Android L Thoughts???

[ric96]

I watched the whole keynote live and i think that android L with its Material Design are going to be very cool plus the way google is connecting various devices using android is very cool from the consumers as well as a developers point!!!

So what do you guyz think?

[Cancelor]

What keynote?

[fruitoftheloom]

What keynote?

https://www.google.com/events/io

[Jessie]

The concepts sound good. I hope the best for Google. I'm just tired of buying quad core beasts with 2G of ram to find they are unresponsive. I haven't gotten a KitKat device yet but prior to that my opinion of Android is not favorable. I'm starting to think I should just load CM out of the box. They really just need to focus on performance.

[ame]

So what do you guyz think?

Vapourware is always wonderful, however, if it actually becomes real it will suck massively, but someone will make a pile of money due to volume.

Oh, and I have Cyanogenmod on my Google phone. It sucks massively too. Luckily no-one is forced to endure Android on their Raspberry Pi.

[ric96]

The concepts sound good. I hope the best for Google. I'm just tired of buying quad core beasts with 2G of ram to find they are unresponsive. I haven't gotten a KitKat device yet but prior to that my opinion of Android is not favorable. I'm starting to think I should just load CM out of the box. They really just need to focus on performance.

KitKit has a lot better performance in terms of smoother ui and negledgible frame drops due to better ram management!!!

[ric96]

I think we have a tendancy to load our phones with wierd third party management apps such as cleanmaster, IT IS NOT a good idea. I recently formatted my tab (1gb ram) and loaded everything else than thoes management apps and it runs comparatively smoother and i am still running 4.2.2. These apps have a tendancy to work it the background eating up a lot of ram and cpu cycles!!!

[BMS Doug]

and don't forget all the bloatware that the manufacturer insist you have to have on your new device, all of which has to be switched to manual update only or you'll find it updating apps you never wanted just when you need maximum bandwidth.

[ame]

and don't forget all the bloatware that the manufacturer insist you have to have on your new device, all of which has to be switched to manual update only or you'll find it updating apps you never wanted just when you need maximum bandwidth.

That's why I have Cyanogenmod.

[BMS Doug]

evry time I'm scrolling through something without paying attention I end up in "my magazine" or "S-finder" as it launches something that I don't even want on the tablet, let alone linked to on the homescreen.

Apps that came pre-installed on my new galaxy S5: (that I can easily locate, I'm sure there are more)
ChatON (chat OFF)
google drive (handy)
HP Print service plugin (my printer is an Epsom)
Maps (handy)
AllshareCast Dongle S/W update (not on my TV, maybe sometime in the future)
Chrome Browser (I would have installed it)
Dropbox (handy)
Flipboard: your news magazine (not interested)
Google play books (I have kindle thanks)
google play games (what, I'm not capable of sorting out any games I want without your help?)
Google play movies and TV (i'm detecting a theme here)
Google play music (...)
Google play newsstand (still not interested)
Google search (because opening a browser is soo difficult)
Google text to speech (if I did need this then how would I find it to open it)
Google+ (meh)
Hangouts (social media built into the phone, in case you were incapable of installing it yourself if you want it)
Samsung print service plugin (just checked, its still an Epsom printer)
Samsung push service (push off)
Vodafone discover (Vodafone could discover my upraised fingers were they but to look in my direction)
youtube (handy)
ANT radio Service (seems reasonable)
ANT+ plugins (again not unreasonable)
blurb checkout (couldn't I have installed this when I decided I want it)
google talkback (I don't have a major issue with this app, those that need it really need it)
streetview on google maps (I would have installed)

[DougieLawson]

What annoys me is the applications that aren't critical to running Android but are marked as "systems app" so you can't uninstall the crap you'll never use. (Like Facebook in my case - I deleted my FB id about two years ago.)

[redhawk]

Removing system apps is easy you need to a) root your device b) remount system partition as "rw" (with Root Explorer) and the remove the offending APK file in /system/app
After that the system does it's usual clean up (it also works in reverse if you drop an APK in /system/app).
I believe adb can also be used to uninstall stuff by name but you still need a rooted device with the correct adb drivers (that some manufacturers are reluctant to give out).

As for Android being sluggish on multi-core hardware that's probably due to poor shoddy coding by vendors and not Android per say.
So if you buy cheap and nasty Chinese tablets with too good to be true A/Win and MediocreTek chipsets then you basically get what you paid for.

Top brands like Samsung, Nokia, LG, (Sony??) tend to do better at implementing Android and therefore do not suffer from sluggish behaviour like it's rivals.

Richard S.

[Jessie]

Removing system apps is easy you need to a) root your device b) remount system partition as "rw" (with Root Explorer) and the remove the offending APK file in /system/app
After that the system does it's usual clean up (it also works in reverse if you drop an APK in /system/app).
I believe adb can also be used to uninstall stuff by name but you still need a rooted device with the correct adb drivers (that some manufacturers are reluctant to give out).

As for Android being sluggish on multi-core hardware that's probably due to poor shoddy coding by vendors and not Android per say.
So if you buy cheap and nasty Chinese tablets with too good to be true A/Win and MediocreTek chipsets then you basically get what you paid for.

Top brands like Samsung, Nokia, LG, (Sony??) tend to do better at implementing Android and therefore do not suffer from sluggish behaviour like it's rivals.

Richard S.

So you are telling me that there are non-chineese made tablets. I'm holding a nook HD+ in my hands as we speek and on the back it says "made in china". Just, checked the back of the Surface Pro 2 and iPad they both say the same. I could go digging up other items but I would venture to guess the result would be the same. I have Tegra 3 devices, OMAP ect (I own nothing with Rockchip, Mediatek, or Allwinner in it) the end result with Android has always been the same sluggish. Not to mention the touch screens are way less accurate than anything.

Thanks, Ric I may have to give KitKat a shot. Every device I own has a CM for it. The only thing holdig me up is not wanting to redownload all my apps from the playstore and being concered about loss of savegame progress.

[ric96]

Removing system apps is easy you need to a) root your device b) remount system partition as "rw" (with Root Explorer) and the remove the offending APK file in /system/app
After that the system does it's usual clean up (it also works in reverse if you drop an APK in /system/app).
I believe adb can also be used to uninstall stuff by name but you still need a rooted device with the correct adb drivers (that some manufacturers are reluctant to give out).

As for Android being sluggish on multi-core hardware that's probably due to poor shoddy coding by vendors and not Android per say.
So if you buy cheap and nasty Chinese tablets with too good to be true A/Win and MediocreTek chipsets then you basically get what you paid for.

Top brands like Samsung, Nokia, LG, (Sony??) tend to do better at implementing Android and therefore do not suffer from sluggish behaviour like it's rivals.

Richard S.

So you are telling me that there are non-chineese made tablets. I'm holding a nook HD+ in my hands as we speek and on the back it says "made in china". Just, checked the back of the Surface Pro 2 and iPad they both say the same. I could go digging up other items but I would venture to guess the result would be the same. I have Tegra 3 devices, OMAP ect (I own nothing with Rockchip, Mediatek, or Allwinner in it) the end result with Android has always been the same sluggish. Not to mention the touch screens are way less accurate than anything.

Thanks, Ric I may have to give KitKat a shot. Every device I own has a CM for it. The only thing holdig me up is not wanting to redownload all my apps from the playstore and being concered about loss of savegame progress.

Try titanium backup pro

[riklaunim]

Funny posts and Android flamewar.

I must have bought the wrong Android devices as everyone works. And they were cheap, made in China so that's probably a bad thing too Not to mention that they can run Angry Birds which is blasphemy, madness, as This Is Raspberry forum

[jamesh]

There's a big difference between Made in China, and Designed and made in China using the minimum priced components to actually make it work.

[riklaunim]

There's a big difference between Made in China, and Designed and made in China using the minimum priced components to actually make it work.

Well, in many cases Chinese companies don't want to be described as crap producers. They do really want to compete with non-Chinese companies in terms of quality/price. You still can buy crap, but if you don't want to you can pick the right items.

Let see - I've paid 160 PLN for a Raspberry Pi in a local shop. That's around 38,5 EUR. For almost the same price I got a MK809 III Android dongle (RK3188, Android 4.2) and thanks to Picuntu and Linuxium I could play with plain Linux on it and install Android 4.4 ROM too. Right now I'm just using it for QPython hacking on Android. I also have a "AmTech" tablet with a quad Allwinner. I paid like 220 PLN, so 1,37x Raspberry Pi. As any tablet it's a ready to use stand-alone device in a small form factor. I use it mostly to play games, watch Youtube from time to time and stuff like that. It works.

My mostly used Android is the Phone, Jiayu G3T which at the time of buying was priced at 3,25 Raspberries. Now it's rather "old model" replaced with something newer in the same price. It handles two SIM cards so one is the "phone" card, and the other one is 3G/4G internet oriented (much better plans/$). It has a quad Mediatek SoC, 1GB RAM, 1280x720 touch screen and Miumi 4.2 Android with options for 4.4. It can easily run Chrome with multiple tabs, Facebook, Google+, Youtube and many many other services and apps. And that phone is the only device that isn't 2 years old - and after 2 years warranty for products would end anyway so there would be no difference if it's an iPhone, Samsung or Chinese no-name

As a Python developer I like everything that is Python related - GPIO on Raspberry and other boards or Python on Android, but also I like it to be really usable. Not just to blink a LED, but to create a given device/project at a sane cost, low complexity and with not to many parts. Raspberry or other SBC with OMG amount of addon boards is rarely the best choice. Classical Linux on ARM (including Picuntu/Linuxium) is quite boring and aside of specific app development it sucks compared to Android in terms of end-user fun with gaming and multimedia. So it's good to notice Android and use its strengths and popularity.