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Google says Nexus One too old for Android 4.0
- nickpp 15y agoThis is EXACTLY what I would expect from HTC. I had their products before and I got burned this way. It is one of the reasons I switched to Apple.
- jonursenbach 15y agoExcept HTC doesn't control the software on the Nexus One. Google handles all Google-experience devices like the Nexus One, Nexus S, Xoom and the new Nexus Galaxy.
- nickpp 15y agoI do suppose the HTC hardware is the issue here, otherwise why would google not support n1? They'd have nothing to lose.
- masklinn 15y ago> otherwise why would google not support n1? Google has never really cared about support. > They'd have nothing to lose. They'd have to spend time porting and validating it.
- quandrum 15y agoHow is this different than Apple's iOS5 compatibility list? Well, besides how much easier it will be for third parties to add ICS to Nexus One.
- chugger 15y agoiOS 5 runs smoothly on a 3GS, a phone older than the Nexus One.
- beej71 15y agoBut the last official update for the 3G turned it into a dog. I don't think any company is blameless, here, but I'm far more disappointed to see Google doing it. Linux still runs on a 386, last time I checked.
- chugger 15y agothe 3G is 4 yr old. the Nexus one is only 1.5+ yr old. here are two issues: 1) Android is suffering from feature creep / bloat 2) Unresolved design issues are biting them in the ass
- saturdaysaint 15y agoFWIW, many report that iOS5 actually makes the 3GS faster. Anandtech ran some benchmarks that show the 3GS on 5.0 being faster than the iPhone 4 on 4.3 at many tasks!
- archangel_one 15y agoI'm not convinced that you could run a 3.0 kernel image on a 386 without running out of RAM pretty soon, even if you cut it down to something pretty minimal. I haven't found any sources where anyone's actually installed modern Linux on one - they all seem to have used ancient distros because support actually vanished some time back (see eg. here: http://hackaday.com/2011/08/12/installing-linux-on-a-386-laptop/ http://hackaday.com/2011/08/12/installing-linux-on-a-386-lap...).
- beej71 15y agoI stand corrected, but you have my curiosity up. Nevertheless, the "decline" of hardware in the face of software advancement in phones strikes me as awfully rapid. Is the Nexus One really so underpowered that ICS couldn't be made to accommodate it?
- theDoug 15y agoI think the reaction is largely over the perceived short lifespan of the hardware in relation to supported software updates available to it, which in this instance favors poorly against Apple generally supplying software updates more than two years after a phone is released.
- danilocampos 15y agoThis phone is substantially younger (by six months) than Apple's oldest supported model, for one thing. And since the 3GS will be sold on an ongoing basis, it'll likely enjoy updates beyond 5.0, as well.
- Fliko 15y agoI'm wishing I bought an iPhone instead of my Nexus One now
- ayuvar 15y agoI still like my Nexus One, but between the sagging power button and the lack of "real" multitouch, I'm not inclined to buy another HTC product next time.
- Fliko 15y agoThe buggy multi-touch was the worse thing on the Nexus One, and was very falsely advertised on some sites. I really thought that it had a working multi-touch solution before I paid the mountain of importing fees to get it into Canada. I do still like it too, it just could've been that much better without much more effort put into it.
- jkincaid 15y agoIt's feasible that Cyanogenmod will release a compatible version though, isn't it?
- jbrkr 15y agoYes, there's a good chance of such a release considering the history of CyanogenMod [1]. Too bad the update won't be straight from Google this time. One of the key benefits of the Nexus One for nearly 2 years comes to an end. [1] http://www.cyanogenmod.com/ http://www.cyanogenmod.com/
- jhack 15y agoConsidering the hacker community got the SDK version ported to the Nexus One[1], I think it's entirely feasible once proper source code gets released. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUkxwT-fdI4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUkxwT-fdI4
- untog 15y agoI'm sure. There are hacked versions of Gingerbread out there for the original Droid, even though it was officially deemed too underpowered for it. Given the number of hacker types that own a Nexus One, I'm sure it'll be on the way.
- mechnik 15y agoI hope Cyanogenmod or someone else will release one. Cyanogenmod version of 2.3 for N1 and other phones, came out as 'nightly' release ages before the official Google release. Does anyone know what are the hardware limitations to adapting ICS?
- nickpp 15y agoDo you think ICS can actually run on N1? I do not think so. Otherwise why wouldn't google provide an update? Thus, what do you think cyanogen can do to make ICS properly run on the N1 hardware?
- RobAtticus 15y agoIt might be able to run, but the performance is just so subpar that Google feels uncomfortable releasing it. I doubt it would go over well if they release ICS for the N1 and the phone is barely usable. CM, on the other hand, will appear on any device that somebody is dedicated enough to bring it to. So if somebody really wants ICS on the N1, then they'll do it.
- nlanier 15y agoDamn. This bums me out.
- brudgers 15y agoThere's no incentive for Google to provide backward compatibility for Android, hence they don't.
- anigbrowl 15y agoWell, it would make people feel more confident about buying Android devices. I am not happy to discover that I am going to be stuck with a browser that chokes on most newspaper webpages (a lot of them keep reloading some 3rd party widget that renders the page unusuable after about 30-40 seconds).
- axiak 15y agoWhat prevents you from using firefox or opera?
- anigbrowl 15y agoI like the way the stock browser renders normal webpages. I don't care for the 3rd party browser interfaces, and I don't think it's too much to expect the stock browser to be reasonably robust - for the same reason that I expect the default wheels on a car to be sufficient for normal driving.
- hnalien 15y agoYou should give Dolphin Browser a try. The best mobile browser. Period.
- anigbrowl 15y agoI did. It's great. I still think the stock browser should 'just work,' considering that Google also makes Chrome. I want to evaluate competitors' offerings in terms of added functionality, not basic stability. It's a bad advert for Android, just like inferior wheels on a car would be a bad advert for the car manufacturer.
- ChuckMcM 15y agoI've always wondered about this, especially in embedded devices. Amongst the many mistakes Microsoft made with Vista, first and foremost was allowing the bloat to get so bad that it wouldn't run at all on machines that ran XP quite happily. Later Windows 7 could actually run on those old XP machines with many, if not most, of the features that Vista bragged about. So here we have Google, arguably a company which can hire all of the worlds best engineers, why are they succumbing to the code first and ask questions later philosophy that gave Microsoft such heartburn? Andy, I know you read HN, tell the team that their bonus depends on Android 4.0 being runnable on a Nexus 1. It isn't about supporting the platform with the least market share of any Android phone, its about instilling in the team a philosphy that taking the time to run great on hardware of that capability pays huge dividends in the phone world. Many engineers today were brought up in a world where the next PC will be 1.5 - 2x the 'size' of the current PC so bloat is fine, schedule is king. This is a bad philosophy in the embedded space. That 1.5 - 2x the 'size' phone means you can't cut your phone costs, you can't grow your market, you are stuck waiting only the latest / greatest chips which are always in short supply to ship volume. Help those engineers break the habit, I know they can they are smart folks. Challenge them, as Ben Horowitz would say use your lead bullets on this one.
- untog 15y agotaking the time to run great on hardware of that capability pays huge dividends in the phone world. It really won't though, that's the problem. The Nexus One is nearly two years old. It's somewhat of an anomaly because it'll have a higher than average number of off-contract purchases, but in general once a person's contact has run for two years they get a new phone. Two year old phones just aren't that important. Speaking as an N1 owner, I'd love for them to be. But they aren't.
- jsnell 15y agoAll the world is not the US, in most places the incentives aren't set up for upgrading phones "just because". But even ignoring that, the benefits to the platform as a whole for getting to upgrade as many users as possible to latest version should be obvious. And if the top range of 2 years ago isn't good enough for an upgrade, chances are that a lot of the midrange of today isn't either. (That said, if there really is a performance bottleneck preventing the port, the most likely candidate would be the GPU. And once you've made the decision to finally embrace the GPU, there's not anything you can do to fix the problem of going with a lame GPU when speccing out the hardware 3 years ago).
- citricsquid 15y agoI've got both the Nexus One and an iPhone 4 and I can never understand why anyone would choose the Nexus One over an iPhone, it's such an inferior product both hardware and software wise. The comparatively poor quality as put me off anything but iPhones.
- seanalltogether 15y agoThe Nexus One is really more comparable to the 3Gs and I think it stands up well against it. I bought mine since I wanted an unlocked phone that didn't require a custom hack to accomplish. I've been considering going back to an iPhone 4s if Apple decides to sell it unlocked from their store.
- glhaynes 15y agoThe online store (at least the US one: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4s http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph...) says the unlocked version is coming in November but I think that if you buy one from an Apple retail store you can get it unlocked now.
- radicaldreamer 15y agoKind of... if you buy it without extending your existing contract with AT&T, it'll be unlocked when you activate it. I don't think you can just roll in and buy it for cash and without an existing carrier account.
- LokiSnake 15y agoI believe they will come November, according to their store page.
- RobAtticus 15y agoOne, the N1 was released almost half a year earlier, so it's not like everyone was snubbing the iPhone 4 to get the N1. Two, some people prefer Android to iOS, and the N1 was one of the better Android phones at the time (and the only 'pure' experience).
- robterrell 15y agoGreat. I guess I can stop hitting the "Update" thing every day in the hope that 4.0 will appear. I can't help but note that the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch purchased the same month are already running iOS 5.0 and I haven't noticed any speed issues.
- danilocampos 15y agoAnd released a half year earlier than the Nexus One, no less.
- tejaswiy 15y agoMy 3GS is almost unusably slow on iOS5.
- melling 15y agoMine too. I'm upgrading to the 4S because of this. Can't wait for the 5. I also have a Nexus One for development. I find it hard to believe it was $600 in Jan 2010 and now it's obsolete.
- nuclear_eclipse 15y agoI wouldn't consider the Nexus One obsolete. The whole point of the N1 is that it has an unlocked bootloader, so you don't need Google's blessing to run custom roms or newer versions on your hardware. There are already ongoing efforts to port the 4.0 SDK images to run on the Nexus One and the Nexus S, and I guarantee there will be even better options once the source code is released. Use the freedom you paid $600 for to run ICS on your phone anyways.
- ben1040 15y agoExactly. The G1 was technically EOL'd at Android 1.6, but a coworker been running 2.2 on his for well over a year now using a custom ROM.
- vondur 15y ago
- patrickod 15y agoWhy are people complaining about the Nexus One not being as great as the iPhone 4. Look at the release dates and you'll see that the Nexus One has 6 months on the iPhone 4. If anything compare it to the 3GS and you'll see that it is in fact a much better phone. Google are pushing forward with Android and the Nexus One is unfortunately being left behind. It remains the best phone I've ever owned and I'll definitely be buying a Galaxy Nexus to continue riding the Android wave.
- chugger 15y agothe iPhone 3GS is better than Nexus one because it (can) runs iOS 5. your Nexus One is stuck running an old OS.
- drivebyacct2 15y agoExcept that there will be a CM port available probably by mid or late January.
- patrickod 15y agoPlease take your trolling elsewhere. Last I checked HN was a place where intellectual discussion takes place. Act accordingly.
- anigbrowl 15y agoBoo. Of course I do not expect all the advanced features or substitutes for things that are not supported by the older hardware, but Google promoted ICS strongly as a 'run everywhere' version designed to save developers from the hardware fragmentation issue. Between me, my wife, and my brothers-in-law, we have 7 or 8 Android devices in this household, and I was looking forward to a more unified operating environment.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- jinushaun 15y agoSad panda... I was really expecting Google to support at least two more version of Android post Gingerbread for the Nexus One. Guess I'll keep the N1 around as my device for testing apps on Gingerbread/old hardware. Apple handled this a lot better with iOS 4 and the old iPhone 3G. They simply took out features that the 3G couldn't handle. My N1 handles Gingerbread perfectly without any hiccups. Incredibly, every version of Android seemed to make my N1 faster. You couldn't say the same for iOS 3/4 on the 3G, which got worse, and any reasonable person wouldn't expect Apple to support the 3G beyond iOS 4. The N1, on the other hand, seemed like it could support at least two more versions of Android.
- vondur 15y agoI have the Nexus one and am not too pleased with this, the phone isn't that old, and I assumed we would get ICS on it.
- clhodapp 15y agoI imagine that this is not due to the n1 being "underpowered" per se, as the nexus s has roughly the same specs as the n1, but more internal storage. The problem is due to the fact that the n1 can't accommodate the ics image, which google is claiming is about twice as large in size. /speculation
- mrbill 15y agoIt's sad when a phone that's only 1.5 years old is "too old". I really enjoyed my N1 with Cyanogenmod, but switched back to iPhone when news of T-Mobile's acquisition by AT&T started coming out.
- leeoniya 15y agomy gf's CDMA Hero (released October 11, 2009 w/Cupcake!) is running CyanogenMod 7.1 (Gingerbread), runs better than stock HTC sense trash. "won't run on Nexus One", you say? it'll run back-to-back Ironman triathlons
- dlikhten 15y agoNOOOOOO!!!! HTC EVO 4G NO HAS 4.0 upgrade? Noes!!! NOOOOES!!!!!! I am very sad now. As a side note, at these speeds, feels like windows xp has less hardware reqs than android :P
- 37prime 15y agoNexus One was released in January 2010. Too soon to be "retired" after only 2 years. Nexus One was seriously "flawed" for having only 512MB of internal storage. I had to uninstall tons of applications just to update the built in ones.
- lurker17 15y agoThis is the killer. Google keeps piling more junkware apps onto internal storage, and not enabling the SD bit for their apps. I am constantly making calls of which 1MB non-SD app to evict, while Browser and Maps and friends pile on 5-10MB each. And there isn't even any piracy(?)-related reason to make these apps internal-only, like there is for paid apps. My N1 is a constant state of "Browser storage full" since the latest round of app updates.
- spiralpolitik 15y agoSo by the end of the year Android developers will have 5 different versions (2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.0 and 4.0) of Android in the wild and over 40% of which are running a version that's almost 18 months old (2.2) with no upgrade path. And they say fragmentation isn't an issue... It's Nokia and Symbian all over again.
- angryasian 15y agoFor a site called hackernews, it surprises me that people actually care about this. There will be so many available roms for ICS with source code release, and any phone that is at least running CM7 should have no worries. Its almost impossible to brick a phone during the root process and for a 2 year old phone to not attempt to root at this point, would not be using your hardware to its full benefit.
- 51Cards 15y agoThe sunset photo as the wallpaper on the phone in the article is appropriate. Still love my Nexus One.
- anacrolix 15y agobullshit. marketing
- foobarbazetc 15y agoWell, this is absolute bullshit.