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Google Android Operating Systems Software

Google Launches Android P Beta 2 With Final APIs (venturebeat.com) 40

An anonymous reader writes: Google today launched the second Android P beta with final APIs and 157 new emoji. If you're a developer, this is your third Android P preview, and you can start testing your apps against this release by downloading the new preview from developer.android.com/preview. The preview includes an updated SDK with system images for the Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, and the official Android Emulator. If you're already enrolled and received the Android P Beta 1 on your Pixel device, you'll automatically get the update to Beta 2.
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Google Launches Android P Beta 2 With Final APIs

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  • When you can have 2,666 emojis!

  • emojis.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by phlawed ( 29334 ) on Thursday June 07, 2018 @02:48AM (#56741244) Homepage
    I'll admit to being a relatively old fart. Can someone please ELI5 the industri-wide obsession with emojis? To me, it rates a divison or two lower on "picks my interest"-scale than a new font. And I generally find fonts quite uninteresting. obl xkcd link [xkcd.com]

    No, honestly: I would like to know. I see no innovation in adding more emojis, no basic need covered and it is not as if a world of new possibilities suddenly opens itself because 157 new emojis were added. I am not against the very idea of emojis. I just don't understand the general hype and attention to emojis.

    I actually feel a slight bit of secondhand embarassment for this hangup. Is it just me?
    • I agree with you. Since a few years ago the only thing news worthy that the Unicode Consortium does is to release new stupid emojis. I thought that the race-variant emojis were stupid (the original ones were race neutral after all) but now they are releaseing gender-neutral? (again, the original emojis were gender-neutral until they decided to release female variants=. Its ridiculous. Soon the emojis font file will take 1 Gigabyte.
    • by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

      In that particular case this is a politically correct update: gender neutral emoji, redhead emoji variants, real gun replaced by squirt gun, ...

      As for why emoji matter, I think it is just an instance of the bike-shed effect [wikipedia.org].
      Small pictures are easy to understand, anyone can have an opinion about how a burger should look like [emojipedia.org]. As a result, people talk a lot about it, even though it is trivial. Things like colorimetry, computer security and machine learning require some level of technical knowledge and people

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by iampiti ( 1059688 )
        It seems the few last Unicode updates have been centered about adding politically correct emoji. I understand why that may be appealing to some people but for the insensitive bastard that I am feels like superficial shit.
        Also, some time ago here in Spain some people organized themselves to petition the Unicode consortium for a paella emoji. Is it really so important to have an emoji of your favourite dish?
        The thing about emojis is that, being images, are particularly suitable for politics games and pressu
        • by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

          TL;DR There are more than enough space for new emoji and everything we can throw in Unicode.

          Unicode has 17 planes, each containing 65536 code points. Emoji currently sit in plane 1, which isn't even half full. There are currently 1212 code points for emoji, so it means that there is room for 30x more without leaving plane 1.

          If we manage to exceed that, planes 3-13 are still unassigned. It means there are 720896 more code points available.

          But that 17 plane limit is just here to satisfy UTF-16. UTF-8, by far

          • Well my comment about running out of space was sarcastic (really) but my actual point was that I feel they shouldn't add every PC thing someone thinks about
    • You don't have to understand them. Just be absolutely sure never to use glyphs containing aubergines or peaches, or especially both together.
  • ...and 157 new Emojis!!!! ...And after ALL the unmitigated SHIT you Slashtards give Apple for announcing new Emojis... You turds oughta be ashamed of yourselves!

    Full disclosure: If I use 3 Emojis in a week that is a lot for me; but still...

    • Hate to Reply to my own Post; but the Title to my OP, above SHOULD read:

      ANDROID is Doomed. Doomed, I Say!!!

      It's what I get for posting within 5 minutes of awakening.

      But the rest of my OP stands.

    • by jrumney ( 197329 )
      Actually it was the unicode consortium that introduced 157 new emojis back in February. iOS 12 and Android P are just following suit.
      • His point still stands.

        Unicode consortium introduces a bunch of stupid new emoji; response around here: meh
        Android adds those emoji, response around here: meh
        Apple adds those same emoji, response around here: OMG APPLE HAS NOTHING, THEY CAN'T INNOVATE ONLY COPY, THEY ARE JUST ADDING STUPID EMOJI LOL NICE UPDATE LOL EMOJI FOR ALL THE LITTLE GIRLS TO USE ON WHATSAPP

        • His point still stands.

          Unicode consortium introduces a bunch of stupid new emoji; response around here: meh
          Android adds those emoji, response around here: meh
          Apple adds those same emoji, response around here: OMG APPLE HAS NOTHING, THEY CAN'T INNOVATE ONLY COPY, THEY ARE JUST ADDING STUPID EMOJI LOL NICE UPDATE LOL EMOJI FOR ALL THE LITTLE GIRLS TO USE ON WHATSAPP

          Thanks! I fully expected to simply be Punish-Modded into Oblivion, LOL!!!

  • Google better give it a name soon. It's very awkward to call it "Android Pee".
    • Google better give it a name soon. It's very awkward to call it "Android Pee".

      I, for one, think it is entirely appropriate.

      And just think, you are but three updates away from Android "Shit" and then "Android Turd". ...and you already HAVE the Emoji for those!

      (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

  • Seriously, just spend one full month with zero features being added, none at all and let all your coders just try to increase performance, because, Android isn't bad but it's not good. I've been on it for 7 years now and still older iPhones with half the specs feel snappier.
    I don't care if the iPhone is faking the snappy feel, the end result is it feels right.

    Project treble is the first particularly clever sounding, big improvement in a while too, keep at this kind of stuff

    I also very much echo the other g

    • Seriously, just spend one full month with zero features being added, none at all and let all your coders just try to increase performance, because, Android isn't bad but it's not good. I've been on it for 7 years now and still older iPhones with half the specs feel snappier.
      I don't care if the iPhone is faking the snappy feel, the end result is it feels right.

      Project treble is the first particularly clever sounding, big improvement in a while too, keep at this kind of stuff

      I also very much echo the other guy. More emoji? Who cares! This is a bullet point? Really? Really?

      But Apple ISN'T faking the Snappier feel! They just know more about ARM than nearly anyone else on the planet, seriously.

      Oh, and if you happened to watch the WWDC 2018 Keynote a few days ago, one of the very first things they talked about (maybe even the first) in the iOS segment was that their new version, iOS 12, now in beta release, was SPECIFICALLY redesigned to bring significant performance improvements, ESPECIALLY TO THE OLDEST MODELS supported (which is back to the iPhone 5s, released in 2013).

      There

  • by Luthair ( 847766 ) on Thursday June 07, 2018 @08:42AM (#56742292)
    They supposedly refactored Android to make it easier for manufacturers to provide upgrades yet they're still abandoning the Nexus 5X and 6p
  • We have gender neutral emojis.. Who cares about the IT side of things. ffs.. the world should burn.

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