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Google's 'Project Treble' Could Lead To Faster Android Updates (arstechnica.com)
Thelasko quotes a report from Ars Technica: Ahead of Google I/O, Google has just dropped a bombshell of a blog post that promises, for real this time, that it is finally doing something about Android's update problems. "Project Treble" is a plan to modularize the Android OS, separating the OS framework code from "vendor specific" hardware code. In theory, this change would allow for a new Android update to be flashed on a device without any involvement from the silicon vendor. Google calls it "the biggest change to the low-level system architecture of Android to date," and it's already live on the Google Pixel's Android O Developer Preview. This is not a magic bullet that will solve all of Android's update problems, however. After an update is released, Google lists three steps to creating an Android update:
1. Silicon manufacturers (Qualcomm, Samsung Exynos, etc) "modify the new release for their specific hardware" and do things like make sure drivers and power management will still work.
2. OEMs (Samsung, LG, HTC) step in and "modify the new release again as needed for their devices." This means making sure all the hardware works, rebranding Android with a custom skin, adding OEM apps, and modifying core parts of the Android OS to add special features like (before 7.0) multi-window support.
3. Carriers add more apps, more branding, and "test and certify the new release."
1. Silicon manufacturers (Qualcomm, Samsung Exynos, etc) "modify the new release for their specific hardware" and do things like make sure drivers and power management will still work.
2. OEMs (Samsung, LG, HTC) step in and "modify the new release again as needed for their devices." This means making sure all the hardware works, rebranding Android with a custom skin, adding OEM apps, and modifying core parts of the Android OS to add special features like (before 7.0) multi-window support.
3. Carriers add more apps, more branding, and "test and certify the new release."
More and more I just want a mobile linux device that isn't android and isn't easy/consumerified and just has mobile data and I can use SIP or other IP-phone.
What I don't need is for my mobile device to update more often! What I need is for it to want updates less often.
I don't want new features unless there is hardware that is finally small enough to be mobile. And when it happens, I want it to use one of the existing computer interface paradigms.
This will allow third party ROMs to be built and released for nearly every phone much more easily. I envision the golden age of customized ROMs on the way.
Is it just me, or did Google's PR team just announce a hardware abstraction layer and everybody went nuts?
So, what will this do for the Android 4.2, 4.4 and 6.0 tablets I already own and are stuck at those versions? Do they continue to be abandonware?
If Google tells me I just need buy one more tablet, and it'll get system updates, "for real this time, no matter what the hardware manufacturers say or do", they can go fuck themselves. I'm done with Android.
If the vendors like Samsung... like SAMSUNG... don't want to role out Android updates in a timely manner, you still won't get them in a timely manner. Or ever.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Hey, I have the Tagalog language installed on my Android...
I tried to install that repeatedly and all that happened was a girl scout brought a wagon load of cookies to my door and said I owed $1300...
P.S.
Now my phone has chocolate and peanut-butter all over it!
P.P.S.
Totally worth it though...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Part of me wants to suggest we say "fuck it" and factor historical lack of updates into our purchase decisions. That is, purposely buy phones based on lack of updates, given that we know they will eventually get hacked.
And when they do, the entire lot of us stick it to the manufacturers, who refused to provide updates, in the form of a series of class action suits, one for each model sold in each market, layered atop one for each manufacturer in each market.
Vendors don't provide updates right now because they believe it is cheaper not to do so. We can't change the equation, but we sure can change the variables and, by effect, the result.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
the entire lot of us stick it to the manufacturers, who refused to provide updates, in the form of a series of class action suits
Under what legal theory would a remedy be available at law? My first guess is the implied warranty of merchantability, that Internet-connected computers without security updates are not "fit for the purposes such goods are ordinarily used." But if you plan to sue on grounds of failure to honor the implied warranty, I thought it was common practice for manufacturers to disclaim implied warranties after a product's express warranty has expired.
If it depends on the jurisdiction, use the United States as an example. It's the home country of Alphabet and Slashdot Media.
I bought an high-quality phone over 3 1/2 years ago, and it's still perfectly functional, but gets no more security updates. Essentially, I'm screwed as soon as the next major issue hits that has no mitigation. Even Google, with their high-end Pixel devices, apparently only guarantees security patches for 3 years from launch or 18 months from buy date, whichever is longer. That's pretty lame for an $800 phone.
If HTC wanted to get back into the market, they should sell high-end phones and guarantee five years of software updates. I'd buy one tomorrow.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Even taking the carriers out of the mix wouldn't be much better. The manufacturers hardly ever update either. With phone updates having to go through 3 steps, it's almost 100% doomed not to make it to your phone. Ever Android phone I've ever owned (with the exception of the Nexus 5x that I bought my wife), has at most only seen one update after the initial purchase.
The REAL questions that need to be addressed, is why we as consumers have allowed phones to be handled so different from PC's.
If I buy a laptop that comes with windows. When I first start it up for the first time, I give it an admin login credentials, and have full admin rights on the PC. Phones, you are locked out, with no admin rights unless you root it, which voids the warranty. Why shouldn't we have admin rights on these things by now, they are multi-purpose computers these days. People would freak out if a new laptop only came with 'basic user' login rights, and you couldn't have access to admin rights under windows. It would not be acceptable on a PC, and shouldn't be acceptable on a phone.
Also, why do the manufacture's and carriers get to 'bake' all kinds of crapware on the phone that can't be removed at all? Again, if I bought a Dell laptop, sure it might come with some Dell apps, but they can be removed. Samsung apps on a phone, not so much. Best Buy doesn't get to then add more crapware onto the Dell PC it sells as well, so that when you buy it has Dell bloatware and BestBuy bloatware baked into windows with no way to remove the apps or disable them. Phone do though, all kinds of crap from the manufacturer like Samsung store and other crap and about a dozen AT&T apps that you can't get rid of. not to mention that they bake-in normal apps too now, like my S5 has Uber preloaded, and baked in. Can't uninstall it or get rid of it. I've never used uber, and it's available in the Play store if I want it. Why is it locked onto my phone!
If Samsung wants to give it a branded skin, or some extra functionality, then fine. But if the first problem (admin rights) were respected, if we didn't like it, we would be able to easily wipe the ROM and put a vanilla android ROM on the phone like you can with a PC when you buy it. Same with the "permanent apps" that are preinstalled on the phone as well, admin rights would allow the removal of all of these. This would solve the update process, as I could opt to update to the latest version at any point. When microsoft releases a patch or update to windows, PC users don't have to wait until Dell (or HP/Asus/etc) get the update and add all their crap onto it, and pass it off to then to BestBuy/Walmart/NewEgg for the retailers to all their specific crap to it, before it gets pushed to your laptop. Why the hell does it work that way with phone?!?
It seems to me, that unfortunately, we as consumers allowed them to do this at the beginning and get away with it, and we didn't make a big enough stink over it. Now we are forever stuck with no admin rights, and several layers of 'baked-in' bloatware from everyone in the chain of manufactures and carriers. Why did we let them get away with it in the first place. And why do people accept it, when they wouldn't accept it with a PC.
Therein lies the rub. John Deere can't stop a 3rd party from making an aftermarket ECU, control unit, or diagnostic unit, but copyright law dictates that anyone wishing to do so must not use John Deere's copyrighted software in order to do so unless they have John Deere's permission to use it. No law says they have to licence their copyrights, only that they have to not sue to prevent the sale and manufacture of parts. There is a healthy aftermarket for parts for John Deere tractors which can be replaced without touching the computer systems; that market would be a lot larger if we were allowed to reverse engineer those systems, but that is a separate issue.
And even then, existing laws only cover vehicle's intended to be licensed and driven on public roads, which does not cover most of John Deere's line, making them more like phones than cars. John Deere doesn't want to have to deal with those laws for all of their tractor business, so they allow what 3rd party parts are possible without the use or reverse engineering of their software (because they can still get away with preventing that) and, perhaps more importantly, they provide service well past the expected life of the product.
John Deere actually provides a good model for phone manufacturers to follow, at least in terms of ensuring security updates are available: Full warranty lasting at least as long as the financing period, software updates free of charge during the warranty period, software updates still available after the warranty period, and nothing technically stopping the end user from replacing the software with their own once the warranty ends.
I see where you're going re: Right to Repair and I agree, we'd be better off in that world. We would also be better off that our current situation if phone manufacturers follwed John Deere's model. In either case, I think you and I both realize it is going to take an act of law ir a very hardcore court ruling to make it happen.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.