10 ms·

It's this sort of thing that puts me off Android as a platform. Even my mother got sold a 2.2 handset recently (Samsung Galaxy Ace) that hasn't been patched for

It's this sort of thing that puts me off Android as a platform. Even my mother got sold a 2.2 handset recently (Samsung Galaxy Ace) that hasn't been patched for the best part of 3 years. You never know when you're going to end up with a lemon on your hands. Big jump to this conclusion but I'm more inclined to trust Microsoft at the moment as they have a better reputation for lifetime (unlike Android), have a very public security process and good industry comms and the devices are proven usable if not faster after recent updates (unlike iOS which starts to be terribly limiting performance-wise). Plus they're dirt cheap.

Zigurd 12y ago
Android One is meant to make it simple for lo-end OEMs to ship high quality implementations of up-to-date Android and keep up with new releases. It's hard to migrate a huge OEM ecosystem to that kind of program quickly.
- allegory 12y ago
  I doubt that will happen. At $100 a handset where is the return and motivation for an OEM to bother pushing updates out for firmware/integration testing etc (that the telcos require)? Look at the aforementioned Galaxy Ace in my last comment which is exactly where this will end up, yet again. Also, they say 2 years' support. If you look at the phone recycling business, there is 4-5 years life in a franken-handset shipped abroad.
  - aroch 12y ago
    Google's providing the OS support -- they make money on you using their services. Even if the revenue per user is only ¢10/year, when you get 100's of millions to billions of users that adds up.
- npizzolato 12y ago
  And Nexus was meant to make it simpler for Google to ship updates directly to users, rather than having to go through OEMs. If Google can't keep their own phones up to date, do you expect Android One to be any different?
  - blocke 12y ago
    The only Nexus phones here that don't already have a fix available is the phone they announced as being end of life. 4.4 is not affected and is available for the Nexus 4, 5, both generations of 7 and I believe the 10. Dear Galaxy Nexus users... It's time to let go.
    - jamesisaac 12y ago
      The Galaxy Nexus was released only 3 years ago. Since when was that beyond the expected lifespan of a flagship product from one of the world's largest tech companies? Don't think I've ever owned anything with such a serious planned obscolence issue. Windows supports its OS releases for 12 years (and doesn't lock you in, so you can usually follow official upgrade procedure anyway). And anything "dumber" than a smartphone doesn't really open itself up to these gaping security flaws, so still operates fine after many years.
      - wernercd 12y ago
        Since when has anything over 2 years, for a phone, had support? Anything over that is the exception, not the rule. Apple has better support than most, but even their phones degrade with features missing on older phones AND included new features run like ass (every time my fiance upgrades old phone to new iOS she hate life until upgrade). A 2 year old phone really is ancient... much less three or four... Who actually supports phones that old CONSISTENTLY?
        jamesisaac 12y ago
        Well yeah with smartphones really short release cycles are "the rule" - because Google/Apple dominate the industry and set the rules - that's what I'm complaining about. There's no fundamental reason a 2 year old phone should be seen as ancient. Hardware can last many times longer than that, and software can be updated. Google is just not making the effort to support its older devices. For people like me who don't want to buy a new phone every 18 months (both a wasteful use of my money, and the earth's natural resources), Android is looking like a pretty bad choice.
- Pxtl 12y ago
  And I bet Samsung still won't use it for their terrible low-end phones because of their darned skin.
jayd16 12y ago
I don't understand why people are surprised they might be sold an inferior product if they don't do a minimum of research.
- allegory 12y ago
  That's not how salespeople work...
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
legohead 12y ago
Yes, this continues to be a problem that I hope Google addresses somehow. I got the Samsung Galaxy Nexus because I assumed it would be kept up to date with the latest Android version, since it's using the Google brand 'Nexus' name. I even asked the sales representative if it would be kept up to date (knowing I couldn't trust them, but was looking for any extra assurance), and they said yes. Right now it's at 4.3 and wont upgrade...
- mbq 12y ago
  Just switch to CyanogenMod or other custom compilation; there is a gain from Nexus brand in the ease of unlocking bootloader (;
  - gsnedders 12y ago
    I'm not convinced CyanogenMod (or any other variant) is actually that great; I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 (i9100 model), the last non-nightly CyanogenMod update was over a year ago now. There have been a number of CVEs issued for Android (and likely numerous others cover Android as a platform, covering OpenSSL for example) over that time period, so there's no way the phone is anywhere near up-to-date with security fixes. CyanogenMod doesn't have any way to distinguish which phones are currently receiving security fixes in a timely manner and which are not; nor do they have any list of security advisories covering packages they distribute (go look at any notable desktop/server Linux distro — they all have public lists of security advisories and documentation of what release fixes them). To my knowledge there is no Android distribution that has anywhere near the cohesive security story — and they're all miles behind any desktop OS.
    - frankzinger 12y ago
      > I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 (i9100 model), the last non-nightly CyanogenMod update was over a year ago now. Same. The newest version which supports my phone is years old, and there are major usability issues, particularly in the dialler interface. The manufacturer (HTC) UI was miles better (i.e., actually usable).
    - 12y ago
girvo 12y ago
Microsoft may update their older devices (well, once we moved to WP8 anyway, WP7 can go jump apparently), but my girlfriend's HTC 8X is half broken because her carrier refused to let the update go through. Absolutely frustrating... that's one thing I am happy about with my 4S, for sure. Screw carriers.
- allegory 12y ago
  WP7 was a different OS (CE vs NT kernel). The NT kernel wasn't portable to a couple of the SoC's they used on those devices. I suspect that's why it went and jumped. You're right though about carriers. I always buy non-carrier locked devices here in the UK for that precise reason. Nokia sell "country variant" devices which are usually updated first.
- brudgers 12y ago
  Microsoft upgraded WP7 to WP7.8 Mango when WP8 was released. It backported many of the new features to existing devices. including my Dell VenuePro.
- mhurron 12y ago
  So Windows Phone is updated at the will of the carriers as well? Basically the only way to get updates to your smart phone is either - 1. iPhone 2. Custom Rom and you're on your own.
  - leen 12y ago
    > So Windows Phone is updated at the will of the carriers as well? You can register for the Preview for Developers program [1] and get timely OS updates regardless of the carrier. With the 8x the lack of updates is an HTC issue tho as far as I know. They look to roll out 8.1 on some of the 8Xs in October [2]. [1]: http://www.wpcentral.com/preview-for-developers http://www.wpcentral.com/preview-for-developers [2]: https://twitter.com/htc/status/509409362100879361 https://twitter.com/htc/status/509409362100879361
ZoFreX 12y ago
The continuing sales of the Galaxy Ace should be criminal. If you buy one and update all apps it comes with, bam: you're out of space. Not to mention even if you apply all updates available you're still a walking target for every Android exploit that's come out in the last 3 years. It is completely unfit for purpose, but even when replacements came out (Y, Ace 2) the shops near me were still pushing the Ace. Why??
- allegory 12y ago
  Probably warehouses full of them still.

Zigurd 12y ago

Android One is meant to make it simple for lo-end OEMs to ship high quality implementations of up-to-date Android and keep up with new releases. It's hard to migrate a huge OEM ecosystem to that kind of program quickly.

allegory 12y ago
I doubt that will happen. At $100 a handset where is the return and motivation for an OEM to bother pushing updates out for firmware/integration testing etc (that the telcos require)? Look at the aforementioned Galaxy Ace in my last comment which is exactly where this will end up, yet again. Also, they say 2 years' support. If you look at the phone recycling business, there is 4-5 years life in a franken-handset shipped abroad.
- aroch 12y ago
  Google's providing the OS support -- they make money on you using their services. Even if the revenue per user is only ¢10/year, when you get 100's of millions to billions of users that adds up.
npizzolato 12y ago
And Nexus was meant to make it simpler for Google to ship updates directly to users, rather than having to go through OEMs. If Google can't keep their own phones up to date, do you expect Android One to be any different?
- blocke 12y ago
  The only Nexus phones here that don't already have a fix available is the phone they announced as being end of life. 4.4 is not affected and is available for the Nexus 4, 5, both generations of 7 and I believe the 10. Dear Galaxy Nexus users... It's time to let go.
  - jamesisaac 12y ago
    The Galaxy Nexus was released only 3 years ago. Since when was that beyond the expected lifespan of a flagship product from one of the world's largest tech companies? Don't think I've ever owned anything with such a serious planned obscolence issue. Windows supports its OS releases for 12 years (and doesn't lock you in, so you can usually follow official upgrade procedure anyway). And anything "dumber" than a smartphone doesn't really open itself up to these gaping security flaws, so still operates fine after many years.
    - wernercd 12y ago
      Since when has anything over 2 years, for a phone, had support? Anything over that is the exception, not the rule. Apple has better support than most, but even their phones degrade with features missing on older phones AND included new features run like ass (every time my fiance upgrades old phone to new iOS she hate life until upgrade). A 2 year old phone really is ancient... much less three or four... Who actually supports phones that old CONSISTENTLY?
      - jamesisaac 12y ago
        Well yeah with smartphones really short release cycles are "the rule" - because Google/Apple dominate the industry and set the rules - that's what I'm complaining about. There's no fundamental reason a 2 year old phone should be seen as ancient. Hardware can last many times longer than that, and software can be updated. Google is just not making the effort to support its older devices. For people like me who don't want to buy a new phone every 18 months (both a wasteful use of my money, and the earth's natural resources), Android is looking like a pretty bad choice.
Pxtl 12y ago
And I bet Samsung still won't use it for their terrible low-end phones because of their darned skin.

jayd16 12y ago

I don't understand why people are surprised they might be sold an inferior product if they don't do a minimum of research.

allegory 12y ago
That's not how salespeople work...

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

legohead 12y ago

Yes, this continues to be a problem that I hope Google addresses somehow. I got the Samsung Galaxy Nexus because I assumed it would be kept up to date with the latest Android version, since it's using the Google brand 'Nexus' name. I even asked the sales representative if it would be kept up to date (knowing I couldn't trust them, but was looking for any extra assurance), and they said yes. Right now it's at 4.3 and wont upgrade...

mbq 12y ago
Just switch to CyanogenMod or other custom compilation; there is a gain from Nexus brand in the ease of unlocking bootloader (;
- gsnedders 12y ago
  I'm not convinced CyanogenMod (or any other variant) is actually that great; I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 (i9100 model), the last non-nightly CyanogenMod update was over a year ago now. There have been a number of CVEs issued for Android (and likely numerous others cover Android as a platform, covering OpenSSL for example) over that time period, so there's no way the phone is anywhere near up-to-date with security fixes. CyanogenMod doesn't have any way to distinguish which phones are currently receiving security fixes in a timely manner and which are not; nor do they have any list of security advisories covering packages they distribute (go look at any notable desktop/server Linux distro — they all have public lists of security advisories and documentation of what release fixes them). To my knowledge there is no Android distribution that has anywhere near the cohesive security story — and they're all miles behind any desktop OS.
  - frankzinger 12y ago
    > I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 (i9100 model), the last non-nightly CyanogenMod update was over a year ago now. Same. The newest version which supports my phone is years old, and there are major usability issues, particularly in the dialler interface. The manufacturer (HTC) UI was miles better (i.e., actually usable).
  - 12y ago

girvo 12y ago

Microsoft may update their older devices (well, once we moved to WP8 anyway, WP7 can go jump apparently), but my girlfriend's HTC 8X is half broken because her carrier refused to let the update go through. Absolutely frustrating... that's one thing I am happy about with my 4S, for sure. Screw carriers.

allegory 12y ago
WP7 was a different OS (CE vs NT kernel). The NT kernel wasn't portable to a couple of the SoC's they used on those devices. I suspect that's why it went and jumped. You're right though about carriers. I always buy non-carrier locked devices here in the UK for that precise reason. Nokia sell "country variant" devices which are usually updated first.
brudgers 12y ago
Microsoft upgraded WP7 to WP7.8 Mango when WP8 was released. It backported many of the new features to existing devices. including my Dell VenuePro.
mhurron 12y ago
So Windows Phone is updated at the will of the carriers as well? Basically the only way to get updates to your smart phone is either - 1. iPhone 2. Custom Rom and you're on your own.
- leen 12y ago
  > So Windows Phone is updated at the will of the carriers as well? You can register for the Preview for Developers program [1] and get timely OS updates regardless of the carrier. With the 8x the lack of updates is an HTC issue tho as far as I know. They look to roll out 8.1 on some of the 8Xs in October [2]. [1]: http://www.wpcentral.com/preview-for-developers http://www.wpcentral.com/preview-for-developers [2]: https://twitter.com/htc/status/509409362100879361 https://twitter.com/htc/status/509409362100879361

ZoFreX 12y ago

The continuing sales of the Galaxy Ace should be criminal. If you buy one and update all apps it comes with, bam: you're out of space. Not to mention even if you apply all updates available you're still a walking target for every Android exploit that's come out in the last 3 years. It is completely unfit for purpose, but even when replacements came out (Y, Ace 2) the shops near me were still pushing the Ace. Why??

allegory 12y ago
Probably warehouses full of them still.