Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab Won't Get Android 4.0 333
bonch writes "Samsung has announced that the Galaxy S smartphone, which sold 10 million last year, and the Galaxy Tab tablet won't be receiving the Android 4.0 update, known as 'Ice Cream Sandwich.' Samsung claims the devices lack enough RAM and ROM to run Android 4.0 alongside TouchWiz and other custom 'experience-enhancing' software. Note that the Galaxy S runs the same hardware as the Nexus S, which is already receiving the Android 4.0 update."
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Informative)
there already IS an unnofficial port, im running a beta of it right now and it's miles ahead of what samsung is providing.
no random crash, or reboot, the status bar doesn't get stuck on top and i can actually answer every calls i receive (unlike the samsung rom which would make the touchscreen totally unresponsive about 25% of the time). to top it off, my battery lasts around 2-3 days instead of the 18 hours i was getting
Galaxy S was released in June 2010 (Score:4, Informative)
Galaxy S was released in 2010, iPhone 3G in 2008 (Score:4, Informative)
Already exists (Score:5, Informative)
Get yours here [theandroidsoul.com]. I'm sure there are others, but this is the one I found first.
Re:Galaxy S i9000 Got Two Full OS updates (Score:5, Informative)
But on the whole support by Android devices of new version of the software is atrocious [theunderstatement.com] :
"7 of the 18 Android phones never ran a current version of the OS.
12 of 18 only ran a current version of the OS for a matter of weeks or less.
10 of 18 were at least two major versions behind well within their two year contract period.
11 of 18 stopped getting any support updates less than a year after release.
13 of 18 stopped getting any support updates before they even stopped selling the device or very shortly thereafter.
15 of 18 don’t run Gingerbread, which shipped in December 2010.
In a few weeks, when Ice Cream Sandwich comes out, every device on here will be another major version behind.
At least 16 of 18 will almost certainly never get Ice Cream Sandwich."
Re:Galaxy S i9000 Got Two Full OS updates (Score:4, Informative)
But many of them will still get security fixes and bug fixes for the version of the OS they are on. Verizon just a few weeks ago released a bugfix update for the original droid.
This is like complaining that your Vista PC is one major version behind, when it is still getting updates and is still useful.
I avoid this on my phone and my computers by running FREE software.
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:4, Informative)
Look at this chart [theunderstatement.com], tiny bit longer doesn't quite cover it. Though of course for some this will be a completely acceptable trade-off it'd be better if most people were on a recent version of the OS just from the security standpoint [cnet.com]. We've already seen with Windows XP what having a large group of outdated computers on a public network does and it's not pretty.
Re:No *official* port. (Score:4, Informative)
Android is open source. Google is in no position to demand anyone does anything.
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Informative)
To use the trademarks and get access to the market you need Google's blessing. They can easily demand stuff like this.
Re:Galaxy S i9000 Got Two Full OS updates (Score:1, Informative)
The PURE Samsung Galaxy S got Gingerbread. As a Samsung Vibrant owner (T-mobile variant of the Galaxy S) I have only Froyo and at this point I feel lucky to have gotten that much.
I'd gladly give up Touchwiz to have a longer useful lifespan. Developers won't support Froyo forever. Hell, I wouldn't mind a new version of Froyo that has working GPS. I never saw all these issues when I was researching which phone to get.
Seeing the horrendous support for this flagship phone has made me seriously question ever getting a Samsung phone ever again. Buyer beware.
Re:That's a big reason why I don't buy Android (Score:2, Informative)
Siri is beta and was once available on the older devices before it was picked up by Apple. Once it is out of beta Apple may very well open it up to iPhone 4 users. There is no technical reason why they can't do it. The beta is allowing them to scale their server side up with 4S owners before a wider release.
Re:No *official* port. (Score:5, Informative)
xda-developers forums.
If you have previously flashed a rom with clockwork recovery then it's as easy as doing a factory restore and then installing a zip file.
If you haven't previously flashed a third party rom then you have a lot of reading to do on those forums.
Re:No *official* port. (Score:3, Informative)
Because you obviously don't understand the point of Android. Only reason Android was developed was Google was deathly afraid that Apple would cut them out of iOS and therefore, cut them out of big mobile space share. Google is about selling ads to consumers and generating data on said consumers to generate better targeted Ads so they can charge advertising premium. As long as hardware manf continue to put Google Services on their phones and not HORRIBLY screw up the experience, Google could care less about TouchWiz/Sense/Motoblur. They will start to care when users start to leave Android and point to poor user experience as reason for doing so. That doesn't appear to be happening looking at market share numbers.