Google changes Android release cycle so new versions arrive in Q2

Google on Monday delivered the first developer preview of Android 16 – a release notable for both its status as the first step towards a new version and its release date signalling a change in the release cycle for the OS. "We're planning the major release a quarter earlier (Q2 rather than Q3 in prior years) to better align …

[Gene Cash]

Nope

Do not update your phone. There's a 15% chance that features like the camera or GPS will break, a 30% chance an app will stop functioning, and a 100% chance that Google will not give a fuck.

[MrMerrymaker]

Re: Nope

I'm not really interested what Google think or not, my phone runs the Xiaomi.eu ROM

[Ian Johnston]

Re: Nope

There's a 15% chance that features like the camera or GPS will break, a 30% chance an app will stop functioning

Evidence?

and a 100% chance that Google will not give a fuck.

It's the manufacturer's problem, not Google's, Shirley?

[ICL1900-G3]

Re: Nope

I've been with Android since the begining. I've yet to experience an update problem.

[Version 1.0]

Re: Nope

We were all created by GOD in our beginning but THANK GOD there have never been any updates.

If GOD updated all of us like Google updates everything then maybe I'd wake up one morning and say, "Oh look, I've only got one leg now but three new arms that are even longer!"

The icon documents how happy we are without any updates, but imagine hopping around on your one leg and then discovering that your three new arms don't fit into your coat any more! Thank GOD we don't get updated in the current Android environment.

[Mentat74]

Re: If GOD updated all of us like Microsoft updates everything then...

You'd wake up one morning without a brain...

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Nope

I don't know which phones you've been using, but I can't remember hardware problems with any Android updates over the last ten years or so. I have had issues when switching ROMs

I don't mind criticising Google for stuff, but their software releases have had very few issues. When it comes to Android, I think this can be put down to it being open source, but also the close relationship they have with manufacturers. Though, in the past, this has often been typified by a lack of updates!

[Anonymous Coward]

This allows apps to read and write medical records

I await the ultimate "killer app" with some interest.

[Mentat74]

"to develop technologies where users know their privacy is protected."

If you really want to protect your privacy... don't use a smartphone...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "to develop technologies where users know their privacy is protected."

It's interesting what data Google thinks it has the right to take from your phone:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08072-x

The article talks about anonymizing the data, but I can't find anywhere that says "informed consent".

Note that the raw data needed to run the study is needed to compute position, like you think GNSS is already doing, but can be thrown away after. So even if Google wanted to track you as you moved around, and you happened for whatever reason to be fine with that, and had explicitly consented; they still would not need the sensor data they exfiltrated then used in this study, and so - as far as I can see - would not have an implied consent for taking it.