Yay, I am the 0.01% without even caring a lot :D
Very happy with my Nexus 5X, and why would I upgrade? The Pixels are just expensive and I don't see any benefit. A shame that I'll be in real trouble if this one ever dies.
Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts
101–110 of 161 posts
Re: Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts
#102The shining example of Google vs apple for me is the package manager. Since Android D, updating my apps has caused the phone to slow to a crawl. Fps drops heavily, apps are laggy, etc. There is no option to only download updates when charging. Google has done nothing about this for years now. I still use Android because I need the control. But parts of the platform are just inexcusable (imo) in 2019. Dont get me wron…
You can set apps to only update when you tell it to, and then use Tasker to update when charging. https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/al2gd4/android_9_in...
Tasker's OS hooks have a negative impact on battery life.
Re: Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Maybe they need to poach a few people from Microsoft to learn how it's done. It seems Microsoft needs some help in this department as well https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/4500988/windows-upd...
So you're telling me an OS with 1.2+ billion users has bugs? I'm shocked! :) On a more serious note, Microsoft is (was?) famous for its QA processes. They have (had?) huge computer farms, tens of thousands of machine to be able to QA with every strange configuration out there. Windows, despite the hate it gets, is one of the most QAd pieces of software out there. And considering the shoddy architecture it has to supp…
Yea, I always wondered about the (frankly amazing) backwards compatibility. Windows could probably be a much better system if they just get rid of support for these old systems. Same for these super old MS-Word formats. Doesn't need to be as drastic as Apple does it, though.
Re: Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you and all the replies to the parent have missed the point trying to be made. If you view the homescreens in iOS as your desktop, you don't want all your apps littering it with shortcuts. The op is talking about having to setup folders to hide away apps that they use rarely but don't want to uninstall. Android handles this in a far better way, where you have an app drawer that pulls up all your app icons on…
What stops you from putting everything in a folder called App drawer, except the most used apps you want on your desktop?
The hard limit on how many apps a folder can hold?
Re: Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi, author here You're right about platform features used within apps, many (most? all?) are made available to developers with the support libraries. However, users will get none of the following until they get Pie (for example) * ML adaptive battery * App actions (ML predictive app shortcuts) * Digital well-being dashboard and limits * A lot more, as shown on this page (there's a lot of smaller items in the collapsi…
> * ML adaptive battery > > * App actions (ML predictive app shortcuts) > > * Digital well-being dashboard and limits These sounds like gimmicks to me (ML buzzwords). I'd welcome an update that would sort alphabetically the apps I want to share content with for instance. No AI needed for that.
The ML adaptive battery update is awesome. I got it on my Moto One Power and the battery life has substantially improved
Re: Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts
#106Security updates are becoming more dire, but feature updates between versions has been dwindling since the early days. I've had an Android phone continuously since 2011, and while I could detail a laundry list of stuff we got from Gingerbread -> Ice Cream Sandwich or KitKat -> Lollipop, I can't think of many "game changers" from Marshmallow on that made each new update a "must have". Just trying to think of the ones…
> there wasn't much meaningful difference in the experience between my Nexus 7 running Marshmallow and my S8+ phone with the Pie update. Reading this on a Nexus 5, running marshmallow. I stopped upgrading when I stopped seeing a reason to, now I just get the old models on the cheap and only occasionally wonder if I'm missing out. In those moments I'll remember your comment, stop wondering, and continue treating my ph…
Reading this on a Nexus 5X running Oreo 8.1.0. Formerly happy owner. Now, after accidental pocket-tap on "Update All", seeing glacial performance in core apps e.g. Gmail, Maps. No "revert" option in GUI of course. Maybe possible with ADB ...
Where you write "stopped upgrading", do you mean hardware only -- allowing Google system plus apps to push all software updates?
How do you assure yourself that your Nexus 5 has gotten adequate security fixes?
Re: Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts
#107This is definitely a problem but in practice it's not as dire as this article makes it sound. So many of the essential pieces have been factored out into the support libraries and independently upgradable components that Android devices actually get more regular updates in some respects than iOS devices do. For example, I have to update my entire iPhone OS to get an updated web browser or photo library or keyboard. G…
Hi, author here You're right about platform features used within apps, many (most? all?) are made available to developers with the support libraries. However, users will get none of the following until they get Pie (for example) * ML adaptive battery * App actions (ML predictive app shortcuts) * Digital well-being dashboard and limits * A lot more, as shown on this page (there's a lot of smaller items in the collapsi…
> Digital well-being dashboard and limits
Whenever a for-profit company introduces a new feature, one must ask himself, what is the business case for it.
Personally, I see this feature as a way for Google to legally track which apps people use, and how often. Essentially, it does for Google what Onavo VPN did for Facebook.
From the data collection point of view, whoever came up with this idea at Google must have been worth a promotion. Especially, after GDPR came into force.
Re: Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts
#108This is why Google is devoting more and more resources to the Fuchsia project: to replace Android with an operating system that supports over-the-air (or WiFi) updates like iOS does and Windows Mobile did. It's the only way Google can effectively fight their fragmentation issue: get everyone to upgrade to the latest OS version.
Fuscha is a kernel and has absolutely nothing to do with this. There are plenty of Linux based Oses that don’t have this problem. (This is even more the case with android since the really hairy stuff like GPU drivers aren’t even part of the kernel.) The problem is that the entire android user space is built as a single monolithic project that gets forked and closed by the OEM and all of the components have to be upda…
Fuchsia is a full operating system and not just a kernel. The Fuchsia OS uses the Zircon kernel.
Re: Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
I appreciate the independent thinking behind this comment, but seriously, what completely broke the carrier model was the iPhone. When we started discussing customisation with Apple, all they ever allowed us to do was add a default bookmark to Safari. Period. Finito. Looking back, that was the sanest thing any handset manufacturer ever did for the entire industry.
That and that carrier logo in the status bar, yes? I mean why else would AT&T get to display fake 5G up there now? Edit: Name, not logo
That always had the carrier name (it's associated with the MCC/MNC IDs). I don't recall logos, but it's likely that they would follow suit some day, and AT&T has a very long history with Apple, so...
Re: Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recently swapped to iPhone after being a long time Android user. After using the iPhone for a few months now, I will definitely be going back to Android. Before I owned an Apple device, I was sure that iPhones got first class treatment in app design/development - this has been a resounding disappointment. Instead, there are a few good apps but most of them are just enough to be good enough and not really amazing. N…
For a while, the restrictions were justifiable because "Apple wants to do it right." And I thought some of the features they brought to market later seemed nicely done. The problem is that Apple applies the 90% rule in deciding if lifting a restriction is justified, but I found myself in that 10% enough that I finally switched last year. There are some things I miss from iOS, but not much.
What do you miss on iOS? I am using it now and feel like I miss almost everything from Android. I like the iPhone's amazing speed and quality, but I miss finger print (yes, I know less secure but any less secure than a face scan?), apps communicating with each other, separate identities/work profiles. Apps that cost < $10.