10 ms·

Android Oreo

• BinaryIdiot 9y ago
  This seemed like the best choice in name and yet I wonder if they'll draw the same ire from the community as they did when choosing Kit Kat. Honestly I like it; it was better than basically all the other alternatives.
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  • ngcazz 9y ago
    No, it wasn't :) [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovos_Moles_de_Aveiro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovos_Moles_de_Aveiro
• Freak_NL 9y ago
  A non-generic brand name for their O-release? Did they strike a deal with Nabisco/Cadbury? I can't imagine Google doing this without some form of legal go-ahead from the trademark owner.
  • pervycreeper 9y ago
    Of course. Would be interesting to know what the exact quid pro quo is for deals like this though (who pays whom, and how much, etc.).
    • PascLeRasc 9y ago
      Yeah, I wonder which brand benefits more from this. I would imagine Oreo since there are far more cookie brands than mobile OS's.
      • Grazester 9y ago
        Something tells me no one is paid but Oreo benefits with free advertising for their cookies/biscuits
      • balls187 9y ago
        At first I thought so too, but the brand dilution that is going to happen has to have some negative penalty. Oreo will receive "free" marketing, but now will have to share the name with a version of a mobile OS.
    • peterjlee 9y ago
      When Kitkat came out, they decided it was mutually beneficial and didn't pay each other.
  • davidmichael 9y ago
    They did the same thing wit KitKat.
    • agumonkey 9y ago
      Getting ready for Android Raiders, with doubled security through two fingers fingerprint reader.
      • hendzen 9y ago
        I'm holding out for Android Diet Mountain Dew
  • GauntletWizard 9y ago
    They licensed KitKat as well. Yes, it was an official deal - They even had android themed/branded KitKats that they gave out at launch events.
  • Grazester 9y ago
    KitKat is also trademarked by Hersheys and Google use it. This was of course done in partnership with Hersheys. edit:// a little late with this
    • kuschku 9y ago
      Actually, KitKat is trademarked by Nestlé. Hersheys has a limited license to produce it in the US, and the ad campaign for Android was done with Nestlé. (And the Nestlé version actually uses real swiss chocolate, and tastes a lot nicer)
  • addicted 9y ago
    Fairly obviously a licensing/marketing deal. "The world's favorite cookie" right in the first caption. Almost subliminal images of Oreos in the background as you scroll.
  • puzzle 9y ago
    They did, of course. Little known fact: Google is one of the largest tenants in Chelsea Market, which used to be the factory were Oreos were first made.
  • agumonkey 9y ago
    I wonder who paid who..
    • dharma1 9y ago
      And in cookies or dollars
  • pawelk 9y ago
    In case of 4.4 KitKat it was the idea of Nestle's advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson [0]. It was novel at the time, and it as more than just jumping on the letter "K", because it tied the "have a break, have a kitkat" line with the idea that people reach for their smartphones when they have a break. Now I imagine it's just people in suits negotiating the deal for the next release name. [0] https://jwt.co.uk/work/android https://jwt.co.uk/work/android Disclosure: I have worked for a JWT subsidiary at the time.
    • kllrnohj 9y ago
      I think you're overselling JWT's involvement. That link just says that the brokered the deal, not that it was their idea. All the stories I've heard[1] say the idea came from Google as Hiroshi Lockheimer (now head of Android & Chrome OS) was a big fan of KitKats. 1: https://www.theverge.com/2013/9/3/4691040/android-kitkat-the-story-behind-a-delicious-partnership https://www.theverge.com/2013/9/3/4691040/android-kitkat-the...
  • stephengillie 9y ago
    Well, Google/Alphabet are an advertising company.
• wyldfire 9y ago
  > Android Oreo helps minimize background activity in the apps you use least, it's the super power you can't even see. I'm looking forward to this. It seemed to me in the switch from iOS to Android that the battery life definitely suffered. I wish the Samsung Galaxy's "ultra power saver mode" was available in more devices. The "battery saver mode" in my current Android phone is decent but doesn't seem as effective. > Integrated printing support > Compatible with all Mopria-certified printers, which make up 97% of printers sold worldwide. Gee, I've never heard of "Mopria" but this sounds interesting.
  • taurath 9y ago
    >Gee, I've never heard of "Mopria" but this sounds interesting. 97% of printers sold now - the initiative happened in 2014, and I assume that it took manufacturers a few years to ramp. So probably don't expect it to work with your 5 year old all-in-one.
    • metalliqaz 9y ago
      If it supports prior services like Google cloud print, perhaps even uncertified printers could work
      • kllrnohj 9y ago
        Cloud print has been supported since KitKat, you just need to install the driver (sorry, "print plugin"): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.cloudprint https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
        • metalliqaz 9y ago
          Yeah, I meant the printer, not the phone/tablet.
• ghughes 9y ago
  The awful scroll hijacking implementation on this page really distracts from the content.
  • BinaryIdiot 9y ago
    Yeah I tried scrolling down to see if it had any information regarding how or when this update would be released to their own phones and the scroll was just all over the place. I really wish everyone would stop hijacking scrolling.
    • keepkalm 9y ago
      I guess it is pretty common for sites with parallax. It's pretty damn annoying.
    • zamalek 9y ago
      Enroll in the beta to get the release version (on Pixel).
      • BinaryIdiot 9y ago
        Thanks; it took way too long to figure out this was the path (maybe the release version is rolling out soon? I see zero indication anywhere).
  • pwg 9y ago
    Browsing with NoScript in default deny JS mode, I just had to turn of style sheets to be able to read the whole article, unimpeded by any scroll hijacking.
    • tombrossman 9y ago
      NoScript definitely improves most sites, but scroll can be hijacked with CSS alone: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/scroll-behavior 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.
• mdlowman 9y ago
  Quite excited by the "high-performance audio API". Could drive a different consumer segment.
• pc2g4d 9y ago
  Seems like the most notable part of this release will be the emoji upgrade :-P Rustaceans will appreciate the crab
  • miguelrochefort 9y ago
    The crab is a must.
• klondike_ 9y ago
  Project Treble is the most important thing in this release >The biggest change to the foundations of Android to date: a modular architecture that makes it easier and faster for hardware makers to deliver Android updates. With any luck, this will end the huge security/update problem Android has. Right now an update is dependent on the chip manufacturer's drivers, then the OEM adding them to the ROM with their custom "improvements", and finally the carrier pushing the update to devices. Right now it just takes one break in the link and a device goes without updates, which is a security disaster. If Google can push updates from the Play Store (presumably the end goal of Treble), none of this will be a problem.
  • metalliqaz 9y ago
    God, this can't come soon enough. It's awful out there. Even manufacturers that promise updates don't come through (ahem, HTC, ahem). Verizon especially makes it miserable. Ah, but who am I kidding, I'm sure Verizon will still find a way to ruin it.
    • dnzm 9y ago
      And even then, in the US HTC rolled out a recent update for the HTC 10, while we're still on the January patches in the EU (and the rest of the world).
  • maxsilver 9y ago
    Or even if just gets the chip manufacturers out of the equation, that alone fixes most of the problems. The OEM side is usually pretty easy / trivial in comparison. And there are a number of OEMs who would happily push updates but can't, because they can't get hardware packages from Qualcomm / Amlogic / Freescale / etc. That, more than anything else, holds back new Android releases on lots of hardware.
    • Karunamon 9y ago
      Supposedly the carriers are real pains as well. I've heard horror stories of months-long approvals processes on Verizon and AT&T ROMs. It's a game I wish they'd get out of entirely. There's no such thing as a useful carrier overlay.
• edraferi 9y ago
  > Native C/C++ API for high-performance audio. API function for high-performance audio including Native C/C++ audio API. I wonder if this will be good enough to close the gap with the rich music creation ecosystem on iOS.
  • ciaranconnor 9y ago
    I sure hope so. Google has been a gold-level sponsor the last couple of years at the JUCE Summit/Audio Developer Conference with a motivation to push developers in the direction of the Android NDK. It's good they acknowledge they are behind it that regard, but there's still a fair amount of catching up to do considering there's now AUv3 on iOS and no competing standard on Android yet.
  • metalliqaz 9y ago
    The lack of momentum will awfully hard to overcome.
• fenwick67 9y ago
  "new emoji" is an OS-level feature now. Welcome to 2017.
  • chaz 9y ago
    For a lot of people, new emoji are a great reason to upgrade and not miss out. Apple's been training customers to do this for years.
  • lotyrin 9y ago
    Well, there was a lot of distaste for the previous style, it's a pretty notable difference to users. (For the record, I liked the original "blobs" and will miss them.)
    • pcurve 9y ago
      I didn't think I'd miss the blobs until I saw these new ones. The new ones are embarrassingly bad. Maybe it's just me, but I feel Koreans and Japanese do much better emojis.
    • ehsankia 9y ago
      I'm fairly sure anyone who has actually had a proper look at the new emojis much prefers the old ones. And I'm not talking just about the blobs (which were only a small fraction of the emojis), but rather the overall style with the gradient and border, and the drawing for the animal emojis too.
  • dragonwriter 9y ago
    > "new emoji" is an OS-level feature now. System fonts have been an OS-level feature since the advent of OS with bundled GUI. Support of a larger part of the Unicode space in system fonts has been an OS-level feature since Unicode. New emoji has been a visible aspect of that, especially on mobile, for quite some time.
    • euyyn 9y ago
      Why is it tied to the OS version, though? I would (naively) think it's a matter of just sending the new font as an OTA update?
• adamjmi 9y ago
  I don't like the product placement in the release name.
  • whipoodle 9y ago
    I think this is not the first time...
    • quickthrower2 9y ago
      Have a break.
  • s17n 9y ago
    If by "product placement" you mean that Nabisco paid Google for this, I doubt that is the case. If anything, the money would have gone the other way.
    • bch 9y ago
      I see there seems to be a dearth of common, easy o-names, but is the name that valuable, and they refused to punt to "orange _______"?
• randyrand 9y ago
  Why on earth did they go with a restricted trademark, Oreo? Oreo must have payed a good sum of money I suppose? Coming up with the legalese on how and where Google is allowed to use the Oreo trademark seems difficult.
  • tuxracer 9y ago
    https://www.android.com/versions/kit-kat-4-4/ https://www.android.com/versions/kit-kat-4-4/
  • dsp1234 9y ago
    Does INTERCONTINENTAL GREAT BRANDS LLC have a trademark for Oreo in the "computer and scientific" or telecommunications categories? If not, then there is no trademark issue. Google isn't selling a food, it's selling an operating system.
    • hsjoberg 9y ago
      Are they really selling an OS? It's free right? They sell something else with android but can't figure out what...
      • comstock 9y ago
        I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not sorry. Android is in itself a loss making project. It makes money as a marketing vehicle for other Google products (and therefore ultimately advertising).
    • IkmoIkmo 9y ago
      Only they're marketing it with oreo cookie mascot, look at all the material. I highly doubt you can just do that. It's the same with kit kat, they probably couldn't just use that, either. But it's a win-win for both parties, I doubt either of them paid.
      • randyrand 9y ago
        It seems like unnecessary legal risk for Google, and probably restricts how they can market it.
• zecken 9y ago
  A lot of people complaining about using a brand name here -- isn't Kitkat (the 'K' release) also trademarked?
  • hansjorg 9y ago
    That was a cross promotion, this probably is as well. Google is an ad company.
    • orblivion 9y ago
      Nabisco for one, Nestlé for the other, it looks like. I wonder if there's tension there.
    • basseq 9y ago
      Yes, Oreo is trademarked, and Google has licensed it from Nabisco. http://www.androidauthority.com/android-8-0-oreo-announced-794621/ http://www.androidauthority.com/android-8-0-oreo-announced-7...
• abol3z 9y ago
  Finally Android will stop Facebook apps from sucking my RAM secretly!
  • metalliqaz 9y ago
    I've found a fantastic solution that works on any phone! Uninstall facebook and facebook messenger. Then use Chrome and facebook's mobile site. Life changer, man.
    • kevincox 9y ago
      I haven't had much problem with FB Messenger, and it's app is more useful then the mobile site. However the main app is a total dog and the mobile site is quite complete. Would definitely remove it.
    • vetinari 9y ago
      But then you will not know, what to do with all that extra battery life!
• jampa 9y ago
  I know this is a non-issue for many, but those emojis look really dated. Every update they get harder and harder to read in small form. One of the things I observe, mainly on Instagram Stories is only people with iOS post with emojis attached, I never see Android ones. Too bad there is no way to install custom emojis in any system (without rooting/registry tweaking), like we do with fonts.
  • amiga-workbench 9y ago
    The yellow blobs were adorable, and sidestepped all the identity politics guff associated with the more anthropomorphised styles.
    • curlie 9y ago
      I like them too. Was disappointed to see the latest ones.
  • saghm 9y ago
    Personally, I find it kind of ridiculous that new emojis are considered flagship features of mobile OS updates. I'd think that it would be possible to decouple emoji updates from kernel/security updates, so I imagine that Android/iOS tie them to the OS updates solely as a way to motivate non-technical users to update.
    • cakedoggie 9y ago
      Mobile OS's aren't just for grumpy old people.
      • saghm 9y ago
        I'm younger than emojis themselves, to be perfectly honest, but I hardly think that an (incorrect) ad hominem makes my point any less valid.
        • supercoder 9y ago
• MitjaBezensek 9y ago
  "Coming to a device near you" Yeah, but not on my device. I didn't even get Android 7 :)
  • majewsky 9y ago
    It says "a device near you", not "your device". ;)
    • leojg 9y ago
      Isn't his device the nearest near device to him?
      • loa_in_ 9y ago
        Doesn't say "nearest" either. Just near.
      • pritambaral 9y ago
        Technically, "a device near you" != "the device nearest to you".
    • MitjaBezensek 9y ago
      Which is exactly what I said.
• dcow 9y ago
  Am I the only one who's really disappointed by the platform's shift in its stance on background execution? I was originally drawn to Android because it wasn't iOS. I wanted to develop on a platform where I could run a service in the background if the user wanted that. Apps that were bad stewards of battery life and phone resources were supposed to be scrutinized by users and removed if they were too poor. You can be a good steward, it's just harder especially when your monolithic app is an uninformed port of some legacy iOS code. By issuing a hard restriction on background usage Google has brilliantly improved battery life for the masses while condonig the same lazy architectural patterns of the past, locked people into Firebase Cloud Messaging--a Google service not part of the AOSP, and potentially stunted Android adoption in domains outside of mobile. It's the turning of an era for Android, and my interests have moved elsewhere (from an app platform perspective, embedded Android is still vialble since everything you ship runs as a system app with no restrictions).
  • tree_of_item 9y ago
    Elsewhere to what? What are you gonna do, run Windows Mobile?
    • dcow 9y ago
      I like native app development because it's not a browser. Android was the most honest manifestation of that on mobile (iOS is basically a "client OS"). I look towards domains where people are still putting powerful applications on connected hardware. Mobile is starting to look like a commodity web experience with half the history of JS, so why not just use that?
      • dcow 9y ago
        Point being the delta between what a native app and what a browser app can do has all but disappeared. BT and Graphics are the last few notable things and both will be supported by browsers soon (webgl already is and webbt is incoming). I'm not saying go use JS.. I very much do not enjoy it. Im asking why we need to build native when there's increasingly less to justify the overhead.
• pjmlp 9y ago
  Not on my LG and Asus devices, no sir. And I don't believe OEMs and telecom operators will release updates even with Treble, if Google doesn't force them to do so.
• 0x00000000 9y ago
  Android has really been annoying me lately. Maybe I didn't care before but now that I can't root my phone I am forced to deal with it. Still can't disable or customize to stupid "share" menu that puts you one click away from accidentally sending something to a stranger you contacted once on sms or facebook messenger or email. Still can't revoke certain permissions from apps (like vibration). There is zero reason why my browser should need to ever vibrate or use the accelerometer/gyro. Still no good system wide ad blocking solution. (not likely, but one of the biggest things I miss from having a rooted phone) How about those superpowers, Google? I have been an Android user since 2010 but I am quite sure my next phone will be an iPhone (with a headphone jack).
  • nfriedly 9y ago
    > zero reason why my browser should need to ever [...] use the accelerometer/gyro It might not be a good reason, but I made a game a while back that used tilt input instead of arrow keys on mobile: http://nfriedly.github.io/space-jump/ http://nfriedly.github.io/space-jump/
    • nomel 9y ago
      A bit related, do ad companies use the tilt/gyro to guess if someone is actually looking at the video? It seems they could adjust payout based on if there was an actual view, or at least get some metrics on which ads people actually pay attention to.
      • nfriedly 9y ago
        Not sure.. it wouldn't surprise me though.
  • Nullabillity 9y ago
    > Maybe I didn't care before but now that I can't root my phone I am forced to deal with it. Why not?
    • devopsproject 9y ago
• pjmlp 9y ago
  >Google Play Protect: > Working to keep your device and data safe from misbehaving apps by scanning over 50 billion apps per day, even the ones you haven't installed yet! Also known as anti-virus.
  • ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    Google has rebranded viruses as "PHAs" or "potentially-harmful applications". They don't want anyone to know that Android devices get viruses. ;)
    • bitmapbrother 9y ago
      That's because there aren't any. There's a reason they're called viruses on PC's. Perhaps you should look up what it means.
      • dang 9y ago
        That's uncivil, and so was https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15067992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15067992. Incivility will get your account banned on HN, so would you please (re)-read the following and not post like this again? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  • kevincox 9y ago
    Yeah, also known as a feature that has been around for years but now is being shoved in my face whithout providing any additonal benifit. (I guess I am supposed to feel safer?)
  • Artemis2 9y ago
    https://www.android.com/security-center/ https://www.android.com/security-center/ This page says 8 billion a day, which seems inconsistent. Also how many apps are there on the Play Store to scan that many?
    • Sylos 9y ago
• josu 9y ago
  So according to the release the new features are: -Picture in picture (dual app onscreen) -Notification dots and "force-touch-like-feature" (my words, not Google's) to preview -Google Play Protect (an antivirus) [0] -Minimize unintentional overuse of battery from apps in the background -Faster boot speed -Support forAndroid Instant Apps -Over 60 new emoji (sic) Under the hood stuff, not in the release (thanks u/izakus) - Project Treble that splits hardware HAL layer away from the OS layer. Plan being that this allows updating the OS without having to update the whole hardware driver stack (and thus avoid being dependant on Qualcomms of the world to update their proprietary blobs for each release) - GPU drivers are now updatable via Play Store (by OEMs) More new features listed on the main Oreo page [2]: -Accessibility button: Allows you to quickly access from the navigation bar accessibility features, like magnification, and functionality within accessibility services, like Select to Speak. -Accessibility volume: Accessibility services can optimize the audio experience for users with disabilities. -Adaptive icons: Developers can now provide a full-bleed square shaped icon and OEMs will mask the icon to ensure intra-device consistency. -Ambient screen: Highlights the incoming notification with larger font, highlighted app name and immediate access to actions. -Background execution limits: More control over how apps run in the background for better overall system performance. -Background location limits: Limits the frequency of location updates in the background for better overall system health. -Deep color: Enables applications to render richer visual content with more vibrant colors and subtler gradients. Supports full color management which allows applications to render images in the format and quality they were intended. -Downloadable fonts: Applications no longer need to bundle custom fonts, which helps reduce their size. -Install unknown apps: Hostile downloader apps can't operate without permission; users now permit the installation of APKs per-source. -Integrated printing support: Compatible with all Mopria-certified printers, which make up 97% of printers sold worldwide. -Linkable files: API that allows you to share files across the Internet via web links. -Native C/C++ API for high-performance audio: API function for high-performance audio including Native C/C++ audio API. -Notification categories: More granular and consistent control over which notifications can appear and how intrusive they are. -Notification snoozing: Lets users hide notifications for a period of time, similar to Inbox snoozing. -Pointer capture: Pointer capture allows the app to capture all mouse input. -Project Treble: The biggest change to the foundations of Android to date: a modular architecture that makes it easier and faster for hardware makers to deliver Android updates. -TextView autosizing: Developers can now let the size of their text expand or contract automatically based on the size and characteristics of the TextView, making it much easier to optimize the text size on different screens or with dynamic content. -Tooltips: Support for tooltips (small popup windows with descriptive text) for views and menu items. -Wi-Fi Assistant: Auto-connects you to high quality open WiFi and secures your connection with a VPN back to Google. [0] https://www.android.com/play-protect/ https://www.android.com/play-protect/ [1] https://developer.android.com/topic/instant-apps/index.html https://developer.android.com/topic/instant-apps/index.html [2] https://www.android.com/versions/oreo-8-0/ https://www.android.com/versions/oreo-8-0/
• timothycrosley 9y ago
  All these releases are meh... I'm waiting for the Reese's release to bite
• hughes 9y ago
  Really sad about the loss of the blob emojis. Will probably have to root my phone to use a third party emoji switcher app to preserve them.
  • eitally 9y ago
    And it's not that the new emojis are all necessarily bad. My issue is confusion over what the recipient will see when I select one of the new emojis. I'm still not 100% clear on the emoji set mapping between OEMs/OSes. :-/
    • euyyn 9y ago
      Isn't that one of the points of the new emojis, though? That unlike the previous ones, they're compatible with what other systems use.
      • JetSpiegel 9y ago
        If emoji are in Unicode, why can't I choose how to represent then? Isn't that the job of the font? If you want total control over what the recipient sees, send an image. It would be like if a webpage requested Helvetica and you are using Linux the text simply wouldn't render.
        • euyyn 9y ago
          > 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?
          • JetSpiegel 9y ago
            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 different image.
• amrrs 9y ago
  Has Google ever released a report on how much time it takes an average flagship device to get the latest android version? Even if you've paid $$$$ in getting Samsung Galaxy S8 just recently, you're not going to get Android O tomorrow morning. But that's definitely the case with iOS. That makes a huge difference in the world where Software updates play a huge role in performance and functionality than hardware update (read. Image processing vs 13Mp to 16Mp camera) Google hasn't been successful in that.
  • zitterbewegung 9y ago
    Vertical integration has its advantages. Also, due to people buying new phones every 6 months those seem to be the two things that disincentivze Android phone makers to not do those things.
    • bluGill 9y ago
      You can change that: don't buy a new phone every six months, and buy from a maker that supports your phone longer. Maybe you cannot get the latest, but when you support the companies that support their phones for more than a few months you support that business model which in turn ensures that someone who updates their phones exists. You might have to leave the major names behind, and might have to skip a few features. Do you need the latest and greatest anymore though? When Android was new (2008) CPUs were much slower and upgrades did help your experience. (I remember missing calls because my phone couldn't switch to the phone app quick enough).
      • LeifCarrotson 9y ago
        > You can change that: don't buy a new phone every six months, and buy from a maker that supports your phone longer. I cannot change that. The ~5,000 I have spent on smartphones and laptops in the past 10 years is hardly enough. My buying choice, yours, and the GP's are just not strong and valuable enough to cause a manufacturer to pander to our desires. The economies of scale and the greater money available from the opposite are so bad that no one even makes an expensive phone to capture our tiny segment of the market. They all chase the thinner, glued-up, bloatware-filled, non-repairable, closed-source, 2-year-or-less buyers. Same story on laptops. In fact, my purchases seem to have the opposite effect: the Nexus is now as expensive as any other flagship. Motorola's cheap stock Android phone line shut down. LG stopped installing removable batteries. MacBook Pros still have nice hardware, but they are completely glued up. Thinkpads still have crappy stock screens.
• thinbeige 9y ago
  Nice Marketing coop for an OS where 50% of devices won't get updates. I don't get it. They bring frequent major updates with such important features like 60 new emijis or antivirus software instead of just doing their homework and implementing the number one feature for an OS: Direct OS updates from the OS vendor and nobody else. Don't tell me it's a problem and the driver situation is so difficult. This is just a bad excuse. They want to keep people buying new Android phones.
  • widdma 9y ago
    This release introduces Project Treble with the goal, I believe, of fixing this exactly this problem.
    • thinbeige 9y ago
      I don't think it will solve the problem because they still want the hardware makes to distribute updates.
  • dingo_bat 9y ago
    Don't think of Android as windows. Think of it as Debian and Samsung and others releasing Linux mint or Ubuntu. Obviously Debian updates will take time to trickle through.
• sarnowski 9y ago
  Wondering if the following feature is enabled by default: "Wi-Fi Assistant Auto-connects you to high quality open WiFi and secures your connection with a VPN back to Google." I really do not want to tunnel my whole traffic through Google's servers.
  • DiabloD3 9y ago
    It's already available on older Androids (my stock Android 6 Nexus 5 has it). It asks to enable it on a per Wifi basis, if it detects any traffic is being mitm mangled, and you have to agree to enabling it for that Wifi.
  • kevincox 9y ago
    I don't know if it is on by default but if enabled it will connect to "High Quality" open networks. If it does this it connects the VPN. So the VPN is "required" by this feature but you can turn it off globally, or manually connect to networks where you don't want to use the VPN.
    • nomel 9y ago
      Doesn't this violate the computer fraud and abuse act, for unauthorized accessing to a networks without permission? More specifically, piggybacking [1]? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_piggybacking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_piggybacking
• jiqiren 9y ago
  I'm looking forward to Google finally allowing PiP to work in the YouTube app on iOS...
  • digi_owl 9y ago
    Say hello to the MAFIAA...
• yread 9y ago
  Would be nice if they added a switch to disable connecting to open wifi networks. Or at least to realize that the wifi is connected but its waiting for a sign in so internet traffic should still be routed through 4g.
  • maggit 9y ago
    My Android 7 device is pretty good with realizing when the wifi doesn't actually give Internet access, and it then routes data through the 4g/mobile connection instead. Nexus 6, stock Android 7.1.1.
    • dingo_bat 9y ago
      Yup this has been the case since KitKat.
      • yread 9y ago
        That's great it works for you. I have to stare at "Could not connect to server", wifi icon with a cross and a notification asking me to sign in to some telco's hotspot. Only thing that gets me back online is switching the wifi off
        • dingo_bat 9y ago
          Do you have this enabled? http://imgur.com/a/LAjDL http://imgur.com/a/LAjDL
  • digi_owl 9y ago
    Used to be that Android distinguished between connected wifi and a internet connection by trying to reach a Google server or something. At least my 4.x tablet used to have a 3-state wifi icon, off (not present), connected (gray), internet (blue).
    • i_cant_speel 9y ago
      I would love to have something like this. When I call an Uber/Lyft as I am walking out of my apartment, it always takes forever for the WiFi to disconnect, long after it has lost internet connection. So I constantly get the "Unable to Connect to Network" error, and I have to turn off WiFi and restart the app to actually call a ride. If anyone knows of a solution to this problem on a Galaxy S8 I would love to hear it.
• dcomp 9y ago
  The most interesting part is the way they are planning on tackling fragmentation in O onwards with Project Treble [0] If your device ships with O it should be running an immutable semantically versioned HAL. In essence you should be able to be able to flash AOSP on every new device. No matter what the vendor does. Edit: I can see it now, in the technical specs of each device you will see a list of HAL Versions. The newer your HAL the longer you can expect support from AOSP if not your vendor. [0] http://androidbackstage.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/episode-75-project-treble-for-hal-of-it.html http://androidbackstage.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/episode-75-pr...
  • pedrocr 9y ago
    So you'll still be vulnerable to kernel bugs but most everything else will get regular updates? A bit better I suppose.
    • kbenson 9y ago
      I think the idea is that you can update the HAL portion as well, and the system on top of it can be verified to have not problems with that HAL independently (and you can wait for that or or just update the HAL as available if you think it's important enough). Since it's semantically versioned, you can theoretically have fairly high assurance of what updates might cause problems and what should purely fix a bug that doesn't affect normal functionality.
    • deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    • on_and_off 9y ago
      Actually it also helps for this. O standardize how HAL interfaces between the framework and the low level vendor implementation. So you can update either, as long as the interface contract is respected, it should be transparent. It is of course more work for Google since the framework will need to keep supporting old version of this interface but that's a necessary evolution.
  • pishpash 9y ago
• baitbiter 9y ago
  For people complaining they cant get this, it's their own fault. People keep buying carrier phones knowing fully well the problems with locked, bloated androids. Either just buy unlocked phones that you can control or face the consequences.
• thinbeige 9y ago
  > that makes it easier and faster for hardware makers to deliver Android updates. They still don't get it. Google as the OS vendor should update all phones and NOT the hardware makers. Hardware manufacturers can still update their special features on the side after an OS update got deployed but I want that the OS and its core become updates directly and only from Google. Why is this so hard?
  • ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    Google doesn't want to bear the cost of testing and releasing updates for all of the hardware. Most Android manufacturers barely manage to break even (or outright lose money) trying to sell and support Android hardware. (Samsung makes money, most others don't.) Blaming the OEMs for your security issues is free.
    • thinbeige 9y ago
      I don't think that MS tests all hardware when updating Windows. Sometimes some hardware doesn't work after an Windows update and then you just head to the respective hardware manufacturer and try to get updated drivers. This model could work for phones too. Google updates and maybe my S8's camera is not working anymore but at least we have secure and patched phones. And the good thing is: Samsung has to quickly fix the broken camera, so you create a totally different urgency. But Android is an odd OS, we will never see a proper update policy from them.
      • ocdtrekkie 9y ago
        It depends what we're talking about. Specifically with ARM processors, it isn't trivial to add drivers separate from your OS deployment. Microsoft DOES work with (and update) third party hardware directly for Windows 10 Mobile devices. And this is true for their third party phones from HP, Acer, etc. as well. (Note, I have a Windows Mobile device from 2014, and I still receive the latest security fix on Patch Tuesday around 1 PM, every month.)
        • 9y ago
• rdsubhas 9y ago
  Not saying that everything else is bad, but one thing that strikes me is how much they have run out of interesting things now that they had to use fillers[1] like: Tooltips Support for tooltips (small popup windows with descriptive text) for views and menu items. Normally, this would be relegated to a git changelog in the support library. But this is on the global marketing landing page. I like to imagine a fictional internal mail thread going like this: > Folks! please, give us something, anything, to put on the landing page! > Someone replies duh, maybe tooltips > What's a tooltip? > uhh, small popup windows with descriptive text > What's a popup? > uhh... > Nevermind, its on! Obligatory /s and yeah its Google, but seriously I can't imagine any other circumstances on how this specific copy, which tries to explain what a "tooltip" is by using the words "popup", "view" and "menu item", came up. This could be a good sign though, of the maturity of the platform (and harder to feel left out if you didn't upgrade). 1: https://www.android.com/versions/oreo-8-0/ https://www.android.com/versions/oreo-8-0/
  • rdsubhas 9y ago
    (for some reason my comment got double posted, pls ignore this dupe, other comment is somewhere on top)
• jorgemf 9y ago
  Instant Apps: I think this can impact very positively the environment but there are almost not mentions to it.
  • dingo_bat 9y ago
    Environment? How so?
    • jorgemf 9y ago
      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.
      • dingo_bat 9y ago
        Ok I get that you don't need to install all apps. But again, how does it affect the environment?
        • jorgemf 9y ago
          that you don't have to install apps to use them? Like you go to a web page and can have native experience, with its animations and everything. Much better than a web experience.
• rdsubhas 9y ago
  Not saying that everything else is bad, but one thing that strikes me is how much they have run out of interesting things now that they had to use fillers[1] like: Tooltips Support for tooltips (small popup windows with descriptive text) for views and menu items. Normally, this would be relegated to a git changelog in the support library. But this is on the global marketing landing page. I like to imagine a fictional internal mail thread going like this: > Folks! please, give us something, anything, to put on the landing page! > Someone replies duh, maybe tooltips > What's a tooltip? > uhh, small popup windows with descriptive text > What's a popup window? > uhh... > Nevermind, its on! Obligatory /s and yeah its Google, but seriously I can't imagine any other circumstances on how this specific copy, which tries to explain what a "tooltip" is by using the words "popup window", "view" and "menu item", came up. This could be a good sign though, of the maturity of the platform (and harder to feel left out if you didn't upgrade). 1: https://www.android.com/versions/oreo-8-0/ https://www.android.com/versions/oreo-8-0/
  • moneymakersucks 9y ago
    Honestly, I prefer this over the popular alternative of making UX changes for the sake of adding something new.
    • bichiliad 9y ago
      I'd probably give most places the benefit of the doubt — companies will rarely make UX or UI changes just because. There's usually a problem they are aiming to solve, and the solution they choose is some sort of interaction. Is it always the right answer? That's up to the users.
      • jakub_g 9y ago
        Raymond Chen (core Windows engineer) once explained in his book that some UI changes are near-mandatory (at least for paid product) for most people to feel that the upgrade is/was worth it. Say the engineers have done massive internal performance and stability improvements, better filesystem and what not; but those things are almost invisible to regular users. Most users want something more tangible, otherwise they will have hard time to justify spending few hundred bucks as they will feel "it's the same as before, I see no difference". It's also (my theory) a bit of identity thing. All big companies slightly tweak their logo (even if it's just changing or removing shadow thickness) every decade or so that it feels fresh. The same applies to UI of applications and OSes.
• komali2 9y ago
  Going to take advantage of an Android thread here to ask something that has driven me crazy for ~3 years: How do I disable "pop-down" notifications? i.e. facebook messenger, on receiving a message, drops down a little message box from the top with that message. It stays there for about 2 seconds and then disappears... unless further messages in that chat appears. The only way I can disable this is by muting that chat, which is not ideal. Same for Hangouts and other messaging apps. It drives me insane.
  • lazybreather 9y ago
    You can disable app notifications from phone settings. But that's the extreme case.
  • sebojanko 9y ago
    In the Notifications settings, you can adjust every app's notification settings and disable this.
    • tunap 9y ago
      Not the OP, but my experience is some apps(integrated?) use "android system" for notifications despite the app's notifications being disabled. May be a 'root' issue, but root also makes fixes via terminal or adb viable.
  • zacmps 9y ago
    I'm pretty sure this is called 'peeking'. You can disable it specifically in the power notification controls. Level 2 is (iirc) what you want.
    • zacmps 9y ago
      Level 3 actually.
  • ufmace 9y ago
    Swipe a notification to the side a little bit, and you get a gear icon. Tap that, and you can set that app's max allowed notification importance. You can block all notifications, relegate them to only being visible when you pull down the notification bar, or allow normal icons but not "peeking" notifications.
• mixedCase 9y ago
  Android has been improving so much in the performance department I think the phone that will replace my aging S3 will be... another S3 if I can find one. Seriously. Software has improved so much but the hardware nowadays is trash for my needs at least.
  • renox 9y ago
    Uh? I replaced my S3 by a S7 and the hardware changes are huge: better CPU obviously but also much better screen (the S3 was unreadable during sunny days..)
    • mixedCase 9y ago
      Can you replace the battery with an extended one? That's a deal-breaker for me, and battery cases are not a good replacement since I can't rely on the phone's own battery indicator, have to manually turn on/off and looking at ZeroLemon's case for the S7, it seems to require a headphone extender. As for the S3's screen I have no complaints. It's readable in the sun with max brightness, I keep it at minimum the rest of the time. Finally, the S7's native screen resolution is 1440p, meaning it will munch on battery much faster for no perceptible gain (at the distance I hold my phone). And manually lowering the resolution will render a blurrier image than native 720p so that's out.
      • dingo_bat 9y ago
        I'm using an S7 edge and it's on the default 1080p resolution. It's not blurry at all. The difference in quality between this screen and the screen on S3 is very noticeable. The non removable battery is the only downgrade I see. Everything else is a huge leap forward. Even battery life is much much better. You likely would not need an external battery.
        • mixedCase 9y ago
          I'd have to see it for myself. My 4k laptop makes me gouge my eyes out in 1080p mode. As for the battery life you mention, that's probably just the Android upgrade. I've easily doubled my battery life in 3 major Android version upgrades. 10-15 days (depending on usage) is normal now with a 7000mAh battery.
• Asdfbla 9y ago
  I know programming within the constraints of mobile devices isn't easy and I want to take nothing away from the release, but when you are still used to Desktop computing it's kind of funny to see how seemingly trivial nice to have features like picture-in-picture or notification dots get all hyped up in the press release.
  • ehsankia 9y ago
    Does desktop have good PIP? It obviously matters much less when you have multiple monitor, but I'd love to see OS level PIP support on desktop. Aka, have a video "always on top" in the corner that I can move around and resize while browsing the web, all on the same monitor. Some programs have "always on top" support but there's nothing OS level.
    • JetSpiegel 9y ago
      Window Managers like KDE and Gnome have workspaces and window pinning (shown as "Show on all workspaces") for decades. Windows 3.1 was able to have two windows side by side before Android even existed.
    • nickjosephson 9y ago
      macOS has PiP
    • askafriend 9y ago
      Like someone else below mentioned, MacOS has built in native PIP support for videos at the OS level. Browser-wise it only works in Safari though. It's also a little hidden in YouTube's site because YouTube hijacks the first right-click. Try this if you have MacOS and want to see how it works with YouTube: 1. Open Safari 2. Go on YouTube 3. Go to any video 5. Right-click then right-click again immediately 6. Select "Enter picture in picture" It should be available in the right-click menu in the native MacOS video player that most apps build on top of (unless said services hijack the right-click like YouTube). Works well with Netflix, Vimeo, VLC, you name it. It's one of my favorite things.
  • flashman 9y ago
• fosco 9y ago
  I have an HTC One M8 which I purchased in summer/fall of 2015. The phone works great but it makes me sad that I am still on Marshmellow and the phone is no longer supported. lately I have been been wishing there is a way I can just run some version of linux like debian/fedora on my phone and be able to run apt-get update and upgrade (or yum) as updates are released. IIRC it cost $600, and technically it does more than I need, but the fact I am becoming more and more concerned that security updates are not being received is making me call into question I actually want a 'smart' phone. I understand android is based on linux but it is above my head to compile this realease on my own and it is difficult for me to trust rooting the device if there was an option to install oreo on htcone m8 with my 'old' chipset. any thoughts? did I miss any truely 'free' linux smartphone OS that I would be able to use?
  • ytlty 9y ago
    Any consumer concerned with software updates should consider buying Google devices, and not third-party OEMs with shaky history of releasing updates. Your best bet right now would be rooting and flashing newer ROMs, unfortunately.
  • rebelwebmaster 9y ago
    Fellow HTC M8 owner here. I've been running LineageOS for awhile now, and while it hasn't been entirely painless along the way, it's at least running 7.1.2 and has the August security patches. Worth considering, anyway.
  • nfriedly 9y ago
    I also have a One M8; mine is currently rooted and running CyanogenMod. (I keep meaning to update to LineageOS but haven't gotten around to it yet.) Rooting is nice, and I believe it's important from a philosophical standpoint, but I probably won't with my next phone because the features I want are getting built into the OS, and I am missing several apps that just refuse to work when they detect they're running on a rooted phone. (Everything from games to my work email.) It definitely increases the longevity of phon but, while it mostly works, it has lots of little quirks - especially with the various radios. E.g. I occasionally have to re-pair bluetooth devices, wi-fi will disconnect and then re-connect for no apparent reason, etc. Also, sometimes I just find it getting warm in my pocket and I have to reboot it to make it snap out of whatever endless loop it's stuck in. (I assume that updating to LineageOS will fix a few bugs and introduce a few others.) I'm going to replace it with either the next Pixel or the next iPhone when they both get released in a month or two, depending on which one I'm more impressed with. I am going to miss my headphones jack...
• AaronMT 9y ago
  I remember being excited about new Android releases. Boy times have changed.
• koolba 9y ago
  Does Google pay these candy companies to use the name or do they pay Google? There's obviously some contractual relationship but I can't figure out who's on which end of it.
  • TazeTSchnitzel 9y ago
    Would they need to pay them? Cookies and mobile phones are completely different lines of business, right? Though the name is a direct reference to the sweet, so that maybe makes it more complicated.
    • freehunter 9y ago
      Well and they have a picture of the cookie itself on their landing page.
    • zerocrates 9y ago
      Oreo's probably a "famous mark" and therefore qualifies for dilution protection, and this would be pretty in line with what "dilution by blurring" is considered to be. Not that it would come to anything, but there is something there. They made a deal with Nestle/Hershey for KitKat, so I'm sure they did here as well.
  • bitmapbrother 9y ago
    You would think it would be the other way around considering the amount of free advertising Orea is getting from this. Like, in the KitKat release, I doubt there was any financial arrangement.
  • simonsarris 9y ago
    Reminds me of David Foster Wallace's concept of "subsidized time" in Infinite Jest Year of the Whopper Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar Android Heath Bar (TM) Android Pocky (TM) http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/index.php?title=Subsidized_Time http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/ind...
• d0m 9y ago
  "Allows you to see two apps at once, it's like having super strength and laser vision." really
• countryqt30 9y ago
  https://www.schweizerdeutsch-lernen.ch/ https://www.schweizerdeutsch-lernen.ch/
• rglover 9y ago
  As a half-black, half-white man, I find this name incredibly offensive. #halfblacklivesmatter I'll leave it up to you to figure out if I'm serious or not (and yes, I really am mixed so this is plausible).
  • ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
    I think from a certain point of view, "Oreo" could be a great compliment. It is an explicit association with everyone's all time favorite candy snack... (fuck off if it is not yours). Sincerely, The Marketing Manager at Nabisco
    • rglover 9y ago
      So I get to be eaten alive under the pretense of being a delicious snack treat, cool.
• suyash 9y ago
  Too bad most Android devices will never get this update. This is where Android sucks compared to iOS.
• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
• gambiting 9y ago
  Has google forgotten how to do great marketing? You open the page. Scroll down. What should be the first thing you see? Obviously it should be the greatest, the best feature of the new OS. What is it instead? "Quick boot up time". Really? That's the best thing in Android Oreo? That when I reboot my phone once every 4 months, it's going to start quicker? Surely they could have picked literally anything else as the first thing to mention?
• jng 9y ago
  Please use a PNG for the emojis image... it's so painful to see the JPEG halo/bleeding artifacts...
  • krit_dms 9y ago
    How can you send time constructing such a fancy webpage, and not notice that jpeg mess?!
• arstaetro 9y ago
  Don't name Android versions after brands. Now we're stuck with 2 (k,o)
  • vinod_s19 9y ago
    feel the same!
• stefs 9y ago
  Express yourself in more ways than ever: Share the feels with a fully redesigned emoji set, including over 60 new emoji. http://nedroid.com/2014/08/phone-home/ http://nedroid.com/2014/08/phone-home/
• smegel 9y ago
  > Swift moves, behind the scenes Seriously?
• locusm 9y ago
  These scroll to reveal sites have to die now.
• nutbutter 9y ago
  I love doing "Two things at once, at once."
• secfirstmd 9y ago
  "Auto-connects you to high quality open WiFi and secures your connection with a VPN back to Google." Hmmmm. So Google can have even more of your data.
• zgavin1 9y ago
  classic hacker news thread on new tech: i only learned negative things.
• ece 9y ago
  The easter egg is the worst ever.
• Waterluvian 9y ago
  All I want is for my stupid phone to stop annoying me with new features I don't want. Google just now suggested with a notification that I should ask its voice thing a question and try it out. Every time I think I've blocked every $_#&#- thing that annoys me, more show up. As of a week ago I now get these Throw notifications that cannot be dismissed or blocked. I also despise apps that insist on being updated and disallow being uninstalled. These itches are so bad now that I'm pretty disenchanted with Android altogether. I want a no nonsense phone that literally does nothing out of the box except the app store and make phone calls.
  • gregw134 9y ago
    Give me a phone like you describe that also doesn't track you and I'm sold.
    • muninn_ 9y ago
      It's called an iPhone: https://www.apple.com/iphone/ https://www.apple.com/iphone/
      • Waterluvian 9y ago
        Can I uninstall all the apple apps be that come with it?
        • muninn_ 9y ago
          Well, not completely uninstall, but good enough: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204221 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204221
        • jshelly 9y ago
          Most except safari
          • jcoder 9y ago
            And you can kill that under "restrictions" if you want to...
• nihonde 9y ago
  My experience with my Android-based TV is that every Android update and every update of Google's own apps (e.g., YouTube) is a regression is so many totally unnecessary ways that it almost seems deliberate at this point.
• matthberg 9y ago
  This looks interesting: "Linkable files: API that allows you to share files across the Internet via web links." Will this mean that I don't have to download a pdf to view it? I wonder what this feature means.
  • rohan1024 9y ago
    I am still wondering what it is. Theirs no documentation.
• cma 9y ago
  > Compatible with all Mopria-certified printers, which make up 97% of printers sold worldwide. I wonder if every Mopria-certified printer prints anti-privacy tracking dots.
• visarga 9y ago
  > Wi-Fi Assistant: Auto-connects you to high quality open WiFi and secures your connection with a VPN back to Google VPN back to Google?
• Abishek_Muthian 9y ago
  Don't let the project treble eclipse the limitations imposed over background services, Android seems to have taken iOS approach towards saving power, "When an app goes into the background, it has a window of several minutes in which it is still allowed to create and use services" Though iOS's background restrictions goes up to socket level (e.g VPN, which android O seems to have whitelisted entirely); this is going to be a huge impact over consumers and of course pain in the * for developers.
• wavesplash 9y ago
  FYI Oreo Battery Life on the Nexus 5X is really bad. Don't upgrade if you have one.
  • hoschicz 9y ago
    Really? By how much? Since when were you using the developer previews?
    • wavesplash 9y ago
      Dev previews for over a month - 1/4 to 1/2 less battery time. Same with the release - perhaps a tiny bit better.
• Naracion 9y ago
  I wonder if the visual play of the Oreo mimicking a solar eclipse on the homepage [1] is a coincidence, seeing as how it was released on the 21st. [1] https://www.android.com/versions/oreo-8-0/ https://www.android.com/versions/oreo-8-0/
• suckerburg 9y ago
  So, it was announced during the eclipse (dark and bright). It's called Oreo which is the same but they still didn't bother with a dark mode?
• k45 9y ago
  mjjhmmj .
• cconcepts 9y ago
  >> Swift moves, behind the scenes Translation: we developed better compression algos for uploading your personal data to our servers
• baoha 9y ago
  Not related but does Google have to pay Oreo money for using its name/image?
• baalimago 9y ago
  New EMOJIS? O-M-G finally! I've waited so long!
• hathym 9y ago
  Did google forgot how to design web pages?
• hyperpallium 9y ago
  Reminds me of a windows release. Except that, if mobile OS's could still disrupt the desktop, there's still many features to go?
• jamesmattis 9y ago
  I love the intro video of Android Oreo launch as they used the context of Solar Eclipse on 21st August.
• oliver2u 9y ago
  Google has officially announced its latest release Android 8.0 Oreo. Know which phones are compatible for this upgrade and if yours is on the list: https://freaksense.com/compatible-devices-for-android-8-0-oreo/ https://freaksense.com/compatible-devices-for-android-8-0-or...
• H1Supreme 9y ago
  > "Native C/C++ API for high-performance audio" This is good to hear. But, this makes me wonder about Android's ability to prevent people from pirating apps. Due to the nature of Android, I've never wrote an app that wasn't free. On iOS, there are a number of audio apps that do quite well. I'd be hard pressed to port an app to Android, if taking the apk was as easy as it's always been.