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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.
Who says the Nexus 5 isn't getting updates anymore? It's not getting Android 7, but Google updates older OS releases, just like Apple still gives security updates for macOS 10.9.
Are you serious? v6 introduced Doze mode, which help battery life. v7 extends Doze mode further, which means it should finally be possible to use an android phone for more than a day without needing to somehow shoehorn an absurdly large battery.
Android 6 also finally introduces various privacy features, so you can choose what access you are willing to grant to an individual application. Up until v6, Android was a identity thief's wet dream, cause a developer could request ridiculous amounts of access from your device, and the permission warning screen was confusing enough that most people ended up just ignoring it in the same way they ignore "Agree to our ToS" screens.
It also marks the point where Google has finally pulled it's head out of the sand and realized that it cannot rely 3rd party manufacturers to properly support their devices, and is taking back control of things like updates, and whatnot.
I can only hope that all this means the desperately needed end of the "Landfill Android" era.
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.
"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.
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.