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Android Oreo

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Re: Android Oreo

#441

Post by microtonal »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #326
ksk wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because they have to test the ROMs on their network in different regions, with different frequency bands, with roaming, etc. That work is tedious given all of the phones they support.

The iPhone doesn't suffer from this problem. It should be up to the phone manufacturer (HTC, Samsung, etc.) to test their product. The carrier can still, of course, test the new firmware all they like - they just shouldn't be able to interfere with its release.

The iPhone doesn't suffer from this problem. It should be up to the phone manufacturer (HTC, Samsung, etc.) to test their product.

Moreover, in some European countries it is normal to buy a phone and a subscription separately. In some countries bundling is even illegal. I have never had a carrier-branded phone since I switched to smartphones, including my Android excursion (Nexus 4, Moto X 2013, Moto G, Moto X 2014) and some Windows Phones that I played with (Lumia 710/920/640). They all worked on multiple carriers.

Everyone should stop perpetuating the carrier testing myth. For this we have the GSM standards and in many parts of the world a large number of phones are not carrier-branded.

Re: Android Oreo

#442

Post by willtim »

hdhzy wrote: post #145
amrrs wrote: post #89

Has Google ever released a report on how much time it takes an average flagship device to get the latest android version? Even if you've paid $$$$ in getting Samsung Galaxy S8 just recently, you're not going to get Android O tomorrow morning. But that's definitely the case with iOS. That makes a huge difference in the world where Software updates play a huge role in performance and functionality than hardware update…

That's the common thinking that if you don't have latest Android it's a problem. But some manufacturers like Samsung push security updates monthly even for old devices such as Note 4. They do have many features years before the stock Android gets them (e.g. aptX, multiwindow or even Android O "tooltips" were in Note 4 when it was announced). So what exactly is the benefit of having everyone use the same exact, latest…

This is spot on. In fact, for most users Lollipop brought lag and excessive battery drain for little user benefit.

Re: Android Oreo

#443

Post by Dylan16807 »

chipperyman573 wrote: post #285
on_and_off wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really comparable.. the ecosystem is mature now. But sure I am going far with 10 years.. and phones would need serviceable batteries to last that long.

What ecosystem becomes mature after just 10 years? A hard drive 10 years after the first one was invented in 1956 looked like this[0]. Is that mature? Phones are mature compared to 10 years ago, but whatever they evolve to in the next 10 will dwarf them. [0]: http://images.computerhistory.org/storageengine/1966_Ferrite...

The smartphone was invented long before the iPhone. This is 10 years after it went mainstream.

And in ten years that iPhone has not changed much, except that the CPU/GPU rapidly caught up to current standards. The only other dealbreaker toward using it today is 3G support, and that's a 9 year old feature. If the iPhone 3G had the same relative performance to 2008 desktops as the current iPhone has to 2017 desktops, it would probably still be viable.

Maybe 10 years is a bit too high, but we're talking about high end phones here. I'd be surprised if the actual hardware wasn't acceptable 7 years down the line.

Re: Android Oreo

#444

Post by suckerburg »

simonsarris wrote: post #210
koolba wrote: post #204

Does Google pay these candy companies to use the name or do they pay Google? There's obviously some contractual relationship but I can't figure out who's on which end of it.

Reminds me of David Foster Wallace's concept of "subsidized time" in Infinite Jest Year of the Whopper Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar Android Heath Bar (TM) Android Pocky (TM) http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/ind...

Really OT but since you brought it up, I legit just started reading the book yesterday and this is my first DFW book. Looks kinda daunting, any advice?

Re: Android Oreo

#445

Post by rogihee »

sjuut wrote: post #248
klondike_ wrote: post #11

Project Treble is the most important thing in this release >The biggest change to the foundations of Android to date: a modular architecture that makes it easier and faster for hardware makers to deliver Android updates. With any luck, this will end the huge security/update problem Android has. Right now an update is dependent on the chip manufacturer's drivers, then the OEM adding them to the ROM with their custom "…

It is nice to see the updated Bluetooth 5 stack as a feature of Treble

That's good, but I really, really want to set the Supervision timeout to something other than a rudiculous 20 seconds:

https://blog.classycode.com/a-short-story-about-android-ble-...

Re: Android Oreo

#446

Post by microtonal »

mjevans wrote: post #148
JorgeGT wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The catch is that you can buy an Apple phone everywhere, but for instance Google decided simply to not offer the Pixel in my country. Also, they stopped updating my Nexus 4 long time ago, something that Apple does not with their devices. Hence, I am not "succumbing to Google marketing" again. I have now updated to a Moto, which used to be a Google company. Let's see how long it takes to update...

Reflect for a moment; what was the 'new' price of the Nexus 4 vs the 'new' price of the iPhone at the time? A Nexus 4 was a 2012 phone with 2GB ram, and 8GB storage (entry model) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_4 An iPhone 5 is the comparable year device. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5 It had entry specs of only 1GB of RAM, but 16GB of storage. The apps would also be native binaries instead of 'java' apps…

IMO what killed support on the older Nexus phones was /mostly/ the insufficient entry level storage.

This is provably false. The Nexus 6 plenty of storage space (32GB or 64GB) and does not get Oreo. Google's Nexus policy is to provide security updates for 3 years (or 18 months after the device stops selling, whichever is longer):

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/01/google_eol_for_nexu...

Also, the average Android app size is smaller:

https://sweetpricing.com/blog/2017/02/average-app-file-size/

Re: Android Oreo

#447

Post by cakedoggie »

scott_karana wrote: post #415
cakedoggie wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mobile OS's aren't just for grumpy old people.

GP's point wasn't that emojis shouldn't be updated, but that it shouldn't require MAJOR/BREAKING VERSION updates (kernel, libraries, the works) to simply update a sprite font.

Who is saying it does? They are just releasing them at the same time.

Re: Android Oreo

#450

Post by jfim »

frik wrote: post #424
dcomp wrote: post #108

The most interesting part is the way they are planning on tackling fragmentation in O onwards with Project Treble [0] If your device ships with O it should be running an immutable semantically versioned HAL. In essence you should be able to be able to flash AOSP on every new device. No matter what the vendor does. Edit: I can see it now, in the technical specs of each device you will see a list of HAL Versions. The n…

"WiFi Assistant Auto-connects you to high quality open WiFi and secures your connection with a VPN back to Google." Let's hope the VPN can be set to non-Google too, or it's optional or opt-out feature.

You can already have an always-on third party VPN that has nothing to do with Google.

This is just a feature that was on some phones that's rolled out to the base OS now. It's opt in AFAICR, there's a prompt to enable it when you first boot the phone.

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