6 ms·
This is disappointing -- Sony has surprisingly been one of the best Android manufacturers with regard to being open: https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-de
by subway 8y ago
This is disappointing --
Sony has surprisingly been one of the best Android manufacturers with regard to being open: https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/ https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/
Most of their devices can run AOSP, and the various blobs are built for a crazy number of android and kernel versions.
- milleramp 8y agoPerhaps for the OS, but from a photography point of view not at all. The Xperia’s do not fully support the camera2 api, and none support camera raw. I cannot understand why Sony would choose to do this on a camera centric phone. Bulletin boards are full of people who came to this realization after purchasing phones and begging for raw support.
- radiorental 8y agoSony is well known for avoiding cannibalization of other divisions to the point of shooting itself in the foot. E.g. the PS4 doesn't have a Blu-Ray drive because Sony also sells Blu-Ray players at roughly the same cost at the PS4 (keep in mind the business model for the PS4 is to sell at a loss and claw back profits on the games) The XBox pays royalties for it's blu-ray drive - and a significant sum goes to Sony who it part of the Blu-Ray consortium, go figure!
- kec 8y agoThe ps4 definitely has a blu ray drive, not sure where you got the impression it doesn’t?
- radiorental 8y agoForgive me, you are right, it does now. When it shipped it did not support Blu-Ray for the reasons mentioned above.
- scarface74 8y agoPS4 supported Blu-ray from day one. You just needed to get a free software update. https://www.quora.com/Can-a-PS4-play-DVD-or-blu-ray-disc https://www.quora.com/Can-a-PS4-play-DVD-or-blu-ray-disc
- msbarnett 8y agoThis is still completely incorrect. It obviously shipped with BluRay from the beginning, as all PS4 games are distributed on BluRay disc. Further, launch reviews mention not only the slot-loading BluRay drive but the day one patch enabling movie playback: https://www.engadget.com/2013/11/14/sony-playstation-4-review/ https://www.engadget.com/2013/11/14/sony-playstation-4-revie... There are also launch contemporary reviews of the movie playback experience on the PS4: https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=12614 https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=12614
- ErneX 8y agoPS4 has a bluray drive since day one.
- WillPostForFood 8y agoPS4 has a blu ray drive, and will play standard blu ray movies. What they didn't do is support 4k blu ray in the newer PS4 Pro. Unclear why they made the choice, could be cannibalization, could be cost cutting.
- radiorental 8y agoI stand corrected. That said, I do remember that while the OG PS4 shipped with the Blu-Ray hardware, the PS4 would not play the Blu-Ray format. I guess at some point they started shipping a software update to support the format.
- hawaiianbrah 8y agoMaybe it couldn’t for a week or two. It launched early November right? This article is from mid November saying it’s possible with the firmware update. https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=12614 https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=12614
- msbarnett 8y agoBluRay playback was enabled in the Day One patch, which also basically contained the rest of the OS. The hardware was shipped as a brick, essentially, and the Day One patch was mandatory. There was really no period of time where it couldn’t play movies. OP is misremembering facts to fit a conclusion they they’re reasoning backwards from.
- ryanmclovin 8y agoI think you're misremembering things. PS4 was able to play blu-ray films from its day 1.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Youden 8y agoThey were in the middle of fixing that before this however: https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/sony-xperia-phones-finally-getting-alpha-style-cameras-3666962 https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/sony-xperia-phones-final...
- Youden 8y ago> The Xperia’s do not fully support the camera2 api, and none support camera raw. Actually on AOSP (the version Sony releases), they all support both of those things.
- datavirtue 8y agoOn an Xperia right now. Flawless phone. I actually like it, and I hate smartphones.
- piotrkubisa 8y agoIndeed. AOSP, SailfishX, easy to fetch some officially published repositories on GitHub, compact size devices (i.e. XZ2 Compact), decent tech specification and balanced "bloat" [1] on their smartphones is really compelling to me. Sadly, competitors like Xiaomi (IMHO, one among the worst manufacturers [1]), Nokia HMD Global, Huawei, Samsung, Apple and many others do not give many opportunities to Sony Mobile be profitable business. I wish they will improve marketing and sales channel. [1] Annoying telemetry that you cannot opt-out and does not care if your Internet uses mobile data or Wi-Fi. Ridiculous permission requirements for apps, i.e. Weather requires permission to make a phone call (https://en.miui.com/thread-1851703-1-1.html https://en.miui.com/thread-1851703-1-1.html) and Calendar to send SMS messages.
- andrepd 8y agoYou should absolutely never run a phone with MIUI, or any other similar OS which you have absolutely no idea what it's doing under your nose. First thing you should do is wipe it and install Lineage.
- saagarjha 8y ago> any other similar OS which you have absolutely no idea what it's doing under your nose This seems to be most OSes, sadly :(
- vbezhenar 8y agoXiaomi has Android One models with Google software. Though I’m not sure that they don’t bundle some malware there.
- runn1ng 8y agoI have A1 (Android One phone), if there is malware, they hide it well. There is no obvious MIUI stuff The thing about their Android One offering is that they don't bring their A game hardware-wise, they don't really advertise them, and it's confusing to find them in their other phones.
- joecool1029 8y agoYeah, their stuff was more open from the Ericsson lineage. My first phone was a SE t68i, my last Sony Ericsson was the Arc. Then I went through a bunch of Sony android phones. In the US they were fucking garbage. I went through 3 replacements with a Xperia Z5 some years back that kept burning through the screen. My Z3 had the glass on the back crack, and no repair shop could adequately glue the thing back onto the phone. So I converted it to stationary use. It eventually died after I used it as a AP wedged into a window, and water got inside. Sony has one incompetent repair center in the US. Turnaround time averaged around 40 days, a time in which we'd need to contact Sony to keep moving the process forward. This was my experience with the Z series right on back to my old featurephone K-series in the mid-2000's Good riddens, I won't miss them.
- woofie11 8y agoThe screens on front also spontaneously crack, all the time. My first phone, I thought it was a fluke, so I bought another. Then I had to RMA it. Then I stopped buying Sony.
- joecool1029 8y agoYeah seriously, my issue isn't that the phones failed. My issue is that the company has a terrible repair center and leaves you over a month without a phone to use. Then when it's an obvious engineering defect, they don't offer a replacement to a model without the issue (or a refund) I've been lucky (for someone that buys phone direct) that I usually have a backup and a backup for the backup. Many don't have that luxury. I remember I had a Xperia Neo V cook the 3G portion of the radio and get denied for replacement under warranty (corrosion). All this leaves a terrible taste in my mouth. To contrast, my Phillips 43" monitor had the screen go (backlight mura), it's a comparable $600 device. Know what they do? Advance replacement, I had a new panel in 2 days and could ship back the defective. Sony could do this, but they don't. Since they lack local repair centers you're just left without a working device. Years back I had a friend with a 40gb ipod photo. It kept failing on him, Apple would replace. Eventually on the 3rd time they upgraded him to a 60gb ipod video, at no cost. He never experienced another failure. To date, he is still an Apple customer, still upgrades to their new devices every couple years. Sony doesn't even try in the US.
- vbezhenar 8y agoInstalling AOSP wipes some DRM keys and bricks camera on some models. Also effectively voids warranty.
- edandersen 8y agoNot since the Pie updates.