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Android Nougat 7.1.2 Beta is out now for Pixel and Nexus 5X

40 points by rahulchowdhury 10y ago

dajohnson89 10y ago
What an infuriating post -- it doesn't link to the changelog.
mulrian 10y ago
Release notes don't really say a whole lot: https://developer.android.com/preview/support-712.html https://developer.android.com/preview/support-712.html Anyone know what has actually changed?
- dajohnson89 10y ago
  Yeah, it only tells us known issues. Gee, thanks. And I just checked for updates, none available. Some transparency into when exactly it's available for beta users would be nice. Is this kind of weirdness the new normal?
- josteink 10y ago
  > Anyone know what has actually changed? This is annoying with Google and Android. The betas are completely closed-source, so digging around in the actual Android-repos won't give you any leads either. I didn't dig too deep, but latest tag I could find in the currently published repos is "android-7.1.1_r13". https://android.googlesource.com/platform/bionic/+/android-7.1.1_r13 https://android.googlesource.com/platform/bionic/+/android-7...
fridek 10y ago
I couldn't care less with Android's fragmentation getting worse, not better. See https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html - less than 1% is on 7.0+ a year after its announcement. My Nexus 5 (2013), fully under control of Google, didn't get even 7.0 (2016). Moto G4 (2016) I bought few months ago is on 6.0 (2015), might get 7.0 (2016) soon-ish. I basically stopped caring about new versions, buying new phones to get the latest, etc. They are not even as exciting as they used to be, feature-wise. edited: Nexus 5 actually got 6.0
- josteink 10y ago
  I think API-wise the most important improvements were done with Kitkat and the 4.x series. Targetting that will get you pretty much all the users you need. So it's not as bad as when 4.x was new and the majority of users were on 2.x. That said, I agree it's hard to be enthusiastic about a new Android-release these days. It's even harder to find out what new stuff (which isn't tied to US-only offered Google services) which you have in store as a user. On the bright side, that's probably a sign of a previously immature platform finally maturing.
  - izacus 10y ago
    Targeting API 19+ (4.4) for most apps is more than realistic and that buys you proper RTL support and rather powerful devices. If you want to push UI to the limits, API 21 (5.0+) will still cover most of the market with great Material and elevation APIs.
- cs02rm0 10y ago
  It's a mess, isn't it. I'm still on an HTC One M7 (2013) with 5.0. And I'm a software developer who just sticks it on the business. I was all set to get the new Nexus, looking forward to the marginally quicker software upgrades (or even, some software upgrades now they've stopped on EE in the UK) and then they announce the Pixel. With the higher price bracket I can't see it getting the volumes, which means even more fragmentation. I don't want an iPhone, especially with the mess they're making with Macbook Pros but it's looking like the sane option.
  - josteink 10y ago
    > I don't want an iPhone, especially with the mess they're making with Macbook Pros but it's looking like the sane option. In case you start seriously considering that option, let me provide you with a story of what to expect. I ditched my Android for an iPhone SE, because clearly no Android-vendor wants to create a small premium-class device which receives software updates and which can be used with one hand. And Apple makes the iPhone SE, so I figured I should put my money where my mouth was. My experience with iPhone is a bit schizofrenic. What works, works really well (especially the camera!), but everywhere on the platform you notice shortcomings and artificial limitations which limits your ability to get things done. It's clearly targetted towards CEOs whose peak complexity-needs are checking their email. Professional/power users who wants to use the phone as a platform for getting things done are completely ignored as far as needs and capabilities go. And don't get me started about the complete lack of quality software in the geek-department (Github, Travis, SSH, IRC, etc). It's a complete fucking wasteland. Right now I'm using all those apps through the web instead. Through Firefox. Which I cannot set as a system-wide default browser. Because no such thing exists. Same for SMS, so now I need to check Signal and the built in messaging app. It's maddening. So right now my iPhone is a device for checking web-pages and email. There's just no apps which covers my professional needs. I know all the iDevice-owners were screaming from the hills how much better apps are on iPhone than on Android, but I just can't see it. At least for me, it's been a downgrade for every app-category I use. So like I said, what works works well enough for me to keep this thing. But at the same time I keep wondering if I should pick up my old Nexus 5X and give it a second chance... So yeah. If you make the switch, and have any sense of geekyness in you, expect the switch to be painful. The grass is definitely not all green.
patrickaljord 10y ago
Still no Pixel in France and most of the world though. I guess I'll go for an iphone then. Too bad, that Pixel looked good.
Maarten88 10y ago
I must say, since getting 7.0 on my 5X, battery life has improved a lot. It could barely make a full workday on 6.0, but now it will last almost two days of average use. I wouldn't even think of installing this beta, they don't give me any reason to. Maybe if they would fix the contact syncing with non-Google providers, or something.
- e40 10y ago
  Maybe if they would fix the contact syncing with non-Google providers, or something. I have found serious bugs with syncing contacts to Google's servers. I found that the web version of contacts didn't have a bunch of changes I made to a contact on my phone, so now every time I make changes on my phone I look and rarely are they on the web contacts. I started a case with Google (I have a 5x, so I'm supported) and go to the point they wanted me to factory reset rather than find the bug. I said no thanks. I even pleaded that that would just mask the bug and didn't they want to find the problem? After all, I was completely stock (I didn't even unlock the bootloader).
  - Maarten88 10y ago
    I didn't know it was that broken. I always assumed my Android Contact problems came from using Office 365 Exchange with Outlook as the main source of my contact list, with many years of history in it.
- jasonellis 10y ago
  Going from 7.1 to 7.1.1 on my Nexus 6p has ruined my battery life. Light web browsing for 1 hour in the morning while playing radio with TuneIn always cost me 10-12% of my battery. Since 7.1.1 it has cost me 30% of my battery. The battery drain has been insane. I've reset permissions and tried to track down what's causing this, but I can't find a culprit.
  - pasbesoin 10y ago
    Don't know about the 6p, but on both my old 2013 Moto X and my current Nexus 5x, I've had to manually reboot the phone an additional time after completing an update. Until I do this, some Google service consumes an inordinate amount of battery -- dropping the battery charge 10% or so an hour while the phone is idling. That is, I do the update. The phone restarts as part of the update, yada-yada... Ok, I'm officially all done with the update. No more reboots. But this service is eating battery like crazy. Manually power the phone all the way off, once more, and then restart. Finally, battery use goes back to normal, and in Settings this Google service no longer headlines as the primary power consumer.
bb101 10y ago
Last time I joined the Android Beta Program (for 7.1.1), Google removed the the Night mode feature. No thanks, I'm done with early releases removing features that were otherwise working well in previous versions.
bostand 10y ago
People blaming carries and manufacturers for late updates: Is there any other product where the manufacturer must redo half of the product at the whim of a third party? Google needs to work with these companies, not as it is today throw a pile of random changes on them every six months. Most of all, there needs to be a grand plan and an understanding about what will be changed next (and why).
- sgift 10y ago
  Maybe. On the other hand if the manufacturers changed less when they "apply" Android to their phones updates would be easier, but instead of providing a default Android every manufacturer tries to be the "best" Android variant (sometimes with more success, sometimes with less success) and then they say "hey, we've sold it already, updates? Nope. No interest."
  - bostand 10y ago
    This is simply not true. The amount of time updating "skins" add to the development is relatively small. Haven't you noticed that even companies with almost stock android are having trouble keeping up with these updates? Because most of their time is spent on the numerous low level changes for the new kernel (and how it behaves towards the firmware and completely messes up power management) and getting it past national authorities and carriers. Source: a friend of mine does this for living
jjmiv 10y ago
i'm hoping the wait for the Nexus 6P beta here is due to fixing the "connections with car bluetooth" issue :(
- wccrawford 10y ago
  Good lord, yes. That has been horrible. Mine was working fine before 7.1.1, but broke at that point. Apparently others have been having it since long before that, too.
mkoryak 10y ago
does this work with a verizon pixel? It let me enroll mine, but no update yet...

What an infuriating post -- it doesn't link to the changelog.

Release notes don't really say a whole lot: https://developer.android.com/preview/support-712.html https://developer.android.com/preview/support-712.html Anyone know what has actually changed?

dajohnson89 10y ago
Yeah, it only tells us known issues. Gee, thanks. And I just checked for updates, none available. Some transparency into when exactly it's available for beta users would be nice. Is this kind of weirdness the new normal?
josteink 10y ago
> Anyone know what has actually changed? This is annoying with Google and Android. The betas are completely closed-source, so digging around in the actual Android-repos won't give you any leads either. I didn't dig too deep, but latest tag I could find in the currently published repos is "android-7.1.1_r13". https://android.googlesource.com/platform/bionic/+/android-7.1.1_r13 https://android.googlesource.com/platform/bionic/+/android-7...

fridek 10y ago

I couldn't care less with Android's fragmentation getting worse, not better. See https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html - less than 1% is on 7.0+ a year after its announcement. My Nexus 5 (2013), fully under control of Google, didn't get even 7.0 (2016). Moto G4 (2016) I bought few months ago is on 6.0 (2015), might get 7.0 (2016) soon-ish. I basically stopped caring about new versions, buying new phones to get the latest, etc. They are not even as exciting as they used to be, feature-wise. edited: Nexus 5 actually got 6.0

josteink 10y ago
I think API-wise the most important improvements were done with Kitkat and the 4.x series. Targetting that will get you pretty much all the users you need. So it's not as bad as when 4.x was new and the majority of users were on 2.x. That said, I agree it's hard to be enthusiastic about a new Android-release these days. It's even harder to find out what new stuff (which isn't tied to US-only offered Google services) which you have in store as a user. On the bright side, that's probably a sign of a previously immature platform finally maturing.
- izacus 10y ago
  Targeting API 19+ (4.4) for most apps is more than realistic and that buys you proper RTL support and rather powerful devices. If you want to push UI to the limits, API 21 (5.0+) will still cover most of the market with great Material and elevation APIs.
cs02rm0 10y ago
It's a mess, isn't it. I'm still on an HTC One M7 (2013) with 5.0. And I'm a software developer who just sticks it on the business. I was all set to get the new Nexus, looking forward to the marginally quicker software upgrades (or even, some software upgrades now they've stopped on EE in the UK) and then they announce the Pixel. With the higher price bracket I can't see it getting the volumes, which means even more fragmentation. I don't want an iPhone, especially with the mess they're making with Macbook Pros but it's looking like the sane option.
- josteink 10y ago
  > I don't want an iPhone, especially with the mess they're making with Macbook Pros but it's looking like the sane option. In case you start seriously considering that option, let me provide you with a story of what to expect. I ditched my Android for an iPhone SE, because clearly no Android-vendor wants to create a small premium-class device which receives software updates and which can be used with one hand. And Apple makes the iPhone SE, so I figured I should put my money where my mouth was. My experience with iPhone is a bit schizofrenic. What works, works really well (especially the camera!), but everywhere on the platform you notice shortcomings and artificial limitations which limits your ability to get things done. It's clearly targetted towards CEOs whose peak complexity-needs are checking their email. Professional/power users who wants to use the phone as a platform for getting things done are completely ignored as far as needs and capabilities go. And don't get me started about the complete lack of quality software in the geek-department (Github, Travis, SSH, IRC, etc). It's a complete fucking wasteland. Right now I'm using all those apps through the web instead. Through Firefox. Which I cannot set as a system-wide default browser. Because no such thing exists. Same for SMS, so now I need to check Signal and the built in messaging app. It's maddening. So right now my iPhone is a device for checking web-pages and email. There's just no apps which covers my professional needs. I know all the iDevice-owners were screaming from the hills how much better apps are on iPhone than on Android, but I just can't see it. At least for me, it's been a downgrade for every app-category I use. So like I said, what works works well enough for me to keep this thing. But at the same time I keep wondering if I should pick up my old Nexus 5X and give it a second chance... So yeah. If you make the switch, and have any sense of geekyness in you, expect the switch to be painful. The grass is definitely not all green.

patrickaljord 10y ago

Still no Pixel in France and most of the world though. I guess I'll go for an iphone then. Too bad, that Pixel looked good.

Maarten88 10y ago

I must say, since getting 7.0 on my 5X, battery life has improved a lot. It could barely make a full workday on 6.0, but now it will last almost two days of average use. I wouldn't even think of installing this beta, they don't give me any reason to. Maybe if they would fix the contact syncing with non-Google providers, or something.

e40 10y ago
Maybe if they would fix the contact syncing with non-Google providers, or something. I have found serious bugs with syncing contacts to Google's servers. I found that the web version of contacts didn't have a bunch of changes I made to a contact on my phone, so now every time I make changes on my phone I look and rarely are they on the web contacts. I started a case with Google (I have a 5x, so I'm supported) and go to the point they wanted me to factory reset rather than find the bug. I said no thanks. I even pleaded that that would just mask the bug and didn't they want to find the problem? After all, I was completely stock (I didn't even unlock the bootloader).
- Maarten88 10y ago
  I didn't know it was that broken. I always assumed my Android Contact problems came from using Office 365 Exchange with Outlook as the main source of my contact list, with many years of history in it.
jasonellis 10y ago
Going from 7.1 to 7.1.1 on my Nexus 6p has ruined my battery life. Light web browsing for 1 hour in the morning while playing radio with TuneIn always cost me 10-12% of my battery. Since 7.1.1 it has cost me 30% of my battery. The battery drain has been insane. I've reset permissions and tried to track down what's causing this, but I can't find a culprit.
- pasbesoin 10y ago
  Don't know about the 6p, but on both my old 2013 Moto X and my current Nexus 5x, I've had to manually reboot the phone an additional time after completing an update. Until I do this, some Google service consumes an inordinate amount of battery -- dropping the battery charge 10% or so an hour while the phone is idling. That is, I do the update. The phone restarts as part of the update, yada-yada... Ok, I'm officially all done with the update. No more reboots. But this service is eating battery like crazy. Manually power the phone all the way off, once more, and then restart. Finally, battery use goes back to normal, and in Settings this Google service no longer headlines as the primary power consumer.

bb101 10y ago

Last time I joined the Android Beta Program (for 7.1.1), Google removed the the Night mode feature. No thanks, I'm done with early releases removing features that were otherwise working well in previous versions.

bostand 10y ago

People blaming carries and manufacturers for late updates: Is there any other product where the manufacturer must redo half of the product at the whim of a third party? Google needs to work with these companies, not as it is today throw a pile of random changes on them every six months. Most of all, there needs to be a grand plan and an understanding about what will be changed next (and why).

sgift 10y ago
Maybe. On the other hand if the manufacturers changed less when they "apply" Android to their phones updates would be easier, but instead of providing a default Android every manufacturer tries to be the "best" Android variant (sometimes with more success, sometimes with less success) and then they say "hey, we've sold it already, updates? Nope. No interest."
- bostand 10y ago
  This is simply not true. The amount of time updating "skins" add to the development is relatively small. Haven't you noticed that even companies with almost stock android are having trouble keeping up with these updates? Because most of their time is spent on the numerous low level changes for the new kernel (and how it behaves towards the firmware and completely messes up power management) and getting it past national authorities and carriers. Source: a friend of mine does this for living

jjmiv 10y ago

i'm hoping the wait for the Nexus 6P beta here is due to fixing the "connections with car bluetooth" issue :(

wccrawford 10y ago
Good lord, yes. That has been horrible. Mine was working fine before 7.1.1, but broke at that point. Apparently others have been having it since long before that, too.

mkoryak 10y ago

does this work with a verizon pixel? It let me enroll mine, but no update yet...