Google cursed its own phones with wacked Wi-Fi, say Nexus users The latest tweak to Android is fitting badly onto Google's own hardware, with the Nexus 4 reportedly fudging Wi-Fi, crashing out and refusing to run previously compatible applications. The first problem surfaced within days of the update being made public, with eager adopters complaining that their handsets had stopped …
Is marginally worse than just shouting and hoping someone will hear you.
It likes to randomly disconnect, without changing its status in the notifications. It likes to not send messages, keeping them for a while so as to better make you look like a prat when the same message fills the screen three times.
It likes to display other peoples' messages to you only when you actually check, defeating the whole point of notifications.
Trying to leave a conversation to go back to your list of conversations doesn't work. So you hit the back button, which does work, but that also can drop you to the homescreen, so you need to re-enter the application to enter any other conversation.
The new "tablet mode" is unusable on a tablet, assuming you like seeing what other people write to you. Or what you've written.
Not totally germane to the subject, but that application fills me with rage.
I'm a very infrequent Skype user but a video call I was making at the weekend crashed out (rebooted the phone) three times last Sunday.
Replying to Shirley's post as I remember joking with the other party that "I sense a conspiracy - like someone's pushing me to say 'next time let's use Hangouts!'" haha
(Big Brother because vague electronic communication theme)
Actually the Linux client is really quite nice.
They've done the minimum of work on it, so it's got a small, functional GUI and it has been running on my desktop for about 3 weeks now without a break.
I assume MS cut all funding for it so it'll eventually die due to some protocol change, but for now it's actually the best IM client I've got.
The Windows one is pretty dire though. Lots of cruft like glueing chat windows to the online list (which you can disable thankfully) and hiding who's online in group chats in some awful little hidden panel, which only holds 4 names per page and you can't order them.
Still better than the Android client though.
"I assume MS cut all funding for it so it'll eventually die due to some protocol change, but for now it's actually the best IM client I've got."
MSN got the cut and is supposedly being replaced by Skype.... Skype is being integrated into MS's Office365/Lync Online/Lync 2013 to provide non-Enterprise customers to easily connect to Enterprise voice/video/IM environments.
IMHO, Skype integration and MSN's shutdown is MS's attempt at one vendor to rule all of UC, the provided solution doesn't give me the warm fuzzies as someone who uses multiple OS's (equally badly I might add).
Are you sure you're holding it right?
My family's been running 4.3 of all our phones for a while now and Wi-Fi is working fine as is Bluetooth. Now, I did have to re-sync the bluetooth to the car but that was all - no big deal. If you want the latest and greatest then there are bound to be occasional issues - if this is a problem for you then go buy a phone running Gingerbread.
I wish they would just settle down on the camera app just a wee bit. I had just gotten used to 4.2's camera app UI and flipping between the front and back camera, only to find out that once AGAIN they have changed it in 4.3. OY!!! LEAVE THE DAMNED CAMERA ALONE GOOGLE!!!!
Going back to take my Prozzac now....
And iOS and OS X have large amounts of BSD amd Mach in them, which obviously means it's a research operating system upon which fuck all actually works unless you're a propellorhead who know how to install drivers courtesy of a dust free environment and a magnetised needle.
Errm. BSD, even Mach kernels, have been around for rather a long time, used in rather a lot of commercial and free UNIX releases, including realtime and high security platforms, with rather better, more mature ease of maintenance, many before Linux was even a gleam in someone's eye. But your description matches several Linux releases I have endured, some of which made Slackware look mature.
Anon as I get bored with the outraged screams of the blindly faithful.
Sheesh, someone's touchy.
Ain't got nuthin' against BSD. It's a research OS that gave the world a working network stack, for instance. However, it certainly falls into the category of "propellorhead OS". Which, according to the logic of the OP, means that OS X and iOS must also be propellorhead OSes.
Now you see?
See, that's why everybody needed the Ubuntu phone! You always need a full development system with your Linux distro installation.
git clone ....
make
make install
make clean
See? No compatibility issues at all! And if there is one, you have the source code right there to fix it yourself.
My problem with Android is that it does connect to known wifi networks, even when the wifi signal is rubbish and it would be better connecting to the cell network. For example, if I am outside the house in my car trying to set up the satnav to go somewhere, it just about detect my home wifi router, but there isn't enough of a signal to actually do anything. There is a perfectly decent HSDPA+ signal which is actually around about the same speed as my ADSL connection, but it won't use that unless I switch wifi off, and if I switch wifi off, it can't use my wifi and my neighbours' wifi to determine that I am located somewhere near home, and it instead takes ages to get a GPS or GLONASS location fix.
That's not an Android specific issue; I often have the same kind of trouble with my iPhone.
The worst is when I'm leaving the office and start to send an email right as the WiFi signal is at the edge of reception. I hit send, the WiFi goes out of range, and the f'ing thing will wait forever for the timeout error before switching over and resending my mail over the 3G connection. The timeout for TCP/IP must be set in the 1,000s of ms; probably a good idea for 3G/Edge but not so much for WiFi.
I'd leave WiFi off, but my office is in a lead-lined room (they used to do X-Ray crystallography in here) and we get next to no signal on a good day.
It's effectiveness is crap -
My Nexus 4 and 7 both randomly decide that it might be fun to suddenly disconnect from my Network with 5 bars of signal and re-connect to a friends over the road (and down a bit) with a whole 1 bar of signal.... It will then stay connected to the network until either it loses signal or I toggle WiFi off and on - in both cases it will immediately reconnect to my network.
However - this is NOT an Android 4.3 problem - I've had these problems since Android 2.2 - and I know I'm not alone.
As for random resets or other reported bugs with 4.3 - no thanks, my Nexus 4 and 7 are both perfectly happy on 4.3 not had a single problem with it (aside from the wifi one I just mentioned) -
In any case - you might have missed the news - but a bug fix for most reported problems is currently on it's way to all Nexus devices OTA
I'm apparently left out of all the "fun" - I've not had problems with bluetooth or wi-fi, and I'm on the latest 4.3 OTA update. I can use the Apple BT keyboard, or a couple ones branded "for Android" that I have, as well as one of the old laser type-on-the-desk ones so ancient I used it with my Palm.
But yeah, I agree with the sentiment to chill out on the camera UI.
I've got a Nexus 4 running 4.3, and I've had no problems at all. I installed 4.3 25 days ago with no crashes or reboots. Battery life seems better, and it seems to pick up marginal signals better when on the net. And Wi-Fi seems to work fine - I downloaded several 200+ MB files over Wi-Fi with no problems.
The wife doesn't have any problems with her Nexus 4, either.
After the update my Nexus 4 would randomly die and only power up if I held the power button down for 10 seconds to make it respond again. I had to go into a maintenance mode and clear out a cache partition to improve things. Since that it's been fine but it makes you wonder if Google was on the ball with this update.
Yep there is a problem and it has been there for a while.
Between the Nexus 4, Xoom and wifi connections. You can get them all to work! But not in an Apple claimed kind of way "It just works" (I will get the down votes for that comment)
You have to work out if the device wifi security works on 2GHz or 5Ghz best, you then have to step through the wifi security settings WPA, WPA2, open! Work out which combination works (Normally not the fasted or most secure) Then have to live with it! (Router setting changes may also be required, just to add the extra fun)
Other than that any idiot can get it to work. Doh!
No problems here either. Although I refuse to use Skype, so maybe I need to put that on if I want to bork my phone. Perhaps should add I don't install a lot of "apps" (hate that word - angry birds is a game for gawds sake, not an application).
I've never used any operating system of any kind that performs better the more software you install on it.
Has anyone heard of problems with the Nexus 7 (v1) on 4.3? I updated my not-very-tech-savvy parents' device to 4.3 when I was staying with them a few days ago. They've not reported any problems, but they might not attribute them to the Android update even if they encountered them. Whoops...
Wifi works fine for me.
The one thing I have noticed is that the Amazon Tablet program now no longer responds to 'clicks' on the purchase links such as the 'add to basket' button or the 'more buying options' links) You can search for stuff, and see reviews etc, but not actually buy anything with it any more.
No problems on my N7 either, although I don't use Skype (and only quite infrequently Netflix).
That said I did have another system update last night (having been on 4.3 for about 3 weeks now) which may or may not be related to some or all of the reported problems elsewhere?
Generally speaking, no major problems however...
Netflix refuses to let me adjust the volume in app and will cause the picture to freeze but the sound continues to play (but not adjusted according to the button presses). My N7 then becomes unresponsive so have to kill all the running apps.
Only happens maybe 4/10 times, and the workaround for the sound issue is to increase it in the system settings first which is not ideal but according to phandroid.com they are pushing out an update to Nexus devices as we type.
Problem exists between Nexus and chair?
3 x Nexus devices in the house - Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7 and the wife's Nexus 4.
None of these problems on any of them - and battery life seems improved on my Gnex and N7. The only problem I had was my replacement launcher - it was a bit unstable for a few days until the dev updated it.
Strikes me as people with shonky apps, badly rooted systems or just plain iffy hardware looking for someone to blame
The Nexflix problem was fixed over 2 weeks ago.
Personally, I have no problems with any Wifi on my Nexus 4. Looking at the bug report it's due to a specific model of router.
The reboots are due to a clipboard sharing issue/misbehaving app, and is usually Microsoft's skype at fault. There is a Nexus 4 OTA rolling out as we speak. Got mine this evening...
So really, non-news...
I have had precisely zero issues with both my Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 (2012) on stock 4.3. (But then,I didn't have any problems pre-4.3 either.) I don't know what circumstances / applications cause the instability issues (and I hope Google fix it for those who are afflicted), but I suspect the 4.3 problems affect a vocal minority.
I do know that an awful lot of Nexus users couldn't wait for the 4.3 update to be progressively "pushed" to them via OTA, and were using "the old Clear Google Services Framework trick" to try to force it onto their devices immediately, and this then caused a lot of issues for some people, which could only be resolved by deleting their Google account and then re-activating it. I wonder if there is any correlation between those who tried that trick, and those who have 4.3 stability issues?
(Big Brother icon coz' I'm starting my own conspiracy theory here ...)
There would be hundreds of articles a day written, lasting weeks after the problem was solved. Is there a dual standard for quality assurance? Is it because it's open source? With the top of the line iPhone's selling for the same as the the of the line Android phones, aren't you buying the software and hardware? Does that make iOS free software?
I have rooted my phone and disabled OTA updates mostly because of stuff like this - They should have a [better] Beta program for updates to the phone so that people can test on real world devices. Personally I am just going to wait for Paranoid Android to have a solid 4.3 build and update to that - [certain] custom roms are far superior to stock android - even when it comes to stability!
No crashes or lockups on my N4 with any version of Android since I've had it.
I do wonder at the exact makeup of these folks that are getting crashes though as I bet they are custom kernal/rom'ed to the hilt.
The only issue I have had with 4.3 was next to useless cell signal for 3G. 2G networks worked like a trooper but 3G was hopeless when it was fine with 4.2. I switched the baseband back to .48 (from .84) and its improved things.
Wi-fi has been fine though.
My only other issue with the N4 is I get loud crackles and pops on the first 5 seconds of any video I take with it. The next shot I take has none, just the first clip I shoot. Odd.
The Nexus 10 already had a known problem losing WiFi connectivity, unfortunately 4.3 did not fix it.
Google "Nexus 10 WiFi" and Google will auto suggest "dropping".
Also my Bluetooth keyboard is next to useless on the Nexus 10 unless I turn WiFi off.
I deeply regret ever having bought the Nexus 10.
My Galaxy Nexus on the other hand functions without issue, both on 4.2 and 4.3.
My phone was acting up with random reboots while using Skype and the camera so I RMAe'd it and received my replacement about 2 weeks ago. The replacement has the exact same problems. So yes, Android 4.3 is definitely a step back for stability if you actually like using the camera/video functionality. I've also had random crashes in my banking apps which never happened under 4.2.
All of these crashes are pretty infrequent, but they are (nearly) definitely caused by android 4.3 as I've had the same issues on two devices, one of which is brand new.
Hurrah for google's QA!
I wonder if WP8 doesn't have any problems and is the greatest thing ever. I wouldn't know because nobody I know has one and in fact outside of a store I have never even seen one. And no Nokia doesn't sell for shit over here stateside. Still my bet is Cyanogenmod doesn't have these problems (except some nightlies perhaps) mainly because those guys seem to take Google's releases and polish them.
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