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Introducing Android 9 Pie

android-developers.googleblog.com

181–190 of 367 posts

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#181

I was just hoping for them to retire those stupid round adaptive icons. They did not. Also it's not clear if the old style of switching "opened" apps will still be there? Because the new one with the full screen preview seems more flashy but less practical(think alt+tab vs win+tab on Windows).

I think the idea was good, it's just too bad so many apps (many by Google) went the lazy path of leaving the icon as-is and adding a white background layer. Also note that they're only circular on Pixel.

I don't know, they are round by default on my OP5.

I'm really against the idea of having a uniform shape for all apps, it makes it harder to quickly locate them.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#182
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do. Customers voted overwhelmingly ‘we don’t care’ so the headphone jack didn’t return.

Did they? Or did they just express they care more about staying in Apple ecosystem than the headphone jack? This is my point: there isn't really a way to express a preference for something minor. Smartphone market is mostly "take it or leave it".

They throw a dongle in the box. Just keep it hooked up to your headphones and now they're fancy Lightning buds. No big deal.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#183
post #11

> App Actions is a new way to raise the visibility of your app and drive engagement. Actions take advantage of machine learning to surface your app to the user at just the right time, based on your app's semantic intents and the user's context. 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 comp…

You're reading a developer blog.

The Android.com page is more similar to Apple's:

> App Actions predicts what you’re about to do, so you get to your next task more quickly. If you do something like connect your headphones, the playlist you were listening to earlier is front and center. [1]

[1] https://www.android.com/versions/pie-9-0/

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#184

"It's nice!" ... or at least that's what I would say if my phone wasn't limited to Android 7.0

I was worried my S5 was doomed to Lineage 14.1 forever, but some saint dev ported it to 15.1 last month.

LTE doesn't work, but hey, 15.1.

Whats really scary is that the official Samsung Touchwiz ROM stopped getting updates two years ago and is stuck on 5.1 I think. Ain't it great when hobbyists support a device for over 3 major revisions past when the billion dollar manufacturer that made it stopped updating it less than five years after it was released.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#185
post #60
post #4

One of the quieter features of Android 9 is that they are reducing the API surface of Android by explicitly black-listing and white-listing various APIs and fields that previously required reflection to access. None of these APIs were documented, but none of them were explicitly "off limits" before Android P. That suggests that the life of Java as Android's primary language might be really coming to an end, even thou…

Apparently you haven't been paying attention, declaring off limits APIs started with Android Nougat for NDK developers. Because Linux APIs were never really intended to be called by NDK developers, only the POSIX subset and Android public native APIs. Likewise with Java, which is only a subset of proper Java. In any case, it might relate more to an eventual future support of Java 9 module system, where private really…

> Because Linux APIs were never really intended to be called by NDK developers

But pretty much all the "unintended" uses of Android APIs (undocumented or not) have been the most original and best-integrating apps I've seen. It's a pity.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea was good, it's just too bad so many apps (many by Google) went the lazy path of leaving the icon as-is and adding a white background layer. Also note that they're only circular on Pixel.

I don't know, they are round by default on my OP5. I'm really against the idea of having a uniform shape for all apps, it makes it harder to quickly locate them.

So use another launcher which allows you to customize that? Nova is very popular and gives you what you want.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A product only useful at the Billion User data points level. I am 100% fine participating in what's essentially the training data for all future AI products coming out of Google. It feels like a happy family of devices all working together for a more scientific future.

>It feels like a happy family of devices all working together for a more scientific future. With this philosophy, I’d suggest you’d avoid paying attention to the trajectory of Chinese society, perhaps even more so now that Google plans to get in bed with the CCP’s censorship and dissident quashing regime...

I believe they claim they aren't really doing that. It could be the great negative attention forced them to say that wasn't their actual plan.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#188
It is amazing how each new version of Android has a complete new UX and none of them are actually good. Google is basically a back-end company incapable of doing good UX (if it is more than a search bar).

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#189
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you talking for all of us XL 2 users ? Not a single slow down on mine, thanks. Was on beta the first day it was available.

No sorry, you might have gotten lucky. But a few major YouTubers have reported this slowdown and I really have no data to back this up. I'm glad the Pixel 2 XL works for you! I just have a personal grudge against the pixel line of phones are they compete with OEM's directly without bringing good hardware to the table (except that god tier camera of course)

Funny that you mention the camera. The Pixel 2 has the same sensor (Sony IMX 362) as a bunch of Motorola phones, like the G5+ and the X4. There is the custom Pixel Visual Core, sure, but that's used only by third-party applications that call the Camera API. Google's Camera app does all the processing on the CPU, presumably with highly tuned Halide code.

Re: Introducing Android 9 Pie

#190
post #116
post #114

Earlier 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.

Does the permission model even work at this point? The vast majority of users just accept whatever the app asks for without a second thought. The rest is bullied by platform monopolies.

There is very little real choice for users.

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