Samsung pushing firmware update to older devices (S7 & S8)

[robertw1995]

Summary

Received an OTA update on my phone (Galaxy S8+) yesterday evening which was quite unexpected given that support for it ended sometime in early 2021. The update doesn't provide much details other than it "improves GPS stability", a quick google search doesn't reveal too much more, other than it possibly being pushed to even older and non-flagship devices. No major security patch included though, still showing as security patch level April 2021 here.

 

Quotes

Quote

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ launched in early 2017 to much acclaim after a long career they received their final update in May 2021. We thought it was the last update, anyway, Samsung has just come out with a quick fix.

 

My thoughts

For Samsung to be pushing out firmware updates to 6 and 7 year old devices one can only assume that whatever they've patched was quite serious, but I've not (at least in my limited search) found any real details on what exactly this GPS fix relates to. But looking on the bright side, although it's not a major security of Andriod update, it's better than nothing and perhaps a small a step in the right direction.

 

Sources

https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s8_now_55_years_old_receives_a_new_firmware_update-news-55476.php

https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/samsung-galaxy-s7-s8-update-gps-fix-2022

[jaslion]

Well see soon enough when dataminers analyze the patch.

 

I also just find this another proof of. If they want to they can support old devices no problem and really want a push for that. (and add easy battery replacement back pliz)

[Quackers101]

6 minutes ago, jaslion said:

I also just find this another proof of. If they want to they can support old devices no problem and really want a push for that. (and add easy battery replacement back pliz)

and it's still sad to see, that google doesn't support the options that android should have or the freedom to do so.

locked to their shop and locked to OEMs, as with themes, why isn't there an option to download versions and have non-account option platforms?

So one could update your phone without jailbreaking and having an option for OEMs specific features or styles.

[jaslion]

14 minutes ago, Quackers101 said:

and it's still sad to see, that google doesn't support the options that android should have or the freedom to do so.

locked to their shop and locked to OEMs, as with themes, why isn't there an option to download versions and have non-account option platforms?

So one could update your phone without jailbreaking and having an option for OEMs specific features or styles.

Money thats why

[mr moose]

15 minutes ago, Quackers101 said:

and it's still sad to see, that google doesn't support the options that android should have or the freedom to do so.

locked to their shop and locked to OEMs, as with themes, why isn't there an option to download versions and have non-account option platforms?

So one could update your phone without jailbreaking and having an option for OEMs specific features or styles.

Gotta agree with the aggravation of having to have a google account just to run your phone.  That is the biggest load of horse shit if ever I saw it.  The fact you can no longer buy a phone, computer or personal device and use it without having an account with some big corp is a sad reflection of how hopeless consumers are in general. 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 minute ago, mr moose said:

Gotta agree with the aggravation of having to have a google account just to run your phone.  That is the biggest load of horse shit if ever I saw it.  The fact you can no longer buy a phone, computer or personal device and use it without having an account with some big corp is a sad reflection of how hopeless consumers are in general. 

Theres modded windows like revios or linux and theres custom roms i think some come barebones

 

Unfortunately they tend to be exclusive for ppl that are ok with tinkering around with their device and usually have some drawbacks.

 

rooting, custom rom, and custom recovery is easy but thats assuming the phone even has a community around it and thats assuming the user is willing to learn, has some knowledge beforehand, and fine with voiding warranty. welp i fit into all of these and when i get my next phone (likely a used mi 10 or 11) ill be modding the crap out of em, also forgot to mention the user likely has a need/want to actually do this in the first place, i just want 120hz+ minecraft for pvp shenanigans

 

Then theres the pc side of things with modded windows and alternative oses like linux. Modded windows like revi os have the downside of no updates and maybe some (important) features broken, linux has a learning curve to it and some software still doesnt support it (though steamdeck should help in that regard)

 

 

Basically you could run your stuff w/o a dumb account or garbage telemetry but its usually reserved for the tinkerers and average joes would likely not bother because too much hassle

[robertw1995]

20 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Money thats why

Spot on. Why support the device for it's realistic lifespan when we can pull the plug after 2 years or so, which coincidentally is the standard term of most peoples phone contracts (here in the UK at least). Admittedly, as much as Apple's business practices annoy me at the best of times, they've at least got the software support right for the most part.

[mr moose]

11 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Theres modded windows like revios or linux and theres custom roms i think some come barebones

 

Unfortunately they tend to be exclusive for ppl that are ok with tinkering around with their device and usually have some drawbacks.

 

rooting, custom rom, and custom recovery is easy but thats assuming the phone even has a community around it and thats assuming the user is willing to learn, has some knowledge beforehand, and fine with voiding warranty. welp i fit into all of these and when i get my next phone (likely a used mi 10 or 11) ill be modding the crap out of em, also forgot to mention the user likely has a need/want to actually do this in the first place, i just want 120hz+ minecraft for pvp shenanigans

 

Then theres the pc side of things with modded windows and alternative oses like linux. Modded windows like revi os have the downside of no updates and maybe some (important) features broken, linux has a learning curve to it and some software still doesnt support it (though steamdeck should help in that regard)

 

 

Basically you could run your stuff w/o a dumb account or garbage telemetry but its usually reserved for the tinkerers and average joes would likely not bother because too much hassle

And there in lies my grievance,  running a personal device without a corporate account should be a right and the default for every consumer, not just those with the technical knowledge, time and the inclination to work it out.

[suicidalfranco]

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

And there in lies my grievance,  running a personal device without a corporate account should be a right and the default for every consumer, not just those with the technical knowledge, time and the inclination to work it out.

There's always KaiOS

[rcmaehl]

1 minute ago, suicidalfranco said:

There's always KaiOS

LineageOS

[suicidalfranco]

Just now, rcmaehl said:

LineageOS

Hé doesn't want to tinker. You can buy KaiOS based phones right now

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, Quackers101 said:

why isn't there an option to download versions and have non-account option platforms?

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

Money thats why

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

Gotta agree with the aggravation of having to have a google account just to run your phone.

 

Ehm... Unless something has changed very recently, you don't need a Google account to use an Android phone. You don't need a Samsung account to use a Samsung phone either.

You can run most if not all Android phones completely without an account if you want. No third party ROMs or other hacks required. There are "skip" buttons available when configuring your phone for the first time. Even if you missed that button, it is possible to sign out from your account if you want.

 

The drawback is that you lose access to some functions in some apps, but that functionality can be replaced with alternatives. Sideloading can replace the play store, or some store like Aurora or F-Droid. Backups can be done through third party apps.

[Quackers101]

7 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

 

Ehm... Unless something has changed very recently, you don't need a Google account to use an Android phone. You don't need a Samsung account to use a Samsung phone either.

yes and no. Some very important updates can mostly only go through the store.

Also depending on where one live, some important national community apps are only through the store, as the phone is "just more than a phone" nowadays, to the digital wallet and consumer to legal or about laws that is placed on these platforms. from ID's to other content *looks at the EU ID card to online card*

some of them might work without, but has to be downloaded through google or apple's main store, samsung store could work too for some apps, but another issue.

7 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

You can run most if not all Android phones completely without an account if you want. No third party ROMs or other hacks required. There are "skip" buttons available when configuring your phone for the first time. Even if you missed that button, it is possible to sign out from your account if you want.

not too sure how that works, didn't have it when I did it years ago, but again things could change and its more of an "opt-out" than "opt-in", more so if one can't see or know which way to skip this. a bit like trying to read the small text that is the most important on a legal document.

7 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Sideloading can replace the play store, or some store like Aurora or F-Droid. Backups can be done through third party apps.

wish it wasn't so, for what "choice" they say android would have, I guess this is the choice one has to "accept".

[tim0901]

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

Well see soon enough when dataminers analyze the patch.

 

I also just find this another proof of. If they want to they can support old devices no problem and really want a push for that. (and add easy battery replacement back pliz)

The reason I've heard is that it's Qualcomm who have historically refused to support their chips for more than a few years. So sure a couple of individual patches might be possible to resolve critical issues, but bigger patches like Android 13 probably aren't going to be possible unless Qualcomm releases a driver package for that SOC for that version of Android.

 

Supposedly Google and Qualcomm came to a deal in 2020 to improve things, but I think that only applied to new processors, hence it's only in the last year or so that companies have started to promise 4/5 years of software updates.

[jaslion]

23 minutes ago, tim0901 said:

The reason I've heard is that it's Qualcomm who have historically refused to support their chips for more than a few years. So sure a couple of individual patches might be possible to resolve critical issues, but bigger patches like Android 13 probably aren't going to be possible unless Qualcomm releases a driver package for that SOC for that version of Android.

 

Supposedly Google and Qualcomm came to a deal in 2020 to improve things, but I think that only applied to new processors, hence it's only in the last year or so that companies have started to promise 4/5 years of software updates.

Oh yeah I am fully aware that its the chipmakers refusing to deliver drivers so their old socs become dead weight.

 

Mediatek is also notorious for this and even tho they still make older socs for new devices those devices cant even run the latest androis because they dont want to give out drivers for it

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, Quackers101 said:

yes and no. Some very important updates can mostly only go through the store.

Also depending on where one live, some important national community apps are only through the store, as the phone is "just more than a phone" nowadays, to the digital wallet and consumer to legal or about laws that is placed on these platforms. from ID's to other content *looks at the EU ID card to online card*

some of them might work without, but has to be downloaded through google or apple's main store, samsung store could work too for some apps, but another issue.

Which updates and apps are only available through the Google Play Store when signed in?

Sites like APKMirror provide the APK files for a wide variety of apps (including the Google Play services packages), and you could also use Aurora Store if you want.

 

 

1 hour ago, Quackers101 said:

not too sure how that works, didn't have it when I did it years ago, but again things could change and its more of an "opt-out" than "opt-in", more so if one can't see or know which way to skip this. a bit like trying to read the small text that is the most important on a legal document.

It's been in Android since day 1 as far as I am aware.

You probably missed it.

Here it is on the Galaxy S2, over 11 years ago:

 

 

1 hour ago, Quackers101 said:

wish it wasn't so, for what "choice" they say android would have, I guess this is the choice one has to "accept".

What do you mean?

Are you implying that Android users don't have any choices because one particular app doesn't have a feature you want, but other ones has? If you don't like how the Google Play Store functions then use one of the several alternatives. That is what choice is about. Choice isn't "I want to use this particular service but it should work the way I want". Choice is "this particular service doesn't work the way I want so I will use a different one".

[jagdtigger]

3 hours ago, mr moose said:

Gotta agree with the aggravation of having to have a google account just to run your phone.

AFAIK in case of android you can.

[Quackers101]

1 hour ago, LAwLz said:

Which updates and apps are only available through the Google Play Store when signed in?

Sites like APKMirror provide the APK files for a wide variety of apps (including the Google Play services packages), and you could also use Aurora Store if you want.

and how would users know? and what would be trusted?

1 hour ago, LAwLz said:

What do you mean?

Are you implying that Android users don't have any choices because one particular app doesn't have a feature you want, but other ones has?

I guess mostly that we think about android differently, mostly what I thought was around google owning a huge chunk of this and ecosystem that you might not get if doing everything to stay out of it. Also about the phone being not just a media device, but also a tool with access that might be harder to get else where or meant to be harder to get.

[suicidalfranco]

3 hours ago, Quackers101 said:

and how would users know? and what would be trusted

Research. Research. Research.

3 hours ago, Quackers101 said:

guess mostly that we think about android differently, mostly what I thought was around google owning a huge chunk of this and ecosystem that you might not get if doing everything to stay out of it. Also about the phone being not just a media device, but also a tool with access that might be harder to get else where or meant to be harder to get.

Google's make android yes, and ships it with their own set of tools, those tools can be removed and replaced. The tools build the ecosystem, android is just the platform they sit on top off.

[Jito463]

13 hours ago, mr moose said:

Gotta agree with the aggravation of having to have a google account just to run your phone.  That is the biggest load of horse s*** if ever I saw it.  The fact you can no longer buy a phone, computer or personal device and use it without having an account with some big corp is a sad reflection of how hopeless consumers are in general. 

While I agree on the phone, like @LAwLzI'm pretty sure you can run them without one, it will just gripe at you about it somewhat (though admittedly that may have changed in later versions of Android, I'm still running an S7 Active with Android 8).  However I do know for certain you can run Windows - even Windows 11 - without a Microsoft account.  It just takes jumping through a few hoops.  Even more so for 11, but it's doable.  The trick is when it asks you to connect to the internet, just hook up an ethernet cable (not WiFi) and get your initial updates.  When it prompts you to sign in with/create a MS account, just disconnect the cable and click back one screen.  Viola, local user account with no online account connection.  I've been using that since I started fiddling with Windows 8 for my customers, and Microsoft's attempts to force an account on people.

 

It shouldn't be forced, and there should definitely be a way to do it without effectively tricking the OS, but it is doable nonetheless.

[williamcll]

Nothing for S6? dang.

[Zodiark1593]

17 hours ago, mr moose said:

And there in lies my grievance,  running a personal device without a corporate account should be a right and the default for every consumer, not just those with the technical knowledge, time and the inclination to work it out.

I’m kind of feeling some inspiration to write to the local representative to State Congress. California appears to have stronger privacy protections than most of the US, so perhaps getting the ball rolling here may, at least, be something. 

[mr moose]

21 hours ago, suicidalfranco said:

There's always KaiOS

Not very common though. 

21 hours ago, LAwLz said:

 

Ehm... Unless something has changed very recently, you don't need a Google account to use an Android phone. You don't need a Samsung account to use a Samsung phone either.

You can run most if not all Android phones completely without an account if you want. No third party ROMs or other hacks required. There are "skip" buttons available when configuring your phone for the first time. Even if you missed that button, it is possible to sign out from your account if you want.

 

The drawback is that you lose access to some functions in some apps, but that functionality can be replaced with alternatives. Sideloading can replace the play store, or some store like Aurora or F-Droid. Backups can be done through third party apps.

 

19 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

AFAIK in case of android you can.

 

You can run an android without an account, but unless you are happy with only the preinstalled apps you would have to go looking for an app store that had all apps you want/need.  How many of the alternative app stores have the main apps we need (banking, ISP/telco and services like ubber/menulog)?

 

 

Personally I find the android setup to be a bit like the current windows setup where the average user is directed heavily toward creating an account and not given other options upfront.  

 

 

[mr moose]

9 hours ago, Jito463 said:

While I agree on the phone, like @LAwLzI'm pretty sure you can run them without one, it will just gripe at you about it somewhat (though admittedly that may have changed in later versions of Android, I'm still running an S7 Active with Android 8).  However I do know for certain you can run Windows - even Windows 11 - without a Microsoft account.  It just takes jumping through a few hoops.  Even more so for 11, but it's doable.  The trick is when it asks you to connect to the internet, just hook up an ethernet cable (not WiFi) and get your initial updates.  When it prompts you to sign in with/create a MS account, just disconnect the cable and click back one screen.  Viola, local user account with no online account connection.  I've been using that since I started fiddling with Windows 8 for my customers, and Microsoft's attempts to force an account on people.

 

It shouldn't be forced, and there should definitely be a way to do it without effectively tricking the OS, but it is doable nonetheless.

See my previous post regarding the app store.  Not sure some of the services I use have their app on anything other than google play.   But I have to agree, the hoops you have to jump through (without knowing they are there or how to jump through them) to run windows without an account are the reason I think it is unreasonable and part of my grievance.

 

I turned off the GPS on my phone and the fucking thing kept nagging me to turn it back on when absolutely no app I use requires GPS to operate.  It became so bad I had to turn it back on just so I could read a txt message without being harrased.  Not sure if this is common to all android phones or just a quirk of the ones I've had (being cheaper phones), but still something that just shouldn't happen at all.

[jagdtigger]

11 minutes ago, mr moose said:

You can run an android without an account, but unless you are happy with only the preinstalled apps you would have to go looking for an app store that had all apps you want/need.  How many of the alternative app stores have the main apps we need (banking, ISP/telco and services like ubber/menulog)?

You can always use a browser, more often than not the apps you mention are doing just that while hiding this fact.