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Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

cnet.com

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Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#121

Post by wkat4242 »

denismi wrote: post #116
wkat4242 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with 1,2 and 4. Too much privacy-invading external crap. But they're not really behind. I already got the 1 January Android security update a few days ago on my S23. Considering they need to do testing and possible modifications I don't think this is very slow.

I am still on the 1 November 2023 security update on my AU S22 Ultra.

Weird. Even my A52s which is both older and much cheaper (like a quarter of the price!) than your S22 Ultra is on 1 January 2024. It still gets timely monthly updates.

I wonder if it's your provider being difficult here. The problem with branded (or sometimes even sold with contract) phones is that the carrier wants to meddle in the updates because they're afraid of issues on their network or something. And this can cause huge delays.

I always buy my phones separately, mainly because I hate contracts so I'm on prepay always but having unrestricted updates is another big benefit.

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#122

Post by gorbypark »

geodel wrote: post #67

Phone hardware most likely would've turned to crap in 3-4 years. But if one does keep it up and running despite all odds for 7 years they can keep it secure. I guess its great.

I'm still using an iPhone 11 Pro that I bought used, it's now almost 5 years old and still very, very usable. I did have the battery replaced about a year ago, but unless I break it/loose it, but I can see myself using it until Apple stops making OS updates for it. Even then, they seem decent at pushing out security fixes for old phones (I believe the 6s got a patch recently even though it's 2 versions behind the latest version).

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#123

Post by m1keil »

wkat4242 wrote: post #108
m1keil wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had similar feeling about Samsung in the past but I think it is quite better nowadays. But there definitely is some AOSP/Samsung duality you cannot escape. My current gripes with existing s23+ is usually one of following: 1. Some of their features are being offloaded to unknown 3rd party vendors (e.g call spam detection). 2. They really want you to install some sort of McAfee AV on your phone to get the "secure" ti…

Agree with 1,2 and 4. Too much privacy-invading external crap. But they're not really behind. I already got the 1 January Android security update a few days ago on my S23. Considering they need to do testing and possible modifications I don't think this is very slow.

Hmm, maybe I was too harsh. I got the change log here: https://doc.samsungmobile.com/SM-S916B/XSA/doc.html

Seems like anywhere between one to three weeks. I think the auto update is a bit lazy. Had to force update on mine just now to make it get January update.

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#124

Post by phpisthebest »

rekoil wrote: post #105
Derbasti wrote: post #83

This is the new EU law, so every handset sold in the EU will be required to do this. This is just Samsung following the law.

Oh shit I must have missed that one, which one is that? The EU are fucking killing it these days actually. So happy to see it. We had a scare there with Chat Control 2.0 but thankfully it was shot down, besides that we've gotten GDPR, USB-C charging ports, the Digital Markets Act, eIDAS is coming which looks like it could be pretty great, digital drivers licenses, etc. A lot of good stuff. What did I miss?

It is very said that people are celebrating digital drivers licenses of all things, how far we have fallen in the battle for privacy and freedom from government intrusion in our lives that we are now celebrating massive authoritarian policies and control as "wins" because they have made our lives more convenient...

The devils deal of convenience over freedom...

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#125

Post by krab »

phpisthebest wrote: post #124
rekoil wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh shit I must have missed that one, which one is that? The EU are fucking killing it these days actually. So happy to see it. We had a scare there with Chat Control 2.0 but thankfully it was shot down, besides that we've gotten GDPR, USB-C charging ports, the Digital Markets Act, eIDAS is coming which looks like it could be pretty great, digital drivers licenses, etc. A lot of good stuff. What did I miss?

It is very said that people are celebrating digital drivers licenses of all things, how far we have fallen in the battle for privacy and freedom from government intrusion in our lives that we are now celebrating massive authoritarian policies and control as "wins" because they have made our lives more convenient... The devils deal of convenience over freedom...

What's the difference from the previous state? You had to carry a driving license but the government had all the info anyway.

If you didn't have the license on you, they'd find you in the DB anyway. Possibly you get a €10 fine. The electronic driving license is just a simplification to me. You don't have to carry anything.

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#126

Post by dotnet00 »

phpisthebest wrote: post #124
rekoil wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh shit I must have missed that one, which one is that? The EU are fucking killing it these days actually. So happy to see it. We had a scare there with Chat Control 2.0 but thankfully it was shot down, besides that we've gotten GDPR, USB-C charging ports, the Digital Markets Act, eIDAS is coming which looks like it could be pretty great, digital drivers licenses, etc. A lot of good stuff. What did I miss?

It is very said that people are celebrating digital drivers licenses of all things, how far we have fallen in the battle for privacy and freedom from government intrusion in our lives that we are now celebrating massive authoritarian policies and control as "wins" because they have made our lives more convenient... The devils deal of convenience over freedom...

The records were already digitized given the police's ability to look up the license for you if you provided name and date of birth. So digital licenses are just taking away the physical abstraction. There's a concern over what happens if the systems or networks go down, but presumably physical ID isn't completely outlawed yet.

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#127

Post by wkat4242 »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #22
Kuinox wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since 7 years I hear that Samsung apps are "quite nice theses days". I never found it to be true. I owned a Samsung S7, it was atrocious, people said it was great, the bloatware was painful, the gesture to open the apps drawer was conflicted with the gesture to open Samsung pay (which didn't worked with my bank), you can't disable Samsung pay, if you switch the launcher, it's still there. Searching the settings took…

>Since 7 years I hear that Samsung apps are "quite nice theses days". I never found it to be true. I owned a Samsung S7 To be fair that S7 from 2016 doesn't count as being from "these days" anymore, so your opinion is not up to date, as Samsung made pretty big strides in the last few years past 2020 compared to how it was when you last remember it with the nasty Touchwiz.

Yeah TouchWiz was horrible. OneUI is lovely and way better than native Google IMO. My S8 really became a much better phone with that update. Unfortunately it was also its last :'(

For browser I'm Firefox all the way though!

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#128

Post by wkat4242 »

m1keil wrote: post #123
wkat4242 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with 1,2 and 4. Too much privacy-invading external crap. But they're not really behind. I already got the 1 January Android security update a few days ago on my S23. Considering they need to do testing and possible modifications I don't think this is very slow.

Hmm, maybe I was too harsh. I got the change log here: https://doc.samsungmobile.com/SM-S916B/XSA/doc.html Seems like anywhere between one to three weeks. I think the auto update is a bit lazy. Had to force update on mine just now to make it get January update.

Yeah and the 3 week one coincided with the Android 14 / OneUI 6 upgrade so it's kinda understandable because there was a lot more testing.

It's not perfect but I like it now (In the TouchWiz days Samsung was really bad at updates, they've improved a lot)

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#129

Post by rekoil »

dotnet00 wrote: post #126
phpisthebest wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is very said that people are celebrating digital drivers licenses of all things, how far we have fallen in the battle for privacy and freedom from government intrusion in our lives that we are now celebrating massive authoritarian policies and control as "wins" because they have made our lives more convenient... The devils deal of convenience over freedom...

The records were already digitized given the police's ability to look up the license for you if you provided name and date of birth. So digital licenses are just taking away the physical abstraction. There's a concern over what happens if the systems or networks go down, but presumably physical ID isn't completely outlawed yet.

From what I've heard about things like eIDAS there is considerable technical competence behind the specifications for these laws, I would expect there to be mechanisms for cryptographically secure offline validation.

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#130

Post by rekoil »

krab wrote: post #125
phpisthebest wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is very said that people are celebrating digital drivers licenses of all things, how far we have fallen in the battle for privacy and freedom from government intrusion in our lives that we are now celebrating massive authoritarian policies and control as "wins" because they have made our lives more convenient... The devils deal of convenience over freedom...

What's the difference from the previous state? You had to carry a driving license but the government had all the info anyway. If you didn't have the license on you, they'd find you in the DB anyway. Possibly you get a €10 fine. The electronic driving license is just a simplification to me. You don't have to carry anything.

Many people hear digitised and they think big brother is watching, I honestly don't know where they get it from because as you say the data we're talking about is already data the government keeps by necessity, that it's now in your phone doesn't automatically make it nefarious.

That said, there are things in the category of surveillance that having it in an app do enable. For this reason I would personally like to require that the implementation of these apps is open source, unfortunately I know there was some resistance on that front with regards to eIDAS...

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