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Pixel 3 series to get guaranteed feature, security updates until October 2021

Speed Weed

This is welcome (though not a surprise for Pixel owners), but good gawd, the people making excuses for Android's poor software update strategy.  You shouldn't have to root or buy a new phone every 2-3 years just to get the latest OS.  For that matter, it's ridiculous that you're routinely 'punished' for buying a budget phone with noticeably reduced support (you're lucky if you get two years of updates).

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All of these android phones has the required specs to get updates and yet phone manufactures purposely don't support it, for the reason they want consumers to get a new phone. Most android phones only has a 2 os support cycle. You get the included os say andriod 7.0, then andriod 8.0, and that's it, time for a new phone. My asus zen phone 2 came with android 5.0. Android 6 came out and asus won't even distribute it. It has to be manually download it from their site and forced update it.  Because of this, it's also the reason I could care less about the cpu performance the phone has.

What that said, what is the point of spending so much one of these phones. 

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15 hours ago, S w a t s o n said:

They are using an underclocked 845? Seriously? Didnt the original pixel have the 821 which was the overclocked/tweaked 820, what the fuck is google doing

Both the 821 in OG Pixel and 835 in Pixel 2 were down clocked iirc. I am gonna assume for heat and power/battery life. 821 turned out more efficient than 820 but they down clocked it to 820. 

The ability to google properly is a skill of its own. 

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18 minutes ago, Commodus said:

This is welcome (though not a surprise for Pixel owners), but good gawd, the people making excuses for Android's poor software update strategy.  You shouldn't have to root or buy a new phone every 2-3 years just to get the latest OS.  For that matter, it's ridiculous that you're routinely 'punished' for buying a budget phone with noticeably reduced support (you're lucky if you get two years of updates).

It's not just budget phone, all android phones gets the same treatment, no matter if you spend $100 or $1,000.

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2 hours ago, Noctus said:

LastPass sorts that out, no? Works for me seamlessly over my Note9/PC

You need Android Pie which has an exposed password API for password managers like Bitwarden or LastPass to work with any browser that supports it. For example, even on Oreo, you cannot use LastPass with Firefox because it'll just refuse to fill the fields with requested data (Accessibility services can't access Firefox). On Pie, it would (assuming Firefox uses the said API, which I can't confirm since I'm stuck on Oreo for now).

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1 hour ago, NumLock21 said:

It's not just budget phone, all android phones gets the same treatment, no matter if you spend $100 or $1,000.

I should clarify.  The 2-3 years is for the higher-end phones.  I've seen numerous budget Android phones where the support is much worse, including a few stuck with their shipping OS versions for all eternity.  That's not just lazy, that's downright irresponsible.

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3 hours ago, RejZoR said:

You need Android Pie which has an exposed password API for password managers like Bitwarden or LastPass to work with any browser that supports it. For example, even on Oreo, you cannot use LastPass with Firefox because it'll just refuse to fill the fields with requested data (Accessibility services can't access Firefox). On Pie, it would (assuming Firefox uses the said API, which I can't confirm since I'm stuck on Oreo for now).

I use LastPass on Note9 (Android 8.1.0 Oreo, no Note9 Pie yet sadly) and use Chrome. I assume your exclusive use of Firefox is what's stopping you ?

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Wow, is this supposed to be impressive?  I mean it's good they've guaranteed it but this is the minimum you should expect.  We're not even talking new OS versions, this is just security patches!

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3 hours ago, Noctus said:

I use LastPass on Note9 (Android 8.1.0 Oreo, no Note9 Pie yet sadly) and use Chrome. I assume your exclusive use of Firefox is what's stopping you ?

Not exclusive, but one of major showstoppers, yes. I'm now using Opera which does support it using classic accessibility service...

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10 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

Both the 821 in OG Pixel and 835 in Pixel 2 were down clocked iirc. I am gonna assume for heat and power/battery life. 821 turned out more efficient than 820 but they down clocked it to 820. 

You're right, now that you mention it I remember laughing about that when I got my 3T

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5 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Wow, is this supposed to be impressive?  I mean it's good they've guaranteed it but this is the minimum you should expect.  We're not even talking new OS versions, this is just security patches!

If you look at the OP you'll see the picture. All Pixel 3 updates at October 2021 not just security, but I agree it's nothing special

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5 minutes ago, S w a t s o n said:

If you look at the OP you'll see the picture. All Pixel 3 updates at October 2021 not just security, but I agree it's nothing special

Ah, somehow I missed that.  But yeah, this should still be expected in a flagship device.

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18 hours ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Personally think the Samsung Gear watches are among the very best you can get for Android.

16 hours ago, Noctus said:

My S3 is a fantastic piece of kit

That's good to hear, I haven't really followed the Samsung smart watch line and when I did hear about them (2+ years ago) I didn't hear great things. I was aware Android Wear was pretty buggy and that certain displays didn't really fit the OS well. I'll have to look into the Samsung line more though.

 

Do Samsung still license Android from Google though? You're right the Play Store is the only thing keeping them with Android I feel. They could incorporate Google services into their OS, if Google lets them...They didn't allow their services on Windows Phone so that affected adoption rates. It's an interesting thought though.

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so still not as good as Apple. ?‍♂️... if android had even near the software support Apple has i'd be a lot more tempted to invist in a high end android phone. 

 

i really don't need much in terms of speed. i'm using an lg g3 at the moment and that's still fine for me. if only it still got updates :( 

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Biggest problem with Android is fragmentation. Every company makes its own total redesign which brings months long delays which further cause the fragmentation. And devices that aren't top of the line are also exempt from receiving updates most of the time which again helps fragmentation. And when there is huge fragmentation of Android versions, developers can't utilize latest features because such small group of people even has access to them it's not worth bothering. And in the end you're spinning in circles of fragmentation hell.

 

Google really needs to do something about modularity where core features are the foundation and companies literally stick their stuff on top without having to recode everything from scratch basically every time new Android version is out.

 

This is why Apple has an upper hand here. They have just a handful of similar devices to support so pushing out updates for them is not really an issue, basically eliminating any fragmentation other than people postponing the updates for a while to avoid early adoption issues. And since they dictate stuff, there are no delays unlike with Android where 3rd parties fiddle with it for months after Google releases new version. Sure Pixel phones kinda solve that since they are their own, but in all honesty, they are rather expensive and well, crappy (plasticky would be how I'd describe them).

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3 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

so still not as good as Apple. ?‍♂️... if android had even near the software support Apple has i'd be a lot more tempted to invist in a high end android phone. 

  

i really don't need much in terms of speed. i'm using an lg g3 at the moment and that's still fine for me. if only it still got updates :( 

From my experience, Android updates slow down to where it makes your phone unusable, iOS is optimised better for older hardware in my experience. So while it would be nice to see greater support I'm not sure how the older devices would perform running newer versions of Android.

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6 hours ago, ZacoAttaco said:

That's good to hear, I haven't really followed the Samsung smart watch line and when I did hear about them (2+ years ago) I didn't hear great things. I was aware Android Wear was pretty buggy and that certain displays didn't really fit the OS well. I'll have to look into the Samsung line more though.

 

Do Samsung still license Android from Google though? You're right the Play Store is the only thing keeping them with Android I feel. They could incorporate Google services into their OS, if Google lets them...They didn't allow their services on Windows Phone so that affected adoption rates. It's an interesting thought though.

I wasn't following any of the smart watches until i actually needed a new daily watch, had a look at the Android offerings and ended up with the Gear s3, luckily getting it for £60 cheaper on an amazon deal. Win/win imo.

 

Don't they have to still license it? Since afaik they only have Tizen for their watches and not a fully loaded phone OS? If Samsung totally drop Android for their custom Tizen OS, they would be completely stupid to not form some sort of deal so we can access Google Play services and the shitload of apps at their disposal. On the flipside i can see google trying to stop that from happening, but if it's inevitable, i see them offering to incorporate the Google Play services into Tizen, since that's too big a data harvest to let go. Thirdly if Samsung don't want those services and try to make it on their own and compete with Apples and Google Play app stores etc, they are gonna piss off ALOT of people (inc me) and lose a butt load of customers imo.

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2 hours ago, RejZoR said:

-snip-

If I remember right this is being targeted in Android 7 or 8 going forward where updates can be applied easier without a complete rewrite and are easier to implement and test in smaller packages instead of larger update pushes so they can go out faster. Now of course it comes down to carriers and the other companies as to whether or not they'll actually do it that way =/

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6 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Biggest problem with Android is fragmentation. Every company makes its own total redesign which brings months long delays which further cause the fragmentation. And devices that aren't top of the line are also exempt from receiving updates most of the time which again helps fragmentation. And when there is huge fragmentation of Android versions, developers can't utilize latest features because such small group of people even has access to them it's not worth bothering. And in the end you're spinning in circles of fragmentation hell.

 

Google really needs to do something about modularity where core features are the foundation and companies literally stick their stuff on top without having to recode everything from scratch basically every time new Android version is out.

 

This is why Apple has an upper hand here. They have just a handful of similar devices to support so pushing out updates for them is not really an issue, basically eliminating any fragmentation other than people postponing the updates for a while to avoid early adoption issues. And since they dictate stuff, there are no delays unlike with Android where 3rd parties fiddle with it for months after Google releases new version. Sure Pixel phones kinda solve that since they are their own, but in all honesty, they are rather expensive and well, crappy (plasticky would be how I'd describe them).

Two important things:

 

First, Google Play Services negates a significant chunk of that fragmentation.  Not all of it, to be clear, but it does mean that some capabilities arrive irrespective of your OS version.

 

The other thing... you have heard of Project Treble in Android Oreo and later, right?  That was designed explicitly to improve modularity and speed up OS updates.  It has helped to some degree, too, since we're seeing more promises of relatively quick Android Pie updates (my secondary Essential phone got it the same day Pixels did).  Samsung still seems to be its usual laggardly self, but Google can't make companies update faster when they don't want to.

 

Don't get me wrong, I much prefer Apple's update approach.  All phones should get updates the moment they're ready, and for a good four to five years.  It's just important to note that Google has been doing something to address its deficit, even if it's not as much as we might like.

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This is just so sad. Google may as well not admit anything. Because they just admitted that they were worse than Apple with the updates. 

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8 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Biggest problem with Android is fragmentation. Every company makes its own total redesign which brings months long delays which further cause the fragmentation. And devices that aren't top of the line are also exempt from receiving updates most of the time which again helps fragmentation. And when there is huge fragmentation of Android versions, developers can't utilize latest features because such small group of people even has access to them it's not worth bothering. And in the end you're spinning in circles of fragmentation hell.

 

Google really needs to do something about modularity where core features are the foundation and companies literally stick their stuff on top without having to recode everything from scratch basically every time new Android version is out.

 

This is why Apple has an upper hand here. They have just a handful of similar devices to support so pushing out updates for them is not really an issue, basically eliminating any fragmentation other than people postponing the updates for a while to avoid early adoption issues. And since they dictate stuff, there are no delays unlike with Android where 3rd parties fiddle with it for months after Google releases new version. Sure Pixel phones kinda solve that since they are their own, but in all honesty, they are rather expensive and well, crappy (plasticky would be how I'd describe them).

It’s 100% the phone manafucterer’s fault. Every Android phone manafucterer should  stick to the Android One program and stop forcing customers to use butt ugly themes and laggy interfaces. Stock Android is simply beautiful. And if everyone uses the same flavor of Android then pushing security patches should be easy. 

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@kokakolia Maybe so, but I actually like Xaomi's MIUI. Android is just too vanilla and you need to stick tons of apps on it to make it half functional. But yeah, in general I'd prefer updating over aftermarket features. Then again Xiaomi is pretty good at updating old devices which is nice.

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2 hours ago, kokakolia said:

It’s 100% the phone manafucterer’s fault. Every Android phone manafucterer should  stick to the Android One program and stop forcing customers to use butt ugly themes and laggy interfaces. Stock Android is simply beautiful. And if everyone uses the same flavor of Android then pushing security patches should be easy. 

I don't think you'll ever get most Android manufacturers to stick to stock Android, I'm afraid.  So many of them are obsessed with "differentiation" (read: make it non-stock in a vain hope of standing out) that they can't imagine going with plain Android.  The best we can hope for is that Google continues to make it easier to bolt custom UI features on top of Android without tying them so closely to the OS that they delay updates.

 

And besides, while I prefer stock Android over custom, I don't feel that I should insist on that for others.

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