81–90 of 154 posts
A 14 day/$45 restocking fee policy is pretty bad. When it's for a $500 device you can't play with anywhere before purchasing, it's abysmal.
The best comment I've heard on this news came from John Gruber: "Here’s the list of Android phones you can buy today other than the Nexus One which support Android version 2.2: {}."
Best in terms of what exactly? Baseline snarkiness? Most customers don't know, much less care about, the exact version number of their phone's operating system. They care about what the operating system can do for them. But I suppose if Gruber were to compare the actual capabilities of currently available Android systems vs. iOS 4, he would have much less to be snarky about on Apple's behalf.
actual capabilities of currently available Android
systems vs. iOS 4
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it's emphatically not a problem with the ecosystem. Android 2.2 phones are being designed as we speak, and Android 2.1 works perfectly fine for people in the meantime -- it's not like Google had to play catchup with Android 2.2 the way Apple did with iOS 4. Like you said, typical users such as your parents have no idea what software their phone is running; they just want it to work. Android 2.1 works perfectly we…
It's a problem in that the old phones should continue to be supported and get the new OS's in a timely fashion. They shouldn't need to worry about which OS is on there, but I think the OS should continue to get better over the life of the phone regardless. I'm not saying it needs to be out there right now, it's more of a question of whether a random model x will ever get it. Some probably won't, even if they can supp…
Some phones will be updated, and some will not. Some won't get the update because:
1. The hardware is too old/slow/underpowered/too little RAM for the new OS
2. The manufacturer/carrier doesn't give a damn and doesn't feel like pouring money into an old phone when doing so doesn't give them any new revenue.
Either way, your complaint isn't with Android or Google.
With the Nexus one going away, is there any other Android phone that doesn't need to be rooted to install vanilla android and updates?
The N1 was what moved me out of the iPhone camp because I found this to be a breath of fresh air. The N1's contemporaries just aren't as open, and given the phone vendors' track records if you buy an Android phone today you're not guaranteed any software updates in a timely manner or even at all. Google made this their flagship device and was what they were using to dogfood the OS, so I was confident the N1 this would continue to see improvement for the useful life of the device.
I'll probably be in the market for a new phone by this time next year, and I hope there is a decent replacement for the N1 in terms of openness with a vendor who's committed to supporting it. If my phone is going to be locked down tighter than a drum, I may as well get an iPhone, because Apple has at least established a track record that the device will get software updates through the life of the 2 year contract.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can make meaningless statements too! "Here's the list of iPhone apps I can install on my iPhone without Apple's permission: {}" Incidentally, 2.2 (via the CM6 test) runs just fine on my Sapphire. The joy of Free Software is that I can fix my own device that is no longer the flavor of the month. T-Mobile will never give that device an Android > 2.0. But the community can, and it works much better than the stock imag…
With all due respect, you're going off another tangent. Froyo, aka Android 2.2, was released on May 20. It's now July 19th, almost two months later. The fact that only one phone will support an OS for more than two months is a problem.
Why you (or Mr. Gruber) would consider it a problem that one phone model would receive updates sooner than others is something of a mystery to me, particularly on such a short timescale. It's not even out for the Nexus One in my country yet.
edit: US rollout began 28th June, and phased in with most users getting an update notification within that first week, http://googlenexusoneboard.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-android-...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can make meaningless statements too! "Here's the list of iPhone apps I can install on my iPhone without Apple's permission: {}" Incidentally, 2.2 (via the CM6 test) runs just fine on my Sapphire. The joy of Free Software is that I can fix my own device that is no longer the flavor of the month. T-Mobile will never give that device an Android > 2.0. But the community can, and it works much better than the stock imag…
With all due respect, you're going off another tangent. Froyo, aka Android 2.2, was released on May 20. It's now July 19th, almost two months later. The fact that only one phone will support an OS for more than two months is a problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can make meaningless statements too! "Here's the list of iPhone apps I can install on my iPhone without Apple's permission: {}" Incidentally, 2.2 (via the CM6 test) runs just fine on my Sapphire. The joy of Free Software is that I can fix my own device that is no longer the flavor of the month. T-Mobile will never give that device an Android > 2.0. But the community can, and it works much better than the stock imag…
That is great for you, but for 99% of the rest of the planet that doesn't give a flying f * about open source or couldn't care less about hacking a phone, the fragmentation of the Android market is only going to piss them off when they eventually encounter the day where their friends can do some cool thing on their Android phones, and they can't. With the iPhone the path of progression from one phone to another is si…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it's emphatically not a problem with the ecosystem. Android 2.2 phones are being designed as we speak, and Android 2.1 works perfectly fine for people in the meantime -- it's not like Google had to play catchup with Android 2.2 the way Apple did with iOS 4. Like you said, typical users such as your parents have no idea what software their phone is running; they just want it to work. Android 2.1 works perfectly we…
It's a problem in that the old phones should continue to be supported and get the new OS's in a timely fashion. They shouldn't need to worry about which OS is on there, but I think the OS should continue to get better over the life of the phone regardless. I'm not saying it needs to be out there right now, it's more of a question of whether a random model x will ever get it. Some probably won't, even if they can supp…
Some support cutoff point for old models makes sense.
Except Apple hasn't cut out the middle-man. In fact, the notion that carriers are middle-men is silly. If anything, Apple is the middle-man getting consumers locked into AT&T's poorly priced and overpriced data plans. The hardware is incidental, which is why Google 'failed.' The carriers refuse to offer data service, only phones with bundled service.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Best in terms of what exactly? Baseline snarkiness? Most customers don't know, much less care about, the exact version number of their phone's operating system. They care about what the operating system can do for them. But I suppose if Gruber were to compare the actual capabilities of currently available Android systems vs. iOS 4, he would have much less to be snarky about on Apple's behalf.
actual capabilities of currently available Android systems vs. iOS 4 So how many devices are shipping now with Android 2.2 and how many are shipping/getting updated with iOS 4?