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Remember broken Nexus telephony? This is how Google treats it's customers

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Re: Remember broken Nexus telephony? This is how Google treats it's customers

#51

Post by Someone1234 »

furyg3 wrote: post #23

Of course there are multiple rationales for choosing a platform, but support is certainly one of them. A while ago someone made a nice graph of how good Apple/Google are at maintaining OS support for their devices, it's pretty informative (although I'd like to see a new one). http://www.fidlee.com/android-support-vs-ios-support/ In this case the Nexus 4 is still officially supported by 5.0... but not being able to ca…

I really like Android and have no desire to switch to iOS.

However that being said: That graph really makes the entire ecosystem look dysfunctional. All smartphones should have full support for at least two years regardless of manufacturer and the fact most don't is a poor reflection of everyone involved.

Android needs a Linux style package system. They bundle too much stuff together into singular giant update packages, when in reality you should be able to update e.g. Dialer, Browser, and so on without touching the Linux kernel or Android services.

Re: Remember broken Nexus telephony? This is how Google treats it's customers

#52

Post by skynetv2 »

debacle wrote: post #47

I feel like Android 5 is a step back, UI-wise. One of those "change for the sake of change" things. I don't see how a triangle, square, and circle are more user friendly than a back button, a home button, and a tab button. Chrome is also crashing constantly on 5.03 and the new keyboard is very very bright at night. Not a telephony issue, but I feel like 5.03 was a step back and I've actually contemplated downgrading…

exactly. not to mention, the UI is full of elements that overlay other elements ... like the loading circle on top of emails, compose button on top of email (in gmail app), lots of blank space ... its just horrible (for me).

Re: Remember broken Nexus telephony? This is how Google treats it's customers

#53

Post by baggachipz »

morganvachon wrote: post #38
baggachipz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny, I actually upgraded to 5.0.1 stock from Cyanogen 11 (4.4.4) because the phone portion stopped working in 4.4.4. Haven't had any issues with calls since then. Now I'm worried that it'll suddenly go south again :( Nexus 4 is clearly the red-headed stepchild in the Nexus family now. If there was a newer Nexus that wasn't the size of an iPad, I'd upgrade; but there isn't. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't li…

> If there was a newer Nexus that wasn't the size of an iPad, I'd upgrade; but there isn't. The Nexus 5 isn't that much bigger than the 4, and certainly isn't as big as the Nexus 6. It's also not nearly as expensive as the 6. Size comparison of the 5 and 4 (from the left, respectively): http://newlaunches.com/archives/google-nexus-5-competition-c...

Eh, I suppose you're right. But this entire thread has me pretty concerned, as the Nexus 5 is already "old" in Google's eyes.

Re: Remember broken Nexus telephony? This is how Google treats it's customers

#54

Post by fluidcruft »

gabemart wrote: post #24

In the link #440 reports that disabling "NuPlayer" fixed the issue. This setting is in Settings > Developer options under "Media". I've also found that NuPlayer plays unpredictable havoc with an audio playing app I wrote that is currently on Google Play. Some users on Lollipop report audio glitches, silence or weird bluetooth issues. Disabling NuPlayer fixes these issues. I wish there was a way for me, as a developer…

Bizarrely, some apps seem to need NuPlayer as a workarounds (particularly for the new imgur gifv in Reddit if Fun, black screen problems in Words With Friends, etc).

I found NuPlayer was disabled on my Nexus 4 after upgrade from KitKat and I had to turn it on. Not sure about what it defaults to after a factory wipe.

Re: Remember broken Nexus telephony? This is how Google treats it's customers

#55

Post by fidotron »

cordite wrote: post #34
cwyers wrote: post #32

I wish Windows Phone was just like... 15% better in terms of app support. Existence as an Android user just seems more and more self-hating as time goes on, and it's clear that Google, the OEMs and the carriers are just not about to cooperate to make the user experience any better. (I know, I know, there's the iPhone, but I have a pathological hatred of iTunes for Windows, so that's not really an option.)

There is also the problem where companies like Google refuse to acknowledge platforms apart from theirs. The iOS apps are usually faulty, and Google DMCAs any third party apps that talk to their services on the windows platform.

This is going to bite them.

Android has deteriorated so much I'm working out how to move to Windows phone which really means leaving the Google ecosystem completely. And my career has been Android based for many years now.

Re: Remember broken Nexus telephony? This is how Google treats it's customers

#56

Post by dice »

GVIrish wrote: post #46
dice wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife has an N4 running 5.0.1 with no issues re calling, so if there is an issue for these users it's an isolated one and not a systemic problem with all N4s. Most of the Android phones on the page you linked are not Google phones. Whether or not they get updated is up to the manufacturers and carriers, not Google. You'll note that the Nexus phones have more update support in general. Whether providing major update…

> My wife has an N4 running 5.0.1 with no issues re calling, so if there is an issue for these users it's an isolated one and not a systemic problem with all N4s. That's a bit of a leap to declare that the issue is an isolated one because your wife is not having the problem. As it turns out, my wife had that exact problem with her Nexus 4 on 5.0.1. How widespread is the problem? Who knows. From my perspective it seem…

If there is one device which is not impacted then it is not a problem with all devices. The problem is therefore isolated to a subset of all devices. Perhaps that subset is the majority of all N4s, perhaps it is a small fraction. We don't have enough data to say one way or another.

Re: Remember broken Nexus telephony? This is how Google treats it's customers

#57

Post by Kudos »

gabemart wrote: post #36
e40 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is NuPlayer a 5.0 only option? (My son's Nexus 5 isn't in front of me.) Using 4.4.4 here, with no plans to upgrade.

Yes, as far as I'm aware the option to default to NuPlayer system-wide is only present (and default) in 5.x

It's not on by default and it's labeled "Experimental" on my Nexus 5 running stock 5.0.1.

Re: Remember broken Nexus telephony? This is how Google treats it's customers

#58

Post by baggachipz »

I'm going to cross the streams a bit here and bring up a major concern going forward. Right now, "Project Ara" is Google's project to create a modular phone that allows hot-swappable components in a totally customizable pocket device. That is, you could have 3 cameras and no wifi in your device if that's how you choose to put it together.

How in the hell do we expect the Android OS to actually make this anything but a bug-laden shit show? They're clearly having a hard enough time making Android work on their own narrow line of devices. The very idea of using this same OS for a completely open-ended device seems laughable, at best.

Re: Remember broken Nexus telephony? This is how Google treats it's customers

#59

Post by UhUhUhUh »

rasz_pl wrote: post #44

What other response did you expect from Google employee? Google doesnt hire low level customer support people, google hires top of the line, few hours in front of white board interview coders, people with multiple phd's and industry veterans. I bet they dont even have dedicated support staff, just 200K a year programmers assigned to bugtracker having to divide their time between actual work and asking 'have you tried…

And unlike hard- and software, such a broken system can last a very long time. There's an old French joke about "polytehcnician" (i.e graduate from Polytechnique, a top-level post graduate institution). What's the difference between a train and a polytechinician? When the train gets off the tracks it stops.

Re: Remember broken Nexus telephony? This is how Google treats it's customers

#60

Post by magicalist »

arihant wrote: post #6
fridek wrote: post #3

This is your second submission of it after https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8838578 I agree this may haven't been resolved nicely, but hidden extrapolation from a few employees to the whole company is not cool on your side either. There are people in there, working their butts off to make one of the largest open source projects better.

There is also another employee who marked a disfunctional telephony on a phone as "Priority-small." I think we're seeing a pattern here.

Where does an employee mark it small? Changes to issue state end up as comments and I don't see one.

It looks much more like issues in that tracker start as Priority-small and no one upgraded it.

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