First generation Google Pixel phones to receive FINAL security update in December

[mr moose]

And here is one of the real issues with climate change and dickheads protesting.  We want to force wind and solar on everyone,  yet people still think it's not only  acceptable but should be considered normal to upgrade their phone every 2-3 years.     Security should be a thing until those phones are simply no longer able to function, then and only then should users be given a reason to upgrade.  e-waste is already a problem without people unnecessarily making it worse buy endorsing a companies desire to make phones disposable items. 

[DavidKalinowski]

9 hours ago, Froody129 said:

That's kind of sad... Even with new phones having been released it's not like this is an old phone. My 6s+ is still rocking the newest software and likely will be still be supported with security updates for a long while after feature updates stop supporting it. It's a shame, since I really want to jump ship from Apple, but I just don't want to have to change phone every 2 years.

 

How realistic is just installing one of the third-party flavours for extended support?

Its what I have done to every android phone I have ever owned. starting with the  LG Optimus V, then a Motorola Atrix HD, then a HTC One X Plus (64GB) an LG G1 (ATT version lower camera, but microSD slot) then a LG G2, and currently a LG Nexus 5X  I used each phone until I felt like buying a new one. ( or changed carriers) XDA Forums are the best place to get the info  on how to mod your phones. even phones with locked boot loaders eventually got hacked and are able to run custom roms. (the Atrix HD for one)

[Blademaster91]

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

And here is one of the real issues with climate change and dickheads protesting.  We want to force wind and solar on everyone,  yet people still think it's not only  acceptable but should be considered normal to upgrade their phone every 2-3 years.     Security should be a thing until those phones are simply no longer able to function, then and only then should users be given a reason to upgrade.  e-waste is already a problem without people unnecessarily making it worse buy endorsing a companies desire to make phones disposable items. 

The only way I think the e-waste problem with phones would be reduced is phone manufacturers stop putting out a slightly better phone every year,  because that IMO is way more wasteful than the average person throwing away their phone every 2-3 years. I'd like to see phone manufacturers go back to using replaceable batteries, and the standard 3.5mm jack as earbuds with batteries in them are also wasteful compared to wired ones.

And sure we can praise Apple for security updates, but their phones are designed to be thrown away after the battery degrades because Apple doesn't want the consumer to have their device repaired.

1 hour ago, Teddy07 said:

don´t care about updates. Used galaxy s2+ for seven years and never had security trouble

Yeah you can get by as long as you don't do banking on your phone, or tap on every spam email or ad, and most people don't care about updates as long as the phone still works.

[MichaelWd]

10 hours ago, SeriousDad69 said:

This isn't 2010, there's no reason to throw your smartphone away after only a few years anymore unless you're gaming or something. Most people just need a battery replacement. How much more demanding do you think the Facebook app is going to get?

Exactly this.

 

Browsing the web, listening to podcasts and taking calls is NOT getting exponentially more demanding. No phone should require replacement every 3 years. Limited security fixes is just another manifestation of planned obsolescence. This is like buying a printer and the supplier refusing to sell you compatible ink after three years.

 

Ridiculous

 

 

[maartendc]

1 hour ago, DrMacintosh said:

Only 3 years of updates? So much for that promise you made Google. Womp womp. Meanwhile the iPhone 6s can still run iOS 13 just as well as the iPhone 11. 

Well apparently that is what they promised all along. I had missed the memo that this applied to security as well as feature updates though..

 

I thought Google was supposed to be streamlining the OS security so they could easily push security updates to all devices without much hassle, and without needing a full OS update? Whatever happened to that??

7 hours ago, Phill104 said:

I a world where the planets resources are dwindling at an alarming rate, this kind of consumerism really is not a good route for us to take. Devices are no longer rapidly advancing, more incremental updates. Maybe phone companies should start offering battery, screen and update subscription services as well as the current service subs such as Apple Arcade and Apple Music. I think they need to move away from the product race to some extent and seek the virtues of software and services.

Absolutely I 100% agree. Apart from the battery life, which I can and will replace, there is literally zero reason for me to "upgrade". The phone camera is good enough for me, the phone is still fast, can do anything and everything you can throw at it.

 

Companies COULD and SHOULD provide better software support, it is just that they dont want to. In fact, it is against their interest in selling newer phones.

 

Planned obsolescence.

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, DrMacintosh said:

Only 3 years of updates? So much for that promise you made Google. Womp womp. Meanwhile the iPhone 6s can still run iOS 13 just as well as the iPhone 11. 

The promise was 3 years of proper support. And they are actually delivering this.

Others are 2 years of support, where some only offer 1 or 2 security updates per year (not to mention that most don't use self publishing updates and request carriers to deliver them, and that is another obstacle to not get updates).

 

In my book, the only solution for this, is that Android turns itself like iOS and Windows. Meaning, updates are delivered by Google, and manufactures can change the home screen and built-in apps if they like (as those are all apps) but that's it. No more special customization, and the OS has a layer system that is "hardware independent" (I mean like Windows, where manufactures install it, installs drivers for the hardware, and you are done. No need to bake in the drivers into the OS, compile the OS for the specific ARM chip used in the system, etc.). Yes that costs performance, but I think even low-mid range phones SoC today are plenty powerful to handle the performance cost. The down side of this, is that it will remove the "exclusive features", and now manufactures actually needs to contribute the unique feature they want to provide to the other source project and everyone will get it.

 

[DrMacintosh]

4 minutes ago, maartendc said:

Planned obsolescence.

Ironic on how that narrative has flipped to be directed at Android OEMs now. 

[Just Monika]

I'm glad that I jumped ship to Apple a few weeks ago after being a continuous Android user. Sure my wallet is in a world of hurt, especially a month after building a new PC, but I'm in it for the long run and I picked Apple specifically for the longevity.

 

[Zodiark1593]

2 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Only 3 years of updates? So much for that promise you made Google. Womp womp. Meanwhile the iPhone 6s can still run iOS 13 just as well as the iPhone 11. 

My 2013 RCA Atom tablet (1.3 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB eMMc, 768P screen) I got for $100 still gets the latest Windows 10 feature updates and runs capably quick, and the Google Pixel splatters that thing against a wall on literally every possible spec. There's no reason whatsoever that the Pixel can't run the latest Android versions.

[Mr.Meerkat]

14 hours ago, Arika S said:

It's the unfortunate reality of all android phones; their long term support sucks. Credit where credit is due for Apple.

Some times, it's arguably not even the manufacturer's fault. I mean Sony initially announced that their phones equipped with S801 SOCs were going to get updated to android 7.0 and heck, they had multiple android 7.0 beta builds for their Z3C and Z3 (including the final beta version) but they did gets cucked by both Snapdragon and Google with snapdragon not releasing a firmware update that would have allowed S801 to be compliant with google security requirements (which they weren't willing to budge on either). 

 

Same goes for when Sony was "forcefully" made to remove their baby, the thing that made the Z3C so popular, the thing that they used in every single advert, "stamina mode" by Google else they would have gone against their ToCs... 

[captain_to_fire]

6 hours ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

but they did gets cucked by both Snapdragon and Google with snapdragon not releasing a firmware update that would have allowed S801 to be compliant with google security requirements (which they weren't willing to budge on either). 

This reminds me https://web.archive.org/web/20140122054242/http://www.htc.com/us/go/htc-software-updates/

[Guest]

21 hours ago, SeriousDad69 said:

This isn't 2010, there's no reason to throw your smartphone away after only a few years anymore unless you're gaming or something. Most people just need a battery replacement. How much more demanding do you think the Facebook app is going to get?

Security updates are much more important than updates. I'd say its essential to upgrade when you lose support. 

[mr moose]

11 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Ironic on how that narrative has flipped to be directed at Android OEMs now. 

Not really ironic, when the shoe fits they have to wear it.   I mean,  I haven't seen anyone trying to use android update history or OEM support history as being anything other a issue to be weary of.

[maartendc]

13 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Ironic on how that narrative has flipped to be directed at Android OEMs now. 

I dont think anyone has ever accused Apple of being the sole offender on this. Pretty much all electronics companies operate this way. And a lot of other consumer product companies as well. (appliances, lightbulbs, you name it).

 

13 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

In my book, the only solution for this, is that Android turns itself like iOS and Windows. Meaning, updates are delivered by Google, and manufactures can change the home screen and built-in apps if they like (as those are all apps) but that's it.

 

I thought Google was moving towards this with the last 2 versions of Android, but I have not heard much in terms of improvement. They were supposedly going to "isolate" the OS level stuff from the other stuff so they could push security updates independently of the manufacturers.

 

It should have been working like that from day 1. If the OS was built any other way, that is a serious design flaw in my opinion.

[DeScruff]

On 12/3/2019 at 8:34 AM, GoodBytes said:

I disagree. Phones, even mid range ones, can easily last 5 years, if your needs are unchanged. A battery replacement is possible for under 100$. You want an example, my mother still uses and like my old phone, the original first gen Moto G. Yes it got a battery replacement, but phones calls and text still works great, and that is what she uses the device for 95% of the time. And the rest, still works fine. Yes she needs to close background process, to keep teh phone fast, but that is what you needed to do since day 1 in any case. What sucks is that she has 0 security, but in her peculiar case, she isn't affected by this, to my knowledge. The point is that the phone is still capable, and if it had security updates (say 5 years), it would be much welcomed And now she actually wants to do more, do maybe its time for an upgrade.

Agreed here.
My mother only just upgraded to a smartphone earlier this year to a Moto G6. And only because the dumb phone shes been using for the last 4 years physically broke.
There are 3 reasons we decided to upgrade her to a smartphone vs a new dumb phone.

1. USB C charging.
2. Text messages longer then 140 characters. - Incoming texts over 140 characters would come in as multiple texts and were hard to read.
3. A much larger inbox. - Remember how annoying it was to clear old text messages?

She doesn't really use it as a Smartphone as much as... Well, a more advanced dumbphone. I honestly think a Motorola Droid from 10 years ago would fill her needs (besides the convenience of everyone in the house using USB C chargers.)