The graphics session was definitely the most interesting and tale-telling not to mention that Romain Guy and Chet Hasse cracking jokes were hilarious. On a serious note, I'm definitely interested in running the profile GPU rendering tool on the apps I use regularly to examine their performance like I do with the show overdraw tool.
Technically, hardware accelerated *anything* means you're using the most efficient device to compute what it is you're doing, which means it should be faster, which means it should go back to a lower power state faster/more often. So yes, it could.
Obviously, the amount of non-rectangular paths used in Android is so low that I doubt the improvements would be more than a few minutes of battery life at best. The reordered and merged rendering pipeline will probably do a lot more for it.
I think it is a pretty safe assumption that any battery life improvement would be negligible. Also, equating drawing on GPU with lower power consumption is overly simplistic. For example if my UI draws at 30fps all in software, and then I implement a hardware path and now have it drawing at 60fps, power use may in fact be increased -- the CPU still needs to run some, and it could well not be able to lower in frequency enough to offset the increased power use of the GPU.
Yeah, I don't think hardware accelerated necessitates lower power draw. I'm fairly certain hardware accelerated browsers *lowered* my laptop battery life, same with more hardware accelerated operating systems. I get the theory, but in practice the power saved by the CPU getting to stay in lower power states longer maybe be completely offset by the GPU being powered on where it normally would be at minimum clocks.
The bluetooth stack change was *not* for the "addition to enabling the Android team to rapidly add more features and profiles" but rather at the behest of Broadcom. The Bluez library is utilized by every major Linux distribution and desktop environments to provide features that the Broadcom stack *does not* provide. The switch is a *downgrade*.
Android is still more closed than it should be. In a real, open-source world, Android changes would be communicated ... get ready ... openly.
I can only hope the focus for more bluetooth improvements come along with bluetooth bug fixes as well. My wife and I both have a Nexus 4 and it's quite obvious that the bluetooth functionality was a downgrade over previous Android versions. It's a major disappointment on a phone that is otherwise quite good.
I've personally run into all of these problems. When people ask me if I'd recommend the Nexus 4 to them, I tell them that it's fine as long as they don't ever have to use bluetooth.
I have a Nexus 4 and I agree with you 100%. It's not that bluetooth is completely unusable but the random not-turning on and the wifi/bluetooth issues make for a very frustrating experience
I'm kinda annoyed at the state of Bluetooth on my Galaxy Nexus. I can't pair with my stock Subaru car head unit. And pairing with my Clarion head unit is a nightmare. Lots of flipping BT off and then on again and rebooting. It's just so hit or miss. 4.2.2 has crippled my device.
I've heard that AOSP/CM builds have this issue in various vehicles. I had issues with my Cruze only with CM, but PA and Slim hasn't had any issue. If I had a guess, perhaps there's something in the kernel or maybe (puts tinfoil hat on) there's something car manufacturers & car stereo manufacturers did intentionally in collusion with major device makers to try to hinder people from flashing custom software (since the two most common non-manufacturer non-carrier approved software are AOSP and CM...).
1) I am confused by "...with lower duty cycles that enable deployment in lower energy devices..." followed immediately by the statement that BLE doesn't mean that power consumption will be reduced. Can the author or someone clarify?
2) How F**KING hard is it to implement a filter for "Love my job"?!
Bluetooth LE is different from Bluetooth "classic". I'm not 100% sure but I think it's intended for non-"traditional" use cases of bluetooth connections (like voice streaming), but intended towards lower bandwidth connections like heath monitors and smart watches. So, even if you have BLE enabled, you'll still use the same amount of energy for "classic" use cases like streaming audio.
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17 Comments
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TurnerK - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
The graphics session was definitely the most interesting and tale-telling not to mention that Romain Guy and Chet Hasse cracking jokes were hilarious. On a serious note, I'm definitely interested in running the profile GPU rendering tool on the apps I use regularly to examine their performance like I do with the show overdraw tool.mayankleoboy1 - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
Will hardware acceleration of non-recangle parts imprve battery life ?Friendly0Fire - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
Technically, hardware accelerated *anything* means you're using the most efficient device to compute what it is you're doing, which means it should be faster, which means it should go back to a lower power state faster/more often. So yes, it could.Obviously, the amount of non-rectangular paths used in Android is so low that I doubt the improvements would be more than a few minutes of battery life at best. The reordered and merged rendering pipeline will probably do a lot more for it.
hackbod - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
I think it is a pretty safe assumption that any battery life improvement would be negligible. Also, equating drawing on GPU with lower power consumption is overly simplistic. For example if my UI draws at 30fps all in software, and then I implement a hardware path and now have it drawing at 60fps, power use may in fact be increased -- the CPU still needs to run some, and it could well not be able to lower in frequency enough to offset the increased power use of the GPU.tipoo - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
Yeah, I don't think hardware accelerated necessitates lower power draw. I'm fairly certain hardware accelerated browsers *lowered* my laptop battery life, same with more hardware accelerated operating systems. I get the theory, but in practice the power saved by the CPU getting to stay in lower power states longer maybe be completely offset by the GPU being powered on where it normally would be at minimum clocks.chrone - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
this is what i've been waiting for. get rid of all the micro stuttering on transition animation, and choppy scrolling. yay! :Dtipoo - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - link
Hasn't every Android revision promised that? :Pchrone - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
yeah, you are right, each time it's broken on next update or so. lolmooninite - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
The bluetooth stack change was *not* for the "addition to enabling the Android team to rapidly add more features and profiles" but rather at the behest of Broadcom. The Bluez library is utilized by every major Linux distribution and desktop environments to provide features that the Broadcom stack *does not* provide. The switch is a *downgrade*.Android is still more closed than it should be. In a real, open-source world, Android changes would be communicated ... get ready ... openly.
Cinnabuns - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
I can only hope the focus for more bluetooth improvements come along with bluetooth bug fixes as well. My wife and I both have a Nexus 4 and it's quite obvious that the bluetooth functionality was a downgrade over previous Android versions. It's a major disappointment on a phone that is otherwise quite good.Aside from the initial audio streaming issues that were fixed in 4.2.2, there are still a number of bluetooth issues plaguing Android 4.2.2:
- lack of MAP profile support. It was supported until 4.2. (https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id...
- bluetooth randomly won't turn on (https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id... https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id...
- wifi drops connection when bluetooth is in use (https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id...
I've personally run into all of these problems. When people ask me if I'd recommend the Nexus 4 to them, I tell them that it's fine as long as they don't ever have to use bluetooth.
djpavcy - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - link
I have a Nexus 4 and I agree with you 100%. It's not that bluetooth is completely unusable but the random not-turning on and the wifi/bluetooth issues make for a very frustrating experienceDustoMan - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
I'm kinda annoyed at the state of Bluetooth on my Galaxy Nexus. I can't pair with my stock Subaru car head unit. And pairing with my Clarion head unit is a nightmare. Lots of flipping BT off and then on again and rebooting. It's just so hit or miss. 4.2.2 has crippled my device.anactoraaron - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - link
I've heard that AOSP/CM builds have this issue in various vehicles. I had issues with my Cruze only with CM, but PA and Slim hasn't had any issue. If I had a guess, perhaps there's something in the kernel or maybe (puts tinfoil hat on) there's something car manufacturers & car stereo manufacturers did intentionally in collusion with major device makers to try to hinder people from flashing custom software (since the two most common non-manufacturer non-carrier approved software are AOSP and CM...).chophshiy - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - link
1) I am confused by "...with lower duty cycles that enable deployment in lower energy devices..." followed immediately by the statement that BLE doesn't mean that power consumption will be reduced. Can the author or someone clarify?2) How F**KING hard is it to implement a filter for "Love my job"?!
tipoo - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - link
Indeed, or implement a system where a users first 15 posts or something must pass a captcha.lilmoe - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - link
Bluetooth LE is different from Bluetooth "classic". I'm not 100% sure but I think it's intended for non-"traditional" use cases of bluetooth connections (like voice streaming), but intended towards lower bandwidth connections like heath monitors and smart watches. So, even if you have BLE enabled, you'll still use the same amount of energy for "classic" use cases like streaming audio.Mugur - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
2) Or iMac...? :-) :-) :-)