Chinese KitKat

[E.S. Rosenberg]

2014/1/6 geoffrey mendelson <geoffreymendelson at gmail.com>:
> On 1/6/2014 2:26 AM, Oleg Goldshmidt wrote:
>>
>> Sounds a bit harsh. A device cannot possibly become less useful with
>> time than it was when you bought it (barring a HW malfunction). If it
>> did then what it says on the tin it will still do it now, won't it?
>> Without any new software...
If you're willing to use a device with outdated software containing
known dangerous vulnerabilities, it almost like running an unpatched
version of Windows then what you say is correct.
>
>
> Eventually apps stop working.  Android is based on the idea that you buy an
> app from someone, and it automatically updates when new versions come out.
> Even apps that cost $0.00 (free).  So an app developer can be reasonably
> sure that if he changes the protocol in version 1.3 that by version 1.5 he
> can drop the old protocol.
>
> Since most apps connect to a server for something, whether it be
> authentication, information shared or received or both, and so on, they just
> start to die of old age. The answer is to update them. And there lies the
> rub.
>
> For example, the big releases of Android were 2 and 4. Android 3, does not
> seem to exist in the wild as it were. I am sure it did at one time, and
> there were major changes between Android 2 and 3. So all Android 2 devices,
> almost all 2 year old cell phones, can no longer buy or update an app.
Android 3 was tablet only, there are very few devices (motorola xoom
is one) that run/ran it since the source was only released after
Android 4 was released to prevent 3rd parties trying to stick it on a
phone.
Android 4 re-unified Androids 2 and 3.
>
> I laugh every time I see someone selling an Android 2 phone. The price they
> are asking will get you a similar set of hardware running Android 4 brand
> new. It also comes with a brand new battery, and since these phones need to
> be charged daily, a two year old phone has a battery with about 700 charge
> cycles on it, which means it may need to be replaced or if not now, soon.
>
> No manufacturer is updating their Android 2 phones to Android 4, however
> most Android 4.1/4.2 phones (Jellybean) are giving their owns the option to
> update to 4.4 (KitKat).
There are some Android 2 phones that can be taken to 4 or the latest
CM, but they are few in number.
One of the big things of KitKat was lowering system requierments which
should enable more older phones to upgrade to stock KitKat.
>
> So yes, the phones become less useful, and eventually no use at all.
Depends on the OS and it's support but yes... (my n900 still has great
support and if it wasn't falling apart as a result of severe abuse
would still be using it, but that's also a much more open system,
we'll see what happens with the Jolla now)

Regards,
Eliyahu - אליהו
>
>
>
> Geoff.
>
> --
> Geoffrey S. Mendelson 4X1GM/N3OWJ
> Jerusalem Israel.
>
>
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