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Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

developer.android.com

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Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#121

Post by lostsock »

rprasad wrote: post #111
zmmmmm wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find disingenuous about this line of argument is that you (and everybody who argues it) know full well that you will not be keeping your current phone "forever", and in fact, it's almost 100% certain you will replace it within 2 years if not 12 months simply because of the 2 year upgrade cycle that exists in many carriers or if not, because of the lure of next generation hardware will convince you to buy a new…

Whoops you are right. I meant Ice Cream Sandwich, not Jelly Bean. But my point stands. Most people buy new phones on a 2 year cycle when their contract expires. I buy phones on a 2-year cycle. I am not expecting tremendous engineering resources to be spent on porting on bleeding edge OS to an obsolete phone. I am expecting some resources to be spent on porting my phone to an OS that was announced and available to OEM…

I am expecting some resources to be spent on porting my phone to an OS that was announced and available to OEMs when my phone was released.

Why didn't you just buy a phone which already had the latest OS on it at the time if having the latest OS is important to you? Are there no custom ROMS for the phone you have?

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#122

Post by creamyhorror »

veeti wrote: post #36
nilliams wrote: post #31

>> Faster, Smoother, More Responsive Does all this finally mean it has actually caught up with iOS in terms of touch-lag? And is this finally admittance that there was a problem all along? I know some may jump to the defence of Android here, I've seen this argued ad nauseam before, and yes I've tried some Android phones that didn't have noticable lag, but the 'top of the range' Samsung Galaxy II tablet is indisputabl…

Honeycomb and ICS aren't as smooth as iOS, but most of the lag that you're experiencing on your tablet is coming from Samsung's terrible software and not Android itself. The Galaxy Tabs are an embarrassment.

I upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy Note from an iPhone 3GS not long ago, and my father upgraded to an Asus Padfone (ICS) at the same time. I was utterly dismayed at how wonderfully responsive the Padfone was compared to my touch-laggy Note. The Note became significantly smoother after upgrading it to ICS, but it was still slightly laggier than the Padfone, which is really smooth to use. Also the Padfone has a really nice default look overall, pretty glowing-blue notification icons, it feels good in the hand, etc.

It still irritates me that I bought a Samsung specifically because I heard they were easy to root compared to other vendors, but didn't realise that had changed in recent months -- or that they were laggy. I should've gone for a new-gen ICS device instead; an S3 perhaps.

I'm still enjoying the Note's screen size and the Android app ecosystem, though. There are some great apps out there to play with.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#123

Post by cotsuka »

jshen wrote: post #99
ryannielsen wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's how normal users will realize they aren't getting updates, because it happens to me often. Somehow they learn about some cool app they want and they go to the Play store to get it. But they can't find it. It doesn't show up on their search! It won't take long for them to figure out that they can't get it because it doesn't work for their old version of android. Yes, but is there anything that enables them to m…

You could be right, but that is a risky gamble to take for the manufacturers and Google. I think most people will realize they have a substandard experience because they use their phones in social settings and will easily see that their friends have apps that won't work on their phone and they will have a friend that can explain why.

For tech geeks, maybe. For the majority of the population? I doubt it. There are still people who aren't sure what version of Windows or OS X they're running on their laptops. Now they need to know which version of Android their phone is on?

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#124

Post by leot »

jshen wrote: post #50
ryannielsen wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And vendors like Motorola probably don't care about you and your situation. From their perspective, they likely see two things 1) a still growing cell phone market 2) a rapidly growing Android market As long as the market's still growing, and as long as the vast majority of Android users aren't disgruntled about being left behind, their efforts are best spent on building new phones and acquiring new customers. I'm cu…

" Motorola have zero incentive to spend time or capital on maintaining old devices." You are making a large assumption when you say this. Your assumption is that it won't hurt them in the long run. Maybe that is true, but it's a risky bet to make. I certainly won't buy another android phone. Maybe most normal users will, but I'm skeptical of that. Here's how normal users will realize they aren't getting updates, beca…

"Your assumption is that it won't hurt them in the long run."

The entire notion of "the long run" has implicit in it various "ceteris paribus" assumptions that are very frequently false.

In particular, the "long run" makes little sense in the context of rapidly changing business and technology fields, and even less sense when it comes to mercurial public opinion.

On the other hand, the one thing that consistently has a good long-run outcome is to make money now, since, "in the long run", not only can accumulated capital stick around, but it will usually even appreciate.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#125

Post by glogla »

zanny wrote: post #120
timdorr wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is great. The only thing I have a gripe with is: > They are guaranteed to run the latest version of Android for 5 years. 5 years is too long. The HTC Dream, the first Android phone, was released less than 4 years ago. It only has a 528Mhz processor and 192MB of RAM. I don't want to know what the ICS or JB experience would be on that device... Keep in mind the iPhone only turned 5 this year (the App Store turns 4…

The problem with this argument is that we don't have any more extreme strides in mobile performance in the next 5 years. We already have phones that can effectively run any intensity of "eye candy" with spiff - by the time such a policy came to market in 2 years, it would be 2014 - unless we have a revolution in tech that lets us crank up the ghz without dramatically increasing the voltage to match, any arm based dev…

Desktop didn't really peak out at 2006. The clock speeds are not really raising anymore, true, but both architectural and fab improvements make a difference. If you take a look at benchmarks on anandtech for example, you'll find that current CPUs are about five or six times faster in well parallelizable tasks like video encoding or about three times faster in tasks that don't parallelize well.

While this might not seems like much, waiting for something one minute instead of five makes a difference, and 2006 computer won't play FullHD video, and you'll feel the difference on js heavy web pages.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#126

Post by johsoe »

javajosh wrote: post #89
WrkInProgress wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't you essentially describing the Nexus line of devices, minus the the tad unrealistic 5 years of software updates ?

Actually, no. My Nexus One was less than two years old when Google announced that it would not receive an ICS (Android 3) update.

That wasn't really a political decision, but a design error. The internal storage is way too small on the Nexus One. The same reason HTC Desire barely could get gingerbread.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#127

Post by kelnos »

ryannielsen wrote: post #39
jshen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's flawed short term logic. I will never buy another android phone from someone like motorola. My phone is about a year old. Still under contract, and I can't even get ICS. I don't have the option of buying another phone right now!

And vendors like Motorola probably don't care about you and your situation. From their perspective, they likely see two things 1) a still growing cell phone market 2) a rapidly growing Android market As long as the market's still growing, and as long as the vast majority of Android users aren't disgruntled about being left behind, their efforts are best spent on building new phones and acquiring new customers. I'm cu…

I'd wager most Android users, because their phones never advertise updates to them, are aware it can even be upgraded and, thus, aren't the least bit put off by these vendors apparent negligence.

Huh? I've been on custom ROMs for almost 2 years now, but I remember when I was on the stock ROM, I got a nice little notification in the notification bar when an update was available.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#128

Post by kelnos »

akandiah wrote: post #110
glogla wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. First of all, free/open source software is not really "alpha/beta quality software from untrusted source" and suggesting it is, is pretty much trolling. Second, Google is not the only one manufacturer (in the borad sense) that keeps it's phones up-to-date, for example Sony recently released 4.0 upgrade for it's 2011 models. Third, I know it tends to be pretty common in the US, but if you are buying subsid…

I'm using the official CM 7.3 release on my HTC Desire. I wouldn't classify it as 'release' quality software.

... which isn't surprising, since CM 7.3 doesn't exist.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#129

Post by lmm »

glogla wrote: post #125
zanny wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with this argument is that we don't have any more extreme strides in mobile performance in the next 5 years. We already have phones that can effectively run any intensity of "eye candy" with spiff - by the time such a policy came to market in 2 years, it would be 2014 - unless we have a revolution in tech that lets us crank up the ghz without dramatically increasing the voltage to match, any arm based dev…

Desktop didn't really peak out at 2006. The clock speeds are not really raising anymore, true, but both architectural and fab improvements make a difference. If you take a look at benchmarks on anandtech for example, you'll find that current CPUs are about five or six times faster in well parallelizable tasks like video encoding or about three times faster in tasks that don't parallelize well. While this might not se…

Won't play FullHD video? Maybe if you're talking about crazy everything-x264-can-do encodings, but a decent 2006 computer will have a geforce 7xxx or similar and play "normal" FullHD video like you buy from itunes just fine.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#130

Post by antihero »

creamyhorror wrote: post #122
veeti wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honeycomb and ICS aren't as smooth as iOS, but most of the lag that you're experiencing on your tablet is coming from Samsung's terrible software and not Android itself. The Galaxy Tabs are an embarrassment.

I upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy Note from an iPhone 3GS not long ago, and my father upgraded to an Asus Padfone (ICS) at the same time. I was utterly dismayed at how wonderfully responsive the Padfone was compared to my touch-laggy Note. The Note became significantly smoother after upgrading it to ICS, but it was still slightly laggier than the Padfone, which is really smooth to use. Also the Padfone has a really nice…

Galaxy Nexus is pretty much awesome, though. I've heard that the unofficial port to the GSII was actually smoother than the official one, too!
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