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Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

theverge.com

11–20 of 56 posts

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#11
post #4

Why 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.

I see a source link. The Verge has an interesting layout, though; IMO it would be more normal to link inline.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#12
post #6
post #3

I'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 inheren…

I mean, there are incentives. If a battery lasts longer, a user will spend more time in apps, which leads to more ad views.

Whether the ad companies are measuring and paying attention to this is a different matter.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#13
post #2

If 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…

If you are not paying for the product, you are paying in other ways

I have ad-blocking software

Excuse me while I put on my devil's advocate pants... so, you're using the apps without paying, and cheating the developer out of profit?

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#15
post #3

I'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?

Well, if only I could tell them that I don't give a shit about dating sites or finding! singles! in! my! area!

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#16
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 inheren…

I mean, there are incentives. If a battery lasts longer, a user will spend more time in apps, which leads to more ad views. Whether the ad companies are measuring and paying attention to this is a different matter.

They also spend more time in the app when it stutters and lags due to ad load. /snark

Otherwise... it's just another reason to learn smali.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#17
post #10
post #3

I'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.

You don't need it to be OS-level. When an app with ads turns on, just have it grab a whole bunch of potential ads and cache them in some shared data store (e.g. a Content Provider).

I imagine that the harder part is grabbing the right ads so that you have something relevant to show. There's also some concern about leaking ad information, but I'm not sure how much advertisers care about that.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#18
post #5
post #2

If 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.

Same for me. Adaway and LBE followed later.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#19
So, obviously, the solution here is to have tighter integration of ad platforms with the underlying system, perhaps an ads repo that installed applications can access and which is optimized for power use.

Or, you know, you could charge for your applications and stop putting ads in altogether.

It will be a dark day, my friends, when there is kernel support for advertisements.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#20
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You don't need it to be OS-level. When an app with ads turns on, just have it grab a whole bunch of potential ads and cache them in some shared data store (e.g. a Content Provider). I imagine that the harder part is grabbing the right ads so that you have something relevant to show. There's also some concern about leaking ad information, but I'm not sure how much advertisers care about that.

You don't need it to be OS-level. When an app with ads turns on, just have it grab a whole bunch of potential ads and cache them in some shared data store

That alone would require it to be OS-level, at least on iOS (AFAIK).

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