The Epic Android Thread - Page 354 - maemo.org

Active Topics

Firefox with Leste (10)
to Maemo 7 / Leste by teroyk - 3 days, 6 hrs ago
more...

Page 354 of 468

354

Thread Tools

	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-06-03 , 12:54
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#3531

Originally Posted by lemmyslender

Personally, I'm not much of a gamer (although from time to time I'll get caught up in something). That said, I don't see the appeal of staring at a 4" screen for hours gaming with minimal controls (tilt / multi-touch).

So, for a phone sized device, I really think service (carrier), screen size, battery, other options, are going to come before cpu/gpu choice based on games available. My phone is mostly used for a time killer, and games should be easy to start and stop quickly, nothing too involved. Difficult to stop in the middle of a mission when the line moves faster than you expected and it's suddenly your turn.

Tablets are a little different. To me they still suffer from a control problem. I'd think a well done graphically intense game would benefit from a gaming controller with multiple joysticks, buttons, etc. The bigger higher res screens on tablets would be great, but for gaming you may not want to hold the extra weight for an extended period of time. So, you'd probably set it down, and need a controller. For me having to take a controller along reduces the portability (and possibly charger).

I'd guess a smaller percentage of people would buy based on available games, but I'd bet the majority are going to be more concerned with apps in general and media capabilities (playing hd video, tv out, sound quality, etc) and perhaps productivity (office) type apps.

I'd be more likely to buy a tablet with a particular cpu/gpu if it had a specialized linux distro compiled for it that took advantage of a particular cpu/gpu combo. Either as a dual boot or an app/vnc session.

I mostly agree with the above sparing one exception, Google TV, which essentially brings an Android device to your home television. I would absolutely opt for strong gaming support (and performance) for a GTV device as a top priority.

I say that I mostly agree with the above becuase given the option of two tablets (all else being equal), eg. one with great game support and another with so-so game support, I would opt for the tablet that had stronger support. This isn't a particularly realistic scenario as hardware rarely only differs in this one characteristic. So my answer is simply it depends.

For me, I think it comes down to finding the right combination of specs that satisfy. Game support would get more points than, say, internal storage, but less points than battery life. In the end, it really depends on the device. But I'm with you that it (likely) wouldn't be the determining factor.

Quote & Reply |

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Capt'n Corrupt For This Useful Post:
danramos, lemmyslender

	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-06-03 , 13:04
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#3532

Here's a very neat prototype pen running on the MSM8660 development platform:

It's an ultrasonic pen:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/03/q...t-computex-vi/

It uses sound to determine its position accurately on a surface calibrated to 3 sources of sound emanating from the device. It implies that the device requires 3 speakers, putting it out of range of many devices, though the tech is still quite nifty.

I wouldn't mind a low profile device that could clip on to the top of a tablet and provide positional data to a pen and input directly into a device. There are already devices like this for paper, and it would be nice for them to have screen-writing support for android devices.

Quote & Reply |

The Following User Says Thank You to Capt'n Corrupt For This Useful Post:
danramos

	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-06-03 , 14:14
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#3533

The first benchmarks for Honeycomb on Intel Atom are in, and they're not looking good:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/03/h...e-compal-tabl/
RESULTS: http://translate.google.com/translat...b.html&act=url

Now these are only synthetic benchmarks, and only 'hint' at performance but are not necessarily indicative of real world performance. Additionally, there's likely much optimization that must be done. For example Dalvik (I'm assuming) is very optimized for ARMv7, but I doubt it is so for x86; then there are the various hardware drivers.

I wouldn't take these as final numbers, but if they do reflect real-world usage, Intel is going to have a tough time breaking into this space.

Quote & Reply |

The Following User Says Thank You to Capt'n Corrupt For This Useful Post:
danramos

lemmyslender	2011-06-03 , 15:17
Posts: 968 \| Thanked: 974 times \| Joined on Nov 2008 @ Ohio	#3534

Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt

I mostly agree with the above sparing one exception, Google TV, which essentially brings an Android device to your home television. I would absolutely opt for strong gaming support (and performance) for a GTV device as a top priority.

I say that I mostly agree with the above becuase given the option of two tablets (all else being equal), eg. one with great game support and another with so-so game support, I would opt for the tablet that had stronger support. This isn't a particularly realistic scenario as hardware rarely only differs in this one characteristic. So my answer is simply it depends.

For me, I think it comes down to finding the right combination of specs that satisfy. Game support would get more points than, say, internal storage, but less points than battery life. In the end, it really depends on the device. But I'm with you that it (likely) wouldn't be the determining factor.

Hadn't thought about Google TV devices, but gaming would surely play a larger part of the decision particularly for what would amount to a home entertainment system (or part thereof).

I'll agree game support could be a determining factor, but it's rather lower down the list, and if it gets that far, I'd opt for more support rather than less.

I suspect that most companies that produce the games will end up looking at supporting multiple hardware sets. Look at the console market. I don't think (though I could be wrong) that there is a huge set of games available for one console and not at least one of the others. Most games I see commercials for, are available on multiple consoles. They may not be released all at the same time, but do eventually become available on multiple consoles. Are there any popular computer games that only play on Nvidia as opposed to ATI? I suspect in time, we'll see the same from Android.

__________________
*Consumer*, not a developer! I apologize for any inconvenience.
My script to backup /home and /opt
Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant, Huawei S7, N900(retired), N800(retired)

Quote & Reply |

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to lemmyslender For This Useful Post:
Capt'n Corrupt, danramos

	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-06-03 , 17:05
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#3535

Originally Posted by lemmyslender

I suspect that most companies that produce the games will end up looking at supporting multiple hardware sets. Look at the console market. I don't think (though I could be wrong) that there is a huge set of games available for one console and not at least one of the others. Most games I see commercials for, are available on multiple consoles. They may not be released all at the same time, but do eventually become available on multiple consoles. Are there any popular computer games that only play on Nvidia as opposed to ATI? I suspect in time, we'll see the same from Android.

That's a very good point, and with Android strictly adhering to standards, porting should be a trivial affair. Android seems to be built with a healthy modularization on top of the underlying hardware. It should be much easier, for example, to 'port' a title from Tegra2 to Snapdragon than XBox360 to PS3.

Quote & Reply |

The Following User Says Thank You to Capt'n Corrupt For This Useful Post:
danramos

	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-06-03 , 17:47
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#3536

This is a rather cheeky vid by LG that pits its Optimus Black against the competition.
WARNING: this is not scientific in the least so skip if you are not willing to waste your time.
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGMyJ6hs7Ac

They use cute names for the competition:
Waffle's Ivan --> Apple iPhone
Samson's Gary S Jr --> Samsung Galaxy S II
Sonic's Archie --> Sony Xperia Arc
Hightech's Dwane --> HTC ???

Har har...

Quote & Reply |

	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-06-03 , 17:49
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#3537

Archos is gearing up to unveil its Generation 9 tablets!

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/06/arc...-paris-france/

It looks as if these will be performers, and if the price is right, may put pressure on larger players...

June 23rd is the date.

Quote & Reply |

The Following User Says Thank You to Capt'n Corrupt For This Useful Post:
danramos

	atilla	2011-06-03 , 19:12
	Posts: 1,210 \| Thanked: 597 times \| Joined on Apr 2010 @ hamburg,germany	#3538

Galaxy s2 benchmark

Attached Images

__________________

Nobody likes us but we dont care....

Quote & Reply |

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to atilla For This Useful Post:
Capt'n Corrupt, danramos

	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-06-03 , 21:38
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#3539

Originally Posted by atilla

Galaxy s2 benchmark

Awesome! Do you know what the coloured bars represent?

Quote & Reply |

	danramos	2011-06-03 , 22:34
	Posts: 4,672 \| Thanked: 5,455 times \| Joined on Jul 2008 @ Springfield, MA, USA	#3540

Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt

OMG What the hell is that ancient, dead language?

Originally Posted by atilla

Galaxy s2 benchmark

Here's a quote from one of my Australian friends on Facebook:

Dan Ramos, hope weather is calmer hey i have had my Galaxy S2 for a few days and super love it. but i'm gonna have to read up on rooting it (pros and cons) as all that is new. but i will need to, to get rid of bloatware that has come attached from my new carrier.

So far, it's seems like a ringing endorsement from at least one of my friends who already glommed onto one and become a proud new owner.

Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt

Awesome! Do you know what the coloured bars represent?

Duh! Winning.

__________________
Nokia's slogan shouldn't be the pedo-palmgrabbing image with the slogan, "Connecting People"... It should be one hand open pleadingly with another hand giving the middle finger and the more apt slogan, "Potential Unrealized." --DR