Wait I got this. In the past Android prevented few installs of PHA and now this last year they prevented 10 million installs. That is very high rate of growth, if you extrapolate that rate of growth out over a forever timeline then Android will eventually be blocking an infinite amount of PHA, so essentially they have already won this race. Look I am not dissing Apple and propping up Android with strawman arguments; Apple can’t top infinity exponential growth, that’s science.
I think you need to read up on the both the concepts of infinity AND exponential growth.
I think you need to read up on both Monty Python AND George Carlin.
Yet we don’t hear much about Android users getting pwned do we? When have we heard about a WannaCry style attack on Android users that resulted in carnage? Plenty of reports about this or that vulnerability that could result in such an attack but nothing major has actually happened. Look, I’m a rabid iOS fanboy but even I can understand that a lot of this security and vulnerability FUD about Android just hasn’t happened... yet. Same goes for iOS.
Right... IOS fanboy, you're fracking no such thing buddy, 70% of fracking Android versions I can "hack" (not really hack, it's so damn easy) in my sleep, but hey, no apocalypse... Why, because no one who gives a shit about security owns anything Android. Hard to complain when you don't give a shit.
Do you get the god damn FBI constantly complaining about Android security.. No, because there is none.
The crooks know it, the cops know it, the businessmen who wants their shit not leaked know it, etc , etc.
When you put a sign saying kick me on your back, you don't complain when you get kicked. Maybe Android users are in fact lucid and simply don't give a crap about the insecurity of the platform and have in fact ready to accept that : good for them... If they did this choice with a clear mind.
I think you misunderstood my comment. I never claimed to be an IOS fanboy. The part of the comment that I copied and pasted from the previous AI article was made by lkrupp himself. In that comment, he was the one who questioned whether security issues in Android are blown out of proportion. Hope this clarifies.
@DanielEran Yes you alluded to it: "What that really indicates is that Google's "Pure Android" Pixel vision of what an Android phone could be--secured and regularly patched by a vendor who cares about its security reputation--is not representative of the other 2 billion Androids that are in actual use around the world." What's amazingly silly in your response to me is that I parroted the exact same thing you said using different but very similar phrasing and you want to argue with it?
Anyway your saying "bad" multiple times does not make it so any more than all the fear and trepidation that some authors promoted with scare stories about WannaCry, and Stagefright and Quadrooter and probably a handful of other horrible Android exploits destined to infect every Android handset that in truth affected no one at all (Stagefright) to very, very, VERY few (Quadrooter).
And yes I stand by my claim that you don't truly understand what Treble is since there is not "engineering" of old already manufactured hardware that could make it compatible, or you do already understand why old hardware is incompatible but it just doesn't fit with your strategy to admit to it. As I think you're probably a basically honest person I'll go with the former.
Now as for the effectiveness of Treble? I'm not convinced it will be any more successful than some of their previous efforts at "encouraging" partners to better support their users, and they've come up with a plethora of failed ways so far. Don't mix the failure of OEM's to push out updates with the relative security of Android the OS. Those are two separate issues (as I have zero doubt you understand) even if related.
...we all know you have nothing better to do with your time than to come and twist reality in any way, shape or form that is possible to put Android into a better light than the steaming pile of shit it actually is...
Stagefright and Quadrooter were almost impossible to detect by most of the useless A/V apps for Android, and most of the time they'd just cause the device to crash anyway, so people just relate the crash to a bad device and MOST don't even realize they got hacked, so please save us the bullshit that this doesn't really affect anyone!
I'm so sick of your Google PR bullshit, and am stunned how this site allows you to continue spreading all the BS and lies you spew out ...
If it was lies they wouldn't, and if it was lies you should easily find facts to dispute stuff I post instead of having nothing more than ad-homs and vulgarities to lob in my direction. Anyone could do what you did, it requires no thought at all. Heck, my 16 17-year old nephew is great at it.
...but if you can find evidence of a single instance of Stagefright infecting any Google Android device in the wild I'll be the first to tell you I was wrong, instead of you are wrong. Should I wait for evidence that you weren't the one writing BS?
Unlike you, who seems to have PLENTY of time to come up with pro-Android FUD, some of us have lives and careers to tend to outside of Internet discussion forums and blogs, and being a IT professional for 24+ years, I know a thing or two more about most platforms, especially Android, than the average Joe, and what Google, and PR puppets like you, would like us to believe about their products.
I can demonstrate Stagefright on almost any device that comes to my bench for repairs on a whim, and on some occasions, have done so to smug Android users who were trying to push the FUD on me, and they quickly wiped their smugness off their faces once they realized just how full of shit their stance was, and how insecure their Android device is.
I don't need to prove myself to you of all people, Mr. Google. I have better things to do with my time.
However, I will gladly hack any Android device as proof-of-concept live on video, if anyone is willing to donate one to me for demonstration purposes, as Google, nor any of their OEM's, will ever get a single penny from me to buy a Android device just to demo to smug people like you how easily they can be hacked.
Created account to post here. Long long time Apple user, never had an Android, only bought 1 PC in my life (for work at a time Bootcamp was impossible). Am a developer and do create products for Android.
One thing Google is doing really well is Chrome updates, on all platforms, by default and without even having to ask for updates. If and when there is an update, It gets rolled out. Internal engine for HTML gets pushed all the time, any time, without reboot or even asking. Your Chrome is latest version, or penultimate. And it will be latest next time it can close a window.
This is the same for most Google-provided applications and services, and it doesn’t stop after 5 years. It’s ubiquitous and simply gets updated.
Obviously, not all phones have default browsers, no internal major version OS updates for core OS services, especially not vendor-specific, but a great lot of the outside contact points are being automatically patched out.
This is also the single biggest request I got from Apple, to actually support that. My kids have the previous gen iPads (3, Mini 3), I’ve had an iPad 1 for years without software update. At least keep on patching Safari, Mail, Security even if we’re not at latest official OS.
Similarly, I find it a blurry line between major version upgrade and minor version update. There are simply no more minor version upgrade once a newer major version is available. This leaves in the dark (and unpatched) millions of devices that cannot (or will not) upgrade. Maybe my company requres a x32 app to run and haven’t got a x64 version. But because once the mandatory latest major version is out, older users are left in the dark. Something Android users will simply not experience because of micro non-« wait for 30 minutes with a dead weight and a progress bar » updates.
In essence, I agree with the article and analysis as usual, but with a major caveat, which doesn’t seem to be addressed in the article: Android doesn’t care anymore on changing their OSes. You have a phone, it stays with the same core features, it zips as efficiently as 5 years ago (no bulky upgrade that has more features, true, but with a .0.0 version that’s much slower than the last upgrade) and it’s patched.
@DanielEran Yes you alluded to it: "What that really indicates is that Google's "Pure Android" Pixel vision of what an Android phone could be--secured and regularly patched by a vendor who cares about its security reputation--is not representative of the other 2 billion Androids that are in actual use around the world." What's amazingly silly in your response to me is that I parroted the exact same thing you said using different but very similar phrasing and you want to argue with it?
Anyway your saying "bad" multiple times does not make it so any more than all the fear and trepidation that some authors promoted with scare stories about WannaCry, and Stagefright and Quadrooter and probably a handful of other horrible Android exploits destined to infect every Android handset that in truth affected no one at all (Stagefright) to very, very, VERY few (Quadrooter).
And yes I stand by my claim that you don't truly understand what Treble is since there is not "engineering" of old already manufactured hardware that could make it compatible, or you do already understand why old hardware is incompatible but it just doesn't fit with your strategy to admit to it. As I think you're probably a basically honest person I'll go with the former.
Now as for the effectiveness of Treble? I'm not convinced it will be any more successful than some of their previous efforts at "encouraging" partners to better support their users, and they've come up with a plethora of failed ways so far. Don't mix the failure of OEM's to push out updates with the relative security of Android the OS. Those are two separate issues (as I have zero doubt you understand) even if related.
...we all know you have nothing better to do with your time than to come and twist reality in any way, shape or form that is possible to put Android into a better light than the steaming pile of shit it actually is...
Stagefright and Quadrooter were almost impossible to detect by most of the useless A/V apps for Android, and most of the time they'd just cause the device to crash anyway, so people just relate the crash to a bad device and MOST don't even realize they got hacked, so please save us the bullshit that this doesn't really affect anyone!
I'm so sick of your Google PR bullshit, and am stunned how this site allows you to continue spreading all the BS and lies you spew out ...
If it was lies they wouldn't, and if it was lies you should easily find facts to dispute stuff I post instead of having nothing more than ad-homs and vulgarities to lob in my direction. Anyone could do what you did, it requires no thought at all. Heck, my 16 17-year old nephew is great at it.
...but if you can find evidence of a single instance of Stagefright infecting any Google Android device in the wild I'll be the first to tell you I was wrong, instead of you are wrong. Should I wait for evidence that you weren't the one writing BS?
Unlike you, who seems to have PLENTY of time to come up with pro-Android FUD, some of us have lives and careers to tend to outside of Internet discussion forums and blogs, and being a IT professional for 24+ years, I know a thing or two more about most platforms, especially Android, than the average Joe, and what Google, and PR puppets like you, would like us to believe about their products.
I can demonstrate Stagefright on almost any device that comes to my bench for repairs on a whim, and on some occasions, have done so to smug Android users who were trying to push the FUD on me, and they quickly wiped their smugness off their faces once they realized just how full of shit their stance was, and how insecure their Android device is.
I don't need to prove myself to you of all people, Mr. Google. I have better things to do with my time.
However, I will gladly hack any Android device as proof-of-concept live on video, if anyone is willing to donate one to me for demonstration purposes, as Google, nor any of their OEM's, will ever get a single penny from me to buy a Android device just to demo to smug people like you how easily they can be hacked.
Hardly what I asked for. It seems you have zero evidence of any Android device in the wild ever being infected by Stagefright either. Thanks anyway tho.
Sad to say, this piece gave me a laugh. Sure, it’s almost impossible to update an Android OS. What these experts are saying now will be close to reality in a couple of years when the version under discussion will be the most common version out in the wild, although still not on even a majority of phones. And by then, I'm sure this version will be less secure than it is now because anyone interested in finding and exploiting flaws will have all that time to do so.
Created account to post here. Long long time Apple user, never had an Android, only bought 1 PC in my life (for work at a time Bootcamp was impossible). Am a developer and do create products for Android.
One thing Google is doing really well is Chrome updates, on all platforms, by default and without even having to ask for updates. If and when there is an update, It gets rolled out. Internal engine for HTML gets pushed all the time, any time, without reboot or even asking. Your Chrome is latest version, or penultimate. And it will be latest next time it can close a window.
This is the same for most Google-provided applications and services, and it doesn’t stop after 5 years. It’s ubiquitous and simply gets updated.
Obviously, not all phones have default browsers, no internal major version OS updates for core OS services, especially not vendor-specific, but a great lot of the outside contact points are being automatically patched out.
This is also the single biggest request I got from Apple, to actually support that. My kids have the previous gen iPads (3, Mini 3), I’ve had an iPad 1 for years without software update. At least keep on patching Safari, Mail, Security even if we’re not at latest official OS.
Similarly, I find it a blurry line between major version upgrade and minor version update. There are simply no more minor version upgrade once a newer major version is available. This leaves in the dark (and unpatched) millions of devices that cannot (or will not) upgrade. Maybe my company requres a x32 app to run and haven’t got a x64 version. But because once the mandatory latest major version is out, older users are left in the dark. Something Android users will simply not experience because of micro non-« wait for 30 minutes with a dead weight and a progress bar » updates.
In essence, I agree with the article and analysis as usual, but with a major caveat, which doesn’t seem to be addressed in the article: Android doesn’t care anymore on changing their OSes. You have a phone, it stays with the same core features, it zips as efficiently as 5 years ago (no bulky upgrade that has more features, true, but with a .0.0 version that’s much slower than the last upgrade) and it’s patched.
Yes the Android update problem isn't that Google doesn't want to issue updates; it already pushes out regular Android updates and has long been trying hard in various ways to get its licensees to roll out its patches and feature/framework updates to users.
The problem for Android is that Google doesn't control it. Google has lots of new code that will never make it to the 2B devices that run "Android." The largest barrier is hardware makers and mobile providers who don't see the benefit of distributing Google's OS updates because it requires effort on their end, with no clear payback.
Even Google has decided it's not worth it to update its own house-branded hardware. The last Nexus phones and Pixel C were barely 2 years old. Apple supports mobile hardware that's 4-5 years old, because allowing iOS to fragment like Android would mean that the addressable base for developers related to new technologies (like ARKit, or new Siri Intents, Maps support, iCloud features, etc) would shrink dramatically.
Google keeps telling everyone else to adopt and deploy its latest APIs because this is in the interest of Google. Yet even Google itself doesn't bother to do this because its few million Nexus users are a drop in the bucket compared to Android overall, and the work of getting them Android P would not help expand its ecosystem much at all. Even new Pixel hardware is doing very little. Initial analyst estimates called for 8-9 million Pixel phones over its first two years, but Google only managed to sell around 4.5. Samsung doesn't share Google's dire need to promote Assistant and Lens and other new APIs because it's trying to differentiate itself with Bixby and Bixby Vision, etc.
Google fans see Android as a collective force attacking Apple, but the reality is that Google and Samsung are working at cross purposes, and doing more damage to each other than they are to Apple. China is a third faction fighting both Google and Samsung. And Amazon is a fourth. They're all repressing the advantages of each other and blending into a commodity identity that is not valuable, even as Apple stands apart as secure, updated, leading in useful new tech and design, and privacy-centric.
Android has also been useful in helping to derail Windows Mobile from gaining any traction, something that also hurt Nokia, HTC, Samsung and anyone else that could have benefitted from a better alternative to Android.
Essentially, Android is like the Vietnamese, China and Russia all fighting over what it means to be Communist, while the West basked in unchallenged productivity and wealth. It was supposed to be a Cold War between the US and the Red Menace, but really the various communists all fought amongst themselves and allowed the west to achieve prosperity without much challenge. @gatorguy is our resident intellectual that keeps reminding us that Dear Android Leader has our interests in mind and that Androidism controls more of the world's soil, and it's only a matter of time until everyone decides to join the glorious revolution that promises to do all sorts of things it somehow doesn't seem to actually be able of achieving. Freedom!
Note the circular argument that Nexus is old hardware in 2 years so it "can't be updated" and we're all so dumb for not knowing why. Yet somehow Apple manages to keep its phones up to date for twice as many years, even across major changes in CPU architecture, different GPUs, different modem vendors etc.
Apple currently supports 8 major iPhone models sold since 2013 and 10 iPad models. But Google's flexible, modular and now Really Modular OS can't support more than 4 of its phones and 0 of its tablets, because ["we're all too stupid to even know why"].
Created account to post here. Long long time Apple user, never had an Android, only bought 1 PC in my life (for work at a time Bootcamp was impossible). Am a developer and do create products for Android.
One thing Google is doing really well is Chrome updates, on all platforms, by default and without even having to ask for updates. If and when there is an update, It gets rolled out. Internal engine for HTML gets pushed all the time, any time, without reboot or even asking. Your Chrome is latest version, or penultimate. And it will be latest next time it can close a window.
This is the same for most Google-provided applications and services, and it doesn’t stop after 5 years. It’s ubiquitous and simply gets updated.
Obviously, not all phones have default browsers, no internal major version OS updates for core OS services, especially not vendor-specific, but a great lot of the outside contact points are being automatically patched out.
This is also the single biggest request I got from Apple, to actually support that. My kids have the previous gen iPads (3, Mini 3), I’ve had an iPad 1 for years without software update. At least keep on patching Safari, Mail, Security even if we’re not at latest official OS.
Similarly, I find it a blurry line between major version upgrade and minor version update. There are simply no more minor version upgrade once a newer major version is available. This leaves in the dark (and unpatched) millions of devices that cannot (or will not) upgrade. Maybe my company requres a x32 app to run and haven’t got a x64 version. But because once the mandatory latest major version is out, older users are left in the dark. Something Android users will simply not experience because of micro non-« wait for 30 minutes with a dead weight and a progress bar » updates.
In essence, I agree with the article and analysis as usual, but with a major caveat, which doesn’t seem to be addressed in the article: Android doesn’t care anymore on changing their OSes. You have a phone, it stays with the same core features, it zips as efficiently as 5 years ago (no bulky upgrade that has more features, true, but with a .0.0 version that’s much slower than the last upgrade) and it’s patched.
Google fans see Android as a collective force attacking Apple
What?? You may find a few hardcore and heavily biased fans with juvenile-like tendencies on a few web blogs who go far over the top (on both sides) but as a whole I think most Android users have a positive impression of Apple. Heck, go to some of the major Android fan sites like Android Central and Android Police and you'd find that there's a whole lotta techies and even editors with both iOS and Android devices, and giving Apple props for features and integration is commonplace. They didn't choose to buy an Android device because they have some burning irrational hate of Apple. They actually praise them when it's deserved.
The "hate" and attacks are mostly in the imagination IMHO, most evident on the only the hardest core fan sites.
Created account to post here. Long long time Apple user, never had an Android, only bought 1 PC in my life (for work at a time Bootcamp was impossible). Am a developer and do create products for Android.
One thing Google is doing really well is Chrome updates, on all platforms, by default and without even having to ask for updates. If and when there is an update, It gets rolled out. Internal engine for HTML gets pushed all the time, any time, without reboot or even asking. Your Chrome is latest version, or penultimate. And it will be latest next time it can close a window.
This is the same for most Google-provided applications and services, and it doesn’t stop after 5 years. It’s ubiquitous and simply gets updated.
Obviously, not all phones have default browsers, no internal major version OS updates for core OS services, especially not vendor-specific, but a great lot of the outside contact points are being automatically patched out.
This is also the single biggest request I got from Apple, to actually support that. My kids have the previous gen iPads (3, Mini 3), I’ve had an iPad 1 for years without software update. At least keep on patching Safari, Mail, Security even if we’re not at latest official OS.
Similarly, I find it a blurry line between major version upgrade and minor version update. There are simply no more minor version upgrade once a newer major version is available. This leaves in the dark (and unpatched) millions of devices that cannot (or will not) upgrade. Maybe my company requres a x32 app to run and haven’t got a x64 version. But because once the mandatory latest major version is out, older users are left in the dark. Something Android users will simply not experience because of micro non-« wait for 30 minutes with a dead weight and a progress bar » updates.
In essence, I agree with the article and analysis as usual, but with a major caveat, which doesn’t seem to be addressed in the article: Android doesn’t care anymore on changing their OSes. You have a phone, it stays with the same core features, it zips as efficiently as 5 years ago (no bulky upgrade that has more features, true, but with a .0.0 version that’s much slower than the last upgrade) and it’s patched.
@gatorguy is our resident intellectual that keeps reminding us that Dear Android Leader has our interests in mind and that Androidism controls more of the world's soil, and it's only a matter of time until everyone decides to join the glorious revolution that promises to do all sorts of things it somehow doesn't seem to actually be able of achieving. Freedom!
Well I don't ever mention Android vs. Apple market-share, or ever predict Apple's demise, or suggest Apple users should really consider being Android users, so the gist of that bit of your little personal attention getter was more than a bit off-base IMHO. No biggie to me since I'm completely comfortable with both the honesty and accuracy of what I DO post here and silly insults are just that. But I certainly appreciate that you consider me an intellectual. Personally I've never thought of myself as one.
"Android is like Windows without any adults running things."
Not really. The beauty of Android is that one can fix all problems themselves by gaining a little knowledge, and then root privelege.
Don't like the security? Install your own encryption method(s) that stymie brute-force attacks with the best of them.
Don't like the OS? Install a different ROM/ Kernel. Or go back to the stock/ original OS.
Malware? Due to poor internet/ app choices and the lack of a system level firewall. I've never gotten malware in rooted Android.
Don't like the data mining? Change cellular DNS servers, Remove many of the analytic/ logging services from the device.
I find Android to be quite reliable, feature laden, and always transparent to use (No operating flaws) no matter what the the rooted Android device. It's open-source nature helps with making my device secure and miserly with data while running the best sec-apps Apple would never allow. And that's okay.
The techy side of me could never pay $1,000 for a coomputer lacking full admin rights.
Created account to post here. Long long time Apple user, never had an Android, only bought 1 PC in my life (for work at a time Bootcamp was impossible). Am a developer and do create products for Android.
[snip]
Yes the Android update problem isn't that Google doesn't want to issue updates; it already pushes out regular Android updates and has long been trying hard in various ways to get its licensees to roll out its patches and feature/framework updates to users.
The problem for Android is that Google doesn't control it. Google has lots of new code that will never make it to the 2B devices that run "Android." The largest barrier is hardware makers and mobile providers who don't see the benefit of distributing Google's OS updates because it requires effort on their end, with no clear payback.
Even Google has decided it's not worth it to update its own house-branded hardware. The last Nexus phones and Pixel C were barely 2 years old. Apple supports mobile hardware that's 4-5 years old, because allowing iOS to fragment like Android would mean that the addressable base for developers related to new technologies (like ARKit, or new Siri Intents, Maps support, iCloud features, etc) would shrink dramatically.
Google keeps telling everyone else to adopt and deploy its latest APIs because this is in the interest of Google. Yet even Google itself doesn't bother to do this because its few million Nexus users are a drop in the bucket compared to Android overall, and the work of getting them Android P would not help expand its ecosystem much at all. Even new Pixel hardware is doing very little. Initial analyst estimates called for 8-9 million Pixel phones over its first two years, but Google only managed to sell around 4.5. Samsung doesn't share Google's dire need to promote Assistant and Lens and other new APIs because it's trying to differentiate itself with Bixby and Bixby Vision, etc.
Google fans see Android as a collective force attacking Apple, but the reality is that Google and Samsung are working at cross purposes, and doing more damage to each other than they are to Apple. China is a third faction fighting both Google and Samsung. And Amazon is a fourth. They're all repressing the advantages of each other and blending into a commodity identity that is not valuable, even as Apple stands apart as secure, updated, leading in useful new tech and design, and privacy-centric.
Android has also been useful in helping to derail Windows Mobile from gaining any traction, something that also hurt Nokia, HTC, Samsung and anyone else that could have benefitted from a better alternative to Android.
Essentially, Android is like the Vietnamese, China and Russia all fighting over what it means to be Communist, while the West basked in unchallenged productivity and wealth. It was supposed to be a Cold War between the US and the Red Menace, but really the various communists all fought amongst themselves and allowed the west to achieve prosperity without much challenge. @gatorguy is our resident intellectual that keeps reminding us that Dear Android Leader has our interests in mind and that Androidism controls more of the world's soil, and it's only a matter of time until everyone decides to join the glorious revolution that promises to do all sorts of things it somehow doesn't seem to actually be able of achieving. Freedom!
Note the circular argument that Nexus is old hardware in 2 years so it "can't be updated" and we're all so dumb for not knowing why. Yet somehow Apple manages to keep its phones up to date for twice as many years, even across major changes in CPU architecture, different GPUs, different modem vendors etc.
Apple currently supports 8 major iPhone models sold since 2013 and 10 iPad models. But Google's flexible, modular and now Really Modular OS can't support more than 4 of its phones and 0 of its tablets, because ["we're all too stupid to even know why"].
Sorry for not answering quicker, a cute little 5mo girl and work overload made me forget about the post. Thank you for answering!
We both agree on the Android part that is mostly being left not updated.
This reminds me of when I used to work building software for Symbian, Brew, J2ME and all these phones. Developing for "feature phones" would mean having dozens of copies of the same phones, one per carrier. All the carriers would expect us to use their own special APIs, have their logos on each app, and so on. And all the phones had totally different feature sets. If you had a phone that was 64x63 (sigh good old times) and another that was 64x64 (yep yepp), you would get failed if you kept a black bar on the bottom or top of the phone. So it was hell, plain and simple. And let's remember: no carrier would ever push a phone update. No phone company would ever push a phone update either, as every carrier had a different app and OS stack. Well, they would push it to the carrier, but they would not act upon it. Carriers would be on the lookout and putting all their energies on the next big thing, not last year's (relative) piece of junk.
Apple broke that: no carrier customization allowed! They do have a Mobile Service bundle that gets updated here and there, but that's the extent of it!
So in a sense, this is exactly the same thing, but with Google in for the phone company, and the phone company in for the carrier. Google is providing new OSes and updates, and patches, and they are being ignored by the phone companies, as they have a different app and OS stack. And the phone companies putting all their energies on the next big thing, not last year's (relative) piece of junk. That includes Google (Android Inc.) getting ignored by Google (Pixel Inc.).
We both agree on this whole-heartedly!
But remember that for the better or the worst, Chrome is yet another application in the Android Stores, and are subject to software updates. Apple's stance is to have one copy of WebKit being used everywhere in the phone, and you must wait and restart in order to get the latest one. However, like I wrote, everything is updated as much as the phone can handle the new versions of every individual application. So you might not have the latest patched Android, but at the very least, companies that take care of updating their s*** are getting updated, even if the phone is 5 years old. So the end point is getting patched. Again, this doesn't include "Phone-Company-Browser" which is a Chromium base with some extra customization, it doesn't include all the other copies of Chromium dangling around in every single app that didn't think it necessary to use the official version, there are many bad things here. And Grandma using her phone is probably using a debatably bad version of a browser. Not all perfect.
I would just wish Apple would allow security updates and minor feature updates to their vintage phones, through automated processes, like they have in the App Store, and stop treating Major OS update as a compulsory upgrade.
Comments
I can demonstrate Stagefright on almost any device that comes to my bench for repairs on a whim, and on some occasions, have done so to smug Android users who were trying to push the FUD on me, and they quickly wiped their smugness off their faces once they realized just how full of shit their stance was, and how insecure their Android device is.
I don't need to prove myself to you of all people, Mr. Google. I have better things to do with my time.
However, I will gladly hack any Android device as proof-of-concept live on video, if anyone is willing to donate one to me for demonstration purposes, as Google, nor any of their OEM's, will ever get a single penny from me to buy a Android device just to demo to smug people like you how easily they can be hacked.
One thing Google is doing really well is Chrome updates, on all platforms, by default and without even having to ask for updates. If and when there is an update, It gets rolled out. Internal engine for HTML gets pushed all the time, any time, without reboot or even asking. Your Chrome is latest version, or penultimate. And it will be latest next time it can close a window.
This is the same for most Google-provided applications and services, and it doesn’t stop after 5 years. It’s ubiquitous and simply gets updated.
Obviously, not all phones have default browsers, no internal major version OS updates for core OS services, especially not vendor-specific, but a great lot of the outside contact points are being automatically patched out.
This is also the single biggest request I got from Apple, to actually support that. My kids have the previous gen iPads (3, Mini 3), I’ve had an iPad 1 for years without software update. At least keep on patching Safari, Mail, Security even if we’re not at latest official OS.
Similarly, I find it a blurry line between major version upgrade and minor version update. There are simply no more minor version upgrade once a newer major version is available. This leaves in the dark (and unpatched) millions of devices that cannot (or will not) upgrade. Maybe my company requres a x32 app to run and haven’t got a x64 version. But because once the mandatory latest major version is out, older users are left in the dark. Something Android users will simply not experience because of micro non-« wait for 30 minutes with a dead weight and a progress bar » updates.
In essence, I agree with the article and analysis as usual, but with a major caveat, which doesn’t seem to be addressed in the article: Android doesn’t care anymore on changing their OSes. You have a phone, it stays with the same core features, it zips as efficiently as 5 years ago (no bulky upgrade that has more features, true, but with a .0.0 version that’s much slower than the last upgrade) and it’s patched.
Sure, it’s almost impossible to update an Android OS. What these experts are saying now will be close to reality in a couple of years when the version under discussion will be the most common version out in the wild, although still not on even a majority of phones. And by then, I'm sure this version will be less secure than it is now because anyone interested in finding and exploiting flaws will have all that time to do so.
The problem for Android is that Google doesn't control it. Google has lots of new code that will never make it to the 2B devices that run "Android." The largest barrier is hardware makers and mobile providers who don't see the benefit of distributing Google's OS updates because it requires effort on their end, with no clear payback.
Even Google has decided it's not worth it to update its own house-branded hardware. The last Nexus phones and Pixel C were barely 2 years old. Apple supports mobile hardware that's 4-5 years old, because allowing iOS to fragment like Android would mean that the addressable base for developers related to new technologies (like ARKit, or new Siri Intents, Maps support, iCloud features, etc) would shrink dramatically.
Google keeps telling everyone else to adopt and deploy its latest APIs because this is in the interest of Google. Yet even Google itself doesn't bother to do this because its few million Nexus users are a drop in the bucket compared to Android overall, and the work of getting them Android P would not help expand its ecosystem much at all. Even new Pixel hardware is doing very little. Initial analyst estimates called for 8-9 million Pixel phones over its first two years, but Google only managed to sell around 4.5. Samsung doesn't share Google's dire need to promote Assistant and Lens and other new APIs because it's trying to differentiate itself with Bixby and Bixby Vision, etc.
Google fans see Android as a collective force attacking Apple, but the reality is that Google and Samsung are working at cross purposes, and doing more damage to each other than they are to Apple. China is a third faction fighting both Google and Samsung. And Amazon is a fourth. They're all repressing the advantages of each other and blending into a commodity identity that is not valuable, even as Apple stands apart as secure, updated, leading in useful new tech and design, and privacy-centric.
Android has also been useful in helping to derail Windows Mobile from gaining any traction, something that also hurt Nokia, HTC, Samsung and anyone else that could have benefitted from a better alternative to Android.
Essentially, Android is like the Vietnamese, China and Russia all fighting over what it means to be Communist, while the West basked in unchallenged productivity and wealth. It was supposed to be a Cold War between the US and the Red Menace, but really the various communists all fought amongst themselves and allowed the west to achieve prosperity without much challenge. @gatorguy is our resident intellectual that keeps reminding us that Dear Android Leader has our interests in mind and that Androidism controls more of the world's soil, and it's only a matter of time until everyone decides to join the glorious revolution that promises to do all sorts of things it somehow doesn't seem to actually be able of achieving. Freedom!
Note the circular argument that Nexus is old hardware in 2 years so it "can't be updated" and we're all so dumb for not knowing why. Yet somehow Apple manages to keep its phones up to date for twice as many years, even across major changes in CPU architecture, different GPUs, different modem vendors etc.
Apple currently supports 8 major iPhone models sold since 2013 and 10 iPad models. But Google's flexible, modular and now Really Modular OS can't support more than 4 of its phones and 0 of its tablets, because ["we're all too stupid to even know why"].
The "hate" and attacks are mostly in the imagination IMHO, most evident on the only the hardest core fan sites.
We both agree on the Android part that is mostly being left not updated.
This reminds me of when I used to work building software for Symbian, Brew, J2ME and all these phones. Developing for "feature phones" would mean having dozens of copies of the same phones, one per carrier. All the carriers would expect us to use their own special APIs, have their logos on each app, and so on. And all the phones had totally different feature sets. If you had a phone that was 64x63 (sigh good old times) and another that was 64x64 (yep yepp), you would get failed if you kept a black bar on the bottom or top of the phone. So it was hell, plain and simple. And let's remember: no carrier would ever push a phone update. No phone company would ever push a phone update either, as every carrier had a different app and OS stack. Well, they would push it to the carrier, but they would not act upon it. Carriers would be on the lookout and putting all their energies on the next big thing, not last year's (relative) piece of junk.
Apple broke that: no carrier customization allowed! They do have a Mobile Service bundle that gets updated here and there, but that's the extent of it!
So in a sense, this is exactly the same thing, but with Google in for the phone company, and the phone company in for the carrier. Google is providing new OSes and updates, and patches, and they are being ignored by the phone companies, as they have a different app and OS stack. And the phone companies putting all their energies on the next big thing, not last year's (relative) piece of junk. That includes Google (Android Inc.) getting ignored by Google (Pixel Inc.).
We both agree on this whole-heartedly!
But remember that for the better or the worst, Chrome is yet another application in the Android Stores, and are subject to software updates. Apple's stance is to have one copy of WebKit being used everywhere in the phone, and you must wait and restart in order to get the latest one. However, like I wrote, everything is updated as much as the phone can handle the new versions of every individual application. So you might not have the latest patched Android, but at the very least, companies that take care of updating their s*** are getting updated, even if the phone is 5 years old. So the end point is getting patched. Again, this doesn't include "Phone-Company-Browser" which is a Chromium base with some extra customization, it doesn't include all the other copies of Chromium dangling around in every single app that didn't think it necessary to use the official version, there are many bad things here. And Grandma using her phone is probably using a debatably bad version of a browser. Not all perfect.
I would just wish Apple would allow security updates and minor feature updates to their vintage phones, through automated processes, like they have in the App Store, and stop treating Major OS update as a compulsory upgrade.