Discussion on:
View:
Show:
I "upgraded" ? my Android phone to Gingerbread to enable Skype to function, however many of my tried and trusted Apps now no longer function correctly. And to add insult to injury I can find no method of rolling my System back to a previous version. My question is this , why break something that works almost perfectly and end up with something pathetic.
I'd love for ICS to change my Android experience, but I'm guessing that 4.x is installed in a very small percentage of devices.
Between Google, the makers, and the carriers, upgrades fall into the category of general clusterflock.
Between Google, the makers, and the carriers, upgrades fall into the category of general clusterflock.
So - I'd say that a major problem here with the 4.x user base is not Google, or Android, or the device manufacturers, but the wireless carriers.
I'm involved in a thread on Jason Perlow's (ZDNet writer) Google+ Stream about this very issue. Apple has tremendous latitude on managing their phone upgrade cycles on the various carriers. There is no single dominant Android handset maker with that kind of clout to dictate how the carriers will move forward with updates. And carriers want to sell more phones and extend contracts, not upgrade old phones to extend useful lifespan and allow users to have non-contract service.
Beyond that - even Apple faces the fact that some phones just fall off the map as the OS platform evolves - and device owners are *never* happy with that. There is a fine line to be drawn there. Allow an upgrade that cripples a useful phone, and you get upset users complaining that you did it on purpose. Don't allow the upgrade, and you get users complaining that you didn't give them the chance to choose for themselves if it was good enough - that you didn't support older hardware because you wanted to force users to buy newer hardware. What a "can't win" situation for the device manufacturers. Apple once again has more control, and more good-will, than Android in this regard. Apple users are more generally forgiving and more accepting. Android users are critical and more skeptical of motivation.
ASUS devices are among the most aggressively upgraded in the industry - because they're WiFi, not 3G, and ASUS pushes their own OTA updates without worrying about wireless carrier roll-out schedules. ASUS serves as an example that if the manufacturer has control of the process it can happen on a regular, timely and appropriate basis. So something else must be the problem on handsets. The most likely culprit is the wireless carriers, in my opinion.
In both cases, the point is that ICS is coming - and if you're sticking with Android, you'll have a device with ICS eventually. Once you do, there are things you're dealing with NOW that may have become habit for you. My goal was to give readers a head start in knowing what habits they can unlearn for newer, more productive methods of getting things done. It bothers me that there aren't more ICS enabled devices out there already. It is a great platform. I personally would like to get it on my Droid 4 ASAP... I picked a non-ICS phone for my recent upgrade when I could have gone with a Samsung Nexus - so I'm really in the same boat as everyone else on my every-day device. I get it.
I'm involved in a thread on Jason Perlow's (ZDNet writer) Google+ Stream about this very issue. Apple has tremendous latitude on managing their phone upgrade cycles on the various carriers. There is no single dominant Android handset maker with that kind of clout to dictate how the carriers will move forward with updates. And carriers want to sell more phones and extend contracts, not upgrade old phones to extend useful lifespan and allow users to have non-contract service.
Beyond that - even Apple faces the fact that some phones just fall off the map as the OS platform evolves - and device owners are *never* happy with that. There is a fine line to be drawn there. Allow an upgrade that cripples a useful phone, and you get upset users complaining that you did it on purpose. Don't allow the upgrade, and you get users complaining that you didn't give them the chance to choose for themselves if it was good enough - that you didn't support older hardware because you wanted to force users to buy newer hardware. What a "can't win" situation for the device manufacturers. Apple once again has more control, and more good-will, than Android in this regard. Apple users are more generally forgiving and more accepting. Android users are critical and more skeptical of motivation.
ASUS devices are among the most aggressively upgraded in the industry - because they're WiFi, not 3G, and ASUS pushes their own OTA updates without worrying about wireless carrier roll-out schedules. ASUS serves as an example that if the manufacturer has control of the process it can happen on a regular, timely and appropriate basis. So something else must be the problem on handsets. The most likely culprit is the wireless carriers, in my opinion.
In both cases, the point is that ICS is coming - and if you're sticking with Android, you'll have a device with ICS eventually. Once you do, there are things you're dealing with NOW that may have become habit for you. My goal was to give readers a head start in knowing what habits they can unlearn for newer, more productive methods of getting things done. It bothers me that there aren't more ICS enabled devices out there already. It is a great platform. I personally would like to get it on my Droid 4 ASAP... I picked a non-ICS phone for my recent upgrade when I could have gone with a Samsung Nexus - so I'm really in the same boat as everyone else on my every-day device. I get it.
but they can't push what they don't have from the manufacturer, right?
OTOH, carriers, in my mind, are already in that "special" group that also includes cable providers and oil companies!
OTOH, carriers, in my mind, are already in that "special" group that also includes cable providers and oil companies!
The carriers have to add their bloatware and that takes time. What takes even more time is that CDMA (Verizon/Sprint) is not supported in AOSP because the carriers wrote their own drivers and did not make them public. They row their own boat. Add to this, Sense, Touchwiz and Blur and you have quite a log jamb of delay.
The sharing of internet through Bluetooth is much better than the one using WiFi battery wise, therefor great feature
Sounds great. But when will we get it? Why haven't the OEMs and Google figured out a Layer inbetween them in which to foster cooperation on concerted roll-outs and upgrades and bring pressure to bear on the carriers? Guys, it's an ecosystem! And it's broken!
Take the chance, and put on a custom ROM. On my Zoom 3/4G, I was using SD cards long before Motorola offered anything, and now I'm using ICS and loving it.
I've got a low-end Android phone (Huawei Ideos X5) and it's running an AOSP-rom courtesy of a dedicated developer at XDA-Developers. I wouldn't go back to the Froyo it came with if the payed me for it!
Google handled something? News to me. The biggest problem I see with Android is that Google does NOT handle updates. They seem to throw the updates out and wait and hope. I get no sense that Google handles anything.
Not the first time we've heard this said, either. A lot of voices are calling for Google to take more control over the entire Android platform.
I wish I had included some variation of this sentiment in the poll. I'd like to see how many people agree with this sentiment.
I wish I had included some variation of this sentiment in the poll. I'd like to see how many people agree with this sentiment.
I want it faster, and more stable!
I need to get me some Ice cream sandwich goodness!
I need to get me some Ice cream sandwich goodness!
Great article and really you made some points here but But I just like the Google Music combination very much. 
- Keyboard Shortcuts:
- Prev
- Next
- Toggle
