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The Step Detector and Step Counter platform support is an especially interesting addition. Perhaps a nod to the wearables market, with the upcoming Google watc

The Step Detector and Step Counter platform support is an especially interesting addition. Perhaps a nod to the wearables market, with the upcoming Google watch hooking into it for some Fitness tracking smarts?

mikeyouse 13y ago
Must be a response to Apple's inclusion of a dedicated movement-sensing M7 processor on the iPhone 5s. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/519531/what-apples-m7-motion-sensing-chip-could-do/ http://www.technologyreview.com/news/519531/what-apples-m7-m...
- glhaynes 13y ago
  Surely it was scheduled for inclusion previous to the M7's announcement 6 weeks ago.
  - mikeyouse 13y ago
    Surely it was, but 'rumor' sites were writing about the dedicated movement processor in late August (at a minimum of 10 weeks ago) and I'm sure there are enough moles at either company so that Google / Apple know what their competitors will do several months in advance. * * * Late Edit * * * So I looked through the Google public Git repo, and it looks like the initial Step_Counter functions were added in Dec 2012.[1] The hardware must've been wrapped more than 6 weeks ago, so I was probably wrong. Google must've been working on this for months ahead of time. [1]https://android.googlesource.com/platform/hardware/libhardware/+/a455772 https://android.googlesource.com/platform/hardware/libhardwa...
    - lnanek2 13y ago
      I doubt Google has anything to do with the hardware for this. Qualcomm has been pushing movement tracking and user context recognition using sensors with their chips without using a lot of power at conferences for over a year now. This is probably just Google throwing in a cut down version of their Pivot functionality. It's basically a chipset feature, just like how the chipsets are who pushes the OpenGL ES drivers and demos each version.
    - markdown 13y ago
      > Surely it was, but 'rumor' sites were writing about the dedicated movement processor in late August A corporation of Google's size doesn't need "rumour sites" to know what their competitors are doing.
  - jolohaga 13y ago
    If you say so.
- cromwellian 13y ago
  Must be a response to MotoX's shipping a dedicated movement-sensing processor in their X8 platform before Apple. Oh, did you not know that both Motorola's X8 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 were shipping low power contextual co-processors for this way before Apple's announcement? Back when the A7 was announced, I predicted in my social stream that Apple fanboys would soon be saying Google copied the motion co-processor, even though the the MotoX, which had already been shipping, has two such M7-like processors, one for always-on low-power voice, and the other for always-on motion detection (it's how the MotoX camera-twist gesture works). Apple reality distortion field at work again.

mikeyouse 13y ago

Must be a response to Apple's inclusion of a dedicated movement-sensing M7 processor on the iPhone 5s. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/519531/what-apples-m7-motion-sensing-chip-could-do/ http://www.technologyreview.com/news/519531/what-apples-m7-m...

glhaynes 13y ago
Surely it was scheduled for inclusion previous to the M7's announcement 6 weeks ago.
- mikeyouse 13y ago
  Surely it was, but 'rumor' sites were writing about the dedicated movement processor in late August (at a minimum of 10 weeks ago) and I'm sure there are enough moles at either company so that Google / Apple know what their competitors will do several months in advance. * * * Late Edit * * * So I looked through the Google public Git repo, and it looks like the initial Step_Counter functions were added in Dec 2012.[1] The hardware must've been wrapped more than 6 weeks ago, so I was probably wrong. Google must've been working on this for months ahead of time. [1]https://android.googlesource.com/platform/hardware/libhardware/+/a455772 https://android.googlesource.com/platform/hardware/libhardwa...
  - lnanek2 13y ago
    I doubt Google has anything to do with the hardware for this. Qualcomm has been pushing movement tracking and user context recognition using sensors with their chips without using a lot of power at conferences for over a year now. This is probably just Google throwing in a cut down version of their Pivot functionality. It's basically a chipset feature, just like how the chipsets are who pushes the OpenGL ES drivers and demos each version.
  - markdown 13y ago
    > Surely it was, but 'rumor' sites were writing about the dedicated movement processor in late August A corporation of Google's size doesn't need "rumour sites" to know what their competitors are doing.
- jolohaga 13y ago
  If you say so.
cromwellian 13y ago
Must be a response to MotoX's shipping a dedicated movement-sensing processor in their X8 platform before Apple. Oh, did you not know that both Motorola's X8 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 were shipping low power contextual co-processors for this way before Apple's announcement? Back when the A7 was announced, I predicted in my social stream that Apple fanboys would soon be saying Google copied the motion co-processor, even though the the MotoX, which had already been shipping, has two such M7-like processors, one for always-on low-power voice, and the other for always-on motion detection (it's how the MotoX camera-twist gesture works). Apple reality distortion field at work again.