Android’s biggest weakness is the horrible upgrade situation. Where iOS and Windows Phone users are generally always running the latest version, Android users generally have to settle for whatever version the likes of Samsung and HTC bothered to release for their device. This is a horrible situation for developers and user alike, and, in my view, should be Google’s number one priority.
Unless, of course, you’re running a custom ROM. This morning my Find 5 greeted me with an update notification, but that’s normal – I get a new OmniROM OTA delta update every morning. This time, however, something was different: the version number clearly stated this update would bump my Find 5 from Android 4.4.2 to 4.4.3. As it turns out, the OmniROM team is already pushing 4.4.3 to all the devices it officially supports (52 phones and tablets).
A mere three days after Google pushed 4.4.3 to AOSP.
Thanks to the tireless work of our own Xplodwild, Omni has now merged the changes to Android 4.4.3, and these will be rolling out in nightly builds for the 5th June. As I write this, builds are scheduled to start in around 20 minutes or so, and will appear at our download pages once they are completed. They will also be available through Omni’s inbuilt delta OTA updater, as always.
This is just one of the many, many reasons you should be running a custom ROM. Aside form the fact that a proper custom ROM is lighter and cleaner than the crappy OEM ROMs, they are also more secure because they tend to be up-to-date. In addition, warranty is not an issue because, at least in the EU, rooting and custom ROMs do not void your warranty.
As an aside – the fact that a single person, Xplodwild, can make sure Android 4.4.3 runs on 52 devices within a matter of days of the code becoming available is all the proof you need (in case you still needed it) that carriers and OEMs are simply incredibly incompetent at doing their job. Sure, they have to provide warranty and service so some form of delay is understandable because they require more testing, but the way they refuse to update most, if not all, of their devices in a timely manner or even at all should be a crime.
It is the risk.
If samsung pushes a new OS to a million devices, chances are that some will get bricked.
Who is going to pay for those damages? Xplodwild?
Samsung plays it safe: why risking upgrades gone wrong, when you can sell new phones instead? It is sound economics.
While I belive you are saying that with your tounge firmly planted in your cheek, and while Apple has fewer varities of devices running iOS for any given update, they seem to have no problem pushing out updates to their millions of iOS device users in a “timely†manner without concern about bricking.
Bricking isn’t the only risk from a OTA update, and in fact is pretty low on the list of things that could go wrong with an update. These days it’s very difficult to truly brick a device, i.e. render it completely unrecoverable.
That said, you can end up with a temporarily unusable device after an update, and if it’s your only phone you’re screwed until you can either fix it yourself or get it to the nearest carrier store or repair shop. That’s the risk that custom ROM users take, but it’s a very small risk, especially when balanced against the rewards.
I agree there is RISK, but it is not big enough to not update the phones.
Furthermore, phone hardware is incredibly simple compared to many of the pieces of gear I have in my home lab, and they update very regularly. (Have a huge lab of Fedora 20 machines.)
Last time I had a update that blew up my lab was 3 years ago, and that was because I was running Nvidia cards with their proprietary blob.
Since I switched everything since then to ATI boards (right now HD 7890’s) I don’t have those problems anymore.
Phones are incredibly unrisky to update given the fact the user basically can’t change the hardware, and every update is guranteed to run on the same hardware configuration.
Absolutely NO REASON not to upgrade phone firmware for a ANDROID phone.
Risk is a reason, but a very LAME reason in light of the above facts.
That is not entirely true. The article is about custom rom makers.
CM breaks things for some devices all the time and a lot more often than you think. Their new recovery based on CWM has some bugs on some HTC devices.
The more you diverge from a stock rom, the more bugs you encounter.
I bricked a transformer prime tablet trying to update it.
It’s still bricked. Bought a nexus 7 in the meantime and browsing experience is better with the newer android version.
I have to agree and i’ve used Cyanogenmod in the past. If i was Joe “clueless” User i wouldn’t want Cyanogenmod updates every day. Or CM at all.
My cousin bought an iphone 3 and still has it to this day. It’s scratched and banged up from use. He never installed a single update. It works for calls and it works for messaging. What feature does iOS 6/7/8 have that makes messaging or phonecalls cooler?
Security updates? I don’t own any iDevice, but I think I remember several cases where old iOS versions were vulnerable to things passed in messages. On the other hand, installing newer iOS might make his phone run more sluggishly, so it’s kind of a trade-off.
AFAIK, CM hasn’t even made it to 4.4 stable yet. It’s the main reason why I haven’t bought a Nexus 5; AOKP (which I believe is CM-based) on my Nexus 4 is soooo good. My Moto X and two Samsung tablets have both been updated by the OEM, as has all of my Nexus devices.
CM 11 uses Android 4.4.2 and is “stable” for the Nexus 5. They just don’t release updates that are called “stable” anymore. The reasoning is they will always be improving and adding features like any other software. They have monthly milestone releases now that are considered ‘stable”. Saying something is “stable” means very little… Hell, stock Android is the same way as 4.4.3 is mostly just a huge bug fix for “Kit Kat”.
Edited 2014-06-06 18:37 UTC
why does e have a smartphone then?
I am not sure why your comment scores a 4 when it is totally wrong. Samsung (like most OEMs) DO release updates to their phones. The problem is the updates not being timely. OEMs add custom skins and other crap that needs to be tested and integrated with any new version. Apple has total control over their hardware and Google does not…
Customers have a choice… Buy an Android phone where you get more choices (but slower updates) or the one (or two) iPhones that are current with faster updates. One can still get fast updates with Android if you choose a Nexus/GPE phone or go with a 3rd party ROM.
Edited 2014-06-06 18:38 UTC
when it comes to updates. But comparing it to iOS or Windows Phone is a bit of a false equivalence. iOS only has to deal with a very small number of device models, whereas Windows Phone only has 2 versions (7 and 8) which are incompatible with each other BTW (7 devices can’t be upgraded to 8).
That entirely depends on your definition of secure. Sure, it might have an up-to-date OpenSSL on there, but shipping user debug builds, or even worse, eng builds, with everything wide open can hardly be called secure. Not to speak of plenty of code that has never seen a proper (security) review.
I’m not saying OEM builds are perfect, but the average custom mod is usually a lesser tested and reviewed product.
There’s many reasons to run custom mods, but saying that per definition they are more secure then the commercial ones is definitely not true.
Tell that to my bank. Their app won’t run anymore if it detects your device is rooted. Also, custom ROMs may be far buggier than stock, even if it’s not their fault because documentation is lacking or nonexistent. Don’t get me wrong, I love the work they do for free and I greatly appreciate it, but custom ROMs are not the silver bullet solution to the problem.
Edited 2014-06-05 19:27 UTC
Mine too (same bank? UK, begins with B?)
But, I have a nexus 4, so I got an official 4.4.3 a couple of days ago. That is the real solution… don’t buy a phone that doesn’t use a ROM provided directly from Google (and by extension, can also do custom ROMs is that floats your boat..)
Above is mentioned Find 5 from Oppo. By the way Oppo Find 5 is one of the worst phones I have ever had! Even after a year the bugs regarding the horrible quality of recorded videos (i.e. shooting videos at ~15fps) has not been fixed!
See:
http://www.oppoforums.com/threads/strange-haze-and-low-frame-rate.6…
http://www.oppoforums.com/threads/low-quality-video-due-to-very-agg…
http://www.oppoforums.com/threads/low-quality-video-in-low-light.55…
What is the point of having latest Android 4.4.3 if the camera drivers of Oppo Find 5 suck and the phone has problems making phone calls on speaker?
Edited 2014-06-05 19:59 UTC
OEMs have to:
1) Make sure all drivers are 100% compatible, so there aren’t any instabilities/issues
2) Re-fit their bloatware and skins.
The second step in entirely unnecessary, but the first step is standard customer relations (something custom ROMs don’t have to deal with, if it breaks or has issues, well it’s a custom ROM…)
Edited 2014-06-05 21:44 UTC
Custom ROMs have numerous problems with basic phone hardware such as a camera.
Example: the camera on this phone was a long time not working at all, and now still has problems:
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Known_Issues_page_for_tass
CM modified for HTC Evo 3D has somewhat destroyed one component on my phone :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2147742&page=172
The bug is STILL PRESENT in the newest release after 10 months :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2526391
BUGS: In-call volume sometimes gets reseted to maximum. Temporary fix:ENABLE TOUCH SOUNDS
I finally switched to :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2422629
It use the stock 4.0.3 kernel, no sound bug, low power consumption, stable.
Kochise
A. Cost of doing nothing – pretty close to $0, at least in the short run (which is as far as most managers can see).
B. Cost of doing something – far above $0, at least in the short run…
A wins.
As an aside – the fact that a single person, Xplodwild, can make sure Android 4.4.3 runs on 52 devices within a matter of days of the code becoming available
I guarantee you Xplodwild is in fact not verifying that it runs on 52 devices at all. He’s probably running it on a couple devices with some ad-hoc testing and then hoping nothing too bad will happen on the 50 others.
Cm11 would drain battery 20% in an hour went back to final availabe stock rom on my s3 international.
Now I am allround happier.
just waiting for that malware
”’
This is a horrible situation for developers and user alike, and, in my view, should be Google’s number one priority.
”’
I do not agree at all. YOU care, DEVELOPERS care, I care, but “users” don’t give a damn about OS updates. Most of them, to start with, don’t know what an OS is, or that there is such a thing as versions, much less version updates.
Outside highly technical circles, nobody knows or cares what is Gingerbread or Jellybean. For most people, phones are large or small, nice and fast, or cheap, or old and slow. Since Samsung got hold of the market, they are not even beautiful or ugly, they all look similarly nondescript (VERY few iPhones around).
Most people simply get something like a Galaxy S5 because it is supposed to be the best there is, or choose another because the price is better, and that’s it.
You are right, most users don’t give a damn about OS updates, but this remains a horrible situation for them.
No OS updates means no security updates.
How some people complain about awkward updates are in Linux and how it lacks support for this and that app and hardware. Then they have no problem with using unsupported ROM’s in their phone and screwing around with changing ROM’s, rooting their device and not having access to all hardware and apps.
It’s a bit funny, is all.
Edited 2014-06-06 11:58 UTC
People who screw around with custom ROMs are the 1% . And IMO there is significant overlap between people who are comfortable with Desktop Linux and people who are comfortable with custom ROMs.
Desktop Linux’s problem is that it drops the upgrade on you, and just hopes nothing gets broken. Android does the smart thing and withhelds an upgrade if your device doesn’t have compatible drivers (like 4.4 on Galaxy Nexus).
This happens because desktop linux devs don’t do backports, nooo everyone assumes you have the latest and greatest version, so if you have an old version you have to deal with unofficial unsupported backports (bad).
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/02/install-latest-vlc-release-ubunt…
(the funny thing about this link is that, at the time of it’s writing, 12.04 was the latest LTS, so you don’t just need the latest LTS, you need the latest non-LTS, and non-LTSes don’t have verified GPU binaries).
And Desktop Linux doesn’t make backporting easier, it doesn’t have something similar to Android’s API Levels.
The take home message: With the exception of OS X and iOS (single-manufacturer OSes), the real world doesn’t consider having the latest and greatest version a necessity, and relies havily on backporting and API back and forward compat (VLC for Windows runs perfectly even on Vista, a 7-year old OS). Desktop Linux just doesn’t play by these rules.
Edited 2014-06-06 14:55 UTC
I don’t know, it’s funny how many of the tools used in ROM-play are Windows-only.
There’s also Windows Phone. And VLC works fine on XP, too.
If you use containerized e-mail systems for work, most will not operate on rooted devices.
Wait until the coming debacle of consumers buying Android phones with 64-bit hardware as an advertised feature running a 32-bit OS that will never officially be updated to 64-bit …
And people still use 24 bits display for ages now, while Matrox already tried to persue them to switch to 30 bits.
Kochise
This is just one of the many, many reasons you should be running a custom ROM. Aside form the fact that a proper custom ROM is lighter and cleaner than the crappy OEM ROMs, they are also more secure because they tend to be up-to-date. In addition, warranty is not an issue because, at least in the EU, rooting and custom ROMs do not void your warranty.
Unless you have a Motorola or Nexus handset, in which case all your points are moot.
There is a very simple reason why manufacturers don’t provide Android updates. Carrier modifications make upgrades a PITA. If the upgrade causes problems the carrier, rather than the manufacturer, has to fix it.
iOS and WP8 don’t allow carrier or vendor modifications so upgrades are fairly simple.
The biggest reason, manufacturers don’t update as they could/should, is that by updating they cost themselves sales of new phones!