Android 4 3 what kind of system. New level of graphics in games

Good Tuesday is no longer Evil Monday. That's why I decided to publish a detailed review of the updated Android 4.3 OS. Let's look at all the functions of the system and find out whether it needs to be updated.

There is a lot of text, images and videos under the cut.

Demonstration of the system and, in fact, the review itself

Everything is explained in detail in the video, but for those who like to read, see it below.

So what's new?

– Speed up the system (really works faster)

– More accurate typing on the keyboard (really more accurate)

– New on/off buttons in settings

– Hidden ability to manage program processes

A program has already appeared on Google Play [link] that activates this feature. Using this feature, you can, for example, prevent any application from tracking your location or using the camera. By the way, this is an excellent opportunity to avoid surveillance by “big brother” if anyone is very worried.

– “Always search for networks” function

This allows you to better track your location. The battery is used up a little faster.

– OpenGL/ES 3.0 support

The standard will allow you to use device resources to their full potential in games. Google has already demonstrated how it works on Asphalt 8 and with the Unity engine.

What’s noteworthy is that Open GL/ES 3.0 will not be supported on all devices.

Here is a list of supported video cores:

PowerVR Series5 SGX545
- PowerVR Series6 Rogue
- Mali-T600 Series
- GC800 Series Vivante Corporation
- Qualcomm Adreno 320

At the moment, only Adreno 320 is in mass production, which means that the following devices will be able to work with “such graphics”:

HTC Butterfly (S/J)
- HTC One
- Samsung Galaxy S IV Active
- Samsung Galaxy S IV
- Asus Padfone Infinity
- Asus Padfone 2
- LG Optimus G Pro
-LG Optimus G
- OPPO Find 5
- Sony Xperia Z/SP/ZL
- Google Nexus 4
- Xiaomi MI-2
- ZTE Grand S

– In the “phone” application, it is now possible to dial by T9 and by subscriber number. It seems to me that it was high time to do this.

This function must be enabled in the application settings by clicking on the checkbox “Autofill when typing n.”

– New camera app

There is a completely new menu that opens anywhere on the screen. You just need to hold your finger. Made extremely inconvenient

– Multi-user with limited functionality (available only for tablets)

Creating multiple profiles is not new to Android. The function has been updated and received wider functionality. For example, you can create child profiles with the ability to disable in-app purchases or disable some applications altogether.

– Supports 4K displays

– Google Keep and Wallet apps are now standard

– The order of sorting applications by name has changed. Now the Cyrillic alphabet comes first. Thank you

– Roboto font has been updated

Red is new, black is old.

– Smart Bluetooth function. This will save battery power when connecting your smartphone to a smart watch or fitness bracelet

– Changes in the notification center: now, instead of the notification curtain, your smartwatch can play the role. Google also promises that soon it will be possible to officially change the curtain itself on your phone by downloading “mods” on Google Play

– Added integration of a modular DRM framework, making it easier for multimedia application developers to organize access to protected content

– API for accessing the built-in VP8 video encoder

– SELinux activation

– Android NDK (r9) update with support for native application access to OpenGL ES 3.0 API

And finally, a comparison of Android 4.3 and 4.2.2 (speed and GeekBench 2)

P.S. If anyone is interested, I have Nova Launcher, Lockscreen Policy, PlayBar UCCW clock and Power Toggles.

At the beginning of 2013, there were rumors that the release date of Android 5.0 would happen in May. and will be released in the second half of the year. The second half of the year is a very flexible concept. It can be like summer (which is not bad), or autumn (which is worse), and winter (which is very sad). But so that we don’t worry too much, Google has set July 24, 2013 as the release date for Android 4.3. The event took place in San Francisco.

I should immediately note that Android 4.3 is still called Jelly Bean. Google thereby emphasizes the development of one series of operating systems and the absence of fundamental changes within them. Started with the Android 4.1 generation, the new version 4.3 develops the ideas underlying its predecessors.

Android 4.3. What's new?

One of the first and main changes in Android 4.3 is the continued optimization of the interface. This work began in Android 4.1, and now the following system modules have received improvements: vsync timing, triple buffering, increased interface responsiveness to touch, faster processor response to input, and hardware acceleration of 2D rendering (read interface).

Now hardware acceleration of 2D graphics optimizes the flow of commands for drawing various elements, converting them into a more efficient format for the graphics chip. In essence, their order is redistributed, united into similar groups so that the GPU does not often switch between tasks of different complexity. At the same time, work with displaying the interface can now be distributed among the cores of a multi-core processor.

We also worked on producing smoother shapes and text. By shapes I mean circles and rectangles with rounded corners. Google also worked hard to speed up the window buffer. In fact, applications will be able, if not loaded faster, to be displayed somewhat more quickly.

They especially talk about support. The well-known API for 3D graphics was updated back in August 2012, and now it can actually be used to create games in Android 4.3 and later versions through the framework or NDK. OpenGL ES 3.0 in particular provides acceleration of advanced visual effects, adds high-quality ETC2/EAC texture compression, and an updated version of the GLSL ES shader programming language. Toys on Google devices will now really become more beautiful, but they will only be able to work on the newest devices. So far, support has been announced for Nexus 7 from 2013 (I’ll talk about it below), Nexus 4 and Nexus 10. Probably, OpenGL ES 3.0 will work on , as well as other flagships of this year.

Improved Bluetooth. Well, not the standard itself, of course, but they added support for Bluetooth Smart (Bluetooth LE, formerly known as) - this is a set of special APIs that allow you to work with GATT services (Generic Attribute Profile). The GATT server runs on a smartphone or tablet, after which it can read or send characteristics to various devices such as watches, pedometers, joysticks, remote controls, and so on. Or the device can receive notifications from them, if any are sent.

Android 4.3 now supports the Bluetooth AVRCP 1.3 profile - this feature can broadcast to compatible devices not only the audio stream via Bluetooth, but also the accompanying data about the artist, album, duration, and so on. The platform for its operation was introduced back in Android 4.2, and now all devices that support A2DP/AVRCP profiles will be able to work with AVRCP 1.3.

I remember on the site I once wrote about . Well, let's rejoice! In the literal sense, there is no guest mode yet, but some emulation of it has appeared. We are talking about limited profiles. Unlike individual users, profiles are created based on the account of a particular user, based on the applications installed on him, settings, widgets, and so on.

The profile is allocated its own environment and local storage space where allowed applications will run. However, developers can now take this new feature of Android 4.3 into account and provide their programs with more flexible configuration. In other words, the settings for limiting the application for profiles will be displayed in the settings menu of this very profile. This way it will be possible to limit in-app purchases (oh, how much parental money was wasted on this!), the launch of individual functions, and the like. In general, the thing is really useful, but it only works on tablets :(.

We also took care of energy consumption (how could we do without it?) when working with navigation and Wi-Fi. With support from the device, it will be possible to shift the calculation of coordinates from the software to the hardware. Wi-Fi, in turn, is capable of searching for access points without connecting to them. It’s nice that this feature no longer depends on hardware, but is a software “lotion” of Android 4.3. That is, it should work everywhere. But there are still problems with geolocation - it will only be available on the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 2013.

A separate point is the improvements in the media part of the system. The main focus is on improved support for DRM content. The new modular DRM framework makes it easier to integrate DRM protection into your streaming protocols like MPEG DASH for various services.

But okay with this DRM - it’s relevant for the bourgeoisie in the West, but for me it’s better to read about the new VP8 encoder. It can now be accessed both from the framework and from the native Android 4.3 APIs. For applications that support these native applications, the system offers new OpenMAX 1.1.2 extension headers that provide support for VP8 profiles and levels. That is, they will be able to control the bitrate, framerate (number of frames per second), encoding errors, and so on. Plus, the VP8 encoder supports a decent number of formats in which you can save your content. This thing works programmatically and in this case will be available on all devices with Android 4.3. Well, for especially advanced ones, where hardware operation of the VP8 encoder is possible, it will be like that.

Other media changes will be of interest to those who capture video and edit it on Google devices (I wonder how many of these people there are?). Android 4.3 can send a video stream directly to a video encoder (any). For example, with OpenGL ES applications. As for editing, now combine the MPEG-4 audio stream and the MPEG-4 video stream into one MPEG-4 file.

Actually, that's all. Well, or almost everything. The rest concerns developers more. So, developers, keep your ears up and your eyes glued to the screen - now it's your turn!

Looks like such a great guy, I finally added a normal notification panel. In Android it has always been and remains very functional and advanced. Therefore, you can improve it in this state in two ways: add more functionality, or let programmers do it themselves. We chose the second option.

Now applications have the ability to monitor the flow of notifications with the user’s permission, thereby shaping their priority and information content. The new API allows you to register a service that will receive notifications, and then decide what to do with them. Again, if the user allows it. You can be more modest and simply assign callback functions to the events of adding, updating or deleting notifications.

By default, all this “mayhem” with notifications is disabled. But this can be canceled in the settings. And even assign separate applications or an application to work with notifications like this. In general, the enemy will not pass if the owner does not want to.

The remaining changes for developers related to the interface concern mainly the design. So now you can create new layers that will overlap the current content. That is, it will be possible to make panels moving out from the side of the screen, and then moving back with one gesture. New types of animation have been added and work with screen orientation modes has been improved.

They took care of Jews, Arabs and other Chinese. Although no, the Chinese - they write from left to right, but took care of those who wrote from right to left. In general, I will not go deeper here, since I personally and most Russian-speaking readers are of little interest in this issue. I can only say that new functions have appeared that make it easier to work with such text, as well as utilities.

There is a new automation framework that simplifies application testing. It allows you to emulate user actions, in particular, you can set the execution of such basic operations as rotating the screen, taking a screenshot, touching the screen and much more.

New tools for assessing the speed of their work will also help in testing applications. More precisely, the Systrace utility, which tracks the resources used by the program, has been modernized. Android 4.3 also includes a new Trace API that makes Systrace easier to use. With its help, you can evaluate the performance not only of the entire application, but of individual sections of its code. The event report can then be exported as a graph for more detailed evaluation.

For 3D developers, a tool has appeared that displays the performance of a running application, in particular, the FPS level is displayed. A special graph is even displayed, where blue indicates the time for creating image output commands, orange indicates the time for their execution, and yellow indicates the time for completing their work.

In addition, the security of the system has been improved, which is also necessary to attract corporate users. Developers received tools for configuring the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) and Encapsulated EAP (Phase 2) protocols for authorization in the corporate network.

By the way, the most interesting thing is that all these developer features are partly present in Android 4.2. But there, as well as in Android 4.3, they are hidden by default. They open if you go to Settings > About phone and tap Build number 7 (seven) times.

That's all now. Indeed, Android 4.3 doesn't deserve a new codename. Indeed, this is just an improved Android 4.2, which offers little new to ordinary users. There are no changes to the interface as such. Almost everything new is aimed at developers. It looks more like Google is preparing developers for the release, where new features and applications will more actively use the changed and new frameworks and APIs.

But Android 4.3 was not the only one presented in San Francisco. They waited and waited for the new system, but in the end they received “the joy of programmers.” However, Google tried to console the inconsolable users with the announcement of the new Nexus 7 tablet. A year ago, let me remind you, its first version created a sensation - of course, such a high-quality tablet and for such money! Today you can already find decent models from famous brands at cheaper prices. So the Nexus 7 2013 is no longer the cheapest, but it has one of the best price/quality/performance combinations.

The new Nexus 7 now features a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor clocked at 1.5GHz - newer and faster than the NVIDIA Tegra 3 in the previous Nexus 7. Google claims CPU speeds are 1.8x faster and GPU chip and completely quadrupled.

But much more important is the appearance of a new screen. No, the diagonal remains the same - 7 inches. But the resolution increased from 1280x800 to 1920x1200, which gave that same “Retina clarity”, namely 323 ppi. Not bad for a $230 tablet! It's even cooler than any iPad!

At the same time, 3G and even 4G modules appeared. The amount of RAM has doubled to 2 GB, and the built-in memory is now a minimum of 16 GB and a maximum of 32 GB. But it still can’t be expanded :(. They also improved the camera, which now has a 5 MP sensor, and in addition, a front camera was added, which the first Nexus 7 did not have at all.

To top it all off, the new tablet weighs 50 grams less and is also 2 millimeters thinner. In general, the upgrade is quite serious. And the prices, in general, are not very steep: $230 for the 16 GB version, $270 for the model with 32 GB of memory, and the version with an LTE module costs $350. So far, all this has been sold in the USA since July 30, 2013, and then they promise to begin deliveries to England, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, South Korea, Spain and Australia. There is no Russia :(.

By the way, the new Nexus 7 is not the only device with Android 4.3. In theory, this version of the system is already being received by the owners of the first Nexus 7, as well as the Nexus 4. Apparently, it will also appear on it. A little later, you should expect it on Google Play Edition smartphones – modern flagships with “naked” Android.

I’ll say a few more words about Chromecast - a small module with an HDMI interface for a TV. By connecting it to your TV receiver, the device will be able to broadcast video from online services like YouTube and Vimeo to your TV.

In general, for me, Android 4.3 did not impress me. The groundwork for the future is visible, but the new Nexus 7 tablet really burns! Already want! And how are you? Are you disappointed by the presentation of Android 4.3?

A week has passed since Google presented the world with the next major Android update, numbered 4.3 and retaining the name of the Jelly Bean system. Delivery of the updated OS is happening gradually: some lucky owners of Google phones and Google tablets received the update almost immediately, others just received it, and the less fortunate will have to wait for more than one week.

Meanwhile, the Android 4.3 update turned out to be quite heavy and weighs as much as 139.3 megabytes. Despite this size, the update did not introduce any large-scale visual changes to the system, but nevertheless brought it to a qualitatively new level. However, first things first.

Custom profiles on tablets

Now owners of Nexus tablets have access to a very convenient feature - user profiles with limited rights. Apparently, Google has seen enough of the failures of the Apple platform with its periodic events in the style of “a child purchased through an in-app purchase for a couple of thousand dollars” and decided to comprehensively solve the problem: the user account can be very finely configured at the level of each individual application and access to various parts of the system. We select specific applications (for example, games) and disable in-app purchases in them. Voila!

Why is this thing (and working with accounts in general), as well as landscape orientation of the main screen, not on smartphones? Google says something about a lack of understanding of how this should work on smartphones, but you and I know that the reason is 99% likely to be some patents, otherwise they would have implemented it long ago without hesitation.

New level of graphics in games

The update included support for OpenGL ES version 3.0, which means the imminent arrival on the platform of 3D toys that are unreal in their beauty and visual sophistication, the implementation of which on mobile devices previously seemed impossible.

Smart dialer with auto-completion

A very interesting feature has also appeared in the standard dialer. Now, if a person dials a number, and the dialed combination from part of the number is in the contacts, then these contacts will be displayed on the screen. This thing is turned on in the dialer settings.

Thick App Alerts

It happens that a crooked application eats up a wild amount of smartphone resources, and as a bonus, it also does not want to be unloaded from memory even in inactive mode. Now smart Android itself identifies such disabled people and offers them a Force Stop through the notification field. Previously, to catch such inappropriateness, you had to install a special application from Google Play.

Using Wi-Fi to find your location without turning on or connecting to Wi-Fi

Now Android can use the smartphone's Wi-Fi module to more accurately determine geopositioning. To do this, you don’t need to connect to wireless networks and you don’t even have to turn on the communication module itself; just check the box in the additional Wi-Fi options.

Economical Bluetooth

Android 4.3 supports promising Bluetooth Smart technology, also known as Bluetooth Low Energy. This thing is used in various flagship accessories like Nike FuelBand and other sports gadgets that require constant connection with the device, minimizing the energy consumption of the smartphone battery in such a tough mode.

Future proof - UltraHD support

Some people think that a small 5-inch FullHD screen with its 1920x1080 pixels is somehow a lot. No, this is not enough. Google is thinking about the future, and therefore has already included support for UltraHD resolution, also known as 4K (4096x2160), in Android. Along with this, a new DPI category appeared - XXXHDPI (Extra Extra Extra High Definition). Retina? It's already the day before yesterday.

Operation speed

You know that feeling when your veteran friend Samsung Galaxy Nexus is getting older, and Android, contrary to the laws of the market and technology, runs faster and faster on it? We, the owners of Google phones, know. This happens with every Android update. Google pays great attention to system optimization, and it really shows. Optimization concerns not only the speed of operation - the battery life of devices without recharging also increases. This is certainly gratifying.

In addition, the system was slightly combed. Tiny but sensible visual improvements are noticeable here and there: the time display in the notification area is not duplicated on the lock screen. We finished the camera a little. Its interface has become even more convenient and clearer.

The switches in the menus have become neater and so on.

And Google is increasingly pushing its services to the masses. The Drive, Keep, Chrome and Hangouts applications have now become system applications, that is, they are present in Android by default and cannot be deleted.

Bottom line

Google is definitely moving in the right direction. We see active work on all fronts: the platform is becoming more and more attractive for developers of both serious and entertainment applications, for accessory manufacturers and, of course, for us, ordinary users. Well done Google.

By the way, we have a way to speed up the arrival of the update (point No. 2 in the article, works only for Google phones), so if you don’t have the patience to wait, you can cheat a little.