back to article Android O my god! It's finally here (for devs)

Google on Tuesday published a developer-oriented preview of Android O, which turns out to be a software sequel rather than softcore erotica. Despite the cringe-inducing caveat that "it's early days" – the public relations equivalent of nutritional supplement disclaimers – Google engineering VP Dave Burke manages to outline a …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So what's the "O"?

    Oreo Cookie?

    Orange - something?

    Oatcake?

    Oh not another boody Android?

    Oh I can't be arsed?

    1. MrDamage Silver badge

      Re: So what's the "O"?

      Obesity.

      That's what happens when you've consumed too many of their previous candy-themed offerings.

    2. NorthernCoder
      Trollface

      Re: So what's the "O"?

      Orgasm?

      1. HandleAlreadyTaken

        Re: So what's the "O"?

        When they write a book about the development of this version, they must name it "The Story of O".

    3. ARGO

      Re: So what's the "O"?

      Could go retro and call it Opal Fruits. Doubt those are well known outside the UK though.

      1. dajames

        Re: So what's the "O"?

        Could go retro and call it Opal Fruits. Doubt those are well known outside the UK though.

        Or, perhaps, "Starburst" for devices with pyrotechnic batteries?

    4. Captain Hogwash

      Re: So what's the "O"?

      Onanism.

      1. TeeCee Gold badge
        Alert

        Re: So what's the "O"?

        Onanism.

        Slavish copying of Apple's innovations does not usually end well.

        1. nijam Silver badge

          Re: So what's the "O"?

          @TeeCee

          Slavish copying of the empty set?

    5. paulf
      Alert

      Re: So what's the "O"?

      I'm wondering what naming convention will they use for the version after Z*?

      (*Zours? Zubes?)

    6. Daniel von Asmuth
      Angel

      So that's the "O"

      Oh Mighty Gates? Isn't that the name of the long-term support version of Ubuntu??

      P.S. Now where can I download the source code?

    7. Chemical Bob

      Re: So what's the "O"?

      Obituary

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    I'll believe the battery story ...

    ... when I see the number of Google-related services cut to half of what it is today, which is over 500:

    - Google Play Services: 387

    - Google App: 44

    - Google Play Movies & TV: 14

    - Google Play Music: 26

    - Google Play Books: 15

    - Google Play Newsstand: 12

    - Google Play Store: 55

    That's a cool total of 553 Google-related services running on Marshmallow 6.0.1, according to Disable Service. Yes, I rooted my phone, so I can disable some of this bloatware.

    I'm not even counting all of them. There's hundreds more. What do all these things do?

    1. Schultz
      Angel

      What do all these things do?

      Think of those background services as a thousand little elves polishing your phone screen from the inside, carrying goodies to the central processing unit (and bringing our the trash), looking under the virtual sofa cushions for that lost SMS, ... All the little stuff you don't want to be bothered with.

      So now stop thinking and go back to youtube.

      1. bazza Silver badge

        Re: What do all these things do?

        I seriously doubt that all of those services are there for the benefit of the user. 387 in Play Services alone? Given Android's role as a revenue generator for Google, there's going to be a lot of them there for the benefit of Google, not the user or the phone's battery life.

        1. Tom 38

          there for the benefit of Google, not the [..] phone's battery life

          I think that partly they are intended to be there for battery life. Instead of one monolithic application that wakes up constantly and checks 400 things, they have 400 things which mainly sleep and only wake up occasionally to do simple things.

          idk that it does any good though :)

          1. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

            Re: there for the benefit of Google, not the [..] phone's battery life

            Other way around. Google keeps trying to fix the problem of too many Google tasks independently asking the phone to wake up for work. The obvious solution would be to not have those tasks, but no Googler would be called innovative for fixing it that way. Consolidate task wakeup requests for Marshmallow. Guess which tasks are non-essential in Nougat (none belonging to Google). Add throttles to ease resource deficits caused by 1000 idle Google threads waking up at the same time for O.

            Google - simultaneously discouraging rooting while giving users big incentives to do it.

        2. phuzz Silver badge

          Re: What do all these things do?

          If your phone battery runs out then you can't buy anything from Google (and you might go buy a fruity phone instead), so it's very much in their interest to make sure all the background services are as battery efficient as possible.

          According to the battery monitor on my phone the Play Services are a long way down the list of power hungry apps (the screen is the biggest drain, followed by bluetooth)

          1. Jim Birch

            Re: What do all these things do?

            My battery life has improved radically over the last few renditions of Android. I'm pleased.

            ymmv.

        3. really_adf

          Re: What do all these things do?

          > 387 [services] in Play Services alone?

          Services in Android may not be what you think; I expect it's more accurately viewed as 387 different API calls. (Still a surprising number IMHO, but far less so.)

          An Android app could implement any number of services, all running in the same thread, but starting a new one for some potentially blocking or otherwise long-running task.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: I'll believe the battery story ...

      If you've rooted your phone then you can probably get rid of everything other than Google Play Services. Then I don't think the number of services is particularly relevant. What matters is how many services are currently active and Android 7 certainly keeps this number lower than Android 6, though as others have noted, this comes with the occasional cost in performance for some apps such as K9.

  3. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Meh

    We will limit your apps doing stuff in the background

    So ours can bloat even more.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pretty good so far

    Updated a device last night, no major issues, and LDAC is superb and the headline feature (i have some LDAC devices. Good on Sony putting it in aosp along with the 250 other fixes they submitted.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Pretty good so far

      I see why you've posted that AC....

  5. imanidiot Silver badge

    The cynic in me

    The cynic in me reads this mostly as: We are locking down Android even further to make it even less customizable and more like iOS. Because screw our original idea about what android should be.

  6. cb7

    Against my better judgement

    I installed Nougat in my S7 without backing up my phone first. Mainly because I read somewhere I could roll back to Android 6 if need be. Again, against my better judgement I didn't verify if that was true. And on top of that, I'd read some reports that Nougat had battery drain problems...

    Still I went ahead and updated anyway. At 1.2GB it's a big update. It installed fairly quickly and it's been running for a few days now.

    On Marshmallow I'd typically see the battery go from 100% in the morning down to 78% at night. That's with wifi, Bluetooth & data on and only light usage during the day. Most of it the odd call, WhatsApp App on the PC which utilises the App on the phone to work, catching up with news and maybe the odd bit of banking.

    Location is normally off and I have doggedly resisted turning on background location reporting.

    On Nougat, battery life has been similar. Two days ago though, it had dropped to 68% by the end of the day without any discernably different usage which was a bit concerning.

    Yesterday it was back to normal so it's early days yet.

    What was more impressive though was the improvement in power consumption whilst in flight mode.

    Overnight, I tend to put the phone in flight mode. Under Marshmallow, with the charger disconnected when going to sleep, the charge level would drop to 96-98% by the morning.

    Under Nougat, it's showing 100% this morning. And I've used the new ability in Nougat to put a few more apps to sleep when not in use, so will hopefully see a further improvement in battery life.

    It's only taken Google a few years, but it finally feels like they're catching up with Apple in this area...

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Against my better judgement

      Unfortunately apps like K9 Mail have enough problems working under Android 7 already as it breaks the push IMAP connection unless you change some settings. I assume Android O will make things more difficult still.

      Whether Google would want to fix this is another question. They'd be happy if everyone used gapps.

  7. jason 7

    Amazing wow Boy oh Boy Incredible Orgasmic...

    Every time they bring out a new Android OS the Android press go apeshit crazy on all fours stating that this version will fix all the issues that the previous versions had and increase performance and battery power like never before. You'd think Elvis was making a comeback.

    The reality is you finally get it installed and...meh.

    Meet the new OS...same as the old OS.

    I am a Android user that thinks new Android releases should be treated with far more cynicism than fappage.

    1. Bloodbeastterror

      Re: Amazing wow Boy oh Boy Incredible Orgasmic...

      I said pretty much this in an online specialist Nexus (Android) forum and was firehosed. There are a few differences between versions 4 (Kitkat) and 7 (Nougat), but let's face it, it's a phone/communications/entertainment console. There are only so many enhancements that you can make once you've nailed the core functions.

      1. jason 7

        Re: Amazing wow Boy oh Boy Incredible Orgasmic...

        Yeah it's really sad that some folks seem to live just for this stuff.

        The thing that I get attacked for most is when I say if you want better battery life then just use your phone like a phone, quit obsessing over it. Don't load it up with tons of apps you don't use. Don't bother rooting and putting on custom roms every day. Less is more.

        A lot of folks just can't handle the truth that it's not 2010 and most of the constant fiddling they do isn't required any more and in actual fact has a negative effect.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Amazing wow Boy oh Boy Incredible Orgasmic...

      This article hardly reads like a eulogy for the new release.

      The last three major Android releases have, by and large, focussed on getting more out of the hardware and while adding some more or less new features: NFC, multi-window, better power management. They have also been improving release management and incorporating stuff in AOSP from other sources. All pretty reasonable if you ask me.

      1. jason 7

        Re: Amazing wow Boy oh Boy Incredible Orgasmic...

        ...yeah like the past several releases.....

        You could really do a Android Sucks talk like the Linux ones and it would be broadly the same.

        Same shit still not working properly or only slightly better year after year.

  8. TheVoodooRay

    It would be great if they'd fix this battery bug on the Nexus 6p... https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=227849

  9. IsJustabloke
    Paris Hilton

    Sony phones...

    I've never quite understood why Sony can make a phone that will last the thick end of 1.5 days and yet no one else seems to be able to.

    I don't limit my use, I don't limit what apps are doing.. I send texts, read web pages, use "social media" I make phone calls, I play games and I get 1.5 days if use. out of the Box... no shenanigans at all and further more I'm talking about an Xperia Z1 here so they've been able to do it for quite some time.

    why can't other manufacturers do it?

    1. jason 7

      Re: Sony phones...

      As I mentioned earlier if you use your phone like an adult or normal socially functioning human being most phones will do it too.

      I can get over two days to almost three out of my LG G4 if I just use it as a phone, texting and occasional email/IM/browsing device.

      Not difficult at all.

      1. IsJustabloke
        Meh

        Re: Sony phones...

        My point is that I don't "just use it as a phone, texting and occasional email/IM/browsing device". I do all the other (presumably less adult) things as well and still get well over a full days use.

        No other phone seems to be capable of that.

        1. jason 7

          Re: Sony phones...

          My point is that they are not primarily designed as Nintendo Gameboys/DS.

          And as mentioned the dumb thin phone fad is not helping at all.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sony phones...

      "I've never quite understood why Sony can make a phone that will last the thick end of 1.5 days and yet no one else seems to be able to."

      Part of the problem is everyone has been competing for the "my phone is thinner than yours" title and tuhs have been paring down the battery size. I've got a Moto Z Play where having played the "look how thin" card on the top of the range Moto Z they brought out they dropped the specs slightly (slower processor, "only HD" screen) and added a big battery bloating it to ~8mm thickness (the camera lens sticks out another mm or so - but added thickness allows space for a headphone socket!) and I rarely get down to even 60% battery in a day ... in fact one day I saw it had only 30% charge at end of day and went to battery stats to see what had used all the power to discover that I'd forgotten to charge it the previous night. Having moved from an Nexus5 which, after 3 years, was struggling to manage a day without a top up at some point its now been a revelation to have a phone where I basically don't need to consider battery levels (assuming I remember to put it on charge at least every other day!)

  10. biscuit
    Pint

    Will WifiAwaer let me use WhatsApp Web without having to properly tether my laptop to my phone?

    1. DaLo

      Probably not but it is an api for apps, so it is up to WhatsApp how they implement it.

  11. Charles 9

    If Android would just include an internal backup mechanism, then my biggest reason to root would disappear. Why doesn't Android come with a utility so basic even Windows comes with one now?

    PS. While they HAVE done KitKat, Oreo is a from a different company (Nabisco vs. Hershey) which would mean a different license agreement.

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