iPhone SE 4: Everything We Expect Based on the Rumors
Android 14 For TV Will Bring Some Welcome Performance Improvements
Adamya Sharma / Android Authority
TL;DR
To cut down on costs, TV makers tend to source pretty underpowered hardware for their devices compared to what smartphone and tablet makers use. In a lot of ways, it makes sense to do so since TVs aren't general-purpose computers that have to keep a bunch of apps open. For most people, a TV with a low amount of onboard storage and memory is fine so long as its chipset can efficiently decode high-quality video and audio data streamed from the Internet. However, some TVs ship with such underpowered hardware that even basic things like scrolling and launching an app can feel sluggish. Fortunately, Google has optimized the upcoming Android 14 for TV update to reduce some of these pain points.
Android 14 for TV is the latest version of the Android TV OS platform, which is the underlying operating system of Google TV. It was announced last week at the Google I/O developer conference and will be coming to select consumer devices later this year. When Google first announced the update, they mentioned it would be "snappier and more responsive" than previous versions. However, their blog post didn't have any specific details on how Android 14 for TV is snapper and more responsive than Android 12 for TV. Fortunately, Googlers elaborated a bit further on what these performance improvements are during the "what's new on Google TV and the Android TV OS" session streamed on YouTube.
Improvements coming to Android 14 for TV
According to Paul Lammertsma, a Developer Relations Engineer on Android, the latest version of the Android TV OS improves boot latency (the time it takes to boot the device up) by an unspecified amount. Boot latency isn't that important of a metric to improve upon when it comes to Android TVs since they're rarely fully turned off, but it's still nice to see this improvement. Also improved is the cold start-up time of the Google TV home screen launcher; Lammertsma says it's been reduced by "over 4 seconds." Most Android TV OS devices are usually in standby mode when they're not being used, though, so it's rare to see a cold start of the launcher. Even though this improvement also won't be that impactful, it's still a welcome change.
More importantly, Lammertsma says the team has improved "vertical and horizontal scrolling performance" in Google TV. This is a much-needed improvement since scrolling can feel sluggish on some devices. Lastly, the latest version also brings "faster data loading" and a 20% reduction in storage use, though no details are available on how these improvements were achieved.
This latest Android TV OS release brings improvements to performance and power consumption to help developers like you build engaging apps for the next generation of TVs. We've improved boot latency on select TVs and reduced cold start-up time by over 4 seconds in the home screen app. These optimizations continue across Google TV's experience with improved vertical and horizontal scrolling performance and faster data loading. We're ensuring the platform performs well on lower memory devices. – Paul Lammertsma, a Developer Relations Engineer on Android
Other changes in Android 14 for TV
Supplied by Google
Performance isn't the only thing that's better in Android 14 for TV. The update also brings two new energy modes: low-energy and optimized energy. The former turns off the TV's network connection when it's in standby mode but still allows critical updates and functions to go through. The latter allows some features, like certain Google Assistant cross-device journeys and casting via Wi-Fi, to wake the TV up over the network when it's in standby mode. Lastly, the increased energy mode enables extra features when the TV isn't in use, including casting over ethernet and Google Home Platform controls.
With the new low-energy and optimized energy modes, TVs will consume 2W or less energy when they're on standby. This is particularly important because starting May 9, 2025, the EU will require that most networked devices consume 2W or less energy when in networked standby mode.
In terms of new features, Android 14 for TV also finally brings picture-in-picture mode to Google TV and makes Find My Remote a platform feature. While the next version of the Android TV OS platform won't have many new features, the combination of these two features, plus the performance and efficiency improvements I mentioned in this article, make the update worth looking forward to. How do you feel about the Android 14 for TV update?
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Sky Go Live TV App Launches On Android Smartphones
Sky Go, the multi-platform live and on-demand TV service introduced by Sky last year, has today launched on many Android smartphones.
The Sky Go app is now downloadable from the Android market, available on various handsets including the HTC Desire S and Samsung Galaxy S2.
Sky TV customers can access various live TV channels on their Android smartphones, including all five Sky Sports channels, ESPN, Sky News and Sky Movies (in line with their subscription).
Also today, Sky has added various entertainment channels to Sky Go, including Sky1, Sky Living and Sky Arts, joining the already available Sky Atlantic. The new Sky Sports F1 channel will launch on the platform on March 9, showing all action from Formula One.
"We're extremely happy to announce the rollout of Sky Go on selected Android handsets today and the arrival of the Sky Entertainment channels to mobile devices," said Holly Knill, the head of Sky Go.
"We are always working to ensure that Sky customers have more ways to watch content they love, whether it's the big Premiership game, Emmy and Golden Globe winner Modern Family or Ruth Jones's Stella, and this is exactly what this enhanced version of Sky Go delivers."
Sky Go supported Android handsets include: HTC Desire, HTC Desire S, HTC Desire HD, HTC Incredible S, HTC Sensation, Samsung Galaxy S and Samsung Galaxy S2
Sky said that Sky Movies on-demand content will launch on the Android app "later in 2012". It also said that Sky Arts will be made available on Apple iOS devices from February 21.
> Sky partners with Zeebox social TV service
Picture-in-picture Mode Is Finally Coming To Google TV, But There's A Catch
TL;DR
Most smartphone screens aren't big enough to comfortably show two full apps side-by-side simultaneously, which can be a problem when you're trying to do some work while watching an educational video or livestream. That's where picture-in-picture (PiP) mode comes in. PiP was introduced in Android 8.0 and lets you watch a video in a tiny window overlaid on top of other apps. Though PiP has been part of the Android platform for nearly seven years now, it hasn't been supported on some flavors of Android, particularly Google TV. That's set to change with the upcoming Android 14 for TV update, though.
Google TV, if you aren't aware, is based on Android TV OS, a version of AOSP designed for televisions. Since Android TV OS is based on AOSP, it has many of the same features. However, some base Android features are removed from Android TV or rather aren't required to be included. Picture-in-picture is one example of an Android feature that isn't required to be enabled on Android TV OS devices. Although a few Android TV devices, like the 2019 NVIDIA Shield TV Pro and the 2020 Sony X900H, support PiP, many of the best Android TV boxes don't.
Android TV devices tend to have low amounts of RAM, which is a problem for multitasking features like PiP. As a result, Android TV makers usually just disable PiP in their software builds because it might not work well. While the decision to enable PiP on Android TV OS devices is left up to OEMs, they don't even have the option to enable it on Google TV devices. That's because, according to Google, PiP support was "not supported at all on Google TV prior to Android 13." With the upcoming update to Android 14 for TV, however, Google TV devices will finally support picture-in-picture mode, though there are a few caveats.
The first caveat is that PiP mode might not be available on every Google TV device running Android 14 for TV. The reason for this is the same reason why the feature isn't widely available on Android TV devices: memory. Google says that PiP is enabled "on select devices that meet [their] hardware compatibility criteria," though they didn't elaborate on what that criteria is. Developers of Android TV apps will need to query a package manager flag to see whether PiP support is enabled on a particular device.
The second caveat is that Google won't allow media content to be shown in a picture-in-picture window, a major departure from how the feature is used on mobile devices. This means you won't be able to, say, keep a YouTube video open while browsing for another video to play. So what will you be able to do with PiP on Google TV? Here are the four categories of content Google will approve for picture-in-picture mode on TV:
Apps for Android TV have to explicitly declare the categories that correspond to their intended usage of PiP mode. This declaration has to be added to the apps' manifest files, giving Google an easy way to audit them.
While it's a bit of a bummer that Google is restricting what apps can use PiP for on Android TV, it makes some sense. Google wants PiP activities to enhance or complement the experience of another fullscreen activity. Apps that want to support PiP mode on Android TV have to adhere to some basic TV app quality guidelines, a lot of which make sense. The guidelines include restrictions on apps not being allowed to display promo materials or ads using PiP windows, not being allowed to use excessive resources or take over audio focus when in PiP mode, and not being able to automatically enter PiP mode without explicit action from the user, among other things.
Because of the inconsistent availability of PiP on Android TV thus far, many apps built for the platform don't even bother to support the mode. Hopefully, with the introduction of PiP as an officially supported Android TV platform feature, more apps will add support for it. Had Google not decided to skip Android 13 for TV last year, we could've had this feature a full year earlier, but it's better late than never. Developers who are interested in adding PiP support in their Android TV apps should take a look at Google's documentation, as there are a couple of PiP-related features (like the keep-clear APIs and the ability to set a title and subtitle) that are specific to TVs.
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