Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 4th Aug 2012 00:54 UTC
This tweet from Tom Warren made me smile. So, it's 2012 and tablets are finally able to do what the Amiga did in 1985. Seems like a bit of a stretch to be excited about that, right? Sure, until I caught myself getting excited - only a bit, but still - by this piece of news. Update: removed me being an annoyed child.
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Member since:2005-11-14
Member since:2005-07-06
I'd think you are right, I don't know enough about Android internals to tell you why It feels slow. I speak from an end user pov here.
I love the hardware of Android devices, they are way ahead of expensive Apple offerings... but when you actually use the devices they feel much slower than even vintage iOS devices. It's shocking.
And I fear that multi-user support will increase this slowness, actually... I'm pretty sure of that because I dealt with multiuser issues during my career.
I mean, the device will have to store the state of the session when you switch between users (running apps, configs, connections, ecc)... Android has to keep that state in memory somehow, in RAM or swap it to the flash memory... It's not a minor concern, It can be very resource hungry.
Then you have the file owner/permission issue. You don't want that your files can be modified by another user. Android will have to implement that too.
That's why I think adding multiuser support to a mobile OS is a big fat stupid idea. Good multiuser support is a complex thing. It's not trivial nor "free". KISS.
Member since:2006-02-15
I think that adding multi-user support to a mobile OS is not a priority at all.
Android developers should focus on performance. iOS is way ahead in this particular matter, It feels faster even using slower hardware.
Android developers should focus on performance. iOS is way ahead in this particular matter, It feels faster even using slower hardware.
You mentioned having tried Transformer Pad but I got the image that it's been a while ago. If true then that Pad was most likely still running Honeycomb; ICS 4.0 saw quite a large boost to graphics performance and fluidity, and the new Jelly Bean 4.1 improved that even more. Have you, or have you not tried an Android-tablet with similar specs as that iPad running Android 4.0.1 or newer? If not then that is most likely the reason for your experience.
Also, Android developers are improving Android's performance. You're just assuming that the developers can only work on one thing at a time which, quite obviously, isn't true. In fact it's often detrimental to development efforts to have a really large team all trying to work on the same thing, that's exactly why e.g. F/OSS developers tend to dedicate certain parts of the software to certain developers instead of all concentrating on only one thing at a time. Ie. you're complaining about something that is already being worked on and you're complaining about it as if one cannot work on other things, too, at the same time.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/25/13 0:45 UTC
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 23:59 UTC
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 22:33 UTC
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on 05/24/13 21:41 UTC
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.More News »
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Member since:
2005-07-06
I think that adding multi-user support to a mobile OS is not a priority at all.
Android developers should focus on performance. iOS is way ahead in this particular matter, It feels faster even using slower hardware.