Motorola's CEO Blames Apps for Reduced Battery Life; Claims Bur is a Solution

[UNC]

We all know android sucks for battery life. That's what happens when you run emulated code... It is up to the OEM's to DEMAND less power intensive apps...

GB can run code completely natively (just a bit of Android code like a front-end or a bridge to the screen, or however you'd say it), so I think this is a moot point going forward.

So Gingerbread runs code without the need of the Dalvik VM???? That is news to me if it's true. As far as I know Android runs EVERY application under VM. Can you give me a link that shows otherwise? If they have changed it up then battery life should be comparable to the iPhone...

 

[kodiak799]

So Gingerbread runs code without the need of the Dalvik VM???? That is news to me if it's true. As far as I know Android runs EVERY application under VM. Can you give me a link that shows otherwise? If they have changed it up then battery life should be comparable to the iPhone...

Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) NDK now close to pure Native Development - ARM Community

"While the working model of the NDK was intended to enable specialized tasks, what we found from speaking with many Android application developers, is that they would embed their entire application in a native library. They would create only a very small Java wrapper to handle application lifecycle management and to access API’s not available from native code."

" It means an application can be written entirely in C/C++/ARM assembly code without need to develop Java or JNI bindings. It provides real freedom for developers to choose between Java and C, opening application development on Android to a further superset of the developer community."

 

[Kenny Bats]

We all know android sucks for battery life. That's what happens when you run emulated code... It is up to the OEM's to DEMAND less power intensive apps...

GB can run code completely natively (just a bit of Android code like a front-end or a bridge to the screen, or however you'd say it), so I think this is a moot point going forward.

So Gingerbread runs code without the need of the Dalvik VM???? That is news to me if it's true. As far as I know Android runs EVERY application under VM. Can you give me a link that shows otherwise? If they have changed it up then battery life should be comparable to the iPhone...

iPhone battery? Try chaning that thing.

 

[JBirdVegas]

His use of the word quietly worries me

"... quietly using its platform customizations to collect stats on app usage and how different processes affect processor utilization and battery life"

What other info is closed source blur quietly collecting so Moto may one day use?

 

[UNC]

So Gingerbread runs code without the need of the Dalvik VM???? That is news to me if it's true. As far as I know Android runs EVERY application under VM. Can you give me a link that shows otherwise? If they have changed it up then battery life should be comparable to the iPhone...

Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) NDK now close to pure Native Development - ARM Community

"While the working model of the NDK was intended to enable specialized tasks, what we found from speaking with many Android application developers, is that they would embed their entire application in a native library. They would create only a very small Java wrapper to handle application lifecycle management and to access API’s not available from native code."

" It means an application can be written entirely in C/C++/ARM assembly code without need to develop Java or JNI bindings. It provides real freedom for developers to choose between Java and C, opening application development on Android to a further superset of the developer community."

Well that is good news. But it still uses VM for some of the code. Once they remove emulation completely from the system we will see far better battery life. Also, many apps will not be updated and will continue to run through the VM. Those apps need to be changed pronto to run natively.... Maybe those are the apps Moto is talking about.

 

[kodiak799]

Well that is good news. But it still uses VM for some of the code. Once they remove emulation completely from the system we will see far better battery life. Also, many apps will not be updated and will continue to run through the VM. Those apps need to be changed pronto to run natively.... Maybe those are the apps Moto is talking about.

They don't have to write anything in java. It's only a wrapper, the amount of VM involvement is so minimal as to be completely inconsequential - it's literally 1 line of code to call a simple module to put the output up on your screen. The inefficiency comes from java being slower and terribly inefficient at plowing through code, but the NDK does all the heavy lifting in C/C++.

Also a big deal for porting. They can port an entire app/game directly into C/C++ and don't have to do any java. But I don't think all the libraries are fully developed yet. I think this could ultimately make Android the preferred development platform.

 

[forum8417]

im now on the d2 after having the d1 and i wont be going back to motorola until it puts out a phone without blur. man i wish WE could decide if we want that crap or not. i just want vanilla.

 

[UNC]

Well that is good news. But it still uses VM for some of the code. Once they remove emulation completely from the system we will see far better battery life. Also, many apps will not be updated and will continue to run through the VM. Those apps need to be changed pronto to run natively.... Maybe those are the apps Moto is talking about.

They don't have to write anything in java. It's only a wrapper, the amount of VM involvement is so minimal as to be completely inconsequential - it's literally 1 line of code to call a simple module to put the output up on your screen. The inefficiency comes from java being slower and terribly inefficient at plowing through code, but the NDK does all the heavy lifting in C/C++.

Also a big deal for porting. They can port an entire app/game directly into C/C++ and don't have to do any java. But I don't think all the libraries are fully developed yet. I think this could ultimately make Android the preferred development platform.

Yes, I agree with this... But, the older apps may not be recoded to run natively in C+. They will still run through the Dalvik VM.... Like I said, those are probably the apps that MOTO is trying to identify.

 

[DroidMastar2]

CEO fail.

Sounds like scapegoating. Low capacity batteries and the nature of Android is the problem behind battery life.

I refuse to trust/believe anything this guy spits out of his mouth. I am convinced he sits at home "googling" things to say at press conferences; whatever sounds good ends up fed to the public/consumers. smh

 

[kodiak799]

Yes, I agree with this... But, the older apps may not be recoded to run natively in C+. They will still run through the Dalvik VM.... Like I said, those are probably the apps that MOTO is trying to identify.

Yeah that's a fair point. I'm just not buying that Dalvik VM is the reason for poor battery life, I think it has more to do with true multi-tasking, flash, and MAYBE some poorly coded apps for some people. And probably more than anything it's just Apple having one device and several year headstart to get the most out of their batteries.

I get how Dalvik VM causes lag and doing extra work burns more battery, but if you stop to think about there aren't nearly as many CPU cycles as you think - when your phones is sleeping or reading a webpage after it's loaded, your processor isn't doing much at all. Even on the dimmest setting my display burns through battery like nobody's business. The D1 is lucky to get 4.5 hours of voice calls.

 

[Lex_Luthor]

I think battery technology needs an upgrade. Since Li-ion and Li-poly batteries started going in phones, what great battery breakthroughs have there been?

0.

Well im no chemist but ive taken some Chem and Lithium metal is the best for batteries since they have the most electrons and what not.

 

[DaWolf85]

I think battery technology needs an upgrade. Since Li-ion and Li-poly batteries started going in phones, what great battery breakthroughs have there been?

0.

Well im no chemist but ive taken some Chem and Lithium metal is the best for batteries since they have the most electrons and what not.

My chemistry teacher tells me sodium or potassium would be more efficient, but would take more time to recharge. Lithium is probably the best balance.

 

[sb1831]

im now on the d2 after having the d1 and i wont be going back to motorola until it puts out a phone without blur. man i wish WE could decide if we want that crap or not. i just want vanilla.

I said it at the start of the year after the investors meeting that Moto said they had no intentions of removing Blur as it was part of their whole convergence devices shtick. They also said they intended to keep their premium upper tier handsets at the 199 price point. So far they've shown no signs of changing from their planned path of action. Yes the Atrix dock was ridiculous but the phone came out at 200 still as did the X2.


As for those complaining about blur, I don't get it. Some I doubt have ever used it other than to pick up in a store and say "Blah Blur Blah..." I used it with no problems and perfectly fine battery life for a couple of months. Most of the complaints I've seen are because of the amount of space required for Blur. I have everything and more that I need a PHONE to do and still have plenty of space.

To me it just sounds like people being cheap and expecting a phone to take place of every piece of electronics in their house. Buy a phone, laptop, wireless broadband card(if your company doesn't give you one and you ACTUALLY need it), and be happy.

 

[cutiedroid]

What is blur? I thought I knew; I thought it was the IU but I guess it isn't. What IS blur?

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums

 

[DroidXDoes4G]

What is blur? I thought I knew; I thought it was the IU but I guess it isn't. What IS blur?

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums

Its exactly what it says. A blur.

( aka A horrible UI imo)