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Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

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Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#151
post #6

Google's handling of Android bugs is unpleasant and difficult to swallow. The QA seems minimal and little or no attention is paid to user filed bugs. The barometer on the Nexus 5 is still broken after a year+ of software updates. Infuriating. The bug with hundreds of stars is marked obsolete! The barometer is still broken. I'd like to debug and fix it but other things have priority, and I don't feel confident that if…

Most major companies, to me, seem to be following Apple's example and forcing a shorter support lifecycle for each device, expecting users to simply replace their "obsolete" device with the newest one.

The saying used to be that something was designed for obsolescence. I no longer believe that's the case, I believe new devices are programmed for obsolescence. That is to say, the device used to work, but with new "updates," the device becomes more decrepit, and less useful, not better and more useful. I've had Apple devices that worked fine until the "update" (which was mainly targeted at the latest and greatest, not my 1 to 2 year old model) came out, at which point the device that was still quite useable, becomes almost unusable. I don't recall which software update it was, but my iPhone 3g was a great example of this. I've recently noticed the same thing (rather my completely non-technical mother has) on her 2 year old iPad and iOS 8.

The joys of software. They can now be used to artificially shorten a products life cycle, without having to even design in obsolescence from the get go.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#152
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My iPad 2 [edited] still able to get the latest update from Apple, although that iPad shows lags running the latest iOS (probably because of the new UI). I think the major problem with Android is the unstoppable fragmentation. With low-end and high-end devices born every quarter, I find QA a nightmare. On the other end, if a bug can't be fixed after a year on a flagship device like Nexus 5 means there is something wr…

iPad 1 only supports iOS 5

Didn't it get iOS 6?

I know 7 and 8 aren't available, but I thought it got up to 6.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#153
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My iPad 2 [edited] still able to get the latest update from Apple, although that iPad shows lags running the latest iOS (probably because of the new UI). I think the major problem with Android is the unstoppable fragmentation. With low-end and high-end devices born every quarter, I find QA a nightmare. On the other end, if a bug can't be fixed after a year on a flagship device like Nexus 5 means there is something wr…

iPad 1 only supports iOS 5

Thanks! I forgot to check my model number!

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#154
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My ipad 2 is running ios 8.1 well and i'm posting with it right now.

iPad 2 is one beast device, live through so many updates and is actually very usable.

It's showing it's age.

The real problem is they're still selling it brand new (in the form of the non-retina Mini) and with Apple's policy of supporting devices for 2 or 3 years that means the device will get six years of updates, even though it's already aging badly at this point.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#155
post #73

This is very unpalatable, and makes me reconsider whether my next phone will, again, be an Android device. This sort of "fuck you" attitude towards legitimate feedback and valid bug reports from users doesn't bode well for Google, and indicates that any talk of "openness" of Android is just that - empty talk. If the Android development process is going to be a 100% closed, cathedral-type endeavour, I might as well ge…

Well, the only reason you can make this criticism in the first place is because Android has an open issue tracker. You can't criticize iOS for doing this, because you can't see their issue tracker. I can just as easily change my search query and show you all the bugs that were in fact fixed [0]. That seems to counter the claim that "the Android development process is going to be 100% closed". I'm not saying one OS is…

You can't criticize iOS for doing this, because you can't see their issue tracker.

Instead, Apple's forums provide a crude approximation of one.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#156
post #27
post #3

all my bugs from android 2.3 (still heavily used in the us and out) up to android 4.2 were closed as obsolete. several are somewhat fixed on 5.0 (most by removing the feature) but nothing about support even nexus devices from 2.5 years ago. 3 were security ones confirmed by a few comments. I've been getting obsolete emails on my low profile bugs since November all the way to Dec 25... Google just gave up. i think nob…

Echoes of Jamie Zawinski "Cascade of Attention-Deficit Teenagers" software development model? ( http://www.jwz.org/doc/cadt.html ) Not quite the same thing, but Google and company sure look to believe they have better things to do....

In my experience, google has _never_ had good customer support/relations, unless you're currently paying google for the product.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#157
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Among major companies, Apple did a better job with supporting old devices. Google Nexus devices become completely out of date after 2 years (too slow to run latest software, and too hard to get hardware repair support). Software wise, Apple could have done a better job as the newer version of iOS is indeed bloated and doesn't run well on old devices. On the other side, Microsoft did great job on supporting Windows XP…

>Apple did a better job with supporting old devices. Am I the only one who had the last iPhone 3 iOS update? It almost bricked the damn phone, making the interface impossibly slow.

What's your point of comparison regarding to android devices ? I had an iPhone 3G that I updated all the way up. And I also had a LG L7 bought new under android 4. I found the iPhone 3G more reactive and usable in every single aspect.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#158
post #73

This is very unpalatable, and makes me reconsider whether my next phone will, again, be an Android device. This sort of "fuck you" attitude towards legitimate feedback and valid bug reports from users doesn't bode well for Google, and indicates that any talk of "openness" of Android is just that - empty talk. If the Android development process is going to be a 100% closed, cathedral-type endeavour, I might as well ge…

Well, the only reason you can make this criticism in the first place is because Android has an open issue tracker. You can't criticize iOS for doing this, because you can't see their issue tracker. I can just as easily change my search query and show you all the bugs that were in fact fixed [0]. That seems to counter the claim that "the Android development process is going to be 100% closed". I'm not saying one OS is…

> You can't criticize iOS for doing this, because you can't see their issue tracker.

At least they're honest. I can't be bothered to report bugs for most software I use, because it's enormously time-consuming and usually does nothing. Even for a relatively receptive Free Software project, I have to successfully argue that it's a bug, that it's not caused by some peculiarity of my system, that it's still present in the latest development version, and that the fix I propose is better than whatever poorly-thought-out fixes the "core developers" might think of on the spur of the moment. Better to work around it and move on.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most major companies, to me, seem to be following Apple's example and forcing a shorter support lifecycle for each device, expecting users to simply replace their "obsolete" device with the newest one.

The saying used to be that something was designed for obsolescence. I no longer believe that's the case, I believe new devices are programmed for obsolescence. That is to say, the device used to work, but with new "updates," the device becomes more decrepit, and less useful, not better and more useful. I've had Apple devices that worked fine until the "update" (which was mainly targeted at the latest and greatest, no…

> I don't recall which software update it was, but my iPhone 3g was a great example of this.

Do you recall if it was a major or minor update?

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#160
post #85
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason people complain is because iOS updates are a horrible kind of bait and switch. You update the OS because you think its awesome, but are unable to downgrade when you find that in reality, its slow and bloated. The most infuriating thing in all of this is that my iPhone 4S is STILL a fast device. The CPU hasn't shrunk since the time I bought it. Apple has decided that I am unworthy of restoring my phone to t…

Most of the criticisms of brand-new OS updates being "slow and bloated" are from extremely impatient users (or professional clickbait critics) who don't even have the good sense to wait a few hours or a day or two for the processes that can make major upgrades a bit sluggish on ALL devices to complete, such as rebuilding databases, the fact that OS updates often result in dozens or even hundreds of app updates that h…

My iPhone 5 is - the UI crashes several times per day, rendering the phone unusable for 20-40 seconds

- the phone is really sluggish, sometimes freezing for 5-10 seconds, with keystrokes entered during that time sometimes buffered and sometimes lost

- every couple of days, the phone freezes so badly I have to force it to reboot by holding power+home for a few seconds

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