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AVG study reveals worst of resource-hungry Android apps

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Many people come to our site looking to fix performance issues and battery drain on their smartphones. Android and iOS users alike have found a new chore to do, posting about memory and battery issues in forums, asking for solutions. While factory resets and app updates can help with such performance and battery drain issues, we’ve always told our readers to pay attention to what apps use the most of their memory and battery. Most often, you came back saying that Facebook was the culprit, but you couldn’t bring yourself to remove the app. I’ve done it, and left the Facebook messenger on board for communication purposes, and it’s changed the way my phone works. Turns out, AVG condones that.

Previously, in our articles about battery drain, Android bugs, iOS bugs and performance issues, commenters would say that some of the fixes we list are useless because they’ve been repeated over and over again and while that is true to some extent, it’s also true that no matter how many times people say it, users refuse to believe that social apps like Facebook would hinder their devices almost useless. Unfortunately, it’s true, social apps use up most of your battery life, data and resources and now, we have confirmation from AVG about it.

AVG this week released their report on performance, battery life and data consumption statistics based on Android users of their apps (AVG AntiVirus and AVG Cleaner) in the U.S., UK and Australia. The report concludes that the biggest culprits when it comes to bad user experiences with phones are social apps. Facebook is infamous on both Android and iOS as one of the most draining apps for data, performance and storage. Snapchat is the biggest drain on the battery, according to the report, for its use of GPS and Wi-Fi simultaneously.

You can check out the charts from AVG and see which are the worst apps you could install if you want top-notch performance out of your phone. You won’t be surprised by the results, as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Tumblr, Spotify and Hay Day are the evil ones most often. The report isn’t that much of a surprise, seeing as most know that social apps use up a lot of resources because they run in the background, collect and display a lot of data, as well as do streaming work and location services. Until developers can find a way to use the cloud for processing more often, there’s not much we can do to improve performance on our phones.

AVG proposes a couple of rudimentary fixes, such as clearing cache, data, doing a reboot once in a while and adds that limiting the use of certain social apps could impact your user experience quite significantly. You can read the press release or you can go to the full report to find out more about what AVG found in their extensive and anonymous survey.

While those suggestions are nice enough, the true issue is that apps need to be further optimized to allow for decent user experiences. Hardware and software need to work together to be cost-effective and not counter-productive, and that needs investment in money and time from developers and manufacturers as well. While we can still limit our usage of such apps, social apps can be a source of revenue. While AVG findings are accurate, they are based on a limited spectrum of people, so leave room for error. Nonetheless, the findings do unveil that social apps are a problem on mobile platforms and we need to work together to improve our experiences. Don’t forget to always send feedback to developers of apps that you use!

As part of the editorial team here at Geekreply, John spends a lot of his time making sure each article is up to snuff. That said, he also occasionally pens articles on the latest in Geek culture. From Gaming to Science, expect the latest news fast from John and team.

Android

Pixel 8 Pro runs Google’s generative AI models

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Rick Osterloh, Google’s SVP of devices and services, says the Pixel 8 Pro will be the first hardware to run Google’s generative AI models.

At an event today, Osterloh said the Pixel 8 Pro’s custom-built Tensor G3 chip, which accelerates AI workloads, can run “distilled” versions of Google’s text- and image-generating models to power image editing and other apps.

Osterloh said, “We’ve worked closely with our research teams across Google to take advantage of their most advanced foundation models and distill them into a version efficient enough to run on our flagship Pixel.”

Google improved Magic Eraser, its photo-editing tool, to remove larger objects and people smudge-free using on-device models. Osterloh claims that this improved Magic Eraser creates new pixels to fill in shot gaps, producing a higher-quality image.

Osterloh says a new on-device model will “intelligently” sharpen and enhance photo details, improving zoom.

On-device processing benefits audio recording. The Pixel 8 Pro’s recording app will soon summarize meeting highlights.

Gboard will use a large language model on the Pixel 8 Pro to power smart replies. Osterloh claims that the upgraded Gboard will provide “higher-quality” reply suggestions and better conversational awareness.

Osterloh said an update in December will add on-device generative AI features except for Magic Eraser, which appears on the Pixel 8 Pro at launch.

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Telegram launches a global self-custodial crypto wallet, excluding the US

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Telegram, with 800 million monthly users, is launching a self-custodial crypto wallet. The move will solidify its presence in the vibrant crypto community that has grown from its chat platform and may attract more people to crypto.

Telegram and TON Foundation announced TON Space, a self-custodial wallet, on Wednesday at Singapore’s Token2049 crypto conference, which draws over 10,000 attendees.

Telegram has a complicated blockchain relationship. After the SEC sued Telegram over a massive initial coin offering, the chat app abandoned its Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain project in 2020. The Open Network Foundation (TON Foundation), founded by open-source developers and blockchain enthusiasts, supports the development of The Open Network (TON), the blockchain powering a growing number of Telegram applications, including the wallet.

The Open Platform (TOP) and TOP Labs, a venture-building division, created the TON-based wallet.

TON Space will be available to Telegram users worldwide without wallet registration in November. The U.S., which has cracked down on the crypto industry and promoted many crypto apps to geofence users, is currently excluded from the feature.

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Google’s massive antitrust trial begins, with bigger implications

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The Justice Department’s landmark antitrust case against Google began in court today, setting off a months-long trial that could upend the tech world.

At issue is Google’s search business. The Justice Department claims that Google has violated antitrust laws to maintain its search title, but the company claims that it does so by providing a superior product.

The Justice Department sued Google for civil antitrust in late 2020 after a year-long investigation.

“If the government does not enforce the antitrust laws to enable competition, we will lose the next wave of innovation,” said then-Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen. “If that happens, Americans may never see the ‘next Google.’”

A large coalition of state attorneys general filed their own parallel suit against Google, but Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the states did not meet the bar to go to trial with their search ranking complaints.

The search business case against Google is separate from a federal antitrust lawsuit filed earlier this year. The Justice Department claims Google used “anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means” to neutralize threats to its digital advertising empire in that lawsuit.

Justice Department attorney Kenneth Dintzer set the stakes for the first major tech antitrust trial since Microsoft’s late 1990s reckoning on Tuesday. “This case is about the future of the internet, and whether Google’s search engine will ever face meaningful competition,” Dintzer said.

Beginning the trial, the government focused on Google’s deals with phone makers, most notably Apple, that give its search product top billing on new devices. Dintzer claimed that Google maintains and grows its search engine dominance by paying $10 billion annually for those arrangements.

“This feedback loop, this wheel, has been turning for more than 12 years,” he said. “And it always benefits Google.”

Google lawyer John Schmidtlein refuted that claim, hinting at the company’s legal defense in the coming weeks.

“Users today have more search options and more ways to access information online than ever before,” Schmidtlein said. Google will argue that it competes with Amazon, Expedia, and DoorDash, as well as Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Google planted the seeds for this defense. According to internal research, Google Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan said last year that more young people are using TikTok to search for information than Google Search.

In our studies, almost 40% of young people don’t use Google Maps or Search to find lunch, Raghavan said. “They use TikTok or Instagram.”

Google will be decided by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in the coming months. We’re far from that decision, but the company could be fined heavily or ordered to sell parts of its business.

The trial could change Google’s digital empire if the Justice Department wins. Other tech companies that dominated online markets in the last decade are also watching. If the government fails to hold an iconic Silicon Valley giant accountable, big tech will likely continue its aggressive growth trajectory.

If the Justice Department succeeds, the next decade could be different. The industry-wide reckoning could cripple incumbents and allow upstarts to define the next era of the internet, wresting the future from tech titans.

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