6 ms·

And now we simply wait for cell carriers/handset manufacturers to push out updates for all the handsets in the field.

by flyt 13y ago

enraged_camel 13y ago
Yep. Everyone who normally pretends that Android fragmentation is "not that big a deal" is going to squirm.
- jmomo 13y ago
  This is why I use Cyanogenmod. I get better support from a bunch of unpaid yahoos who like to dork around with phones than from the carriers and handset manufactures. I am willing to bet Cyanogenmod will have a fix out in days, if not hours. This goes for other ROMs like Paranoid too. I refuse to buy hardware which isn't supported by the open-source community, such as Cyanogen. If I don't 0wn it, I don't own it.
- rednukleus 13y ago
  I know, right? Things would be so much better if the dominant OS was a closed platform, and only ran on hardware made by the same company and only ran apps purchased though a tightly controlled store run by the same company. Of course then they could shut out other service providers such as maps and cloud services, and basically wreck the industry for almost everyone except themselves, but at least we would get timely updates.
  - kmfrk 13y ago
    It's almost as if decisions have trade-offs.
  - melling 13y ago
    Who said that it had to be one of two models? Microsoft Windows works much the same way Android does by running on lots of vendor hardware. People don't have to wait for Dell to push out updates, for example.
    - bigdubs 13y ago
      Computers are also not cell phones, and Dell doesn't want to have as tight control over the operating system as carriers / phone makers.
  - briandear 13y ago
    I'm curious. What maps and cloud services providers have been shut out of iOS? I recall that google maps has an app, dropbox has an app, there are even non iTunes music players. One of the criteria for the app store doesn't seem to be "can't compete with Apple." So this little diatribe about "wrecking the industry" is a bit unfounded. There's nothing stopping you or anyone else from creating their own OS and their own hardware to run it on and marketing it to people and selling it. Dropbox is a huge competitor to Apple's cloud services. While they're different, if Apple really was trying to be heavy handed, Dropbox would never have gotten on the App Store. By the way, what's the default maps application on Android? Google is a model of openness right? So open that your gmail has "no expectation of privacy." I wonder how they feel about things being done using an Android device. After all, if even your private person-to-person emails have no privacy expectation, then what expectation would one have for using an Android device? As far as "wrecking the industry," I've never made more money from development as I have since the App store came along. So unless your industry is creating malware or porn apps, iOS has hardly wrecked anything. If it weren't for iOS, there'd likely be no Android. Apple essentially created the smartphone industry, at least as we know it today. Entire new businesses were created because of the App Store. I can't even on one hand the number of consumer mobile development companies that existed before iPhone. I'm sure there were plenty, but hardly the billion dollar industry it is today. I'm not an Apple apologist, however when I see the same tired arguments about the "closed" ecosystem it gets frustrating. Especially since the App Store has over 900,000 apps. That's a lot of apps for such an oppressive system. A large percentage of them are crap, but comparing sales numbers to Google Play, it's pretty obvious that Apple is doing something right, at least from the perspective of the consumer -- which is the market. There are some notable screwups with the app approval process, however weighing that in the aggregate against the overall success of developers within the App store, the screwups are a drop in the bucket.
    - rednukleus 13y ago
      Apple has a rule that disallows apps from the app store if they "duplicate the functionality of one of apple's own apps". Alternative browsers for instance are effectively banned, you can only skin safari. There have been plenty of examples where they have abused this rule. Google maps was around before Apple Maps, but when it launched it became the default app, and there is no way to change it. On android, the user can swap out gmaps for an alternative. Luckily iOS never became dominant, and so the long term damage to the market is limited. In the short term, certainly a lot of developers made some quick money on iOS, and as one of them I can see why you are so keen to defend them. But in the long run, if they had reached dominance then it would have been a catastrophe for the industry on a scale far worse than Windows dominance in the 90s. There are a lot of other reasons that it would have been bad, that often don't occur to people in cozy western environments, such as the impact it would have had on developing countries. A lot of elitist iOS developers say its not a problem that you can only develop iOS apps on a Mac, because "anyone can afford a Mac mini", but try telling that to a highschool student in India.
  - enraged_camel 13y ago
    Yes, at least you would get timely updates making your money and personal data more secure. Not a big deal at all. No sir.
- eli 13y ago
  It's the carriers. What are you supposed to do, tell them they can't test updates for phones running on their network?
  - dmix 13y ago
    Not make it difficult to update the phone using 3rd party builds. Which is exactly what Samsung did regardless of carrier with the Galaxy S4. You can install cyanogenmod (and other custom roms) without rooting. Cyanogenmod then gets frequent 1 click updates.
panarky 13y ago
No need to wait for the carriers. Google published sample code for app developers to get good entropy. http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2013/08/some-securerandom-thoughts.html http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2013/08/some-securera...

And now we simply wait for cell carriers/handset manufacturers to push out updates for all the handsets in the field.

by flyt 13y ago

And now we simply wait for cell carriers/handset manufacturers to push out updates for all the handsets in the field.

enraged_camel 13y ago

Yep. Everyone who normally pretends that Android fragmentation is "not that big a deal" is going to squirm.

jmomo 13y ago
This is why I use Cyanogenmod. I get better support from a bunch of unpaid yahoos who like to dork around with phones than from the carriers and handset manufactures. I am willing to bet Cyanogenmod will have a fix out in days, if not hours. This goes for other ROMs like Paranoid too. I refuse to buy hardware which isn't supported by the open-source community, such as Cyanogen. If I don't 0wn it, I don't own it.
rednukleus 13y ago
I know, right? Things would be so much better if the dominant OS was a closed platform, and only ran on hardware made by the same company and only ran apps purchased though a tightly controlled store run by the same company. Of course then they could shut out other service providers such as maps and cloud services, and basically wreck the industry for almost everyone except themselves, but at least we would get timely updates.
- kmfrk 13y ago
  It's almost as if decisions have trade-offs.
- melling 13y ago
  Who said that it had to be one of two models? Microsoft Windows works much the same way Android does by running on lots of vendor hardware. People don't have to wait for Dell to push out updates, for example.
  - bigdubs 13y ago
    Computers are also not cell phones, and Dell doesn't want to have as tight control over the operating system as carriers / phone makers.
- briandear 13y ago
  I'm curious. What maps and cloud services providers have been shut out of iOS? I recall that google maps has an app, dropbox has an app, there are even non iTunes music players. One of the criteria for the app store doesn't seem to be "can't compete with Apple." So this little diatribe about "wrecking the industry" is a bit unfounded. There's nothing stopping you or anyone else from creating their own OS and their own hardware to run it on and marketing it to people and selling it. Dropbox is a huge competitor to Apple's cloud services. While they're different, if Apple really was trying to be heavy handed, Dropbox would never have gotten on the App Store. By the way, what's the default maps application on Android? Google is a model of openness right? So open that your gmail has "no expectation of privacy." I wonder how they feel about things being done using an Android device. After all, if even your private person-to-person emails have no privacy expectation, then what expectation would one have for using an Android device? As far as "wrecking the industry," I've never made more money from development as I have since the App store came along. So unless your industry is creating malware or porn apps, iOS has hardly wrecked anything. If it weren't for iOS, there'd likely be no Android. Apple essentially created the smartphone industry, at least as we know it today. Entire new businesses were created because of the App Store. I can't even on one hand the number of consumer mobile development companies that existed before iPhone. I'm sure there were plenty, but hardly the billion dollar industry it is today. I'm not an Apple apologist, however when I see the same tired arguments about the "closed" ecosystem it gets frustrating. Especially since the App Store has over 900,000 apps. That's a lot of apps for such an oppressive system. A large percentage of them are crap, but comparing sales numbers to Google Play, it's pretty obvious that Apple is doing something right, at least from the perspective of the consumer -- which is the market. There are some notable screwups with the app approval process, however weighing that in the aggregate against the overall success of developers within the App store, the screwups are a drop in the bucket.
  - rednukleus 13y ago
    Apple has a rule that disallows apps from the app store if they "duplicate the functionality of one of apple's own apps". Alternative browsers for instance are effectively banned, you can only skin safari. There have been plenty of examples where they have abused this rule. Google maps was around before Apple Maps, but when it launched it became the default app, and there is no way to change it. On android, the user can swap out gmaps for an alternative. Luckily iOS never became dominant, and so the long term damage to the market is limited. In the short term, certainly a lot of developers made some quick money on iOS, and as one of them I can see why you are so keen to defend them. But in the long run, if they had reached dominance then it would have been a catastrophe for the industry on a scale far worse than Windows dominance in the 90s. There are a lot of other reasons that it would have been bad, that often don't occur to people in cozy western environments, such as the impact it would have had on developing countries. A lot of elitist iOS developers say its not a problem that you can only develop iOS apps on a Mac, because "anyone can afford a Mac mini", but try telling that to a highschool student in India.
- enraged_camel 13y ago
  Yes, at least you would get timely updates making your money and personal data more secure. Not a big deal at all. No sir.
eli 13y ago
It's the carriers. What are you supposed to do, tell them they can't test updates for phones running on their network?
- dmix 13y ago
  Not make it difficult to update the phone using 3rd party builds. Which is exactly what Samsung did regardless of carrier with the Galaxy S4. You can install cyanogenmod (and other custom roms) without rooting. Cyanogenmod then gets frequent 1 click updates.

panarky 13y ago

No need to wait for the carriers. Google published sample code for app developers to get good entropy. http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2013/08/some-securerandom-thoughts.html http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2013/08/some-securera...