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Android Oreo

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Re: Android Oreo

#601

Post by tomkarlo »

mariusmg wrote: post #541
eloisant wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they did a great job at reducing fragmentation by pulling out most of the OS into upgradable components. All applications are upgradable, even Play Services are upgradable, and developers get the support library to get all the new things to all devices. So I believe they did a great job at reducing fragmentation in the sense that it no longer really matters what version you have, you still get all the newest…

> by pulling out most of the OS into upgradable components. That's not true (the most of the OS part). They untangled their own stuff (Play Store, Google services and so on) and can update those as they see fit. The OS stuff is still monolithic. Most of serious security issues still require full OS updates. Also supporting a new major version of Android runtime still require a full OS update.

Most security issues are handled by security updates, which don't require a letter update. They're issued as patches, so OEMs can issue them for an older device without updating it to a new release. https://www.android.com/security-center/monthly-security-upd...

Re: Android Oreo

#602

Post by ihattendorf »

dcow wrote: post #266
BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apps that were bad stewards of battery life and phone resources were supposed to be scrutinized by users If HN allowed emoji in comments, I'd have a U+1F923 here. Since I can't do that, you're adorable. The users, eh? The users are supposed to be burdened with checking the wake status and radio activation schedule of their apps? How was that supposed to work, exactly?

I'm not sure what your point is here and your tone indicates you're not really looking for honest discussion. But FYI Android reports energy usage statistics to the user on a per-app basis. What I don't like is Android the platform telling me the user how my phone is best used. It's pretty crippling. Let's say I'm deploying Android on hardware that is always plugged in--something kiosk-style. Why shouldn't I be able…

And what about the mysterious Android OS/Android System "apps" that show up on the battery usage screen? How do I know which app is hogging resources here? Should we expect users to inspect wakelocks?

Re: Android Oreo

#603

Post by tomkarlo »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #476
mkhpalm wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Functional planned obsolescence. Hardware vendors will find a way to break hardware abstraction layers... so they can sell more hardware. Its the business model.

I bought a series of Nexus phones. The Nexus 5 no longer works. The Nexus 4 still works, but its battery is puffing out. The Nexus S has no hardware problems at all, but it's too underpowered to run modern software. The model "phone vendors nefariously build products with short lifespans, regardless of what people want to buy, so that they can sell more hardware" has trouble explaining why the longest-lived phones ar…

This doesn't make any sense. It assumes there's no competition between manufacturers, and that users don't switch. If older phones were actually "better", manufacturers would just make those and steal customers from anyone making the newer devices.

The phones of today aren't "built with shorter lifespans in mind", but they are built with more tightly packed components, more energy-dense batteries (to support their power-hungry CPUs and large amount of RAM), etc. Because that's what you need to do so you're not "too underpowered to run modern software." Which is necessary to sell phones to people.

If you made a phone and said "hey, this will live as long as a Nexus S, but it's not going to run FB or Clash of Clans or VR or take very good pictures (HDR is compute intensive)".... good luck selling that.

Re: Android Oreo

#604

Post by lazerpants »

askafriend wrote: post #411
function_seven wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll admit it. The thing that got me to update iOS this last time were the iMessage effects (slam, confetti, invisible ink, etc.). I rarely use those now, but I'm not immune to superficial hype. It's fun.

I love the invisible ink one the most. I use it pretty often actually. Yes it's dumb, but I'll be damned if I can't have some dumb fun.

Invisible ink is very useful. I've used it to text people minor pieces of privileged information at work when I don't know who can see their phones. After all, most people just leave their phones on table tops with notifications on. It's also great for texting with my wife when she is with her parents or traveling with co-workers.

Re: Android Oreo

#605

Post by euyyn »

JetSpiegel wrote: post #484
euyyn wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want total control over what the recipient sees, send an image. Is this for real? You rather people have to stop using emojis and send images in their stead, than the different platforms give them the same meaning?

They have the same meaning, namely the one encoded in Unicode. Just because different platforms have different fonts does not charge they meaning. An "a" in Helvetica has the same meaning as in Times New Roman, but the glyph is different. "" means the same thing, even though I inputted it as the Android yellow blobs, I see it as a simple black and white symbol and an iPhone user reading this will see another differen…

When people look for an emoji in their phone's keyboard to express something, they don't read the Unicode description for that emoji. When people receive them, they don't read the description either.

Thus why it's important that, even if they don't have the same style across platforms (like an 'a' in Helvetica and in Times), they have to depict the same thing.

For example, if from your HTC phone you send a smiley that looks pretty content and calm, users of most other platforms will receive it as "I'm freaking sick of this". The meaning encoded in Unicode for it is "face with look of triumph" ( https://emojipedia.org/face-with-look-of-triumph/ ), which isn't what you meant, nor what your receiver understood.

Re: Android Oreo

#606

Post by jorgemf »

dingo_bat wrote: post #384
jorgemf wrote: post #127

Instant Apps: I think this can impact very positively the environment but there are almost not mentions to it.

Environment? How so?

You don't need to have all apps installed. For example: you can go to facebook web page and launch an instant app, so you have the native experience without having the app installed. Also with places like amazon or anything that you don't use very frequently. Moreover you can test an app without installing it.

Re: Android Oreo

#607

Post by tombrossman »

Zarel wrote: post #256
tombrossman wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NoScript definitely improves most sites, but scroll can be hijacked with CSS alone: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/scroll-beha... Firefox users can set "layout.css.scroll-behavior.enabled = false" in about:config and never have to worry about this nonsense again.

Did you read the article you link to? It says that it only applies to CSSOM (JavaScript) and navigation (presumably clicking links). Not scrolling by the user.

Whoops, sorry I guess my understanding of the setting was incorrect. I remember troubleshooting this a while back and I thought this is what resolved the issue I was having.

Re: Android Oreo

#608

Post by ksk »

tinus_hn wrote: post #265
ksk wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because they have to test the ROMs on their network in different regions, with different frequency bands, with roaming, etc. That work is tedious given all of the phones they support.

Good thing they don't have to test these iPhones!

They do. Apple makes them available to carriers pre-launch IIRC.

Re: Android Oreo

#609

Post by ksk »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #326
ksk wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because they have to test the ROMs on their network in different regions, with different frequency bands, with roaming, etc. That work is tedious given all of the phones they support.

The iPhone doesn't suffer from this problem. It should be up to the phone manufacturer (HTC, Samsung, etc.) to test their product. The carrier can still, of course, test the new firmware all they like - they just shouldn't be able to interfere with its release.

Apple makes products available to carriers pre-launch for testing IIRC. I don't think they skip the line.

Re: Android Oreo

#610

Post by ksk »

josteink wrote: post #432
ksk wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because they have to test the ROMs on their network in different regions, with different frequency bands, with roaming, etc. That work is tedious given all of the phones they support.

Do they do all this testing for all GSM phones in the world? All new and old? All GSM phones ever sold? I guess not. I guess instead they rely on the GSM specification to allow seamless independence between the phone and the carrier for 99.999% of the phones out there (if not more). So why do they need to "test" the remaining 0.001% when they have a update in user-facing functionality the carrier will never see or in…

Resources are finite. I don't know what your point is? That they should simply give up and do nothing?

>That carriers needs to do testing is a lie perpetuated to allow for customer-hostile business-practices. Stop repeating it.

Other than your opinion, what evidence do you have that this is a lie?

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