I'm sick to death of "Linux on XYZ Android device" meaning a chroot - I would have hoped there'd be more interest in running Debian or whatever everywhere.

No, I did not use libhybris. It boots the kernel I've patched and it uses a full Linaro filesystem on a micro SD. The Android FS is not even mounted when running GNU/Linux.

The SoC is RK3188 and it uses a proprietary bootloader to do some hardware initialization IIRC.

The device does have an UART port, which I've used.

Re: Nexus 9

#154

Post by Symmetry »

szatkus wrote: post #115
lgeek wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The companion core of the ARMv7 TK1 is a low power Cortex-A15, like the grandparent comment says. This is different from ARM's big.LITTLE which uses different microarchitectures for the two clusters, i.e. Cortex-A15 + Cortex-A7 or Cortex-A53 + Cortex-A57.

It's too small to be A15. I found the information that the companion core was A15 in Tegra 4, but it's similar size to other cores[1]. [1] http://cnet4.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2013/01/06/318d69ea-fdb7-1...

Core size isn't just a matter of the number of gates, but also their size. One important tool for reaching high frequencies in chips is to have gates that drive more capacities load be wider and therefore higher power. But if your goal is to have an architecturally identical core that's lower power one of the tools you have to accomplish that is to not do that. There's probably other ways to shrink a core at the cost of performance, as well.

Re: Nexus 9

#155

Post by Raphmedia »

nacs wrote: post #81
Touche wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did you get that this is expensive? I don't see a price on the page anywhere.

It's not stated on that page yet but other news articles have prices. $400 for 16GB and $600 for 32GB.

I'm not rich at all and would have to save for a little while to afford one of those, but I don't feel like $400 is expensive at all for one such device.

Re: Nexus 9

#156

Post by Shivetya »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #42

And of course the day before Apple announces its new iPad (allegedly). I really like having two very well funded companies in all out competition, it makes for some really great features and options in both products. The size thing is what I'm interested in though. I'm waiting to see if there actually is a 12" iPad pro tomorrow, otherwise I'll pull the trigger on a Note Pro. I get the pocket/purse argument for 9" but…

Competition is good, though if Apple does put their fingerprint sensor on the iPads it will be hard to steer me towards alternatives. I have gotten spoiled with this feature, it lets me have the best of both worlds - long passwords and fast access.

That and I am still not sold on the apps on Android

Re: Nexus 9

#157

Post by disputin »

tdicola wrote: post #80

I'm impressed this is even lighter than the current iPad air (although it remains to be seen what happens with Apple's announcement tomorrow), and not by a trivial amount--almost 50 grams lighter. I've been a happy Nexus 7 user but am starting to feel I need a little bit bigger screen, and the 4:3 aspect ratio is much nicer for web browsing.

That doesn't sound good to me. I've never used cases for my devices, dropped them all, only ever had one death - the nexus 7 on first drop. My opinion of them since is that they're cheap tat. That was no laboratory study, but I've avoided the nexus range since. And yes, some people will say I should use cases.

Re: Nexus 9

#158

Post by yincrash »

anigbrowl wrote: post #143
s9ix wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not quite sure the 'app gap' exists still, does it? Recently switched from iPhone 5S > HTC One M8, and nothing reallllly I miss.

It's a big problem for music apps. Android has not delivered low-latency MIDI/audio up to now, allowing Apple to own that market (much like it did with Mac v windows for a long time).

To clarify, you are talking about music production apps? Android L introduced new APIs to improve that, so hopefully it will improve soon.

Re: Nexus 9

#159

Post by lmedinas »

elithrar wrote: post #118
emsy wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, it's not the amount of software, but the amount of quality software. For instance, I wasn't able to find a decent RSS reader that doesn't stutter on the Nexus 7 (2013). Not to mention the ridiculous amount of rights some of the readers want. On my iphone, it's hard to decide which reader I'll use because they are really good (I've tried quite a few). Music apps are still pretty much dominated by iOS…

I've always, always had a hard time finding: * A good Twitter app for Android (like iOS' Tweetbot or Twitteriffic) * A decent RSS app (like Reeder - slick, w/ Instapaper + Evernote hooks) * A reasonable SSH client (like Prompt, although I haven't looked too hard here) I'd also miss Office - using Word + Excel out in the field for work (i.e. RF spreadsheets during field surveys) are a huge bonus. Not sure how good Goo…

My recommendation for phones (not sure about Tablet versions) - SSH: JuiceSSH (simply the best i have used so far) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonelli.ju... - Twitter: Falcon Pro (works on tablets) - RSS: Press or why not Google Newstand or Flipboard ? - Office: QuickOffice, MSOffice or Google Docs

Re: Nexus 9

#160

Post by ChuckMcM »

peakdarkpattern wrote: post #145
ChuckMcM wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You find 9-10" is insufficient for reading material? No, I find 12 - 13" better for reading material. The reason my Retina iPad became my default "book" is because it was sufficient. :-) 12.5" is the 'printable' area of an 8.5 x 11" page with 1" margins. (14" if you include the margins). So especially for PDFs that are 'zoomed to the margins' a retina 12.5" display can be pretty much a 1 for 1 reproduction. And tha…

Reference or casual/fiction reading? I ask because I found the standard sized Ipad to be slightly heavy for bedtime and commute reading, whereas the small Ipad (no retina) was more pleasant experience. I would really love a Retina quality smaller sized Ipad as long as it maintains battery life quality but considering just going Kindle for day to day and full sized Ipad as textbook / video replacement.

Primarily reference, although I recently read the Daemon/Freedom series on it and it was sufficient for that application, my wife much prefers the Nook e-paper device for fiction. I agree it can be heavy for bedtime reading but for commuting I usually have my bag on my lap and read with the ipad on top of it so I don't get any weight at all (other than the bag of course)
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