My problem is some independent first movers made great games for the Android, then were force off by slow-to-market game owners - who then produce junk "official versions" of the same games - all under the guise of security concerns. To get their way they used the LAW (UCC ) Now we have to have constant update checks for copyright,trademark,look & feel, and anything else they can use of themselves ( like echo,google home, vs independent home automation) or (cloud vs X-drive ) xor
(academic library vs paywall library where every student pays for public domain information) rip Aaron Swartz
There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
401–410 of 474 posts
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#402Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also true for Windows 10 Mobile. (My phone gets an update today, why doesn't yours?) Android is the only smart phone platform that carriers still have a say in.
That was not true for Windows 10 Mobile. Some devices never received the update. What was indeed the insult on top of the injury - the WM devices were all Qualcomm Snapdragon devices. They were never so varied as Android devices are.
It was not true for Windows Phone 8, and therefore some carriers interfered with the deployment of the upgrade. It is true for Windows 10 Mobile, however. If a device is supported for Windows 10 Mobile, all updates are carrier independent. The "Upgrade Advisor" app Microsoft released to the Windows Store effectively allowed you to circumvent the carrier and upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile, replacing the Windows Update source for your phone with Microsoft's.
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#403Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am happy for you, that you can afford spending several hundred euros/dollars/yen/whatever every couple of years for OS updates. Majority of us have better things in life to use our money for.
However, a large number of people on HN are software engineers who make their living writing software for these devices; it would seem like a crowd that loves tech like React “Native” might consider the latest devices somewhat important to their business. If developers are running old devices and old OSes, then it follows that they aren’t developing around the latest capabilities because they themselves don’t use the…
> If developers are running old devices and old OSes, then it follows that they aren’t developing around the latest capabilities because they themselves don’t use the latest capabilities.
And what are these latest capabilities? As an user, the only difference between Android 6 and 7 that I noticed are redesigned notifications. Between Android 7 and 8, I don't even have an idea. I don't care for the latest Google or Apple assistant; so this all is not enough of reason to drop 600-100 EUR on a new phone.
Hand-waving about "latest capabilities" is even less of a reason.
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#404Earlier quoted context omitted.
See how Windows 95 & XP turned out. Its full of holes and still being used. We still can't get rid of it.
Can't get rid of Windows 95? I see a lot of XP computers around, but it's been years since I've seen a 95/98/ME computer. (Actually, now that I think about it, I think my dad still had a 98 or ME computer two years ago so he could use an old scanner.)
OK 95 is mostly gone, but more people use XP than Macs and Linux combined, according to http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share....
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#405Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many Android devices of that age and even newer had flaws resulting in the failure to properly validate HTTPS connections as they would accept invalid certificates. As a result, every time I fire up an off the shelf WiFi Pineapple in public and run SSLSplit (not to be confused with Moxies SSLStrip), I get credential after credential, typically starting with e-mail accounts. This is obviously bad because if someone is…
Most of these "oh no, security!" issues can be mitigated by avoiding public WiFi or using a VPN on them.
And there are tools to avoid even scanning public wifi networks to prevent e.g. in-store tracking, e.g. Smarter WiFi Manager remembers where you've used wifi before based on cell tower locationing, and disables it elsewhere. Works like a charm for me.
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was not true for Windows 10 Mobile. Some devices never received the update. What was indeed the insult on top of the injury - the WM devices were all Qualcomm Snapdragon devices. They were never so varied as Android devices are.
It was not true for Windows Phone 8 , and therefore some carriers interfered with the deployment of the upgrade. It is true for Windows 10 Mobile, however. If a device is supported for Windows 10 Mobile, all updates are carrier independent. The "Upgrade Advisor" app Microsoft released to the Windows Store effectively allowed you to circumvent the carrier and upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile, replacing the Windows Update…
Ah, so that is how it went. I knew some devices WP devices (didn't note version) never received the updates.
However, the part about them all being the same Snapdragon devices with slightly different cases, cameras, etc. is still true. Microsoft doesn't have to solve how to make a release for Exynos, Kirin or Tegra devices.
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#407Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#408Earlier quoted context omitted.
I ended up in a situation like that too, except the update auto-downloaded taking up most of my free space, but not leaving enough to install it. I didn't figure out how to reclaim the space so I spent months stuck without being able to install apps or updates before I gave in and bought a higher end phone.
Back up or sync important contacts and data, and then do a factory reset to restore the original OS. Make sure to turn off auto-updates as it will keep downloading them after the restore. It's a shame that phones keep losing features like micro SD.
Well even the existence of a Micro SD slot isn't enough. My girlfriend's phone had a Micro SD slot ... yet most apps refused to install there or write data there so everything was crammed into the 4GB built-in storage.
Ahhh Android - I only use iOS because I hate it slightly less
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if this were true (it's not) that was a conscious choice by Google to capture market share. This issue was predicted (and observed) years ago, almost since the release of Android in fact, and is only getting worse. That is all due to Google's own choices.
The real problem with it is Linux. Here's a few facts: The Kernel has no stable ABI for drivers. Manufacturers only ever develop a driver for their chips once, and then send that to the OEM. They never update. The Linux Kernel LTS gets 2 years of updates, Google's fork about 4. From the day a Kernel is released, to the day it ships in a phone, usually 2 years are spent integrating the blobs and code drops from the ch…
Maybe Fuchsia is an effort to solve such issues?
But it won't see the day of light for at least 2 or 3 years.
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#410Earlier quoted context omitted.
Back up or sync important contacts and data, and then do a factory reset to restore the original OS. Make sure to turn off auto-updates as it will keep downloading them after the restore. It's a shame that phones keep losing features like micro SD.
> It's a shame that phones keep losing features like micro SD. Phones keep losing features like micro SD (and like end-user replaceable batteries) because too many purchasers do not value those items highly enough to refuse to buy any phone that lacks an SD card slot or a user-replaceable battery. Start refusing to buy any phone which lacks a micro SD slot, and the manufacturers will bring back the micro SD slots (gr…
Why would people value an SD card if the apps all refuse to use it?
The entire thing is a shit storm, every player seems to be against the end user (that is paying for everything, go figure). There's a protection racket on the form of patent rights enabling the shit to go on, but it can not reasonably survive on this shape for very long.