Really? You mean I can upgrade my iPhone to the latest OS?
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What's so fantastic about Apple?
- Thread starter Humes fork
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Really? You mean I can upgrade my iPhone to the latest OS?
Ha! You caught me you son of a gun! No, if you have a 4 year old iPhone 3G you can't because it's not fast enough. As opposed to the Android phones where something like less than 5% of Android devices are running ICS. Not because they're not fast enough but because, well, someone will get around to it.
John Albert
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It's because the service providers reserve the right to examine and approve all the code before they push it out to their devices. That's no fault of Android as a platform.
Of course, unless you're using an extremely outdated handset, you can download and install the upgrade yourself, so long as your provider hasn't blocked that functionality.
In my case, I have a Google Nexus phone so I just get the upgrades as soon as they get pushed out. I don't really give two craps about what new OS they happen to be marketing at the mo, so I usually get the upgrade without even realizing it. I reboot my phone and that's it. I'm on the new version. What-evah.
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Um, that IS a core fault of Android as a platform. I'm pretty sure carriers and handset makers don't know better than the OS creator than the how to design, build, update, and distribute a smartphone OS, yet they act as though they do. Google can't whip them into shape so that updates to recent phones get shipped same day across to all handsets, all carriers.
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John Albert
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No, it's not. If there's a blame to be had, then it belongs to the service providers who place restrictions on their users' freedom of choice. If you don't want those restrictions, don't do business with those carriers.
It just makes perfect sense that Apple deals exclusively with the two biggest—and worst—offenders by far in that regard: AT&T and Verizon. I've been with both of them in the past and will probably never deal with either of them ever again. Those two and Apple share the same exploitative disregard for their customers.
I'm pretty sure you have no idea what what you're talking about. All Google does is offer information-based services, and develop a flexible, feature-rich open-source OS that integrates them together.
The cellular providers contract directly with the hardware manufacturers to make the handsets, so they decide what kinds of restrictions they want to place on the devices that they choose to connect to their own networks.
Is it HBO's and Showtime's fault if you subscribe to a cable television service that doesn't deliver you the full range of channels that satellite TV does? It's not HBO and Showtime's place to tell the service provider what channels to offer. They just provide the material.
Likewise, it's not Google's fault that the carriers want to restrict use of their own cellular networks. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, US Cellular, etc. are all different companies with different sets of priorities and different teams of developers operating on different business cycles, working with different hardware manufacturers on different phones. It's not Google's place to tell them all what to do. Google just provides the infrastructure and the OS, and that's it. They don't need nor care to impose a draconian dictatorship over the cellphone industry.
Whip them into shape?!? What the hell are you talking about?
Why are you guys making such a big deal about what handsets get "Honeycomb" or "Ice Cream Sandwich" on what day of the year? What's your big concern with the rollout dates of Android upgrades?
Your average Android phone offers far more flexibility and functionality than an iPhone even without the latest OS upgrade. It's practically a non-issue. Most of the Android users I know don't give two poops which OS version their phone is running. Only tech journalist hype mongers and pathetic trendoids who define their lives according to Mashable and Gizmodo really care about pissing contests like that.
Newsflash: everybody in the world is not so obsessed with their cellphones. Most of us just use our gadgets to support our lives, not the other way around.
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What about the 3Gs? I'm not sure what the criticism is that you are making, manufacturers all have different upgrade paths. Apple's route is to charge for minor upgrades to OSX and their usual upgrade path is to simply stop support for relatively recent hardware (my Mac Mini and my iPod touch for example). Other manufacturers have different upgrade paths, for example my Samsung phone was upgraded to Android 4 the day after it was released, but my other half's phone will only be upgraded at the start of next month.
Just because a new version or upgrade has been released does not mean that your phone or device stops working you know....
Your criticism seems to be that you think everyone should be updated at the same time? Why?
BobTheDonkey
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Because in the vast majority of instances, handset or carrier modifications made to Android haven't improved the experience for users. In some cases it confuses users. Android phone users want stock Android. By not taking extra time to make their own changes to new OS updates, they could offer updates faster and improve customer goodwill.
But, this IS carriers and handset makers we're talking about here. They may not care.
Sprint doesn't count in John's world, because, well they just don't, dammit!
You meant "partially supported".
Hmmm... not used many Android phones have you?
I doubt it else they would have bought a phone that offered "stock Android".
However this is rather getting away from the topic of this thread, which is not Android but Apple. So to get back to my question - why is it "fantastic" that Apple offers some software updates to some of their products some of the time "at the same time"?
I would think that answer would be self-evident.
I suppose not.
It's great because it makes sure that owners have a consistent experience with updates, from supported phone to supported phone. And it's particularly great for Apple because everyone else seems to still be stuck in the old carrier-dominated structure and can't pull it off.
And my wife has a new LG 4G LTE exclusive to AT&T, and sometimes, if I'm really nice, she lets me play with it. Oh, and I'm sure you knew this anyway, you can't get a stock Android phone, that I'm aware of.
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John Albert
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I was unaware that Sprint also sold the iPhone.
The Nexus One, Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus are "stock" Android phones.
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Yeah, the things you're unaware of would fill several books.
Fast Eddie B
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Ouch!!!
John Albert
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Quit trolling with the ad hominems.
I schooled you a few posts back. A little humility should be in order.
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Software, regardless of OS, will have some sort of minimum system requirements. Do you think Apple should only update iphone software if is capable of running on every iPhone ever made?
I had a Droid X and eagerly awaited Motorola to push the latest versions of Android to the phone. It would take months after it was released for Motorola to do it. Lame.
Anyway, back to how Apple is fantastic. looks like that iPad 3 will indeed raise the bar for screen resolution on a tablet! 4x the pixels of the iPad 2! Drool!