It’s kind of funny if you think about it that PCs can receive software updates for years and years without issue, but cell phones start to fall off after 2 years and can be considered unsafe to...
It’s kind of funny if you think about it that PCs can receive software updates for years and years without issue, but cell phones start to fall off after 2 years and can be considered unsafe to use once that model no longer has security updates available.
Living proof of the dangers of patent law. Qualcomm doesn't support most of their modems and chips over the long haul because they want to sell more chips. But nobody else can support this stuff...
Living proof of the dangers of patent law. Qualcomm doesn't support most of their modems and chips over the long haul because they want to sell more chips. But nobody else can support this stuff either because Qualcomm owns the IP for the hardware. It's basically untouchable without some serious legal know-how.
At least Apple and Google are starting to support their chips for longer. Even Samsung, thanks to Exynos chips that they make, is starting to extend support. But Qualcomm modems still present a serious cost issue for long-term support, and because they have a legal stranglehold on 5G, UWB, certain Bluetooth specs, and LTE, even companies like Apple with continent-sized war chests can't meaningfully compete (though they are trying -- the next iPhone SE will likely use an Apple modem that might not suck like the iPhone X modem and the Pixel 6-8 modems did).
It's both very funny and very sad how you can flash a custom ROM on an old phone and everything works just fine... except for proprietary Google Play Services and proprietary Qualcomm modems.
Yeah, Qualcomm’s stranglehold and bad actions is the precise reason why I will never buy a Windows ARM laptop. If Freescale ever makes a competitive chip then somebody wake me up. Excluding Apple,...
Yeah, Qualcomm’s stranglehold and bad actions is the precise reason why I will never buy a Windows ARM laptop. If Freescale ever makes a competitive chip then somebody wake me up. Excluding Apple, my ideal ARM laptop is still the Novena.
It was a little rough in the beginning, some of which is just getting used to a non-Samsung way of doing things, and some from the fact that frankly the software wasn't fully baked on release. A...
It was a little rough in the beginning, some of which is just getting used to a non-Samsung way of doing things, and some from the fact that frankly the software wasn't fully baked on release.
A year on, I have no problem recommending the Pixel line at all. Fantastic camera (which is important to me) and the bugs, glitches and other annoyances are much reduced. Not completely gone, but gone enough to cross the threshold where the phone is now genuinely enjoyable to use.
The Giant, un-removable At A Glance section of the home screen still annoys me. Not enough to use a separate launcher, but other than that, everything works great. The phone itself feels very smooth, and although you can tell the CPU isn't quite as beefy as the Samsung lines when playing higher-spec games, it's still very good. Battery life has been fantastic, and I like the fast wireless charging of the Pixel stand.
When this phone eventually ages out in a few years, I'd definitely get another Pixel at this point.
Good point of view. I use 4th generation Intel Core, which is like 10 years old. It is till perfect for what I need it to do and actually manages even some modern games. Why should phones be...
Good point of view. I use 4th generation Intel Core, which is like 10 years old. It is till perfect for what I need it to do and actually manages even some modern games. Why should phones be rendered obsolete in quarter the time (or even half the time)? They stop getting updates of the OS and later stops being compatible with apps that were perfectly functioning before...
I hate this. Maybe it is why I don't spend too much money on phones - why would I do that if expensive one will last the same time as cheap one? Yeah, that's probably the point for me.
If the software side won't be disconnected from the hardware side, like PCs do, we won't get anywhere.
Seems like there's something google isn't telling us about these batteries. Since they are pushing this update and offering this battery replacement and credit program, there's definitely some...
Seems like there's something google isn't telling us about these batteries. Since they are pushing this update and offering this battery replacement and credit program, there's definitely some battery risk they've identified with these phones, but none of the reporting on the subject seems to know the exact reason. The author of this article seems to think that the battery plan is a ploy to harvest data, but I don't think there's any way the math works out on cost vs. benefit for google. Plus they haven't done this for other phones. I guess google thinks there there could be some liability issue if they say too much. As a vendor, google sucks at customer support in general, and I'm not a fan of this kind of behavior of taking steps to address some battery issue without telling people what's going on.
I have no doubt there's some supplier recall deep in the chain. Probably multiple levels of abstraction deep, which is why an issue that hasn't surfaced in reality in 3.5 years for a fairly...
I have no doubt there's some supplier recall deep in the chain. Probably multiple levels of abstraction deep, which is why an issue that hasn't surfaced in reality in 3.5 years for a fairly popular phone is being addressed in such a vague, broad way.
I don't think the author is insinuating a data harvesting connection here. Instead, it seems to me like Google is communicating really poorly, destroying a device that functions just fine for most people, and people have a right to be pissed. If they could drop the corpspeak and just tell us the exact issue it would be a lot easier to empathise with google. But when they wreck a phone that a lot of people depend on every day with only two days of warning? If these phones haven't burned down houses in the last 3.5 years, are we really that concerned they're going to start tomorrow?
This is the part I was talking about regarding data harvesting. Asking for SSN seems a bit much, but I don't have a pixel 4a so I can't get far enough in the system to see the terms of the...
Google might give you $50 through a third party program that likely gets more than $50 of valuable personal data (including your social security number) out of you, and will likely take $50 of time and effort to redeem.
This is the part I was talking about regarding data harvesting. Asking for SSN seems a bit much, but I don't have a pixel 4a so I can't get far enough in the system to see the terms of the appeasement credit.
It is pretty funny(in a very sad way) how this encompasses several fundamental problems in the way mobile devices are made. About which almost no one(relative to their usage) cares about, probably...
It is pretty funny(in a very sad way) how this encompasses several fundamental problems in the way mobile devices are made. About which almost no one(relative to their usage) cares about, probably because it is not flashy enough I guess.
inability to actually control the phone. Permanently disabling updates, update rollback as the directly relevant missing features out of many
arbitrary security measures effectively controlled by single company restricting alternatives
lack of standardization in os hw interfacing restricting availability of alternatives
lack of standardized batteries(that the company anouncment itself calls consumables)
related - lack of actually treating batteries as consumables and making them trivial to remove
unnecessary bloat coming with effectively every phone further potentionally demanding higher unnecessary performance
inability to install modern os version on older hw. Also synergizes with above point
Thanks for posting this. I replaced my 4a with an 8 a few months ago, but I really love that phone and kept it as a backup -- I miss the dedicated fingerprint sensor, which was far more consistent...
Thanks for posting this. I replaced my 4a with an 8 a few months ago, but I really love that phone and kept it as a backup -- I miss the dedicated fingerprint sensor, which was far more consistent than the 8's screen-side reader, and the audio jack. I did replace the 4a's battery sometime last year because it wasn't holding a charge as well, so I'm going to do my best to avoid this downgrade disguised as an update.
I haven't had any issues with my 4a, but I was also not on the list of IMEI that was eligible for the free battery replacement. My battery life is much worse than it used to be (I used to be able...
I haven't had any issues with my 4a, but I was also not on the list of IMEI that was eligible for the free battery replacement. My battery life is much worse than it used to be (I used to be able to go 2-3 days on a charge, now its 1-1.5), so I priced out a battery replacement at a local shop and they wanted $120 to do it. I'll have to see how annoying it gets to ignore the update since I never let them autoinstall and decide if it is time to go back to a custom ROM.
FWIW some folks are having issues with the update even if their IMEIs aren't eligible. I'd disable auto updates in developer options for now if you haven't already gotten it, it likely isn't worth...
FWIW some folks are having issues with the update even if their IMEIs aren't eligible.
I'd disable auto updates in developer options for now if you haven't already gotten it, it likely isn't worth the risk. Unfortunately that probably won't keep you safe from this update forever, though.
Hopefully you're one of the lucky ones who doesn't get near-bricked by the update.
I already had the autoupdates disabled, but thank you. I am considering just moving back to a custom ROM. I'd definitely consider buying a new phone if I could get one that was 4a like, meaning:...
I already had the autoupdates disabled, but thank you. I am considering just moving back to a custom ROM. I'd definitely consider buying a new phone if I could get one that was 4a like, meaning:
unlocked bootloader with real ROM support
headphone jack
not gigantic
So far, I haven't found one even close and it is making me consider weird, wacky, and totally inconvenient options.
I find myself in the exact same pickle. I would pay serious, serious money for a 4a with updated internals. Or a Nexus 5 with updated internals. Or even an iPhone Mini with USB-C. I'm so desperate...
I find myself in the exact same pickle. I would pay serious, serious money for a 4a with updated internals. Or a Nexus 5 with updated internals. Or even an iPhone Mini with USB-C. I'm so desperate I'm willing to give up the headphone jack!
Sadly it's rumored to use the iPhone 14 dimensions. So pretty big, actually larger than the 15 or 16. But at least it will have USB-C. Shame we'll get stuck with FaceID tho.
Sadly it's rumored to use the iPhone 14 dimensions. So pretty big, actually larger than the 15 or 16. But at least it will have USB-C. Shame we'll get stuck with FaceID tho.
Oh man, my parents are using 4as on my Google Fi plan. I wonder how this will go down. I did ask them a couple weeks ago how their battery life was, and my dad would go 3 days without a charge....
Oh man, my parents are using 4as on my Google Fi plan. I wonder how this will go down. I did ask them a couple weeks ago how their battery life was, and my dad would go 3 days without a charge. Hopefully this doesn't change.
If you can, see if you can disable automatic updates in Developer Options (a secret Settings section enabled by clicking the version number in System > About 6 times, IIRC). Otherwise you might be...
If you can, see if you can disable automatic updates in Developer Options (a secret Settings section enabled by clicking the version number in System > About 6 times, IIRC).
Otherwise you might be buying two new replacement phones soon.
It’s kind of funny if you think about it that PCs can receive software updates for years and years without issue, but cell phones start to fall off after 2 years and can be considered unsafe to use once that model no longer has security updates available.
Living proof of the dangers of patent law. Qualcomm doesn't support most of their modems and chips over the long haul because they want to sell more chips. But nobody else can support this stuff either because Qualcomm owns the IP for the hardware. It's basically untouchable without some serious legal know-how.
At least Apple and Google are starting to support their chips for longer. Even Samsung, thanks to Exynos chips that they make, is starting to extend support. But Qualcomm modems still present a serious cost issue for long-term support, and because they have a legal stranglehold on 5G, UWB, certain Bluetooth specs, and LTE, even companies like Apple with continent-sized war chests can't meaningfully compete (though they are trying -- the next iPhone SE will likely use an Apple modem that might not suck like the iPhone X modem and the Pixel 6-8 modems did).
It's both very funny and very sad how you can flash a custom ROM on an old phone and everything works just fine... except for proprietary Google Play Services and proprietary Qualcomm modems.
Yeah, Qualcomm’s stranglehold and bad actions is the precise reason why I will never buy a Windows ARM laptop. If Freescale ever makes a competitive chip then somebody wake me up. Excluding Apple, my ideal ARM laptop is still the Novena.
The 7-year support promise is what got me to switch from Samsung phones over to a Pixel 8 last year. Got real tired of the upgrade carousel.
I'm considering the same switch. How has it been for you? I currently have an s23 ultra and it's likely the last Samsung I'll ever buy.
It was a little rough in the beginning, some of which is just getting used to a non-Samsung way of doing things, and some from the fact that frankly the software wasn't fully baked on release.
A year on, I have no problem recommending the Pixel line at all. Fantastic camera (which is important to me) and the bugs, glitches and other annoyances are much reduced. Not completely gone, but gone enough to cross the threshold where the phone is now genuinely enjoyable to use.
The Giant, un-removable At A Glance section of the home screen still annoys me. Not enough to use a separate launcher, but other than that, everything works great. The phone itself feels very smooth, and although you can tell the CPU isn't quite as beefy as the Samsung lines when playing higher-spec games, it's still very good. Battery life has been fantastic, and I like the fast wireless charging of the Pixel stand.
When this phone eventually ages out in a few years, I'd definitely get another Pixel at this point.
Good point of view. I use 4th generation Intel Core, which is like 10 years old. It is till perfect for what I need it to do and actually manages even some modern games. Why should phones be rendered obsolete in quarter the time (or even half the time)? They stop getting updates of the OS and later stops being compatible with apps that were perfectly functioning before...
I hate this. Maybe it is why I don't spend too much money on phones - why would I do that if expensive one will last the same time as cheap one? Yeah, that's probably the point for me.
If the software side won't be disconnected from the hardware side, like PCs do, we won't get anywhere.
Seems like there's something google isn't telling us about these batteries. Since they are pushing this update and offering this battery replacement and credit program, there's definitely some battery risk they've identified with these phones, but none of the reporting on the subject seems to know the exact reason. The author of this article seems to think that the battery plan is a ploy to harvest data, but I don't think there's any way the math works out on cost vs. benefit for google. Plus they haven't done this for other phones. I guess google thinks there there could be some liability issue if they say too much. As a vendor, google sucks at customer support in general, and I'm not a fan of this kind of behavior of taking steps to address some battery issue without telling people what's going on.
I have no doubt there's some supplier recall deep in the chain. Probably multiple levels of abstraction deep, which is why an issue that hasn't surfaced in reality in 3.5 years for a fairly popular phone is being addressed in such a vague, broad way.
I don't think the author is insinuating a data harvesting connection here. Instead, it seems to me like Google is communicating really poorly, destroying a device that functions just fine for most people, and people have a right to be pissed. If they could drop the corpspeak and just tell us the exact issue it would be a lot easier to empathise with google. But when they wreck a phone that a lot of people depend on every day with only two days of warning? If these phones haven't burned down houses in the last 3.5 years, are we really that concerned they're going to start tomorrow?
This is the part I was talking about regarding data harvesting. Asking for SSN seems a bit much, but I don't have a pixel 4a so I can't get far enough in the system to see the terms of the appeasement credit.
It is pretty funny(in a very sad way) how this encompasses several fundamental problems in the way mobile devices are made. About which almost no one(relative to their usage) cares about, probably because it is not flashy enough I guess.
Thanks for posting this. I replaced my 4a with an 8 a few months ago, but I really love that phone and kept it as a backup -- I miss the dedicated fingerprint sensor, which was far more consistent than the 8's screen-side reader, and the audio jack. I did replace the 4a's battery sometime last year because it wasn't holding a charge as well, so I'm going to do my best to avoid this downgrade disguised as an update.
I haven't had any issues with my 4a, but I was also not on the list of IMEI that was eligible for the free battery replacement. My battery life is much worse than it used to be (I used to be able to go 2-3 days on a charge, now its 1-1.5), so I priced out a battery replacement at a local shop and they wanted $120 to do it. I'll have to see how annoying it gets to ignore the update since I never let them autoinstall and decide if it is time to go back to a custom ROM.
I had an issue with their upgrade checker, it wouldn't work correctly with Firefox, but when I switched to Chrome, it said my IMEI was eligible.
Thanks, I did in fact use Firefox and that is so on brand for Google I should have thought of it.
No luck with Chrome either, thanks for the help though.
FWIW some folks are having issues with the update even if their IMEIs aren't eligible.
I'd disable auto updates in developer options for now if you haven't already gotten it, it likely isn't worth the risk. Unfortunately that probably won't keep you safe from this update forever, though.
Hopefully you're one of the lucky ones who doesn't get near-bricked by the update.
I already had the autoupdates disabled, but thank you. I am considering just moving back to a custom ROM. I'd definitely consider buying a new phone if I could get one that was 4a like, meaning:
So far, I haven't found one even close and it is making me consider weird, wacky, and totally inconvenient options.
I find myself in the exact same pickle. I would pay serious, serious money for a 4a with updated internals. Or a Nexus 5 with updated internals. Or even an iPhone Mini with USB-C. I'm so desperate I'm willing to give up the headphone jack!
I think I have heard rumors of a new iPhone SE, which is probably the closest you will get to a mini. The new one will almost certainly have USB-C.
Sadly it's rumored to use the iPhone 14 dimensions. So pretty big, actually larger than the 15 or 16. But at least it will have USB-C. Shame we'll get stuck with FaceID tho.
Oh man, my parents are using 4as on my Google Fi plan. I wonder how this will go down. I did ask them a couple weeks ago how their battery life was, and my dad would go 3 days without a charge. Hopefully this doesn't change.
If you can, see if you can disable automatic updates in Developer Options (a secret Settings section enabled by clicking the version number in System > About 6 times, IIRC).
Otherwise you might be buying two new replacement phones soon.