Can we get some unrelated coverage going for Google's persistent failure to fix their "show trending searches" toggle!? It doesn't work even on newer devices; there's no way to turn off trending search suggestions and search history at the same time. I just want to search, I don't need to know who got killed in Florida or what Trump said. It's there in the settings, but it doesn't work.
Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
211–220 of 370 posts
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So if you release the feature branch every 3 months after a few years you will have a dozen maintaining branches to backport fixes to, and in which to carefully test that the fix actually works. The problem is linearly worse if you release the feature branch more often. This has been solved by LTS releases for some time. You have a newest release branch that gets feature updates immediately and an LTS branch which…
"This has been solved" is an arrogant way to put it.
Only if it hasn't actually been solved. LTS releases resolve the conflict between providing a stable system that receives only security updates and separately maintaining dozens of separate branches.
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nothing actually requires Android to be that way. They chose poorly but every new release is an opportunity to fix it.
> They chose poorly Did they? Immutable system images are a pretty solid feature to have. It's a lot less "fall over broken as shit randomly" than desktop Linux is...
Desktop Linux doesn't actually do that unless you're trying to use a rolling release distribution. The way stable distributions work is that the packages largely remain the same for a given major version throughout its lifespan, but individual packages can still receive security updates.
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
You dont remember batterygate then? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batterygate
Lol this was the most blown out of proportion "gate" ever and a nothing burger really. The issue wasn't what Apple did, as it is a very common practice in the industry and I bet almost every other manufacturer did it too. The issue was that they didn't notify the user.
Could you tell me what companies did the same thing in the mobile phone industry? Did those companies notify the user?
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#215Are these not the old images? : https://developers.google.com/android/images#bramble
Right page, wrong anchor. They removed all but the latest firmware for the "sunfish", i.e. the non-5g Pixel 4a. https://developers.google.com/android/images#sunfish
Yeah, it's archived at least here.
https://web.archive.org/web/20231113025141if_/https://dl.goo...
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#216This needs more coverage. Perfectly good phones are getting thrown out because of a software update.
My experience was kid dropped my old phone on holiday, we tried to remember why my spouse's old phone got replaced, and remembered she had a pixel 4a and the battery life had gotten really poor.
There was some news at the time that the 4a would be getting a 'battery performance update' and that it would result in some users getting a warning about their battery performing poorly and some would be eligible for $50 or a repair.
When I eventually got around to prepping the phone for the kid, lo and behold, the update was ready, I did it, and the battery was bad, and it linked me to the battery performance campaign page...
Which needed the IMEI, then said I could get $50, a $100 coupon or bring it in for repair, and there was a shop reasonably near me. I brought it in and they swapped the battery in about 2 hours with no extra drama.
I don't know why you would throw your phone out from this update... Although I wouldn't be surprised if you had already thrown it out because the battery performance was an issue before the update too.
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They chose poorly Did they? Immutable system images are a pretty solid feature to have. It's a lot less "fall over broken as shit randomly" than desktop Linux is...
Desktop Linux doesn't actually do that unless you're trying to use a rolling release distribution. The way stable distributions work is that the packages largely remain the same for a given major version throughout its lifespan, but individual packages can still receive security updates.
I've had "stable" distributions fall over upgrading between their major versions.
But you missed the point that Android's system image is immutable and updates are atomic. A user can't screw it up. This is not an insignificant feature, and it's something you also get with something like Fedora Silverblue. Which then also doesn't let you pick and choose what updates to get.
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great comment, even though I'm concerned whether my Pixel is a ticking bomb now. The update has been downloaded to my device, but before installing it, I decided to check Reddit and found out the battery issues. Since then, I'm dismissing the update prompt, praying to not miss-click. The article got it wrong - even before the update has been published, Google already sent e-mail to registered users with a note that t…
The Dev options have a setting to not apply updates on reboot. I'm hoping that'll work if I forget.
I can say from experience that it doesn't. I get daily notifications & popups telling me that I'm X days out of date.
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
No current phone from any manufacturer that's reasonably desirable is as small as the 4a, and few of any size have a headphone jack.
Pixel 8a is fairly similar in size. Headphone jacks in phones are (sadly) gone forever i'm afraid.
> Headphone jacks in phones are (sadly) gone forever i'm afraid.
Maybe from Google phones, for now? Possibly on smaller phones. But Best Buy sells 7 models with 5g and a headphone jack. There's almost certainly more if you shop a retailer with more variety, using Best Buy because they have decent filtering.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?_dyncharset=UTF-...
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#220Stuff like this is part of why I stick with iPhone. The Pixel 4A stopped receiving security updates just 3 years after release, and rather than being direct about what battery changes were made and providing reasonable pathways for people to replace batteries, this happens. Apple does stupid and shady stuff too, it is certainly not perfect, but Google has always had a cultural attitude permeating their organization s…
I just wish they had a smaller offering than the SE.
(But seemingly this is the case for everyone nowadays.)