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Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab Won't Get Android 4.0
bonch writes "Samsung has announced that the Galaxy S smartphone, which sold 10 million last year, and the Galaxy Tab tablet won't be receiving the Android 4.0 update, known as 'Ice Cream Sandwich.' Samsung claims the devices lack enough RAM and ROM to run Android 4.0 alongside TouchWiz and other custom 'experience-enhancing' software. Note that the Galaxy S runs the same hardware as the Nexus S, which is already receiving the Android 4.0 update."
If you want upgrades don't get a phone with these extras on top. Touchwiz, Sense and Blur all suck and all prevent phones from being updated. Vote with your dollars.
I will be getting a Galaxy Nexus as soon as it is 199 or below, I won't pay more for a phone on contract.
From Éclair to Froyo to Gingerbread, and went through a total of 7 relatively major update
That's all I expected from the phone when I got it, tbh.
The correct answer is then to drop touchwiz. I really wish google would demand that these frontends be nothing more than an apk if you want to use their trademarks.
In other words, blame Samsung either way you want to look at it - because they're too lazy / incompetent to do it, or because they preload so much proprietary bloatware on the device that it can't do much more than stock. HTC is just as bad, with background processes like Stock Updates using 20 MB of RAM (even if the widget isn't even being used) that can't be killed or disabled without rooting the device.
Better known as 318230.
There are already a few unofficial ports in advanced beta and threads on XDA developers indicate that everything works just fine. .
While I am somewhat disappointed by Samsung's lack of commitment to provide ongoing support such a successful product I am not sure this makes any difference really. Users who are not hacking their phones probably don't want such a radical upgrade. Users who are into hacking will get it unofficially.
Regarding this line:
>> "Note that the Galaxy S runs the same hardware as the Nexus S, which is already receiving the Android 4.0 update."
Yes, the Nexus S has ICS; I'm running it on my Nexus S, and it's fantastic. However, you can really, really feel the fact that the phone only has 512 MB of RAM. If you open a memory intensive app (web browser, for example), pretty much everything else gets swapped out; when you next press Home, you have to wait a second or two for the launcher to be restarted, or worse, for the keyboard to load.
Since TouchWiz would add even more bloat, I can totally see how 512 MB just won't cut it.
I'm not really sure to what degree that is true. I won't argue that Apple does not offer better support for older devices than most Android sellers, as I do think that is totally true.
I have a 3gs that is 2.5 years and still fully supported. Still being sold, even!
But I would say that there IS some disgruntlement over older releases running on new harder in the iOS world. iOS5 is worth it for me for the features, but my phone at times lags when it never lagged before. Likewise, when iOS4 came out, many iPhone 3g owners said it slowed down their devices horribly. I even know a couple people who said they upgraded to the iPhone 4s because iOS5 had slowed down their older iPhones to the point they felt it was worth a new phone.
Actually, my iPhone 3GS has been feeling quite a bit snappier since I upgraded it to iOS 5 a few months ago and the new features are nice as well. And that's a phone which was released a year before the Samsung Galaxy S. Thank your for asking.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
that their licensing agreement with Microsoft, as Barnes & Nobel revealed when they refused to sign the NDA, prohibits them from upgrading to more recent versions of Android. This would lock them into an aging release, which would kill their future sales. With no where is to turn, they would be forced to put WinP7 on their hardware, which is the whole purpose of Microsoft's extortion.
In other news, Nokia's Lumina, their smartphone running Win7, was essentially ignored by consumers after its recent release. Microsoft has spent more than $500 Million in branding and marketing of WinP7, but not to worry. They've used worthless IP to extort about that much in "license fees" from vendors putting Android on their hardware.
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
That chart hides a little too much information and refers to "current version of the OS" which I think is different from still getting updates. You can be running a version of the OS that isn't the current "major version" but still be receiving security and bug fixes. Also, this is a chart that talks about version numbers, which are arbitrary. If google were to never release another "major version" they would look amazing on this chart. We'd also need to know what enhancements were in each new major version to make an accurate comparison.
They call me the wookie man, I guess that's what I am
What has anybody done to the source in a meaningful way, other than offer versions of Android which are completely open, provide you with full root access, and allow you to do whatever you want for phones it wasn't intended for?
FTFY. Also you under-estimate just what it is you're saying. I think the single most meaningful thing people can do is offer up updates for obsolete hardware from the latest ASOP tree. This effectively breaks the manufacturer / carrier hold on mobile devices.
This very story is a testament to that. I already run IceCream Sandwich on my Galaxy S, despite the fact it won't ever be released.
Funny, you should say that, I have a friend who has been working in Korea with one of the managers of the Galaxy S project. He said that the S was actually a beta but Samsung went to market with it. His exact words were "Wait for the S2. That is the real Galaxy!"
Reminds me of the Duck/Battle Chess story. I'm not sure where I first read this, but it goes a little something like this;
This started as a piece of Interplay corporate lore. It was well known that producers (a game industry position, roughly equivalent to PMs) had to make a change to everything that was done. The assumption was that subconsciously they felt that if they didn’t, they weren’t adding value.
The artist working on the queen animations for Battle Chess was aware of this tendency, and came up with an innovative solution. He did the animations for the queen the way that he felt would be best, with one addition: he gave the queen a pet duck. He animated this duck through all of the queen’s animations, had it flapping around the corners. He also took great care to make sure that it never overlapped the "actual" animation.
Eventually, it came time for the producer to review the animation set for the queen. The producer sat down and watched all of the animations. When they were done, he turned to the artist and said, "That looks great. Just one thing – get rid of the duck."
AccountKiller
Because you obviously don't understand the point of Android. Only reason Android was developed was Google was deathly afraid that Apple would cut them out of iOS and therefore, cut them out of big mobile space share.
Google purchased (not created) Android in 2005. The work on the product had actually been started by Android, inc in 2003.
The first iPhone didn't released until 2007 and featured Google prominently.
To have already figured out that Apple might cut them out of iOS in 2005 is astounding. If this is correct, then they have amazing foresight.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain