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Google Begins Rolling Out Android 7.0 Nougat (venturebeat.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Google today started rolling out Android 7.0 Nougat to existing Nexus devices via an over-the-air software update. This is a gradual rollout: The Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Nexus Player, Pixel C, and General Mobile 4G (Android One) will all be updated, but " it may take several weeks" before everyone gets the latest and greatest, a Google spokesperson told VentureBeat.The Nexus 5 (2013), which packs in a Snapdragon 800 SoC coupled with 2GB of RAM and 5-inch full-HD display, won't be receiving Android Nougat update -- despite having all the hardware capabilities required for a phone to receive Google's latest OS update. The truth of the matter is if Google wanted to update the Nexus 5 with the latest Android software, it could have. It just chose not to. It's very likely that same will be the case for the Nexus 6, a phone that has 3GB of RAM, and Snapdragon 805 SoC, next year when the company releases Android O update.
I can't say I've seen the benefits from v5 to v6...
Older Android versions still get security releases.
Well, they really can; you just have to open the thing up.
That line seemed to be the submitter's personal opinion and not backed up by anything in the linked article.
We don't know why Google didn't push an update for the Nexus 5.
iOS haters always say that you should only buy Google approved(tm) Android devices to stay up to day, and here it is, Google shitting on you. A perfect by today's standards device is no longer receiving updates because ... because nothing. An organization which earns billions of dollars every quarter cannot afford to maintain its older but perfectly capable devices.
Hopefully one day Android will become a true OS vs. what we have now: basically a heavily modified lego for each and every device. There's no Android OS which you can throw at a random ARM device and have it running with all the components functioning properly (camera, WiFi, 3G/4G, sensors, storage, etc.)
Android 4.4 and 5.1 got security updates a month ago: https://android.googlesource.c...
Granted, OEMs and carriers are probably blocking those from getting to 99% of peoples' phones, but that's not Google's fault.
Sorry, you're going to need to back up "99% of people are now running pwned phones" with some facts (which are to be distinguished from the refuse coming from your ass).
Google patches their OS. OEMs and carriers don't send them downstream, and there's nothing Google can do about it because Android is FOSS and you can do whatever you like with it. The fact that iOS is restricted and closed gives the illusion that iPhones have better security, but if anybody could sell iOS devices beside Apple, their ecosystem would look just as bad.
That line seemed to be the submitter's personal opinion and not backed up by anything in the linked article. We don't know why Google didn't push an update for the Nexus 5.
The Nexus 4, 5 and 5X all have the same amount of RAM, 2GB. Its damn suspicious that the 4 and 5 are limited to Android 5.1 and 6.0 and only the 5X gets 7.0. The 2012 and 2013 Nexus 7 story made sense, the former had only 1GB RAM, the later 2 GB, so only the later got Android 6.0. Screen sizes are the same on the Nexus 5 and 5X. While the 5X has slightly better CPU and GPU the chips in the 5 are still vastly overpowered for what millions of Android users do.
Is Android 7.0 64-bit only or something? Even so it seems an arbitrary change. I would understand a desire for such a minimum as a software developer but I would concede it improper to make such a change unless something else is going on, for example 2GB RAM no longer supported.
It looks and smells like a business decision. (1) Reducing development, testing and deployment costs. (2) Users are mostly part of a secondary market (buying used phones) that Google does not want to encourage.
... especially when they've released 3 different phones since then ...
Its generations not phones that matter. The direct successors to the 5 are the 5X and 6 and the 5X is still a current model. So the 5 is only one generation removed from the current model and has the same screen, same amount of RAM, and only a slightly slower CPU/GPU which is still vastly overpowered for what millions of Android uses typically do.
Compare this to desktop machines though. Microsoft of Ubuntu or whoever makes your OS can issue updates. As soon as those updates are made available, you can update your desktop computer. You don't have to wait for HP, Dell, or anybody else to allow you to make that update to your desktop computer. Why can't phones work the same way? When Google updates Android, I should be able to apply that update, and the manufacturer of the device should have no control over whether or not that update is applied.
Well, if you bought a phone with an unlockable bootloader, you can flash whatever OS you want on it. As I wrote elsewhere, even the original Galaxy Nexus from 2011 can get the Cyanogenmod equivalent of Android Marshmallow this way.
But the main "problem" (if you want to consider it so) with Android is that it's a FOSS platform. Apple and Microsoft heavily strangle their respective closed platforms so that OEMs and carriers can't do anything to interfere with Apple's and Microsoft's business (aside from, in the case of Windows, pre-installing bloatware). But since anybody can legally install Android on anything, Google can't use the same kind of leverage. Well, that's a good thing, I say. It means I'm not on Google's leash.
I still take issue with the fact that MTK will not open source their drivers or offer a Cyanogen based option for 4.4.2 KitKat Devices that need to be updated. I have an up to date Blu Studio 5.0CE D536U. The last Patch it got, V14, did a fix for Sim Cards in Equador, and completely ignored the mountains of CVEs filed against
I want to load Cyanogen Mod on it, but the MTK6572 the device has is not well understood enough to run Cyanogen Mod.
"Your phone isn't running Android 7.0? Wow, what a turd!"
When your phone (Nexus 5) is only one generation different from the currently sold model (Nexus 5X) and has the same screen, same amount of RAM and only a slightly slower CPU then yes, it "stinks". There is no hiding that odor.
Have they fixed the rather major defect they introduced by forcing an unconfigurable doze on us all?
Any application which requires the device to remain active (ie. safety applications like marine anchor and AIS alarms) are not functional on Android 6.0+. Even if you add applications to the exception list, they'll still be suspended, and woken only every 15 minutes while dozing.
A simple "do not EVER interfere with this process under any circumstances" option would resolve it, and to be honest it's quite shocking it was ommitted.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
I agree with you, I would appreciate a law to that effect. But for the time being, here's why iOS looks to be in better shape than Android: because any OEM can put an ancient version of Android on any piece of crap hardware and never update it, whereas you're going to get Psystar'd by Apple if you attempt to do the same thing with iOS.
If we're going to be fair in an Android vs. iOS battle, we should really keep the price point in mind. iPhones receive official updates longer than Nexus phones, but (a) Nexus phones are roughly half the price, and (b) you can flash Cyanogenmod on a Nexus phone and have it last longer than an iPhone does.
I have a Nexus 5, so I wasn't expecting it to get Nougat. It would've been nice if it did, but frankly I've been looking to upgrade anyway. It's a great phone (especially with Marshmallow), but it's limited by only being able to have one cellular radio active at a time. In theory I should be able to talk on the phone while simultaneously web browsing over LTE. But the hardware only supports a single active cellular radio. Wasn't a big deal when I first got the phone, but now I'm tethering more and I find I'm either unable to receive phone calls or text messages while tethered, or the call will interrupt LTE causing dropped Internet connections.
The whole OS update scene is a mess right now. Android drops support for old devices quickly. Windows 10 forces you to receive updates whether you want them or not. Apple supports their devices for a long time, but if you update a device and find it makes the device dog slow, you can't uninstall the update like you can with Android and Windows. Nobody seems to be able to get this right. Something like: support for 5 years, forced updates (so carriers can't screw you over), but you can uninstall updates which give you problems.
I spent a few hours trying to get Chromecast working on a TV on a 10.0.0.0/8 subnet at a large university, and it simply cannot do it. Chrome cast will only work on a /24. Miracast will, but Google disabled it on their Nexus line, for no greater reason than trying to push Chromecast.
So Google, do you care about making your customers happy, or some random mid-level MBA at the Googleplex who thought they were Dr. Evil when they came with the idea of reducing functionality?