Xoom
Dear Google
On behalf of Motorla Xoom users outside the USA, when can we expect and update to Ice Cream Sandwich (from Honeycomb)?
Looks like I'll be asking about an update from ICS to Jelly Bean in about a year.
Google shakes up Android Jelly Bean to fend off malware meanies
Android Jelly Bean 4.1 promises to be more secure than previous versions of the Google's mobile OS. The big news is that the software now properly implements Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), a technique designed to make malware-based attacks more difficult. The latest Jelly Bean iteration was released to select …
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Saturday 21st July 2012 11:29 GMT MikeS
Re: Xoom
moto's support outside the US has been abysmal.
however if you have the wifi zoom theres good news, just download a US rom from the motorola web site and you turn it into a 'google-experience-device' you will get an immediate update to ICS, and Jellybean when thats released in a couple of weeks.
If you have the 3g zoom, download the Telefonica rom (from motorola developer web site) and you will get the update to ICS.
it is very easy to do and means you are running an officlal rom (rather than one of the many custom roms also available)
take a look at the forums on xdadevelopers (or just google)
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Saturday 21st July 2012 14:50 GMT Peter Johnstone
Re: Xoom
Couldn't agree more.
According to this: https://forums.motorola.com/pages/00add97d6c, The ICS upgrade is still planned for quarter 2 of 2012 and now most of July is gone. Note that this document was updated on the 2nd of July!
Fail icon as it describes motorola's international support, not a comment on the above posts both of which I've up voted.
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Saturday 21st July 2012 14:35 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Compare and contrast
"Umm, why do you think your handset costs 500 hundred quid ? Think that's all parts ?"
Try the manufacturing process, parts, patent lawsuits and if it's a Google experience device, the Android license fee for the use of the Google apps (Play Store, Maps etc.) and Andriod name.
Android itself is free. Any manufacturer can download the source and build it themselves if they want. Of course there is always associated cost in adapting it to the device hardware but the manufacturers don't have to pay Google a penny if they choose not to.
Samsung etc. have their own dev's working on TouchWiz which of course will also be added into the cost of those devices.
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Tuesday 24th July 2012 09:29 GMT The Baron
Re: Yes
> Its just another wank decision adopted by the great unwashed.
I think it's a very good convention. Widely established, easy to learn, simple to use, and effective on any plain text system.
Back in the days of BBS, after lower case arrived but before bold, italics, and underlining, people started writing words in all-caps when they wanted to emphasise a point, WHICH WAS USUALLY WHEN THEY GOT ANGRY AND REALLY WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT EVERYBODY PAID ATTENTION!
Since the analogous behaviour to this in spoken conversation is shouting, it was an easy and logical decision to adopt the convention that all-caps = shouting. There is an intuitive correlation between bigger letters, higher volume, and greater importance - at least in the mind of the originator.
> When I shout, I do not do so using capital letters!
And, no doubt, when you emphasise words whilst talking, you do not do so using bold or italic letters. I don't see the relevance of this point, unless you are suggesting that writing should be a direct and exact representation of the sounds of speech, in which case presumably we should also do away with formatting, punctuation, cases and so forth, and perhaps just move to drawing waveforms?
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Saturday 21st July 2012 05:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
Wow - new walls around a merengue foundation..
I'm so glad they implemented ASLR - now if they could only start screening those apps so people wouldn't just INSTALL malware instead of being vulnerable to drive-by infections i would start to make a difference. But that would close the door for Google's own data sucking,no? (why else do you think 75% of Android only works after they have account details of you? That creates legal cover through you accepting their T&Cs).
So yes, it's very Microsoft compatible: promises, just promises.
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Saturday 21st July 2012 05:22 GMT heyrick
Half-assed attempt, if you ask me.
Let us have some statistics: 1. Proportion of users affected by malware attacking the system, the issue ASLR is intended to fix; vs 2. Proportion of users affected by being tricked into accepting/installing dodgy apps because Android's permission system is shit and doesn't allow you to overrule the app's desire for "services which may cost you money".
Perhaps Google ought to be held liable for every unwanted SMS send, every call to premium rate numbers by malicious apps, and every theft of account/contact details...until they understand that these things NEED to be user options (and screw what the app thinks it needs), you the user need to have the ability to say "no" to these sorts of requests.
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Sunday 22nd July 2012 22:23 GMT PyLETS
Re: Half-assed attempt, if you ask me.
you the user need to have the ability to say "no" to these sorts of requests
On Android you already have the ability to say no, but the app then has the ability to decline to install. What's needed is the ability to have an app think it has your location, but you the user can provide it with the location you want it to have. Or the app thinks it has the ability to send SMS, but these SMSs go to /dev/null and cost you nothing. Alternatively you should be able to force installation regardless, and take whatever functionality of the application is broken as a consequence. If your phone can run Cyanogen mod, you might want to consider this as an option.
Also the permissions model probably isn't fine grained enough, and there is no obligation for the app to state why it wants you to grant it a particular permission. It isn't possible to make an informed security decision unless you know _why_ the app requests a particular permission.
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Monday 23rd July 2012 02:23 GMT heyrick
Re: Half-assed attempt, if you ask me.
"On Android you already have the ability to say no, but the app then has the ability to decline to install."
In my understanding, that is not how it works.
The installer program says "app wants this" and you say yes or no. If you say yes, it will install. If you say no, it is not installed. The app itself declines nothing. So no, the ability to say no is weighed against having or not having the app; it is a decision with coercion.
As to the rest of your post... yes. There ought to be either a "tough crap, it might not work" option or a "faker" module that supplies bogus data to an app, puts texts to /dev/null and so on. You know, it is amazing how an app that wants my location and full internet access is able to continue without problems when in airplane mode!
The permissions model definitely isn't fine-grained enough when we have things such as phone state (okay) being lumped together with phone identity (not okay!). Programs can set themselves up to start at boot and you can't turn this off (doubly-so with manufacturer forced bloatware that you can't even uninstall).
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
