Samsung Amps Up Its Multi-Window Android Upgrade

DeviceGuru writes "New multiwindow, multitasking features in Samsung's recent Jellybean update to the Galaxy Note 10.1 have pushed the user interface of Android tablets into new territory, adding MS Windows-like capabilities that are sure to delight many users — and aggravate others. Although some observers have warned of the dangers of forking Android, Samsung's efforts to extend Android and its ecosystem can be defended as being consistent with Google's master plan for the Android system, most of which is released under ASLv2. And remember: unlike Apple, Android device makers, and the wireless carriers who offer Android smartphones to their customers, need ways to differentiate their products."

Comments

Man, my head is reeling

[crazyjj]

First, I find out last night that Attack of the Show was just Leo Laporte's bad dream all along, and now this. But I do love the delightful irony* of desktop OS maker Microsoft moving AWAY from the windows, building a more tablet/phone-oriented OS for desktops with Windows 8--at the same time as tablet/phone maker Samsung is moving TOWARDS the windows, building a more desktop-oriented OS for its tablets and phones with this. You can't make this shit up.

* And before any of you grammar Nazi's start soiling your panties, yes, I am damned well familiar with the *classic* definition of "irony." So the first one of you pretentious pedagogues who feels the need to show everyone how big your intellectual dick is by pointing out that classic irony is more akin to what we generally call "sarcasm" today is going to get a visit from me tonight. And I've got diarrhea and a strong desire to leave a double-decker in every toilet in your house.

Re:Man, my head is reeling

[drinkypoo]

And before any of you grammar Nazi's start soiling your panties

You only get to use the apostrophe if you capitalize Nazi.

Re:Man, my head is reeling

[stevedog]

Ironically, you used irony correctly the first time.

Re:Man, my head is reeling

[oodaloop]

Exactly. It's like rain on your wedding day.

Re:Man, my head is reeling

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, more relevant to Slashdot readers, it's like meeting the girl of your dreams, and then meeting her handsome husband.

Re:Man, my head is reeling

[Known Nutter]

And I've got diarrhea and a strong desire to leave a double-decker in every toilet in your house.

For what it's worth, the term you're looking for is Upper Decker.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Upper+Decker

Re:Man, my head is reeling

[wolfsdaughter]

No, it's meeting the girl of your dreams and then meeting her beautiful wife

Re:Man, my head is reeling

[crazyjj]

Nope, I'm leaving it in top and bottom.

Re:Man, my head is reeling

[viperidaenz]

Isn't that part of the fantasy?

Re:Man, my head is reeling

[vivian]

Seriously, whats wrong with you people? What kind of twisted mind comes up with this stuff in the first place?

Oh, good.

[Fallingcow]

Awesome. More shit that can cause your app work on one Android tablet and not on another. Because there wasn't enough of that already.

Re:Oh, good.

[Andy Dodd]

This is why CyanogenMod didn't implement Cornerstone. It's also why Samsung's multiwindow isn't worth all the hype it has been given:

It only supports Samsung-customized Google Apps, a bunch of Samsung's own apps, and 1-2 third-party apps. Anything not in the multiwindow whitelist is blocked from multiwindow.

Why? Because multiwindow fundamentally breaks the Android CTS and thus any app that is enabled for it must be "opt-in" at the discretion of the developer. If Samsung were to do this for all applications without a whitelist or apps "opting in" via a manifest entry, they would be blocked from the Play Store. Google treats devices breaking apps in the Play Store VERY seriously - When CyanogenMod was considering Cornerstone, they were effectively told that if some sort of "opt-in" mechanism weren't present, Google would be forced to blacklist CM. It's the same reason CM never merged in Paranoid Android's per-app DPI stuff... Google was VERY unhappy about that.

The reason being: If an app developer gets 1-star reviews due to a device behaving badly, that device is probably going to be blacklisted from the Play Store if the app runs fine on any device the passes Google's CTS.

Re:Oh, good.

[shutdown -p now]

The feature is nevertheless something that Android sorely needs if it wants to expand from plain tablets to Win8-style convertibles and laptops. Samsung did it because Google did not. I don't know how well Samsung APIs are designed; if they're good enough, Google should just take them and merge them into the main Android branch, and be done with it. If not, they should design something of their own, but do it now, before we have half a dozen incompatible windowing systems.

Sorry

[Chrisq]

This ia an Android thread, not iOs

That forking android...

[gestalt_n_pepper]

it's turning into Windows. Fork that!

History rewrite time..

[Anonymous Coward]

You've got to love how having multi-window capability is being "MS Windows-like", according to the submitter. I guess we have a bit of computer history to rewrite again...

UX & Customization

[Fri13]

Android device makers, and the wireless carriers who offer Android smartphones to their customers, need ways to differentiate their products.

You do that mainly with hardware and with customer service.

Then you can place own custom wallpaper and custom icons, but stupid way to do is to bake them to Android framework so user can not remove them.
The correct (and smart) way would be to do a own launcher and own icon theme for it and make it available only for your hardware.
OEM could make custom look, custom functions but should always allow easily the user to swap to vanilla Android look and functionality.

Be a good OEM, support Android and give a customer change to actually like your product and use it as they want. OEM is hardware manufacturer what should focus for hardware first and then to user experience.

Re:UX & Customization

[Dynedain]

You do that mainly with hardware and with customer service.

Look how well that worked for Dell, HP, Compaq, eMachines, IBM (desktop/laptop services), Sony (laptops), etc.

Focusing on hardware results in a race to the bottom. And in the mobile market, customer service is a function of the carrier, not the device manufacturer. Apple has proven that the way to profits in saturated markets is to focus on the entire user experience. This gives them a major differentiator that lets them stand out and have a noticeable difference from other similar products.

If you settle on being an Android device manufacturer, how are you different from other Android device manufacturers? Screen size and color of your case isn't enough.

Re:UX & Customization

[kamapuaa]

You do that mainly with hardware and with customer service.

But the hardware is all reaching towards one end goal: a big screen, fast enough, good resolution, not too big. Sure there's some room for variation, like maybe one has a larger battery at the expense of weighing an extra half an ounce, but there's really not not much to differentiate.

Soon, generic Chinese manufacturers will be able to make a phone that has a big screen, is fast enough, has good resolution, and isn't too big. It will load the same Android OS as everybody else. And it will be priced as a commodity. Nobody will pay more because they like the custom look better.

And customer service? I've never had to deal with a phone's customer service, ever. If it's a factor at all, it's a very small one.

Re:UX & Customization

[characterZer0]

It is only a race to the bottom because with current carrier subsidies nobody expects their phone to last more than a year or two anyway. If the hardware companies want to compete on hardware quality/price, they need to stand up to the carriers. If they do not, it is their own fault.

Re:UX & Customization

[lister king of smeg]

or you could destinguish yourself with better specs, more ram more storage, more usb ports, sd card reader, or unique features like put in a CB radio tuner as some one that does a lot of fishing and camping out of cell phone range it would be nice to be able to comunicat with my freind on half lime down river or the other side a lake or just to save minutes. or integrated weather radio or stylus for writing, or come with hdtv tuner or am/fm tuner or any of a dozen more features to make each model stand out. or make it water and drop resent ant so if you drop it in the water it will survive with out having to sit in a bowl or rice for week to dry out. Make all sorts of smart feature phones to stand out.

Re:UX & Customization

[Dynedain]

That's exactly my point. Apple isn't running Android, just like Apple isn't running Windows. Because the control the software they have a much bigger impact on the overall user experience, as the software is arguably a larger factor in good user experience than the underlying hardware specs or bezel design.

If Android manufacturers want to be differentiated from other Android manufacturers, and survive the race to the bottom on pricing, then they must find ways to innovate and improve the overall customer experience. Desktop/laptop manufacturers tried to unsuccessfully bridge this problem by adding tons of vendor-specific bloatware apps on top of otherwise vanilla Windows installations. That marketplace doesn't work.

Samsung has been pushing the hardware side of the equation as much as they can, and they are standing out a bit, but not enough. Making software changes like this is where they can shine if they do it effectively and actually deliver improved experiences.

Re:UX & Customization

[characterZer0]

Angry Birds is your example for user experience? How about making a damn phone call? No modern smartphone matches the Motorola dumb phone I had 10 years ago for reception.

Like it or not, Samsung is Android

[SuperKendall]

Well really there are three Androids now:

1) Amazon
2) Samsung
3) Everyone else

Samsung by grabbing so much market share of Android sales, now how the power to drive Android in a direction it wants to go.

Its not a bad or a good thing; it's just what is. If I were doing Android development supporting Samsung extensions would seem to be a pretty good idea.

Re:Like it or not, Samsung is Android

[marsu_k]

In a way, that is already happening - 4.2 features "quick settings" which have been around for ages in TouchWiz, for example. Whether vanilla Android does it better than Samsung is debatable, but personally I don't mind that such features can go "upstream".

WRT to the article - I haven't got a Note, but I have multi-window support on my stock (international) S3, and mostly it is a gimmick. It doesn't offer the "cascade view" as in TFA, but you can have two apps side-by-side. And unless doing very much of copypasteing, there's no point to it. However, I really don't see how this functionality fragments Android. It's not like any apps I run require the functionality, most will simply be hindered by the lack of space.

I think you can code to it though.

[SuperKendall]

I really don't see how this functionality fragments Android.

It doesn't exactly fragment in the traditional way, but I believe you can code in some ways that enhance your apps use in the multi-window mode - but because Samsung is such a large component of the Android market and also most of the higher end of it, if I were making an Android app I'd specifically add whatever support made sense for that even though it is Android specific.

Re:Hope for reintegration

[Desler]

Why would Samsung want it in the base OS? It is a differentiating feature of their devices.

No no no ...

[gstoddart]

wireless carriers who offer Android smartphones to their customers, need ways to differentiate their products

In my experience when carriers try to 'differentiate' their phones, they install shitware, cripple the device, and sometimes even modify it to cost you more money.

Years ago when phones which could surf the web were new, a friend spent an entire weekend trying to reconcile his charged bandwidth with what he believed it should have been -- in the end, the way the carrier had injected themselves into the process ended up sending twice as much data. It could have been innocent, or it could have been a cash grab. The end result was the same, a slower more costly data plan.

In my experience, the carrier specific stuff installed on a phone makes it worse. On my current Android phone, I disabled everything specific to the carrier and ended up with a *far* better phone, because they want to stick themselves into everything or sell you ring tones and other shit.

Carriers usually aren't qualified to do a good job of this, and they're only looking out for their own profits.

You're missing the Nexus series.

[Chirs]

The N4/N7/N10 are pretty much flying off the shelves as fast as they can make them.

Multi-windows on small devices a bad idea

[presidenteloco]

MS-hating aside, multiple window viewing and management on a physically small device like a tablet or phablet is just a bad UI idea, even if the screen resolution is high. Flipping the whole screen sideways between whole-window apps is a better idea.

This gives me the impression of having come from the creative minds of people who think that managing windows on screen is synonymous with using a computer. That is a sadly narrow view, reflecting too much time spent in front of beige boxes.

In the west, demographics suggests that font sizes on both stop signs and computer screens should be getting bigger, not smaller. And all you youngsters out there. Don't gloat. Staring cross-eyed at endless streams of life-alteringly important texts and sexts on phablets will blur your vision sooner than you think.

Re:Multi-windows on small devices a bad idea

[shutdown -p now]

I haven't used Samsung's mod, but I have used Win8 tablets, which let you "dock" two apps side by side, and the feature can be immensely useful - e.g. you can have a window with your chat app, but also open the browser and look things up and quickly cut & paste them - much more convenient than flipping back and forth between two full-screen apps.

Furthermore, Android isn't just about tablets anymore. There are convertible devices like Asus Transformer, and Samsung already has a Transformer-like device running Win8 (ATIV) - I wouldn't be surprised if they'll make an Android version of that, soon. Windows make a lot of sense on those things when the dock is attached, especially since you also have the trackpad.

You got a point but it is a MESS right now

[SmallFurryCreature]

I am seriously starting to dislike Android. When it runs, it is fine BUT if you want to upgrade (coming from a DOS, Unix, Linux and Windows background) FORGET about it. It is gigantic fucking mess where you are totally at the mercy of the manufacturer as to whether your model gets an upgrade. Cyanogenmod isn't an answer either, it is FAR from a generic Android that just "works". If Android was Linux you would have distro's that ONLY ran on ONE model of Dell and then had 1 year after release small niggling bugs like the monitor not yet working...

Now I grew up with Unix, Dos, Windows and Linux. I am no stranger to having to hunt for drivers and have to deal with weird configurations and installing stuff in just the right order. But with ALL the above, you at least have the OPTION to do so.

With Android? No drivers, no configs, no nothing. Either you spend ages learning how to cook a release to tweak it or you just don't. The debug options to are shockingly bad even compared to Windows. It would be a LOT better if there was just a default install you could do and install drivers that Google required each company to make available for install if they want to use Android.

But they didn't and you suddenly realize just how fucking open the Windows platform is by comparison, just how complete Linux is.

I am either going to stick with Nexus devices in the future or hope an alternative emerges because I am NOT going to be stuck with a device that is not going to be updated by Samsung ever again.

You don't have to differentiate with screen/case etc. JUST FUCKING UPDATE YOUR FUCKING DEVICE! That will make you fucking unique in Android land. The first company that manages to release a device that can ALWAYS run the latest Android version will leave ALL the other companies in the dust.

Carrier crippleware

[frisket]

And remember: unlike Apple, Android device makers, and the wireless carriers who offer Android smartphones to their customers, need ways to differentiate their products.

No they fucking well do not.

Only in the USA would this be regarded as a virtue or a requirement. I don't want to have to choose between crippled-version-of-Android-1, crippled-version-of-Android-2, crippled-version-of-Android-3, etc when what I want is a decent device knowing that the system will be the same no matter which device I choose.

The last thing on earth we need is wireless carriers and telcos who bugger around with the OS because they think their ghastly sucky software is sooooo terribly important.

Oh, wait, we already have them...

Android pipes are called Share

[tepples]

What if Android would get something so powerful for GUI apps as what pipe is for Unix shell?

I think that's what the "share" button on each application's action bar is for. (Pre-Android 4.0 applications don't have an action bar; instead, they have only an overflow menu.)

It is so funny that sometimes I am watching random Star Trek TNG episodes and they don't ever do any backups.

That you can see. Some operating systems can be configured to back up certain folders automatically in the background, and I'd bet LCARS on their PADDs is configured the same way.

I don't even know can you share content between Modern apps in Windows 8

To "share" in Windows Store applications, you need to open the Charms bar, which is essentially a system-wide auto-hidden toolbar. It's magically delicious!

How does multi-window break the CTS?

[tepples]

multiwindow fundamentally breaks the Android CTS

How so? I tried Google multi-window android compatibility test suite and found this article that claims that the only reason CyanogenMod with Cornerstone doesn't pass the CTS is that CyanogenMod isn't bundled with a device.