Something someone does without concern for your needs or interests can still benefit you. For example, the guy who puts a bullet between the eyes of a gunman who's already shot 3 people, and is aiming at you now, probably did so not to save you, but to save himself. You still benefit, though, by not getting shot.
Fuck the police, we have every right to encrypt our data to keep it out of the hands of criminals. Criminals, who, of course, will encrypt it if they get it. Except that most criminals aren't that smart.
The actual OS portion of it is, actually. It is the Google apps and framework (e.g. non-AOSP) and hardware-specific drivers (e.g. not part of Android) that are not open source. Test this by fetching a system image for your phone (assuming a Nexus device, where Google is actually the one releasing the binaries; there is no guarantee that a different OEM doesn't change things, in fact that is quite common.. so, again, a Nexus device), extract the/system partition, and replace the binaries with your own versions compiled from source (same version of Android, of course, so drivers and the Google bits still work), roll that back into the image, and flash it.
10 to 1 it'll boot and work just fine. If you weren't an AC I'd put money on it.
This. Full-disk encryption has been an option on Android for some time now and my Nexus 6 shipped with it on by default and unable to be turned off (without hacks, at least, which involve wiping all encrypted partitions, so they'd be quite obvious if attempted).
Sorry, I almost forgot to post the corrected version. Here it is:
Actually, it's nothing to do with length. Do you know how to read pronunciation keys? If so, go back to the links I originally sent you for loose/lose and look at the pronunciation, then look up "book" and "pool" and you'll see the difference. Slashdot doesn't support the characters required for me to be able to explain it any better.
Furthermore, I am surprised that you did not recognize that the English "loose" is actually "lose" (also possibly "locker", "los", "frei", "weit", or "offen") in German, it is the opposite of the German word "eng" and nearly synonymous with the English word "slack". The English "lose", on the other hand, translates to "verlieren" and is synonymous with the English "shed".
In English, "loose" vs "lose" is the German equivalent of "locker" vs "verlieren" or "eng" vs "finden".
Autocorrect messed that up, "correcting" a couple German words to similarly spelled English words. Ignore that post and I'll post the corrected version when I get to a computer. Also, I made a logic error...
Actually, it's nothing to do with length. Do you know how to read pronunciation keys? If so, co back to the links I originally sent you for loose/lose and look at the pronunciation, the look up "book" and "pool" and you'll see the difference. Slashdot doesn't support the characters required for me to be able to explain it any better.
Furthermore, I am surprised that you did not recognize that the English "loose" is actually "lose" (also possibly "locker", "los", "frei", "weit", or "offen") in German, it is the synonym of the German word "eng" and nearly synonymous with the English word "slack". The English "lose", on the other hand, translates to "verlieren" and is synonymous with the English "shed".
In English, "loose" vs "lose" is the German equivalent of "locker" vs "verlieren" or "end" vs "finden".
Well, for Apple, it's simple: They were smarter than Google, and kept control of their products all the way through the Distribution Chain.
And yet Android demolishes iOS in market share. The people have spoken.
Apple-Hate comments
You couldn't be more off-base; my dissent is not out of hate. And yes, I really do own and regularly use the Apple products I claim; here is a partial glimpse at my battlestation, depicting the iPad Air (my wife and I recently traded, as the Air 2's display does not play well with the Adonit Jot Touch pen I bought) and two of three displays driven by the MacBook Pro Retina that generally stays locked in a cabinet unless I'm traveling. You'll not, for authenticity, that this post is partially written on the leftmost display.
Yes, this is truly the desktop of a man who hates Apple.
My bad, I should have provided the original source for the linked images. Since you're clearly unfamiliar, here you go, including explanations of the three distinct features and which models support them.
They don't argue with you, because they are tired of hearing it, and want to still be friends.
There's a vast space between not arguing and confirming. They don't "not argue", they confirm. We've had a number of discussions pondering the reasons and yes, the iOS guy has started a couple of those.
Sure, Apple could maintain two complete versions of Siri,
Really? The dedicated hardware is an ASIC implementation of the software voice decoder. It doesn't change, so the software needn't change, either. There's nothing to maintain, there; the API is set in stone the moment it's burned to a chip. Google has no problem implementing a software keystore for devices with NFC but no hardware keystore, while utilizing the hardware keystore where one exists, for Google Wallet and other supported payment systems on Android. It can't possibly be that hard.
but I would bet that wouldn't be a small thing to just have lying around dormant in most Devices; so they made a decision to drop the software version.
Or simply left out of the ROM for devices with the necessary hardware. The interface would simply be a module; plug in the software decoder for devices lacking the hardware, plug in the driver in devices that have the hardware. It's actually really simple and I do it all the time when developing for mixed platforms; do you have any experience in the field?
App-Sidebarring (sorry, don't know what you mean)
This. And, for comparison, splitscreening and Picture-in-picture (which is also supported on the IPA). Picture-in-picture is, for all intents and purposes, running two applications in the foreground with multiple GraphPorts; one application being the one you are actively using, the other being the video player, which has its own GraphPort which actually overlaps the "main" one, a more technically taxing feat than having two next to each other. And both GraphPorts are able to accept input (you do get video controls when using Picture-in-Picture), so that's not the technical challenge they couldn't overcome on the IPA, either. The sidebar (apparently it's called "Slide Over") screenshot clearly demonstrates the use of multiple GraphPorts, as well; in fact, the menus that can slide from the top and bottom of the screen demonstrate this, and those are supported on literally every iPad model, and have been since at least iOS 4 (which is ran on the first iOS device I used and, thus, as far back as I can confirm).
And what about the additional RAM requirements? Does the IPA have enough for full split-screening, and having two active Apps at one time?
Considering that iOS doesn't drop backgrounded apps from RAM, it just pauses their execution, I'm going to say yes. Especially given that Android has been able to support multiple simultaneous applications since the days when 256MB was high-end. If the IPA can't manage that in 1GB, perhaps Apple's engineering team isn't as great as we all want to believe.
Bottom line, it's either incompetence or planned-obsolescence. My friends at Apple prefer to think it is not incompetence, and so do I.
So, out of your curiously overlapping models (why do you feel the need to upgrade virtually EVERY cycle?)
There was a 3Gs between the 3G and 4, a 4s between the 4 and 5, and a a 5s between the 5 and 6+. Beyond that, these have been my wife's phones and not mine; and they were upgraded because they each started having battery, screen, or button issues just as their warranties expired. As for the iPads, there were a number of them released between the first gen and the Air, were there not? I gave my wife the Air when I bought the Air 2. I don't think it unreasonable for two people to have two iPads.
why do you spend so much time bashing them
There is a huge difference between bashing and dissent. I voice my dissent in the hope that the company will hear my voice and course-correct before I have to find an alternate platform. Should I just sit on my hands and watch the company slowly alienate me as a customer?
Something doesn't add up.
Indeed, I can't figure out why you follow me around on here to try and start arguments.
For example, all it takes is one array expansion and what SEEMS like it ought to be fine, ends up crashing repeatedly on 90% of last-year's model. 5% just ain't worth it for an OEM.
On one hand, the OEM doesn't have to maintain the store; Google does. On the other hand, maybe Google gives up 10%. And remember, that's of the purchase price of the apps, not of Google's 30%.
And then there's the Carriers... Where's their incentive?
Ask Google, Apple, and Microsoft how they get their updates approved. I'm sure that will work for the OEMs, as well. I mean, it must be working for the OEMs, as well; though they are few and far between, non-Nexus Android updates do exist in the wild.
Also, why does it seem that every time I post in an Android or iOS discussion, you come along and comment? You must like me.
Right. That's why they released an iOS update specifically for the FIRST GENERATION iPad in May, 2014
A quick bit of fact checking (e.g. firing up my first gen iPad and checking) reveals this as complete and utter bullshit.
You don't know if the GPU built into the processor in your IPA is capable of supporting two GraphPorts.
Actually, that's how app sidebarring (I'm not sure what the official name is) works, and the IPA does this just fine.
I would suspect that is NOT the case; because the REGISTERS are simply not there to stuff with the begin/end coordinates, etc. Prove me wrong.
I think I just did. And I would certainly hope this was supported, as the Motorola Atrix I owned back in 2011 (256MB of RAM, sub-gHz dual-core 32-bit CPU) was able to function as a laptop (it had a dock which included a display, keyboard, trackpad, USB hub, and extended battery) while still also functioning as a phone; e.g. dual display and multi-application. At the quite underpowered (by today's standards) Atrix could to it, and quite well, I'd hope the IPA released in 2013 with 4x as much RAM and a 64-bit CPU clocked almost twice as fast (on top of having a larger instruction set) and with a much more powerful GPU could handle it.
Same thing with Siri. Apple's implementation of Siri (as opposed to the generic App) obviously was changed to leverage custom HARDWARE in the SoC that simply didn't exist pre-iPhone 4s
But the software implementation still worked, just a bit slower. Why kill it?
(which, curiously enough, is the same excuse you allow for Google and Nexus).
Yes and it is a perfectly valid reason not to enable a feature that actually required hardware, like NFC or fingerprint scanning. If you can write software to add support for those features to devices lacking the hardware to support them, I suggest you patent that shit ASAP.
Why is it that you allow for the "insufficient hardware resources" excuse for Google and Nexus; but not for Apple and iOS Devices?
Did I say anything about lack of support for Apple Pay on phones older than the iPhone 6? No. Want to venture a guess as to why? Let me help you understand: the NFC hardware doesn't exist in those phones, so it makes sense not to include the feature that requires it. Same for fingerprint scanning and the iPhone 5 and older. Not so for Siri, for which a working and supported software implementation was not only possible, but existed for a full year before Apple took it away.
You have absolutely no insider knowledge that could prove otherwise; so, until then, STFU.
Unless you are implying that iPhones suddenly became incapable of running software that they had been able to run for a full year before Apple nixed the app (when they released Siri as a feature in the 4s), I'm not sure what insider knowledge I might need in order to be able to call Apple out on that. Likewise, unless you are implying that the second most recent iPad model contains less capable hardware than an Android phone several generations old and more than twice its age, I'm not sure what insider knowledge is necessary to debunk Apple's omission of splitscreening on the iPad Air.
To take it even farther, I live in the bay area, less than 90 minutes from 1 Infinite Loop, and actually have friends working at Apple, in real life and not just on the intertubes. They don't argue with my assessment, or try to defend their employer's actions; on the contrary, they confirm that it is technically possible and that I am correct. And yes, one of them works on iPad hardware and the other works on iOS. Is that insider enough for you?
My experience differs from the realoty you are implying. Mind you, that is largely colored by the original iPad (which I still have) and the iPhone 3G, as those are the first iOS devices I actually used for any length of time. The iPhone 4 and 5 were my wife's and the 6+ (also my wife's) and both iPad Air models are still sold by Apple.
That is the first viable soluion I've heard to the problem. Good on you for coming up with it; I'm guessing you're the first person to respond to one of my comments on the topic who isn't an Apple or MS (eesh) fanboi.
Ma'm (and please correct me if my gender assumption is incorrect), it is refreshing to once again see intelligent discussion on Slashdot and, for that, I thank you. It's a pity that you'll probably be moderated into oblivion for it.
And so does Google. Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola, and the rest of the Android coat-tail-riders just want to sell hardware, so they have no interest in keeping their devices up to date; Google, on the other hand, wants their platform in as many hands as possible, so they have an interest in doing it right. They need to crack down on their OEM partners, but the reality is that the OEMs and carriers screw up Android so bad that the only way to get a decent experience is to buy a Nexus, anyway, so I don't really care if that ever happens. As long as the Nexus line is around, I'll be happy. Eventually, people will wise up and stop buying devices with shitty support; it might take a few widespread hacks of Android devices with reports of "up-to-date Nexus devices not affected", but it will happen. People will stop buying non-Nexus Android devices, at least enough that the OEMs will be forced to stop cramming shit down their throats.
Or not. Maybe people will never learn. Either way, the Nexus line exists and Google does a very good job at keeping it updated.
And that addresses the first and third issues (being a temporary solution and the eventuality that we will find a viable use for this material) how, exactly? Two out of three ain't bad, but you, sir, only even tried for one. And you failed at that, as well; sand and sealife will erode the Teflon layer on short order.
Google's Nexus line is actually what I was referring to. I apologize for only stating that four times in my comment.
I do agree that Google should crack down on their OEM partners' shoddy support, but that does not take away from the Nexus line. Honestly, though, vanilla Android provides a better experience not just in my opinion, but also in the opinions of people who've compared my Nexus 6 to their Android device; given that, even if the OEM partners shaped up their support game, unless they did so by shipping vanilla Android (which would allow Google to support the devices directly, anyway), I (and for future purchases, those who've gotten to play with my Nexus 6 next to their various devices) will be sticking to the Nexus line. From that perspective, no other line of Android devices even comes close to being relevant.
Actually... No. Windows Phone updates have to be approved by carriers.
We work closely with our carrier partners, and encourage them to test our software as swiftly as possible. But it’s still their network, and the reality is that some carriers require more time than others. By the way, this carrier testing is a common industry practice that all of our competitors must also undergo. No exceptions.
Only temporarily sustainable. Eventually, it will reduce land mass and raise ocean levels (maybe hundreds or thousands of years, but eventually). Beyond that, it's a horrible solution because seawater will eat through the containers and become contaminated.
There are plenty of places we can store the shit until we figure out a use for it; and there are surely plenty of uses for it we simply haven't thought up a way to market yet.
Slashdot Mirror
Heck, for all the evil they do, Microsoft gives you[1] unrestricted access to the Operating System
[1]: And everybody else
I kid, of course. But not by much.
Something someone does without concern for your needs or interests can still benefit you. For example, the guy who puts a bullet between the eyes of a gunman who's already shot 3 people, and is aiming at you now, probably did so not to save you, but to save himself. You still benefit, though, by not getting shot.
Fuck the police, we have every right to encrypt our data to keep it out of the hands of criminals. Criminals, who, of course, will encrypt it if they get it. Except that most criminals aren't that smart.
The actual OS portion of it is, actually. It is the Google apps and framework (e.g. non-AOSP) and hardware-specific drivers (e.g. not part of Android) that are not open source. Test this by fetching a system image for your phone (assuming a Nexus device, where Google is actually the one releasing the binaries; there is no guarantee that a different OEM doesn't change things, in fact that is quite common.. so, again, a Nexus device), extract the /system partition, and replace the binaries with your own versions compiled from source (same version of Android, of course, so drivers and the Google bits still work), roll that back into the image, and flash it.
10 to 1 it'll boot and work just fine. If you weren't an AC I'd put money on it.
This. Full-disk encryption has been an option on Android for some time now and my Nexus 6 shipped with it on by default and unable to be turned off (without hacks, at least, which involve wiping all encrypted partitions, so they'd be quite obvious if attempted).
Sorry, I almost forgot to post the corrected version. Here it is:
Actually, it's nothing to do with length. Do you know how to read pronunciation keys? If so, go back to the links I originally sent you for loose/lose and look at the pronunciation, then look up "book" and "pool" and you'll see the difference. Slashdot doesn't support the characters required for me to be able to explain it any better.
Furthermore, I am surprised that you did not recognize that the English "loose" is actually "lose" (also possibly "locker", "los", "frei", "weit", or "offen") in German, it is the opposite of the German word "eng" and nearly synonymous with the English word "slack". The English "lose", on the other hand, translates to "verlieren" and is synonymous with the English "shed".
In English, "loose" vs "lose" is the German equivalent of "locker" vs "verlieren" or "eng" vs "finden".
Autocorrect messed that up, "correcting" a couple German words to similarly spelled English words. Ignore that post and I'll post the corrected version when I get to a computer. Also, I made a logic error...
Actually, it's nothing to do with length. Do you know how to read pronunciation keys? If so, co back to the links I originally sent you for loose/lose and look at the pronunciation, the look up "book" and "pool" and you'll see the difference. Slashdot doesn't support the characters required for me to be able to explain it any better.
Furthermore, I am surprised that you did not recognize that the English "loose" is actually "lose" (also possibly "locker", "los", "frei", "weit", or "offen") in German, it is the synonym of the German word "eng" and nearly synonymous with the English word "slack". The English "lose", on the other hand, translates to "verlieren" and is synonymous with the English "shed".
In English, "loose" vs "lose" is the German equivalent of "locker" vs "verlieren" or "end" vs "finden".
No need to get snotty, just soak up the knowledge.
as on book, school or pool
The "oo" in "school" and "pool" sound the same, "book", however, does not.
And the irony of you calling me a spelling nazi.
typo... "You'll not," sould be "You'll note,".
Well, for Apple, it's simple: They were smarter than Google, and kept control of their products all the way through the Distribution Chain.
And yet Android demolishes iOS in market share. The people have spoken.
Apple-Hate comments
You couldn't be more off-base; my dissent is not out of hate. And yes, I really do own and regularly use the Apple products I claim; here is a partial glimpse at my battlestation, depicting the iPad Air (my wife and I recently traded, as the Air 2's display does not play well with the Adonit Jot Touch pen I bought) and two of three displays driven by the MacBook Pro Retina that generally stays locked in a cabinet unless I'm traveling. You'll not, for authenticity, that this post is partially written on the leftmost display.
Yes, this is truly the desktop of a man who hates Apple.
Get a clue.
My bad, I should have provided the original source for the linked images. Since you're clearly unfamiliar, here you go, including explanations of the three distinct features and which models support them.
They don't argue with you, because they are tired of hearing it, and want to still be friends.
There's a vast space between not arguing and confirming. They don't "not argue", they confirm. We've had a number of discussions pondering the reasons and yes, the iOS guy has started a couple of those.
Sure, Apple could maintain two complete versions of Siri,
Really? The dedicated hardware is an ASIC implementation of the software voice decoder. It doesn't change, so the software needn't change, either. There's nothing to maintain, there; the API is set in stone the moment it's burned to a chip. Google has no problem implementing a software keystore for devices with NFC but no hardware keystore, while utilizing the hardware keystore where one exists, for Google Wallet and other supported payment systems on Android. It can't possibly be that hard.
but I would bet that wouldn't be a small thing to just have lying around dormant in most Devices; so they made a decision to drop the software version.
Or simply left out of the ROM for devices with the necessary hardware. The interface would simply be a module; plug in the software decoder for devices lacking the hardware, plug in the driver in devices that have the hardware. It's actually really simple and I do it all the time when developing for mixed platforms; do you have any experience in the field?
App-Sidebarring (sorry, don't know what you mean)
This. And, for comparison, splitscreening and Picture-in-picture (which is also supported on the IPA). Picture-in-picture is, for all intents and purposes, running two applications in the foreground with multiple GraphPorts; one application being the one you are actively using, the other being the video player, which has its own GraphPort which actually overlaps the "main" one, a more technically taxing feat than having two next to each other. And both GraphPorts are able to accept input (you do get video controls when using Picture-in-Picture), so that's not the technical challenge they couldn't overcome on the IPA, either. The sidebar (apparently it's called "Slide Over") screenshot clearly demonstrates the use of multiple GraphPorts, as well; in fact, the menus that can slide from the top and bottom of the screen demonstrate this, and those are supported on literally every iPad model, and have been since at least iOS 4 (which is ran on the first iOS device I used and, thus, as far back as I can confirm).
And what about the additional RAM requirements? Does the IPA have enough for full split-screening, and having two active Apps at one time?
Considering that iOS doesn't drop backgrounded apps from RAM, it just pauses their execution, I'm going to say yes. Especially given that Android has been able to support multiple simultaneous applications since the days when 256MB was high-end. If the IPA can't manage that in 1GB, perhaps Apple's engineering team isn't as great as we all want to believe.
Bottom line, it's either incompetence or planned-obsolescence. My friends at Apple prefer to think it is not incompetence, and so do I.
So, out of your curiously overlapping models (why do you feel the need to upgrade virtually EVERY cycle?)
There was a 3Gs between the 3G and 4, a 4s between the 4 and 5, and a a 5s between the 5 and 6+. Beyond that, these have been my wife's phones and not mine; and they were upgraded because they each started having battery, screen, or button issues just as their warranties expired. As for the iPads, there were a number of them released between the first gen and the Air, were there not? I gave my wife the Air when I bought the Air 2. I don't think it unreasonable for two people to have two iPads.
why do you spend so much time bashing them
There is a huge difference between bashing and dissent. I voice my dissent in the hope that the company will hear my voice and course-correct before I have to find an alternate platform. Should I just sit on my hands and watch the company slowly alienate me as a customer?
Something doesn't add up.
Indeed, I can't figure out why you follow me around on here to try and start arguments.
For example, all it takes is one array expansion and what SEEMS like it ought to be fine, ends up crashing repeatedly on 90% of last-year's model. 5% just ain't worth it for an OEM.
On one hand, the OEM doesn't have to maintain the store; Google does. On the other hand, maybe Google gives up 10%. And remember, that's of the purchase price of the apps, not of Google's 30%.
And then there's the Carriers... Where's their incentive?
Ask Google, Apple, and Microsoft how they get their updates approved. I'm sure that will work for the OEMs, as well. I mean, it must be working for the OEMs, as well; though they are few and far between, non-Nexus Android updates do exist in the wild.
Also, why does it seem that every time I post in an Android or iOS discussion, you come along and comment? You must like me.
Oh, in case you missed it, I gave Apple and Google both the same pass on features requiring actual hardware (e.g. NFC and fingerprint scanners).
Right. That's why they released an iOS update specifically for the FIRST GENERATION iPad in May, 2014
A quick bit of fact checking (e.g. firing up my first gen iPad and checking) reveals this as complete and utter bullshit.
You don't know if the GPU built into the processor in your IPA is capable of supporting two GraphPorts.
Actually, that's how app sidebarring (I'm not sure what the official name is) works, and the IPA does this just fine.
I would suspect that is NOT the case; because the REGISTERS are simply not there to stuff with the begin/end coordinates, etc. Prove me wrong.
I think I just did. And I would certainly hope this was supported, as the Motorola Atrix I owned back in 2011 (256MB of RAM, sub-gHz dual-core 32-bit CPU) was able to function as a laptop (it had a dock which included a display, keyboard, trackpad, USB hub, and extended battery) while still also functioning as a phone; e.g. dual display and multi-application. At the quite underpowered (by today's standards) Atrix could to it, and quite well, I'd hope the IPA released in 2013 with 4x as much RAM and a 64-bit CPU clocked almost twice as fast (on top of having a larger instruction set) and with a much more powerful GPU could handle it.
Same thing with Siri. Apple's implementation of Siri (as opposed to the generic App) obviously was changed to leverage custom HARDWARE in the SoC that simply didn't exist pre-iPhone 4s
But the software implementation still worked, just a bit slower. Why kill it?
(which, curiously enough, is the same excuse you allow for Google and Nexus).
Yes and it is a perfectly valid reason not to enable a feature that actually required hardware, like NFC or fingerprint scanning. If you can write software to add support for those features to devices lacking the hardware to support them, I suggest you patent that shit ASAP.
Why is it that you allow for the "insufficient hardware resources" excuse for Google and Nexus; but not for Apple and iOS Devices?
Did I say anything about lack of support for Apple Pay on phones older than the iPhone 6? No. Want to venture a guess as to why? Let me help you understand: the NFC hardware doesn't exist in those phones, so it makes sense not to include the feature that requires it. Same for fingerprint scanning and the iPhone 5 and older. Not so for Siri, for which a working and supported software implementation was not only possible, but existed for a full year before Apple took it away.
You have absolutely no insider knowledge that could prove otherwise; so, until then, STFU.
Unless you are implying that iPhones suddenly became incapable of running software that they had been able to run for a full year before Apple nixed the app (when they released Siri as a feature in the 4s), I'm not sure what insider knowledge I might need in order to be able to call Apple out on that. Likewise, unless you are implying that the second most recent iPad model contains less capable hardware than an Android phone several generations old and more than twice its age, I'm not sure what insider knowledge is necessary to debunk Apple's omission of splitscreening on the iPad Air.
To take it even farther, I live in the bay area, less than 90 minutes from 1 Infinite Loop, and actually have friends working at Apple, in real life and not just on the intertubes. They don't argue with my assessment, or try to defend their employer's actions; on the contrary, they confirm that it is technically possible and that I am correct. And yes, one of them works on iPad hardware and the other works on iOS. Is that insider enough for you?
My experience differs from the realoty you are implying. Mind you, that is largely colored by the original iPad (which I still have) and the iPhone 3G, as those are the first iOS devices I actually used for any length of time. The iPhone 4 and 5 were my wife's and the 6+ (also my wife's) and both iPad Air models are still sold by Apple.
That is the first viable soluion I've heard to the problem. Good on you for coming up with it; I'm guessing you're the first person to respond to one of my comments on the topic who isn't an Apple or MS (eesh) fanboi.
Ma'm (and please correct me if my gender assumption is incorrect), it is refreshing to once again see intelligent discussion on Slashdot and, for that, I thank you. It's a pity that you'll probably be moderated into oblivion for it.
And so does Google. Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola, and the rest of the Android coat-tail-riders just want to sell hardware, so they have no interest in keeping their devices up to date; Google, on the other hand, wants their platform in as many hands as possible, so they have an interest in doing it right. They need to crack down on their OEM partners, but the reality is that the OEMs and carriers screw up Android so bad that the only way to get a decent experience is to buy a Nexus, anyway, so I don't really care if that ever happens. As long as the Nexus line is around, I'll be happy. Eventually, people will wise up and stop buying devices with shitty support; it might take a few widespread hacks of Android devices with reports of "up-to-date Nexus devices not affected", but it will happen. People will stop buying non-Nexus Android devices, at least enough that the OEMs will be forced to stop cramming shit down their throats.
Or not. Maybe people will never learn. Either way, the Nexus line exists and Google does a very good job at keeping it updated.
And that addresses the first and third issues (being a temporary solution and the eventuality that we will find a viable use for this material) how, exactly? Two out of three ain't bad, but you, sir, only even tried for one. And you failed at that, as well; sand and sealife will erode the Teflon layer on short order.
Google's Nexus line is actually what I was referring to. I apologize for only stating that four times in my comment.
I do agree that Google should crack down on their OEM partners' shoddy support, but that does not take away from the Nexus line. Honestly, though, vanilla Android provides a better experience not just in my opinion, but also in the opinions of people who've compared my Nexus 6 to their Android device; given that, even if the OEM partners shaped up their support game, unless they did so by shipping vanilla Android (which would allow Google to support the devices directly, anyway), I (and for future purchases, those who've gotten to play with my Nexus 6 next to their various devices) will be sticking to the Nexus line. From that perspective, no other line of Android devices even comes close to being relevant.
We work closely with our carrier partners, and encourage them to test our software as swiftly as possible. But it’s still their network, and the reality is that some carriers require more time than others. By the way, this carrier testing is a common industry practice that all of our competitors must also undergo. No exceptions.
Only temporarily sustainable. Eventually, it will reduce land mass and raise ocean levels (maybe hundreds or thousands of years, but eventually). Beyond that, it's a horrible solution because seawater will eat through the containers and become contaminated.
There are plenty of places we can store the shit until we figure out a use for it; and there are surely plenty of uses for it we simply haven't thought up a way to market yet.