Any process sent to the background has the kernel's sword of damocles hanging over it at all times - it can be killed instantly and without warning if android decides it needs the resources.
Well, the only real alternative to that is the entire device crashes with an OOM error. I think I would prefer the app itself to crash as at least that is going to happen either way.
I would say it's idiotic to start running CM10 nightlies at this point
Why is it idiotic? Just do a nandroid backup and flash CM10 whenever you feel like it. If it doesn't work out, reflash your backup and you're right back where you started. I don't see how that is somehow "idiotic".
Well, technically it is true until something actually ships and my statement wasn't meant to stand fit eternity just got right now. Like I said though, if somebody can link me to a shipping device that has modern performance and is Free, I'll buy right now.
If you want hardware accelerated graphics on an ARM SOC, you can practically forget anything resembling modern performance and Free drivers. Even the AOSP blessed Android Nexus devices require blobs. Add doors the Panda board, the Raspberry Pi, the Nokia N900, etc. If you find anything, let me know as I'd love to find a truly Free arm board.
That article is just talking about a few apps that happen to be useful for disabled people and including Skype because it lets you video conference and putting it under the same umbrella as real accessibility programs is reaching. Here's a little article describing some of the baked in accessibility in Android.
It is flame bait though. You are painting the entire slashdot Linux community with one broad brush and no matter how many Linux people here like myself that applaud what Valve us doing, it only takes one for you to jump up and down screaming 'See? See? I'm right!' basically it was a worthless comment that was modded appropriately.
Retailers can, typically, return unsold product back to the distributor.
Depends on how big you are. If you have a sign on your front door that happens to say WalMart or BestBuy then you're good. Otherwise, prepare to get laughed at.
Has anybody tried loading the Verizon GN binaries on the Sprint phone and seeing if it worked? I treat my 4G Xoom as a wingray device when I install ROMs and have never had a problem with it working (obviously barring the 4G that I never used anyway).
Yeah, that's what Palm thought too. People smell desperation and they would get a bad whiff from a Windows Phone adorned Blackberry from a mile a way. Really bad idea.
Considering the binary downloads necessary to make a fully working ROM for the Nexus 7 are available for download right on AOSP I would find it pretty absurd if they made those binaries useless by locking the device.
I hear what you're saying but I just don't see how Google adding their software and services to what you get from AOSP after the fact makes Android any less open. I have several Android installs that do not have the Google apps suite and while there is a large amount of value to Google's proprietary offerings, they aren't necessary for Android to function in any way. The only real argument that I have to Android being somehow less than truly open is the need for proprietary binaries to utilize all of the hardware on the reference devices. It sucks that in order to get a fully functioning Nexus or MZ604 Xoom, I have to install blobs for the GPU, wi-fi, camera, and accelerometer. Unfortunately Tizen nor Jolla will solve this problem as in order for handsets running those OS's to be competitive performance-wise, they will also have to make use of hardware that doesn't have open drivers. In the ARM space, there isn't a single high performance GPU that is open that I'm aware of and before we can have a truly open source system from top to bottom, that will have to change.
It's still not really that big of an issue though as most of the new APIs have compatibility libraries going back to version 2.2 of Android which covers over 95 percent of that market. And Android as of about 2.2 actually is pretty feature complete and still quite competitive with the competition so there isn't a whole lot devs have been clamoring for anyway. Users just want it to be smooth and trouble free and ICS/jellybean are delivering on that.
I actually thought about the freerunner when I wrote that but I figured it might be getting a little long in the tooth. But much respect to what they accomplished.
Yep, I missed it on the binary download page. Also looks like you have to manually type it into the build configuration menu from the lunch command as full_toro-userdebug as it hasn't been added back into that yet. Get to updating that documentation, Google!
I realize your money's already spent but the WiFi Motorola Xoom is the only 10 inch tablet with AOSP support. Samsung should be ashamed of themselves for not updating your device in a timely manner but in the future, I'd at least have a peek at that page I linked before putting money down.
AOSP has the proprietary binaries necessary for a from source build of Android for the Nexus 7 which would be kind of pointless if the boot loader wasn't unlockable so you're probably safe.
Well, according to the AOSP page for device builds, the Nexus S 4G has been brought back into the officially supported fold so there is hope for the CDMA Galaxy Nexus owners.
Wasn't that the CDMA Nexus S though? For anybody that doesn't know, not only do you need to have a Nexus device to be assured of updates, that Nexus device needs to not be CDMA. Even the Galaxy Nexus from Verizon is unsupported by AOSP.
I hate to say this but there isn't a single modern smartphone on the market with full open source drivers. The main culprits are the GPU and cameras. Even the fully AOSP supported devices like Nexus and WiFi Xoom require proprietary addons that you have to download in addition to the regular Android source in order to get everything working. I pulled the source for jelly bean earlier for the Galaxy Nexus and had to get blobs for the GPU, WiFi/Bluetooth, camera and accelerometer. As long as Google supports your phone you are good but when that support runs out you might be on your own. That said, you are still miles better than with any other device.
That depends on your device. Get an officially supported by AOSP device like the Nexus or WiFi Xoom and you're golden. Otherwise you takes your chances.
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Any process sent to the background has the kernel's sword of damocles hanging over it at all times - it can be killed instantly and without warning if android decides it needs the resources.
Well, the only real alternative to that is the entire device crashes with an OOM error. I think I would prefer the app itself to crash as at least that is going to happen either way.
I would say it's idiotic to start running CM10 nightlies at this point
Why is it idiotic? Just do a nandroid backup and flash CM10 whenever you feel like it. If it doesn't work out, reflash your backup and you're right back where you started. I don't see how that is somehow "idiotic".
Who do you think makes this? How did you get modded up?
Well, technically it is true until something actually ships and my statement wasn't meant to stand fit eternity just got right now. Like I said though, if somebody can link me to a shipping device that has modern performance and is Free, I'll buy right now.
If you want hardware accelerated graphics on an ARM SOC, you can practically forget anything resembling modern performance and Free drivers. Even the AOSP blessed Android Nexus devices require blobs. Add doors the Panda board, the Raspberry Pi, the Nokia N900, etc. If you find anything, let me know as I'd love to find a truly Free arm board.
That article is just talking about a few apps that happen to be useful for disabled people and including Skype because it lets you video conference and putting it under the same umbrella as real accessibility programs is reaching. Here's a little article describing some of the baked in accessibility in Android.
It is flame bait though. You are painting the entire slashdot Linux community with one broad brush and no matter how many Linux people here like myself that applaud what Valve us doing, it only takes one for you to jump up and down screaming 'See? See? I'm right!' basically it was a worthless comment that was modded appropriately.
Considering the submission is obviously product advertising written by a marketing droid
Yeah, that's the one thing open source projects are well known for. Advertising and marketing...
Retailers can, typically, return unsold product back to the distributor.
Depends on how big you are. If you have a sign on your front door that happens to say WalMart or BestBuy then you're good. Otherwise, prepare to get laughed at.
Shut up, faggot.
I have a Core2Duo desktop and a Core i5 laptop and in a double blind there is no way I would be able to tell the difference in speed.
Has anybody tried loading the Verizon GN binaries on the Sprint phone and seeing if it worked? I treat my 4G Xoom as a wingray device when I install ROMs and have never had a problem with it working (obviously barring the 4G that I never used anyway).
Yeah, that's what Palm thought too. People smell desperation and they would get a bad whiff from a Windows Phone adorned Blackberry from a mile a way. Really bad idea.
Considering the binary downloads necessary to make a fully working ROM for the Nexus 7 are available for download right on AOSP I would find it pretty absurd if they made those binaries useless by locking the device.
I hear what you're saying but I just don't see how Google adding their software and services to what you get from AOSP after the fact makes Android any less open. I have several Android installs that do not have the Google apps suite and while there is a large amount of value to Google's proprietary offerings, they aren't necessary for Android to function in any way. The only real argument that I have to Android being somehow less than truly open is the need for proprietary binaries to utilize all of the hardware on the reference devices. It sucks that in order to get a fully functioning Nexus or MZ604 Xoom, I have to install blobs for the GPU, wi-fi, camera, and accelerometer. Unfortunately Tizen nor Jolla will solve this problem as in order for handsets running those OS's to be competitive performance-wise, they will also have to make use of hardware that doesn't have open drivers. In the ARM space, there isn't a single high performance GPU that is open that I'm aware of and before we can have a truly open source system from top to bottom, that will have to change.
If Microsoft is willing to start taking risks again, and Windows 8 so far surely qualifies, I think it might get fun in tech again.
So, what you're saying is you need Microsoft to lead you by the nose in order for you to have "fun" in tech. That's just embarrassing.
It's still not really that big of an issue though as most of the new APIs have compatibility libraries going back to version 2.2 of Android which covers over 95 percent of that market. And Android as of about 2.2 actually is pretty feature complete and still quite competitive with the competition so there isn't a whole lot devs have been clamoring for anyway. Users just want it to be smooth and trouble free and ICS/jellybean are delivering on that.
I actually thought about the freerunner when I wrote that but I figured it might be getting a little long in the tooth. But much respect to what they accomplished.
Yep, I missed it on the binary download page. Also looks like you have to manually type it into the build configuration menu from the lunch command as full_toro-userdebug as it hasn't been added back into that yet. Get to updating that documentation, Google!
I realize your money's already spent but the WiFi Motorola Xoom is the only 10 inch tablet with AOSP support. Samsung should be ashamed of themselves for not updating your device in a timely manner but in the future, I'd at least have a peek at that page I linked before putting money down.
AOSP has the proprietary binaries necessary for a from source build of Android for the Nexus 7 which would be kind of pointless if the boot loader wasn't unlockable so you're probably safe.
Well, according to the AOSP page for device builds, the Nexus S 4G has been brought back into the officially supported fold so there is hope for the CDMA Galaxy Nexus owners.
Wasn't that the CDMA Nexus S though? For anybody that doesn't know, not only do you need to have a Nexus device to be assured of updates, that Nexus device needs to not be CDMA. Even the Galaxy Nexus from Verizon is unsupported by AOSP.
I hate to say this but there isn't a single modern smartphone on the market with full open source drivers. The main culprits are the GPU and cameras. Even the fully AOSP supported devices like Nexus and WiFi Xoom require proprietary addons that you have to download in addition to the regular Android source in order to get everything working. I pulled the source for jelly bean earlier for the Galaxy Nexus and had to get blobs for the GPU, WiFi/Bluetooth, camera and accelerometer. As long as Google supports your phone you are good but when that support runs out you might be on your own. That said, you are still miles better than with any other device.
That depends on your device. Get an officially supported by AOSP device like the Nexus or WiFi Xoom and you're golden. Otherwise you takes your chances.