1. rkennedy01's Avatar
    Here's my impression of Android app "multitasking" in OS 2.1 BETA:

    1. The architecture still seems to be based on a single VM instance hosting all of the apps. You can see this in the way that each app is rendered when you switch between multiple apps in their respective "windows": Sometimes a "ghost" image of the previously selected/active app will be shown before the window's contents are switched to the currently selected app - shades of old school "screen scraping" or a "seamless" ICA session in Windows Terminal Services. Scrolling inside of Android apps - for example, the settings page in TapaTalk - is also "jerkier" than in previous instances, though this may be resolved before the final 2.1 release.

    2. Also, the lack of significant additional memory overhead when running multiple, concurrent Android apps - each in its own window - indicates that the underlying VM image is shared between them. While not as robust as a per-app VM model, this does allow them to provide the "illusion" of multitasking without the cost in terms of memory consumption or CPU overhead.

    3. This shared VM model means that, while the apps will be displayed independently of one another, they are not truly isolated as with QNX native apps. Also, the underlying multitasking engine is still Android's, meaning that apps running in the shared VM will be limited by Android 2.xx's ability to time slice, handle message passing tasks, etc., vs. QNX's more robust (world class, actually) model. I've see this myself when running 6 concurrent Android apps: The performance of the individual app UIs begins to degrade while the native QNX UI and all native apps continue to run smoothly.

    4. How this will impact application reliability is anyone's guess. I'm hoping that because of the split UI model that any single app failure will not lock-up the entire VM, at least not the UI portion which tends to get blocked under 2.0.xx. However, the level of isolation is still not comparable to QNX and a failure in a critical area of the Android runtime by any single app will likely spell doom for any other concurrently running Android app. I will need to witness an app failure first hand before I can confirm this.

    Overall, a bit of a let down. I was hoping for true app isolation, with per-app instancing of the VM. However, given the limited RAM and CPU capacity of the Playbook, this may not have been a viable option. Regardless, the current implementation is certainly better than what we had before with 2.0.xx, and I will likely find myself using more Android apps on my PB as a result of this change.

    RCK
    nievz, russnash, darktoy and 7 others like this.
    06-01-12 01:36 AM
  2. ssbtech's Avatar
    Sounds like an improvement, it was a nightmare to switch between Android applications before.

    Hopefully this Android player requirement will be short lived as more devs build QNX applications.
    06-01-12 01:56 AM
  3. ptpete's Avatar
    I agree, there is some of that "ghosting" for me, but it is definitely nice to be able to run more than one android app, even though it may be a bit of an "illusion".

    But seriously, you can't multitask on a real android device, so you are really holding RIM up to a nonexistent standard!

    Also it shows you how rocking native QNX apps will/can be.
    sf49ers likes this.
    06-01-12 01:59 AM
  4. ptpete's Avatar
    With multitasking, I'll probably delete Android honeycomb launcher which I was using to "manage" Android apps.

    Much more useful/seamless now from the original playbook screen.
    06-01-12 02:02 AM
  5. rkennedy01's Avatar
    No question, it's an improvement - however, I was hoping for a bit more. Call me greedy...

    Sent from my BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6
    06-01-12 02:04 AM
  6. rkennedy01's Avatar
    With multitasking, I'll probably delete Android honeycomb launcher which I was using to "manage" Android apps.

    Much more useful/seamless now from the original playbook screen.
    Yeah, first thing I did prior to upgrading was to remove GO Lquncher EX. Wanted to see first hand how 2.1 would handle things natively. So far, so good - ut I still want to see how it handles an app crash in the VM.

    RCK

    Sent from my BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6
    06-01-12 02:08 AM
  7. lawguyman's Avatar
    I'm pretty satisfied with the way it is handled. Software engineers have to make compromises to balance performance with the available specs. Most people will probably never have more than two Android apps open at the same time. Doing things this way preserves the Playbook's user interface and provides a better experience for Android apps than Android does itself (for those that work).

    Bravo to RIM. They pulled this one off and I didn't think they would.
    06-01-12 05:45 AM
  8. russnash's Avatar
    I have to admit that I'm not a big user of droid apps on my PlayBook, but the OP's observations certainly make sense in outlining how RIM has implemented the droid player in this 2.1 beta. An option down the road for RIM to offer would be the ability to choose whether or not each droid app is run in it's own separate VM (memory hungry, but stability through separation) or uses the single VM but multitasking droid style (lower memory usage but less stability) as is the case with the new beta. Choice is definitely where it's at.

    Russ.
    06-01-12 08:49 AM
  9. FF22's Avatar
    I do hope that this and other issues will be brought to Rim's attention in their beta forum and not just mentioned in passing on Crackberry. Although we all suspect Rim is present on Crackberry, direct conversations with Rim are probably a better way of letting them know what's what.
    LuayS likes this.
    06-01-12 08:51 AM
  10. hpulley's Avatar
    Crunchyroll videos sometimes play in the wrong window, more than just a ghost image. I should report this properly. Sideloaded so might not be perfect.

    Apps that automatically restarted after they died before have to be restarted manually. Example, sideloaded Words with Friends.
    06-01-12 09:53 AM
  11. glamrlama's Avatar
    Thanks for the technical explanation. Here is my view as a Joe Average end user. I only have about 12 android apps on my PB. About half of them games. I find the multitasking implementation in the beta to be excellent. It is to the level I expected it to be when it was announced the PB would run 2.3.3 apps.

    The implementation in the beta does a MUCH better job of integrating the apps into the PB UI than OS2.0.1. It is much more seamless to the end-user and in many cases preserves the native feel of the PB. In the case of games if you jump right in you do not know if the game is native or android. I certainly can not go back to the 2.0.1 handling of the apps.

    Serious kudos to the software engineers at RIM.

    Perhaps others can comment but my guess is that for the subset of 2.3.3 apps that the PB can run it does so better than many "android only" tablets or phones.
    06-01-12 02:05 PM
  12. mjlott's Avatar
    I am liking the android multitasking. Only thing I noticed that was a bit annoying was that if I was in flip mode (where you flip up and you can scroll back and forth through the open android apps) one of the windows would go black or show a screen from one of the other windows. If I selected that app full screen it refreshed and was working fine, but it was just a little funky at first.
    06-01-12 03:30 PM
  13. greatwiseone's Avatar
    There's no way RIM's going change how Android multi-task...the illusion of having multiple windows is awesome and make it easier to work with.
    goku_vegeta likes this.
    06-01-12 04:13 PM
  14. ignites's Avatar
    it sometimes shows up on wrong window but quickly self fixes. I know it DOES multitask because I opened a few windows in minimize mode and actually saw the info load at the sametime - ie some multitasking (I used im+ and linkedin and tapatalk all three of which usually takes a few minutes to load)

    Sent from my BlackBerry PlayBook #BeBold 2012
    06-01-12 04:43 PM
  15. westcoaststyle's Avatar
    Anyone care to entertain us with pics?
    goku_vegeta likes this.
    06-01-12 05:17 PM
  16. goku_vegeta's Avatar
    There's no way RIM's going change how Android multi-task...the illusion of having multiple windows is awesome and make it easier to work with.
    Exactly,

    If anything all they will do here is keep refining this and trying to keep it as stable as possible.


    PS. When RIM was asked about Android 4.0 support in the Android Runtime, didn't RIM state that they would follow the open source code and support it as well? If they did there would be a lot of great applications that are tablet optimized which could definitely bring a lot more appeal to the PlayBook to a general consumer.
    06-01-12 05:20 PM
  17. goku_vegeta's Avatar
    Anyone care to entertain us with pics?

    EDIT: There you are

    Coming right up


    http://forums.crackberry.com/attachm...1&d=1338589611


    Three Android apps running perfectly fine, no adverse effects

    PS. WiFi File Sharing is pretty awesome Take a screenshot and simply access the file from my computer
    Last edited by goku_vegeta; 06-01-12 at 05:27 PM.
    06-01-12 05:22 PM
  18. hpulley's Avatar
    What other than twitter are you running there?
    06-01-12 06:10 PM
  19. Hobbes2099's Avatar
    Definitely a step in the right direction.

    I don't know how modular the Android stack is. If RIM was able to separate the last mile that renders the actual app in separate QNX windows, maybe further down the line, the memory management can also be split up so apps are, essentially, managed independently by QNX and thus becoming truly independent from each other.

    I don't know how hard that would be to program, or if RIM would be interested in perfecting a competing platform, or if a finite resource should be allocated to improving the Android experience rather than improving the QNX experience.
    06-01-12 06:37 PM
  20. goku_vegeta's Avatar
    What other than twitter are you running there?
    Aedict and Obenkyo
    06-01-12 06:53 PM
  21. greatwiseone's Avatar
    I think RIM's improving the Android app compatibility in anticipation of BB10, but I don't see it as a major focus. They will try to make the Android experience as good as it can be as a JVM, but I doubt RIM's going to spend any resources improving the Android experience. The Dev Relation focus has definitely been to get people engaged on Cascades and C++. Even the emphasis on AIR has been drastically reduced...
    06-01-12 06:57 PM
  22. Hobbes2099's Avatar
    I agree, improving the Android experience will appeal to some users and might make the transition for some android users easier.

    I would insist that RIM should also be working on a BlackBerry OS7 JMV and allow all the BB phone apps to be backwards compatible.
    06-03-12 10:26 AM
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