Steve Kondik has explained some of the issues and successes they have had whilst rolling out Cyanogen OS 12. Believing it to possibly be the most troublesome OTA they’ve done yet, this is the second time they have started over using a clean AOSP.
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The one debate that we often find discussed on Android forums and websites at every new superphone release is “do benchmarks matter?” The response is usually something that implies that benchmarks don’t have a correlation with the resulting user-experience. Believing any of both extremist notions – that is, that benchmarks are an absolute indicator or that they do not correlate to real world UX – is a myopic practice that often leads to disinformation in whichever discussion is taking place. With both the Galaxy S6 and the One M9, the debate took place once more.
First, let’s remember the context: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 was reported to have overheating issues way before its prime time, and these were followed by rumors that, for this very reason, Samsung would opt for their inhouse Exynos 7420 SoC instead. This is what ended up happening, and the Snapdragon 810 suffered from intense throttling that resulted in some issues for consumers. We originally took a look at early benchmarks that indicated that the Snapdragon 810 was behind the Exynos 7420 by a landslide in a variety of ways. But, like we predicted, the Snapdragon 810 actually featured very good real-world performance.
So, what is the aftermath? Which device won? How does the Snapdragon 810 really compare to the Exynos 7420, and its predecessors too, in the real world and in that of synthetic benchmarks? Are there differences when gaming, multi-tasking or simply launching apps? And why? In this feature we will begin exploring these questions, and hopefully come up with some answers.
The Snapdragon 810 was first analyzed in the MDP/T model where it showed extremely promising CPU performance. In many ways, it matched the astoundingly powerful Tegra K1 processor found in the Nexus 9, but at the time it was expected that this chipset would circumvent heat and battery constraints (something Nvidia couldn’t do, and thus the K1 is strictly a tablet chipset) to deliver that kind of performance. Sadly, the Snapdragon 810’s overheating reports were true, and in both the G Flex 2 and M9 we see a significant drop in CPU performance due to system throttling. Now that a thorough analysis of the M9 has been conducted, we can piece together what is truly happening to HTC’s flagship and its overheating Snapdragon.
According to AnandTech, the CPU of the SoC has clear throttle constraints, and the processor’s listed frequency of 2.0GHz is actually limited to a maximum of around 1.6GHz for regular use. It is only when HTC’s systems detect a benchmark that this cap is lifted, to allow for enhanced scores that, due to
the nature of the downgrade, can not represent real-world performance. This is something that some apologists called “a non-issue” – and claimed it was so as long as the real-world performance didn’t suffer. The SD810 here shows remarkably worse performance in virtually every metric than what the reference MDP/T model featured, but we don’t know the exact reason for this. Looking at the benchmarks is enough to tell that the device under-performed in this regard.
When it comes to the Exynos, its CPU and system performance is simply excellent. If you head over to this benchmark breakdown and analysis, you will see that it consistently makes it to the top spots, in most cases outclassing all other smartphones. The only room for improvement is in GPU system performance, and that’s something we’ll touch on below.
The Adreno 430 in the Snapdragon 810 was expected to be a “beast” of a graphics processor, and it indeed was at release. Unlike the CPU, the GPU still features good performance and is more or less in-line with expectations. As a result, the graphics output of the M9 is actually rather excellent, and unlike many thought, things like video games or GPU-intensive tasks perform excellently on the M9. In fact, when you compare the graphics-intensive benchmark scores to those of the S6, you see that the S6 falls in behind in many tests. The reason should be obvious to many, but we’ll touch on it shortly nonetheless.
The fact 
The devices are out and we’ve gotten plenty of comparison articles and videos, as well as deeper look at the benchmarks of these devices. It turns out that the M9 has very good performance for real world use, particularly due to its light software. The Sense UI in the M8 made for one of the smoothest and speediest experiences on any Android flagship of 2014, and the trend remains in the M9. Reviewers have reported some stutters in certain areas of the UI – some more consistent than others – but when it comes to getting things done, the M9 does the trick just fine. There are many text and video comparisons that tell the story, but we’ll limit this article to two that we think are worth dissecting:
This video shows the strengths and weaknesses of each device flawlessly. As it turns out, however, the weaknesses of the S6 have little to do with its hardware and more with its software. In the first “lap” of the video, we see that the S6 greatly outspeeds the competition at opening apps and games The faster memory solutions for storage and RAM as well as the processor show off in this segment. On the second lap, the S6’s weakness kicks in: its memory management is atrocious, and despite having the same amount of RAM, many of its apps had to be reloaded. This allowed the M9 to overtake the S6 and “win the race”. On a superficial level, it would appear that the S6 is indeed faster, but the M9 has better/more reliable multitasking. Both devices are still very fast and speedy enough to satisfy any user.
There is something that I want to note here, and that is that I too have noticed that Samsung devices have terrible memory management, specially on Lollipop. This is apparent when leaving apps unused for long – even without opening many more – as they have to be reloaded anyway. On a personal note, when the Note 3 launched with 3GB of RAM I was enticed to get it to enjoy better multi-tasking, but we all know how Android’s memory manager is. When I upgraded to Lollipop, the problem became much worse and apps would disappear simply by idling for too long. The Note 4 on Lollipop suffers from a similar problem when I directly compare it to AOSP devices, and shows similar behavior to my Note 3. In fact, this problem is something that I frequently ran into when doing a side-by-side comparison of my Note 3 and my Nexus 5 for the Note 3’s Lollipop performance analysis… 1GB differential and all. Sammobile reported on this problem in the S6, but it is not limited to Samsung’s latest hardware, just the software (Lollipop) as I do not have this problem on 5.1 AOSP ROMs. We do not know if it has to do with Lollipop’s memory leaks, but nevertheless it is quite annoying.
In this test we see the S6 put against the M9 using Gamebench, an application that records metrics during videogames such as frames-per-second, a processor frequency log and battery drain. Here you can see that the S6 actually performs worse than the M9 in games like Asphalt 8. In this particular game, the S6 shows around 29 frames per second while the M9 surpasses it with 41 frames per second. Further testing might reveal variations in these numbers, but is this really surprising? I would argue that, in many ways, it is not. For all the flak that the Snapdragon 810 received, its Adreno 430 GPU remains excellent for graphics-intensive tasks such as games. But the biggest difference is the resolution, which is the last thing I want to touch on.
Resolution is by far one of the determining factors in this comparison. As we’ve seen earlier, the off-screen benchmarks show that the S6 actually surpasses the M9 in raw GPU output, but when it needs to put graphics on the 1440p screen, the performance is lowered dramatically. When you consider that the M9 is powering up a 1080p screen, you also run into the surprise that the GPU is not substantially more powerful than what was found in the Snapdragon 805. I want to demonstrate this with my own device:
My Note 4 has a default resolution of 1440p, but I used a terminal emulator on it to reduce the resolution to 1080p. As far as UI fluidity goes, the changes were minimal if not placebo. But I can attest that GPU-intensive tasks such as gaming and synthetic benchmarks showed quite the increase in performance and stability. While Gamebench is seemingly not compatible with my build of TouchWiz, the framerate on Asphalt 8 has improved from 28 FPS (on KitKat) to what I can only describe as ultra smooth. I will do a full feature where I will quantify the difference that the lower resolution made, but for now I think these benchmarks will give you a general idea of the kind of improvements I’ve seen.
Both chipsets can offer good performance, and the S6, G Flex 2 and M9 all flex a good amount of muscle. When it comes to the hardware winner, the S6 is undoubtedly superior. But the software of the S6 holds it back from achieving the real-world UX that we all wanted from Samsung – that is, one that is as good as the hardware can muster. Sadly, there are still clear issues with the memory management, even despite Samsung’s efforts to trim and debloat their TouchWiz ROM. The device is fast, but as the video showed, having to reload an application from scratch can ultimately cost you the race.
When it comes to future-proofing, the S6 has a severe edge (heh): the memory management can be improved through software updates to truly exploit the faster RAM, and you can manually lower the resolution of the display for better graphics performance (I really don’t think anyone needs 1440p in a 5.1 inch display anyway). The M9’s chipset will eventually show its age, but luckily its GPU is strong enough to handle current games with such a surplus that you might find yourself gaming on HTC’s latest for quite a while. Both feature a great real-world user experience as far as performance goes, but it would still have been nice to see the Snapdragon 810 live to its full potential. The upcoming Samsung custom cores and their new factory (which Qualcomm might end up fabbing in) coupled against the Snapdragon 820’s Kyro custom cores might make for quite the chipset battle. Manufacturers are now going for the Snapdragon 808, which might not even fare as well as the 805 either. This semiconductor war might not determine which approach is right, but it could certainly determine which competitor is left. May the best chip win!
The post Chipset Aftermath: Real World UX, Strengths & Weaknesses appeared first on xda-developers.
In the official unveiling event, LG spent a lot of time focusing on the G4’s camera prowess. This post by ace photographer Colby Brown gives an in-depth view on LG’s claim. The results demonstrate that indeed, smartphone cameras have reached their golden age.
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The Xiaomi Mi 4i is all set to star in its own flash sale for a price of Rs. 12,999 ($205). Scheduled for April 30th 2015 at 2pm IST on Flipkart, the registrations for this flash sale are open until midnight. As always with Xiaomi, the product is expected to be sold out within seconds.
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Google Now is arguably the single biggest “wow factor” of Android, and if $300 notification bands (aka smartwatches) are solutions in search of a problem, Now is certainly their saving grace. After all, Google’s virtual assistant serves up answers, launches apps, sets reminders, takes dictation, and forms the central pillar around which the entire Wear platform is built. Without that red bubble pulsing with intelligence, Android smartwatches are nothing more than one-way notifiers – products that are handily beaten by $15 fitness bands from China on everything from battery life to sleep tracking & price. Therefore, if Wear is to find purchase and prosper in this growing world of wearables, it is vital that Google Now gives us its all. Unfortunately, the watch-mounted version of Now comes up short – 36.5% short – of even its smartphone counterpart. Where does this leave potential customers? Should we even buy Android watches when our phones beat the bands at their own game? Here is a peek into the voice actions of Google Now on phones, desktops, and smartwatches, with an emphasis on Wear’s room for improvement, and the apps tackling the issue head on.
For the lazy, here are a few quick links to for jumping right to the heart of the story.
Wear will always deliver phone notifications as-is, so in this regard there is absolutely no difference between the two mobile versions of Now. The issue at hand is summoning the Google genie with that familiar phrase: “Okay Google.” All platforms respond, but the commands they recognize are shockingly unequal. With this in mind, let’s begin.
Second, the value of each voice command is a product of how often it is used, and how much we care about the information we receive. For example, using the watch to set reminders and alarms without pulling out an over-sized phone is only marginally convenient, but I call on this feature many times each day. For me, this is a big deal. Conversely, what about flight delays and gate changes being delivered to the wrist in a crowded airport? I only fly a few times per year, but knowing how long I have to sprint from terminal A to Z while my hands are full of luggage is an under appreciated asset. However, these value judgments are subjective and have been omitted in the results. I implore you to instead find your own rubric when looking at the raw data below.
Wear’s “Okay Google”: great with simple questions, passable with simple apps, but terrible at using your apps, emails, or contacts for things the phone can answer with ease.
Wear’s version of Google Now excels at general knowledge questions like “how far away is the moon,” “who is Nikola Tesla,” and “what time is it in London?” These types of queries have always been a strength of Google’s, thanks in part to the acquisition of Metaweb and its knowledge graph project back in 2010, and they are heavily integrated into Google’s core search. This plays right into Wear’s strength as a platform as well – quick answers to everyday questions for which pulling out a phone is a bother.
Single-serving tools like calculators, currency converters, and weather widgets are a logical extension of the simple search queries above. These are generally displayed as interactive cards on the desktop and phone, offering condensed information alongside a few sliders. For the most part, they are faithfully represented on the watch alongside their text-based counterparts, but one or two have slipped through the cracks. Most notably, tip calculation is conspicuously absent on Wear.
The biggest categorical let-down, however, is a lack of app integration. Google has a wealth of user data at its disposal, from emails to contact details, to location info, and more. Google Search plays butler to this data, serving it to us on request in exchange for valuable marketing insights. Forget your flight number? Google is quick to respond with “American Airlines flight 321,” along with local weather, gate changes, and maybe a target ad. What about the bills you have coming due this month? Desktop and smartphone search pulls an itemized summary from Gmail as if by magic, just as it does with hotel reservations and shipment trackers. Unfortunately, the digital butler is left stammering out a generic Google search when asked these same things on Wear. No birthdays, no flights, no package tracking. Nothing that you couldn’t find on Ask.com.
Going beyond answering questions, it seems that asking apps to do things also falls on deaf ears. These aren’t difficult requests, either; both phone & desktop search have no trouble. Still, setting calendar events, sending Hangouts messages, calling businesses, and opening the camera by saying “take a picture/selfie/video,” are all beyond Wear’s grasp.
Okay, Google’s grasp on its own apps may be shaky when it comes to Android Wear, but what about integrating with third-party apps and services? So far the picture is much the same, but efforts are at least being made to bring developers on board. Let’s start with a few basics:
Both commands work flawlessly on mobile, but not Wear; a real shame. However, it should be noted that these types of commands are still uncommon on Android’s Google Now. “Post to Twitter” and “post to Google+” may succeed, but “post to Facebook” falls flat. It’s unclear how much corporate rivalry has to do with Facebook’s absence, but the takeaway is that integration is an app-by-app process, and it’s nowhere near complete.
In October, Google expanded Now’s voice search with an API for third-party developers so that anyone with an app and a dream can let users query their service with Google.
“Okay Google…”
Android? Check. Wear? I’m sorry, did you mean “run a Google search?”
To be fair, this isn’t entirely Google’s fault, nor is it the fault of developers. On the phone, these searches open Eat24, TripAdvisor, Tumblr, etc. directly, then perform the search. This has no “card UI” analog, and even though Google opened up card creation to devs in January, searches were not its intended use. Therefore, Wear’s Now may understand app-specific queries, but it has no way to respond. This is forgivable, but closer app integration is still a pipe dream worth having.
Below is the comparison list as it stands now. If you see anything out of place, or wish to contribute additional voice actions, let us know via PM or the comments below!
Google Now’s built-in forecasts are a work of art, but Wear frustratingly limits its knowledge to the next four days. This means that if you’re looking for the weekend’s weather on a Tuesday night, you’re flat out of luck. Same goes for asking about specific dates one week in advance; desktop and smartphone Now have no trouble, but Wear is left in the dust. While these next two suggestions don’t fill the voice-action void, they do offer superb forecasts (and radar) to ease your weather woes.
If you would rather stick to the weather apps you already use, read on for our section on Wearable Widgets to give existing widgets a new home on your wrist.
“Take a picture.” Despite the action-oriented phrase, this does nothing of the sort on phone or watch. The best you will see is the default camera app and rear camera load into view (even if you shout “take a selfie”). On the watch, not even this works. For a supercharged remedy, check out Wear Camera Remote. The app both opens your camera, and allows for full watch-based control including snapping a photo, switching cameras, toggling flash, and (of course) viewing a live preview.
This one is a bizarre omission on Wear. As long as you’ve come to terms with talking to your phone in public, asking Google to calculate tips is downright useful. Yes, Google is a bit stingy – 15% by default – but running these numbers on the watch as well should be a no-brainer. Luckily another Now command has you covered: math.
Bonus – foreign currency conversion!
Using Wear for voice activated texting has been around since day one, but unfortunately users of Google Voice / Hangouts have been limited to strict replies; starting a conversation from scratch is simply not possible. This was the case on Android smartphones as well up until last month, but now the Android side is finally up to speed. When will watches catch up? Nobody knows for sure, but the hope is “soon.”
Thankfully, impatient messengers can already fill the gap with a handful of apps and a some petty cash. The workaround is called “Start Hangouts from Watch,” and relies on four paid apps: AutoContacts, AutoWear, AutoInput, and Tasker. The first three cost around $4.50, or a lower monthly rate of $1.35 using the AutoApps market, but you’ll want to pick up the associated Tasker profile from the forums to avoid an additional fee. Tasker itself will set you back about $3, though it’s an incredibly versatile package.
Once payments are out of the way and the downloaded Tasker profile is in hand, it’s time to set up your new communication hub!
Hangout_From_Watch.prj.xml to Hangout_From_Watch.prf.xml, and import into Tasker (tap “Profiles” and select “Import”).Note: none of this works with an active lock screen, but using Wear as a trusted device is a simple fix.
Obviously paying $7 and disabling your lock screen is a hassle, but it’s the imperfect remedy at hand until Google gets its act together. Perhaps Wear 5.1 will be better.
Few apps come with Wear support out of the box, but widgets are nearly universal. We can exploit this. Wearable Widgets adds all the widgets you know and love to your wrist for one-tap access.
Wearable Widgets supports one widget at a time in the free version, but a $2 upgrade lifts this restriction.
Previously mentioned AutoApps may be a playground of pre-built modules and tools of elaborate customization, but there’s something about the straightforward voice actions of Commander that make it an immensely satisfying alternative.
Commander comes bundled with a suite of voice actions to supplement Google Now (including actual picture/selfie taking), along with Tasker support for creating as many custom actions as your heart desires. There’s only one catch – you have to say “take a note” before issuing commands on Wear. The Xposed framework can bypass this limitation, but remember that not all versions of Lollipop have support just yet.
Google Now’s voice actions are central to the Wear experience. Not only do they provide quick answers and a reason to drop $300 on a watch, but these spoken keywords define much of Wear’s scope as a utility. What’s more, the familiar pulsing red dot links all Google products with a common thread, seamlessly transitioning users from one platform to the next. Need an answer? Look for the red microphone and speak your mind. Unfortunately, not all red dots are created equal (as we have seen above). Straight “google searches” work as expected, including math questions and anything involving the people, places, and things in Google’s database. On the other hand, the finer details of your contacts, emails, bills, orders, and apps are beyond reach. There are a few well placed exceptions, such as the flawless composition of SMS messages, but on the whole, Now doesn’t play well with others (including Google’s very own Hangouts).
Petty differences aside, Wear’s version of Google Now feels like the complete package – a testament to how well the existing command list fills our needs. It’s disappointing that not every action is present, and we hope this changes in the near future, but this is hardly a deal-breaker. At the end of the day, setting reminders and searching Google are far more useful than looking up menus on a postage-stamp screen. And who knows? Maybe feature parity is right around the corner with Wear version 5.1.2. In the mean time, load up the apps above and regain some of the features you never knew you were missing.
Wear-ers of the world, what do you think of your Google Now experience? Do you notice or miss the commands above? Did we leave out one of your favorite voice actions? Let us know in the comments below, and we will update this post as new information (and OS updates) come to light!
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This theme by XDA Senior Member sweetbinodray employs a unique blend of light and dark palettes along with orange hues to give a cool and pleasant look to your CM12 and CM12.1 user interface. If you like trying out something new, give it a swirl!
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The official LG G4 product video has landed and is focused heavily on the camera, the team have demonstrated its capabilities by attaching the new phone to a drone and sending it off across Sydney harbor. The video also touches briefly on the new design including the leather back.
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