Ignoring the fact that few folks keep the same device for 7 yrs to begin with, this is only good news for app support life.
The actual title of the topic should be:
"Android app support is getting even better"
This is essentially a nothing burger for hardware in the grand scheme of things but sure. We'll take it. Whatever.
I suppose it's a pretty big win for the aftermarket selling off older devices. More than a few brands still absolutely refuse to adopt this, however. Looking at you, Motorola.
The article says "manufacturers" but then only mentions Samsung in the article....
Not exactly a surprise tbh because they have to compete with iPhone. And I bet it's only for flagship devices. I can't see the budget devices getting this.
I'm all for consumer protection, but I don't think demanding new hardware for free is reasonable at all. Making them easily available and replaceable would be.
It's an alternative idea for a removable battery that they don't want to give back to the consumers, not even the steam deck has this. Software updates are nice, but the batteries are still the main limiting factor on a phones usability. I know getting free battery replacements is asking too much, but their dark patterns are as well. Corporations have way too much leeway, power, and protections; I don't care if they get hit hard with changes that help consumers.
They should at least make it easy to buy a genuine battery over that lifespan. Nobody should have to browse eBay & AliExpress for a replacement component that could theoretically explode.
Manufacturers should also be forced to promote battery recycling practices & initiatives too. They are tossing endless amounts of them onto rubbish piles via planned obsolescence and yearly updates.
I see it as the other way around. People are going to keep their phones for longer whether or not they fix the security issues that emerge. It’s better to fix the issues, to improve user perception and user experience.
Smart phones are on increasingly longer replacement cycles before the announcement. Perhaps they see the writing on the wall.
Through subscriptions. Both Google and Samsung are focusing heavily on that at the moment. That's also why their unique software features are often free at first. If Galaxy AI started off as a monthy subscription everyone would ignore it but their plan is to get you reliant on it then introduce a fee.
Once again I look at Sundar Pichai and ask, what is the point of you? Under his stewardship, Android has lost all signs of life. The Android community is dead. There's been no innovation and the little bits of innovation they had created in recent years were quickly sunset. The last selling point of a Pixel was the quick updates and long update life but now everyone offers seven years. No identity, no community, no selling point, just blandness! They don't even leverage their money to offer cheaper hardware, the Pixel Tablet with Dock is compelling in its form factor, but upon closer look, it's less than mid-range specs, sub-par speaker performance and all with an over inflated price. At least eat the cost so that you can get one or two of these in every home. The only thing that's impressed me in recent years is bundling the watches.
i don't think they like the android community much since a lot of the community is dedicated toward getting away from the surveillance and theft that Google profits from.
Well if they would think more than 1 financial quarter ahead of things, they'd realize that they will lose customers to competition, thereby ruining both device sales and data gathering profits.
What shocks me, and I do mean shocks me, is what this line of thinking implies. Is the data google (tries to) gather from me really worth more $ than, say, an average of 350$ each year? Cause thats just 1 phone every 2-3 years and I'm looking into a tablet, and wearables eventually. I refuse to believe any knowledge about me is unique and valuable enough to beat that, and it seriously confuses me.
You talk about android then bring up random points about the pixel phones. Those are two separate things. One could say android is doing well because multiple manufacturers have adopted the 7 year policy that google initially put forward. I mainly use iOS so not an android fanboy, but your rant isn’t really making a coherent point.
I agree, from a user point of view, however from Google's point of view guys only job is to make money for the company, which he seems to be doing.
Android has been left to languish and especially the mid range and budget segment. Google had let OEM's use the largest sales market to keep selling junk low spec phones year after year with the same specs and no meaningful improvements. If you wanna really great cameras or wireless charging, your only choice is to buy a premium device. That locks out billions of people from having a great Android experience.
Even the premium segment hasn't seen that much improvement from Google. It's basically only Samsung who are pushing things forward through OneUI and through hardware Innovations like folding phones and zoom cameras to make the experience better.
I for one am tired of it and have decided that my next phone is an iPhone. For the same price as an A55 I can get a brand new iPhone 12 or for less I can get a refurbished model and have far superior cameras than any Android below €750 as well as years of OS updates and enjoy all the great user features Apple has added to iOS recently.
The last iPhone I had was the 7 and it was ok but my S7 Edge was better. I've been on Android since then but now iPhone has finally made some great improvements in both hardware and software which I think should offer me a better experience than budget Android.
They're not concerned with product, they're concerned with profit. They're strategically cutting away bits and pieces that don't make money. Incidentally, these are all the fun and exciting bits, leaving behind the blandness.
That's a boring answer but it is sadly true for Google and every other big tech company currently. They focused on massive growth for years off the back of heavy investment but now that the financial climate is bad and interest rates are up, all these companies suddenly need to refocus the business around profitability. It's why this wave of enshittification has hit the internet within the last few years.
Despite Sundar's leadership, do you think that extending update support to 7 years took no innovation? The Android team has been doing major system reworks to make this practical. The Tensor team has been working to do the same on the hardware side. Samsung is likely reusing firmware and software from that work given that the hardware is shares a lot of Samsung IPs. Prior to these developments Samsung was not interested in providing anywhere close to this length of support.
Android is in the best place it's ever been since its release. It's on more things than ever and we have the kind of update support we used to only dream about in 2008. And we have devices with unlockable and rekockable bootloaders. 🤯
Samsung committed to seven years before Google and look at the length of support Apple were offering. Maybe we have different definitions of innovation.
They didn't, Google are the first to do three years of OS updates and security patches with the Pixel 2 and extended that to the first gen Pixel. Samsung were doing two OS updates until they promised they would do 3 OS updates at the Note20 launch and extended it to the S10 and other models. You are correct that they upgraded that to four with the S21 before Google made the jump from 3 to 7.
Is there an AI technology that would help me not roll my eyes every time I hear AI? Can’t wait to add this to the garbage pile of popped bubbles next to NFT, blockchain and metaverse.
And I’m saying that as somebody who uses LLMs for work regularly, it is a useful tool, but the absolute delusional bullshit hype that imagines uses beyond its capabilities is exhausting.
LLM is amazing tech, but holy fuck I can't wait to get out of this bubble. Some of these applications sound like when they put radium in butter in the 50's, because atomic energy was so hype.
Pretty much this. It's the radium craze, or the ozone craze, or a whole bunch of other fads - everything has to have AI/LLMs integrated in some way or it's not "interesting" to shareholders.
Wow we really are marching right to towards a centralised digital currency with no privacy and no actually ownership.
Remember back in the day when owning stock meant u owned the actually stocks. Well now u own the right to the stocks but if the platform ur trading on goes under welp out of luck guess u don't actually own them.
This only applies to discount brokers, all of which are licensed, regulated brokers.
You do, in fact, “own” the stocks you buy.
The internal plumbing of securities clearing, settlement, and registration is not a concern to retail investors.
Stop buying into juvenile conspiracies.
And if for some reason you are still not satisfied, you can always opt for a "full service" broker or ask to register the shares in your name, both of which are much more expensive.
Vast majority of those who are vocal about “ownership” are from that reddit cult. They’ll drag you down to their level with nonsense and stupidity, trying to convince you that GameStop will make them multi-billionaires. Be careful and don’t waste too much of your time on them.
Apple Pay/Google Pay already exists though?? What's new?
The last credit card I got, it took me like a month or two to bother unpacking the physical card since right after signup I could already add the virtual card to Apple Pay through the bank app and I just used that.
They’ll try to pull out of Apple Pay/Google Pay. At least that’s what Walmart did / is doing for the longest time in favor of their CurrenC or whatever thing in the US.
Can you explain that one to me? Anyone can take my card and use it, no one can take my phone and use it.. also I would notice my phone being gone sooner. Cards dont have to transfer to other devices and have to be readded with the banks verification. A card is as easy as beep and draw an X, or not even have to "sign".
I can put my credit card number in any transaction directly, and so can anyone else. Digital payment can provide a random one time card number (at the expense of privacy, admittedly). Physical cards are absolutely not safer.
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