Android 5.1 Fixes a Wi-Fi Annoyance

#1

Post by edward » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 3:38 PM UTC

Android 5.1 Fixes a Wi-Fi Annoyance
wired.com

Re: Android 5.1 Fixes a Wi-Fi Annoyance

#2

Post by tdkl » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 4:05 PM UTC

It's good that most of future customers will see it at the end of year at best. Old customers won't.

Re: Android 5.1 Fixes a Wi-Fi Annoyance

#3

Post by adamkittelson » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 4:13 PM UTC

This was one of the reasons I left AT&T.

They have hotspots everywhere that my phone would connect to and they inevitably either sucked or were located just far enough away from the store I was visiting that the phone could connect but not get usable internet.

I'd have to keep turning wi-fi off in order to use the internet, then naturally I'd forget to turn it back on.

Between the removal of unlimited data plans and the strategic placement of wi-fi internet sabotage devices I wouldn't be surprised if I had to pay AT&T some overage as a result.

I'm on T-Mobile now with unlimited data and no useless hotspots.

Re: Android 5.1 Fixes a Wi-Fi Annoyance

#4

Post by PaulHoule » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 4:14 PM UTC

I dunno.

When my new Nexus 7 tablet got "upgraded" to Android 5 it felt like a downgrade. WiFi worked OK before but now it is slow and unreliable on any network I try. Also the full disk encryption makes EVERYTHING slow.

Lots of vendors are releasing new tablets with Android 4.4 because the user experience is so much better. And don't get me started on the "Material Design" fanbois who just have to have their car and their house and their rug fit in with Material Design.

So far as I am concerned, Android 5 is like Windows 8 but the media is treating Google with kid gloves compared to Microsoft because if Bing dropped them out of the search results they wouldn't notice, but Google could put any media company out of business in an eyeblink.

Re: Android 5.1 Fixes a Wi-Fi Annoyance

#5

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 4:22 PM UTC

I do find quite often when walking around my university campus that my phone's attempts to connect to 2-bar WiFi signals result in a much worse connection than just turning off WiFi and letting my iPhone use 3G or 4G. I mean, if it's 4 or 5 bars (inside a building), the WiFi's as good as, or better than, 4G. But outside, the phone keeps trying to connect to weak signals despite having the option of superfast 4G.

Another problem is just that so many WiFi hotspots are gated and require you to use a horrid web portal to log in. Their automatic redirection has stopped working properly for most major sites due to HTTP Strict Transport Security, so I have to deliberately go to an insecure site just to bring up the portal, and if my phone loses signal for just a moment, bam, need to relog...

Re: Android 5.1 Fixes a Wi-Fi Annoyance

#6

Post by rasz_pl » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 4:23 PM UTC

Title should be "Google decided to log even more data about your environment"

Re: Android 5.1 Fixes a Wi-Fi Annoyance

#7

Post by izacus » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 4:27 PM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #4

I dunno. When my new Nexus 7 tablet got "upgraded" to Android 5 it felt like a downgrade. WiFi worked OK before but now it is slow and unreliable on any network I try. Also the full disk encryption makes EVERYTHING slow. Lots of vendors are releasing new tablets with Android 4.4 because the user experience is so much better. And don't get me started on the "Material Design" fanbois who just have to have their car and…

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how Android 5.0 rant is connected to the article at hand.

Re: Android 5.1 Fixes a Wi-Fi Annoyance

#8

Post by michaelhoffman » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 4:28 PM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #5

I do find quite often when walking around my university campus that my phone's attempts to connect to 2-bar WiFi signals result in a much worse connection than just turning off WiFi and letting my iPhone use 3G or 4G. I mean, if it's 4 or 5 bars (inside a building), the WiFi's as good as, or better than, 4G. But outside, the phone keeps trying to connect to weak signals despite having the option of superfast 4G. Anot…

Browsing to http://example.com/ is perfect for finding the captive portal.

Re: Android 5.1 Fixes a Wi-Fi Annoyance

#9

Post by yborg » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 4:28 PM UTC

Comcast is by far the biggest offender. More than half the xfinitywifi APs I connected to had no usable connectivity. Ended up removing the network completely and never connecting to any of them. As expected of Comcast, the Preventer of Information Access, I know.

Re: Android 5.1 Fixes a Wi-Fi Annoyance

#10

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 4:29 PM UTC

michaelhoffman wrote: post #8

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #5

I do find quite often when walking around my university campus that my phone's attempts to connect to 2-bar WiFi signals result in a much worse connection than just turning off WiFi and letting my iPhone use 3G or 4G. I mean, if it's 4 or 5 bars (inside a building), the WiFi's as good as, or better than, 4G. But outside, the phone keeps trying to connect to weak signals despite having the option of superfast 4G. Anot…

Browsing to http://example.com/ is perfect for finding the captive portal.

I just browse to ajf.me (my personal site), since I know it's not got (valid) HTTPS.