Really? I thought the keynote explicitly said the SDK would be available today, but that neither the source code nor the binary updates would be pushed to the public (as opposed to hardware manufacturers, who now have ahead-of-time PDK access) until mid-July.
(edit: In addition, the Nexus 7, running Jelly Bean, while available to purchase today, will itself not be shipping until mid-July. I really don't think it is available yet.)
I cloned the manifest project and checked the tags; there aren't any 4.1+ tags present yet. I'd imagine there would be a JBQ post (like this, https://groups.google.com/group/android-building/msg/c0e01b4...) announcing Android 4.1 availability if the source were already available.
Does all this finally mean it has actually caught up with iOS in terms of touch-lag? And is this finally admittance that there was a problem all along?
I know some may jump to the defence of Android here, I've seen this argued ad nauseam before, and yes I've tried some Android phones that didn't have noticable lag, but the 'top of the range' Samsung Galaxy II tablet is indisputably laggy when compared to an iPad 2.
If this is finally the fix we've (or maybe just I've) been waiting for then congrats to Android, I'm really glad to see it.
Honeycomb and ICS aren't as smooth as iOS, but most of the lag that you're experiencing on your tablet is coming from Samsung's terrible software and not Android itself. The Galaxy Tabs are an embarrassment.
As an iPad 1, iPad 2, original Droid, Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, and Kindle Fire owner, I have no idea what you are talking about. Our iOS devices have hiccups just as much as any of our Android devices do, and sometimes more.
Yes, iOS caught up with Android in many respects at the last WWDC, and Android is catching up with iOS on the responsiveness front. That's fine, on both counts. It means that Android and iOS are competitive. It also means I don't have to switch to iOS if I'm craving responsive.
The Android JVM basically means Android needs a faster processor to get the same level of responsiveness. So that's what they're giving it.[1] That's fine, since the benefit of Android is being flexible enough to run on scads of devices. That's emphatically a benefit, not a curse, just like being able to buy all different configurations of PCs is emphatically a benefit.
[1] Reports of A5x being faster than Tegra 3 are overblown.
Does that include the Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus, since Google agreed to let Verizon handle the updates for that model?
If so, I'm glad to hear that Google is addressing the problem of not having their own devices be up-to-date (which was an embarrassment for some Android updates on previous Nexus devices).
Until the fragmentation problem is fixed, every new Android release only fills me with dread.
Normally when new versions of frameworks or software that I use come out, I like it. Except Android, because every new version of Android has lots of nice features that I won't be able to use and it is guaranteed to further fragment of the marketplace.
Android is the (old) Internet Explorer of mobile. I've never seen one application skew across versions so hard, or single-handedly fragment the space as much. (BTW kudos to MS for strongly encouraging their IE users upgrade).
What makes this perplexing is that Google has solved this problem with most of their other installed software offerings, Chrome particularly. There's basically only one version of Chrome (v 19 as I write this). Heck, even MS realized their mistake and is making efforts to roll up old IE users into the latest version. And of course Apple has done a fantastic job keeping all of it's users at the same iOS version.
I am well-aware of the OEM madness that drives Android fragmentation, and that you might think it's not "Google's fault" because of this. But I disagree. Google has vast resources and can basically do whatever it wants. If it wanted to require OEMs to build Android-upgradable phones, it could force them to do so. In fact, if they started doing this today you would hear loud cheers from around the world (and bitter complaining from the OEMs, but so what? There's a lot of money to be made and they'll get in line).
91% of the Android market is covered by 3 major versions (2.2, 2.3, and 4.0). 72% is covered by just two major versions (2.3 and 4.0).
This problem isn't quite as severe as its made out to be. Dealing with the diverse hardware ecosystem and implementation bugs are both much larger problems, IMO.
It seems to me that the easiest way that Google could do this would be to create a "Perfect Android" branding or similar, which has some tight rules around licensing - to qualify, a device would have to meet a set of minimum hardware specs and the manufacturer and carriers would have to sign up to providing timely updates to the latest version that Google produces over the next N years. Google, for its part, would guarantee that those newer versions for the next N years will run well on the minimum hardware specs agreed to.
> There's a lot of money to be made and they'll get in line
The fact that that's not true is precisely why timely upgrades aren't done. Verizon and Motorola sold you that Droid RAZR. They get nothing from spending engineer time to update it.
Also, what is this implication that Google is just being lazy or has some incentive to not have everyone running the latest OS. You really think Google so powerful that they can snap their fingers and make OEMs do what they want? Isn't the very existence (and initial struggle) of the Nexus line evidence against that?
Let me offer a solution: It's time for Google to offer a Google+ Certification for Android. These certified devices would have two important characteristics:
1. They are guaranteed to run the latest version of Android for 5 years.
2. They are guaranteed to have a clean version of Android, without any carrier or device maker modifications.
No doubt the marketing people can come up with other things to add to the list, but that's the gist of it.
If such a certification existed, personally I would only shop among those options.
Such a certification would require that Google have some sort of compatibility criteria, and that their future development efforts run well within those criteria. So it constrains Google just as much as the OEMs. The certification should be cheap, but not free. And I picked the name for Sergey's buy-in.
The nice thing about this (voluntary) certification program is that OEMs don't have to participate. And in fact could have certified and uncertified devices. The program captures the essential qualities that made the iPhone successful, in my opinion. The App Store is a big part of their success, and developing for the iPhone is far more pleasant because of the stability of the platform.
This is great. The only thing I have a gripe with is:
> They are guaranteed to run the latest version of Android for 5 years.
5 years is too long. The HTC Dream, the first Android phone, was released less than 4 years ago. It only has a 528Mhz processor and 192MB of RAM. I don't want to know what the ICS or JB experience would be on that device...
Keep in mind the iPhone only turned 5 this year (the App Store turns 4 in a couple weeks). And the last version that supported it (with limited features) was released 3 years afterwards.
I think 3 years is more reasonable. Most people are eligible for a discounted phone upgrade every 2 years. I think that would fit in for most folks.
Five years is a really long time in the mobile industry, and will be for the coming decade, even if the crazy tempo is slowing somewhat. According to wikipedia [1] typical high-end 2009 phone (which is just three years) had 256 MB RAM and 600 mhz ARMv6 processor. I think two or three years would be enough, with todays rate of improvement.
Google announced their solution to this problem at the last Google I/O: the Android Update Alliance. It was basically a commitment by manufacturers to update phones for 18 months following their release.
Five years is ridiculous. The phones three years ago are vastly less powerful than the ones now - building Android so that it definitely fitted onto them would be nigh impossible.
I sincerely agree. However 5 years is a long time, perhaps 3 is more appropriate. Keep in mind that the first iPhone was introduced 5 and a half years ago.
In the post keynote workshop, they noted that this is not entirely fixed. They have made improvements but they also acknowledge they have some distance to go to have it perfect.
I don't have the technical details of the updates, and I doubt anyone will for a short while.
MediaPlayer supports chaining audio streams together to play audio files without pauses. This is useful for apps that require seamless transitions between audio files such as music players to play albums with continuous tracks or games.
Interesting RE: App Encryption. I had mentioned that years ago in IRC before Android was even a blip on Apple's radar and I was told that would not happen because the Market didn't want to ever modify the uploaded APK. It will be interesting to see if this curtails pirating, or more likely, just adds an extra step in the piracy process.
My phone, purchased brand-new last summer (the model itself is almost, but not quite a year old), still runs Android 2.3. It will run Android 2.3 forever, even though Google owns the company that made it. Jelly Bean, released last year, is still on less than 10% of all Android phones, and may never even exceed 15%.
If Google can't get its act together on the update situation, a lot of people, myself included, will not be buying Android phones the next time our contracts are up.
What I find disingenuous about this line of argument is that you (and everybody who argues it) know full well that you will not be keeping your current phone "forever", and in fact, it's almost 100% certain you will replace it within 2 years if not 12 months simply because of the 2 year upgrade cycle that exists in many carriers or if not, because of the lure of next generation hardware will convince you to buy a new phone.
So what you are actually asking for is for tremendous engineering resources to be spent to port the bleeding edge OS to your soon to be obsolete phone so that you can use it for a few months and then toss it in the bin.
Now I'm not necessarily arguing that there isn't an issue with upgrade on Android phones etc. But I find this particular tone of "I will be stuck forever with an outdated OS thanks to Google" that appears regularly in these comments to be somewhat disingenuous.
PS: Jelly Bean was not released last year, it was announced literally just hours ago.
[+] [-] saurik|13 years ago|reply
(edit: In addition, the Nexus 7, running Jelly Bean, while available to purchase today, will itself not be shipping until mid-July. I really don't think it is available yet.)
[+] [-] wmf|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yelkeew|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nilliams|13 years ago|reply
Does all this finally mean it has actually caught up with iOS in terms of touch-lag? And is this finally admittance that there was a problem all along?
I know some may jump to the defence of Android here, I've seen this argued ad nauseam before, and yes I've tried some Android phones that didn't have noticable lag, but the 'top of the range' Samsung Galaxy II tablet is indisputably laggy when compared to an iPad 2.
If this is finally the fix we've (or maybe just I've) been waiting for then congrats to Android, I'm really glad to see it.
[+] [-] veeti|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smithian|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] no_more_death|13 years ago|reply
The Android JVM basically means Android needs a faster processor to get the same level of responsiveness. So that's what they're giving it.[1] That's fine, since the benefit of Android is being flexible enough to run on scads of devices. That's emphatically a benefit, not a curse, just like being able to buy all different configurations of PCs is emphatically a benefit.
[1] Reports of A5x being faster than Tegra 3 are overblown.
[+] [-] picklefish|13 years ago|reply
"Google: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean coming to Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S and Motorola Xoom mid-July"
from: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/27/google-android-4-1-jelly-...
[+] [-] antihero|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chimeracoder|13 years ago|reply
If so, I'm glad to hear that Google is addressing the problem of not having their own devices be up-to-date (which was an embarrassment for some Android updates on previous Nexus devices).
[+] [-] javajosh|13 years ago|reply
Normally when new versions of frameworks or software that I use come out, I like it. Except Android, because every new version of Android has lots of nice features that I won't be able to use and it is guaranteed to further fragment of the marketplace.
Android is the (old) Internet Explorer of mobile. I've never seen one application skew across versions so hard, or single-handedly fragment the space as much. (BTW kudos to MS for strongly encouraging their IE users upgrade).
What makes this perplexing is that Google has solved this problem with most of their other installed software offerings, Chrome particularly. There's basically only one version of Chrome (v 19 as I write this). Heck, even MS realized their mistake and is making efforts to roll up old IE users into the latest version. And of course Apple has done a fantastic job keeping all of it's users at the same iOS version.
I am well-aware of the OEM madness that drives Android fragmentation, and that you might think it's not "Google's fault" because of this. But I disagree. Google has vast resources and can basically do whatever it wants. If it wanted to require OEMs to build Android-upgradable phones, it could force them to do so. In fact, if they started doing this today you would hear loud cheers from around the world (and bitter complaining from the OEMs, but so what? There's a lot of money to be made and they'll get in line).
[+] [-] _ea1k|13 years ago|reply
This problem isn't quite as severe as its made out to be. Dealing with the diverse hardware ecosystem and implementation bugs are both much larger problems, IMO.
[+] [-] caf|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] myko|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drivebyacct2|13 years ago|reply
The fact that that's not true is precisely why timely upgrades aren't done. Verizon and Motorola sold you that Droid RAZR. They get nothing from spending engineer time to update it.
Also, what is this implication that Google is just being lazy or has some incentive to not have everyone running the latest OS. You really think Google so powerful that they can snap their fingers and make OEMs do what they want? Isn't the very existence (and initial struggle) of the Nexus line evidence against that?
[+] [-] javajosh|13 years ago|reply
1. They are guaranteed to run the latest version of Android for 5 years.
2. They are guaranteed to have a clean version of Android, without any carrier or device maker modifications.
No doubt the marketing people can come up with other things to add to the list, but that's the gist of it.
If such a certification existed, personally I would only shop among those options.
Such a certification would require that Google have some sort of compatibility criteria, and that their future development efforts run well within those criteria. So it constrains Google just as much as the OEMs. The certification should be cheap, but not free. And I picked the name for Sergey's buy-in.
The nice thing about this (voluntary) certification program is that OEMs don't have to participate. And in fact could have certified and uncertified devices. The program captures the essential qualities that made the iPhone successful, in my opinion. The App Store is a big part of their success, and developing for the iPhone is far more pleasant because of the stability of the platform.
EDIT: Okay, if it was 3 years I'd still be happy.
[+] [-] timdorr|13 years ago|reply
> They are guaranteed to run the latest version of Android for 5 years.
5 years is too long. The HTC Dream, the first Android phone, was released less than 4 years ago. It only has a 528Mhz processor and 192MB of RAM. I don't want to know what the ICS or JB experience would be on that device...
Keep in mind the iPhone only turned 5 this year (the App Store turns 4 in a couple weeks). And the last version that supported it (with limited features) was released 3 years afterwards.
I think 3 years is more reasonable. Most people are eligible for a discounted phone upgrade every 2 years. I think that would fit in for most folks.
[+] [-] glogla|13 years ago|reply
Other than that, it's a great idea.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Android_devices
[+] [-] natrius|13 years ago|reply
This is how it has panned out so far: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397729,00.asp
tl;dr: As of December 2011, only Sony had lived up to its pledge. HTC came close.
[+] [-] AndrewDucker|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WrkInProgress|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gardarh|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anigbrowl|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hahainternet|13 years ago|reply
I don't have the technical details of the updates, and I doubt anyone will for a short while.
[+] [-] nickpresta|13 years ago|reply
MediaPlayer supports chaining audio streams together to play audio files without pauses. This is useful for apps that require seamless transitions between audio files such as music players to play albums with continuous tracks or games.
Best feature by far!
[+] [-] mshafrir|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] astrodust|13 years ago|reply
Google has to fix this problem or these new releases won't be relevant.
[+] [-] hu_me|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rwmj|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shangaslammi|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drivebyacct2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rprasad|13 years ago|reply
If Google can't get its act together on the update situation, a lot of people, myself included, will not be buying Android phones the next time our contracts are up.
[+] [-] zmmmmm|13 years ago|reply
So what you are actually asking for is for tremendous engineering resources to be spent to port the bleeding edge OS to your soon to be obsolete phone so that you can use it for a few months and then toss it in the bin.
Now I'm not necessarily arguing that there isn't an issue with upgrade on Android phones etc. But I find this particular tone of "I will be stuck forever with an outdated OS thanks to Google" that appears regularly in these comments to be somewhat disingenuous.
PS: Jelly Bean was not released last year, it was announced literally just hours ago.
[+] [-] yuhong|13 years ago|reply