Finally, true full screen support! That was my main gripe with Android VS iOS. Personally I find the navigation bar very hindering in games, where I have to be careful not to touch it (not to mention the wasted screen space). My young kids keep touching the navigation buttons by mistake, making using drawing/music apps a very frustrating experience for them. I hope that various app developers will catch up quickly with this feature.
Android for all and the new Nexus 5
131–140 of 235 posts
Re: Android for all and the new Nexus 5
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
>WebView is now based on Chromium Does that mean that there will no more be stock 'Browser' app? I refuse to use Chrome on Android because of brain-dead, non-disablable 'font-boosting' that makes (among many others) Hacker News absolutely unusable. If that means that the same engine is the only one officially supported on 4.4 forwards, then that's really sad and unfortunate.
I don't use HN site on Chrome Browser anymore because the app Hacker News 2 is so good: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.airlocksof...
Hacker News 2 is virtually perfect.
Re: Android for all and the new Nexus 5
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
The most recent iOS only now deprecated the iPhone 3GS which was released in June 2009. Up until two months ago a 4 year old device was still running the latest version of iOS. Why is Google unable to do the same?
It's not about Google. It's because each OEM would have to obtain, merge and release a new Android image for each of their old phones that have the specs to run the new Android. And the images originate from chip makers (because Android needs kernel and probably some userspace support for a particular chipset). And same merging and releasing process applies for the chip makers as well. I would suppose that all OEMs a…
The Linux kernel 3.10 in Android 4.4 should support "device tree". I wonder if that will make it easier for OEM's to make "master images", at least for their own devices, which should make upgrading their own devices easier. But even if that happens, it will happen only from now on, and not with past phones.
Re: Android for all and the new Nexus 5
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Galaxy Nexus came out at the end of 2011. It can only handle the latest OS for so long...
This is in stark contrast to iOS, which runs on a phone released in June 2010.
Even my iPhone 5 feels as laggy as the original 2G iPhone did, now that I've updated to iOS 7. I wish I could hit the undo button on that 'upgrade.'
Re: Android for all and the new Nexus 5
#135Android for all, except me:
> Sorry! Devices on Google Play is not available in your country yet.
Oh, wait, their "all" means "U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea", ie 10 out of 200ish countries in the world.
Re: Android for all and the new Nexus 5
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your not using Firefox on Android, your browser woes are your own fault :D <3 Mozilla
Apart from Mozilla love, what are the good reasons to use Firefox on Android? I tried it, found it slower and less responsive than Chrome. But as this is a completely biased feeling, I'd love to know more.
Those are mine:
* Firefox Sync. As I use Firefox on my desktop, it's nice to keep them synched.
* Addons. I know this might sound stupid on a phone, but having lastpass autofill your passwords on-the-go is awesome.
* Interface. I really like the Firefox Mobile UI, but I hate the Chrome (Tablet, I browse on a Nexus 7) Mobile UI. Chrome get really bad with 3 or 4 tabs, making it really hard to switch tabs, and really easy to close tabs by mistake.
* Smoothness. I find that Firefox is way better/faster than Chrome on my Nexus 7 (This might be because I run Nightly, but I've compared it to Chrome Beta too). Especially, try to open 2 or 3 pages with a video, Chrome just become unusable for 5/10 seconds for me.
* Memory usage. I have a 2012 Nexus 7, and it has "only" 1gb of ram. It seems that if I open more than 5 tabs, Chrome just love dropping old tabs them out of memory. I've yet to have Firefox drop a tab, even with 10 or more tabs open. (It does drop them if I leave it in background and open something memory-intensive, like a game, but that's expected).
Re: Android for all and the new Nexus 5
#137I'm sad that the Galaxy Nexus isn't supported. My phone has increasingly been running out of RAM lately for reasons I don't understand - hearing Google boast about how KitKat has been optimized for memory had me hoping that it would support more than just the latest-greatest.
That's ok, Google can keep their OS for themselves. I look forward to taking some time later this year to put Ubuntu Touch or Firefox OS on my phone, and weaning off their services altogether.
Re: Android for all and the new Nexus 5
#138Here's the Android release notes: http://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html Highlights: * WebView is now based on Chromium * KSM and zRAM integrated into stock kernel * Public SMS framework * Printing framework * Storage access framework
"Host card emulation" -- Does this mean I can "upload" my NFC bank cards and transport card and have my phone emulate them? If so that is -freaking awesome-.
Not quite, but everyone and his brother will be able to start issuing NFC 'cards' that work with existing contactless terminals. Think PayPal, Square, your favourite loyalty programmes etc etc.
And there's no need to negotiate/buy access to secure elements, or get involved with TSMs etc -- as long as the issuer looks after its own security.
This is going to blow NFC wide open :)
Re: Android for all and the new Nexus 5
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
That statement doesn't mention the Galaxy Nexus one way or the other. I imagine it's just a listing of the devices that Google has direct control over that they'll update in the near future. Since updates for the Galaxy Nexus have to go through the carriers, Google can't really say how soon the updates will go through, or if they ever will.
This statement pretty much covers it: https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/3468085
Thanks for the link. That's really a shame considering they titled the post "Android for all" and made a big deal out of Kit Kat's small memory foot print. Memory has been pretty tight on my Galaxy Nexus, those optimizations would have been nice. I guess I'll have to wait for the modding community to get it working.
Re: Android for all and the new Nexus 5
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your not using Firefox on Android, your browser woes are your own fault :D <3 Mozilla
Apart from Mozilla love, what are the good reasons to use Firefox on Android? I tried it, found it slower and less responsive than Chrome. But as this is a completely biased feeling, I'd love to know more.
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