Google Fixes Dozens Of Security Vulnerabilities In Android October Update, But Many Users Remain Left Out

[Lucian Armasu]

Android October security update is now out with fixes for dozens of high severity and critical vulnerabilities. Nexus users should receive the update soon, but most others will be left out again.

Google Fixes Dozens Of Security Vulnerabilities In Android October Update, But Many Users Remain Left Out : Read more

 

[thundervore]

This is the main reason Google needs to take the Android phones out of the hands of manufactures and carriers.

As we are now a phone only receives 1 OS update then forgotten. The time it takes to receive that update is months because it have to go to the manufacturer first who injects bloatware, then the manufacturer gives it to the carrier who injects their own bloatware and gives it to the customer.

By the time a phone on the market for 18 months gets an OS upgrade the next model is already out and the manufactures are focusing on the new model. So the only way to get upgrades seems to be to buy a new phone or rooting and installing third party roms.

The Pixel line is a step in the right direction where the phones are made for Google and Google do what ever they want similar to how Foxcon makes the phones for Apple and Apple do what ever they want.

 

[ohim]

Apple and Microsoft addresses these updates on all certified phones while on Android once you bought the phone there is little chance that you`ll ever get an update, not to talk about a 2nd or 3rd one. And yet Android it`s the most popular platform out there... people in general seems to like messy things.

 

[p8ball4life]

The guy below was close, but didn't quite drive it home. Convincing consumer to upgrade yearly, or even every other year, is increasingly difficult for carriers and manufacturers. There is no incentive for them to provide long term updates when they can use security as a selling point for the latest model.

 

[bloodroses]

I'd hope that Pixel would be a step in the right direction, but with Google's track record I'd say that it wont. Google already had an official phone line (Nexus), but they dropped it.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/10/google-no-plans-for-future-nexus-devices/

 

[thundervore]

I'd hope that Pixel would be a step in the right direction, but with Google's track record I'd say that it wont. Google already had an official phone line (Nexus), but they dropped it.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/10/google-no-plans-for-future-nexus-devices/

The problem with the Nexus phones was that they lacked what others offered.
- No expandable storage
- lame camera resolution
- no wireless charging

They now have the opportunity to drop the entire line and start fresh with specs on par with the heavy hitters. Best of all there will be no OEM branding on the outside of the phone.

 

[captaincharisma]

I'd hope that Pixel would be a step in the right direction, but with Google's track record I'd say that it wont. Google already had an official phone line (Nexus), but they dropped it.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/10/google-no-plans-for-future-nexus-devices/

The problem with the Nexus phones was that they lacked what others offered.
- No expandable storage
- lame camera resolution
- no wireless charging

They now have the opportunity to drop the entire line and start fresh with specs on par with the heavy hitters. Best of all there will be no OEM branding on the outside of the phone.

nexus phones were not about having the best features. they were meant to be feature rich phones with no bloatware, and can be found at a low price (the price on the last 2 was really high though). some nexus phones had wireless charging and phones like the nexus 6P have a camera comparable to the camera on the iphone 7 and expandable storage has never been a big issue as much as the trolls make it out to be. if you are looking for security in the android world you could always get it from nexus phones because of the fast updates and even when google stops updating the phone after a few years its easy to put a custom rom on it that will still keep it up to date

 

[John Wittenberg]

CAPTAINCHARISMA, not everyone lives in an area where they have constant a cell phone signal, or even a decent signal that can transmit data (T-mobile's edge network).

Expandible storage and replaceable batteries are a must for folks like me - why label us as trolls?

 

[bloodroses]

I do have to agree that non-expandable storage is a deal breaker for me in a phone since I use mine as my personal mp3 player as well.

With the replaceable battery, it's also fairly important as my Note Edge would be brick right now if I couldn't replace it. There was a bug in Android 5.01 where it would chew through a 100% battery in less than 30 minutes when signal was lost. Needless to say, my previous battery is completely toast to where even a booster couldn't even start the phone.

 

[Kimonajane]

"and three critical bugs that strangely enough don’t seem to have any description of what they do in “Qualcomm components.”
Those are the ones they put in for the NSA, you know like the back-doors that MS puts into their NSA co-authored OS's. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

[Gilles_2]

Pixel is a failure before even starting, it costs more and offer less or equal to direct competitors, Google thinks it has Apple image and fanbase, we're gonna see a big fall now

 

[bloodroses]

Pixel is a failure before even starting, it costs more and offer less or equal to direct competitors, Google thinks it has Apple image and fanbase, we're gonna see a big fall now

Yeah, I saw that price tag compared to the features and went "YIKES!" as well. Definitely not the smartest move on their part.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

CAPTAINCHARISMA, not everyone lives in an area where they have constant a cell phone signal, or even a decent signal that can transmit data (T-mobile's edge network).

Expandible storage and replaceable batteries are a must for folks like me - why label us as trolls?

The trolls are those who pop up every time a device without expandable storage comes out and declare it worthless. Expandable storage is a fairly niche use case. I'd wager that out of the total number of devices with a MicroSD slot, a single-digit percentage of those have that slot populated. Phones are essentially commodity devices by now, and everything you put into it has a space and material cost. Once you're into the mid-range market where margins are slim, and the floor for onboard storage is 16 GB (now turning into 32 GB as flash continues to get cheaper), dedicating that few cents and few mm^3 stops being beneficial for the manufacturer as it's not a selling point for very many people.

captaincharisma didn't say anything about batteries, troll-related or otherwise, but I definitely agree that there's no reason to make a battery non-replaceable, if not swappable.

 

[jkhoward]

I would consider purchasing a device with Andriod if the OS was maintained by Google and not the device manufacturers..

 

[hannibal]

Then you have chose Pixel. It has Google support opposed to those make by other manufactures.

 

[Christopher1]

KIMONAJANE Oct 5, 2016, 1:34 PM
"and three critical bugs that strangely enough don’t seem to have any description of what they do in “Qualcomm components.”
Those are the ones they put in for the NSA, you know like the back-doors that MS puts into their NSA co-authored OS's. Wouldn't surprise me at all.
_____________________-
You mean, the backdoors that NUMEROUS OUTSIDE AUDITORS have said "Do not exist!" after signing Microsoft's agreements to not disclose any proprietary technologies?
No, that does NOT hamstring them from saying "There is an NSA backdoor in this!" it just keeps them from giving out specifics of how the operating system works.

 

[daddywalter]

I think we all know that the problem of getting updates out lies not with Google but with the manufacturers and carriers. When I upgraded late last year, my new Droid Turbo 2 came with Android 5.x, and I didn't expect to get an update, ever. I was pleasantly surprised when Lenovo/Motorola and Verizon gave me an update to 6.0. But I don't expect to ever get 7.0 on this phone, and it may be awhile before even the most urgent updates to 6.0 get to me. I like Android, so my next phone may be a Pixel; but I'll also be considering switching to an iPhone for about the same price.

With Samsung suffering now from the Galaxy Note 7 battery problems, this would be an excellent time for that company to announce that it will do all the work (for themselves and the carriers) to update al itsl current phones to 7.0 now and 8.0 when it is released -- and then the next two major versions for phone after that. We'd still have to rely on the carriers to actually provide the updates, but with Samsung handling the software revisions for them, they would have little excuse to delay sending out the updates. (Yeah, it would be a lot of work for Samsung engineers; but I believe it would pay dividends in the long run.)

 

[Christopher1]

I think we all know that the problem of getting updates out lies not with Google but with the manufacturers and carriers

Actually it does. Google could start getting T O U G H on the people who they license Android OS to and mandating that they have to, in a timely manner defined as at most a WEEK after a major update is released, update their phones to the newest operating system unless after testing the phone in question is just not powerful enough to run the new OS well and have documentation proving the phone will not run the OS well.
Much of the problem with getting updates out in a timely fashion for phones? The damned carriers and their bloatware that they 'have to test' in order to make sure that the new OS does not break anything because their bloatware is touching things in the OS it should not really be touching.

 

[bloodroses]

I think we all know that the problem of getting updates out lies not with Google but with the manufacturers and carriers

Actually it does. Google could start getting T O U G H on the people who they license Android OS to and mandating that they have to, in a timely manner defined as at most a WEEK after a major update is released, update their phones to the newest operating system unless after testing the phone in question is just not powerful enough to run the new OS well and have documentation proving the phone will not run the OS well.
Much of the problem with getting updates out in a timely fashion for phones? The damned carriers and their bloatware that they 'have to test' in order to make sure that the new OS does not break anything because their bloatware is touching things in the OS it should not really be touching.

Bloat is most definitely the issue; with Samsung being one of the worst offenders. It probably also explains why they seem to have the most problems with software updates/compatibility.

 

[thundervore]

I'd hope that Pixel would be a step in the right direction, but with Google's track record I'd say that it wont. Google already had an official phone line (Nexus), but they dropped it.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/10/google-no-plans-for-future-nexus-devices/

The problem with the Nexus phones was that they lacked what others offered.
- No expandable storage
- lame camera resolution
- no wireless charging

They now have the opportunity to drop the entire line and start fresh with specs on par with the heavy hitters. Best of all there will be no OEM branding on the outside of the phone.

nexus phones were not about having the best features. they were meant to be feature rich phones with no bloatware, and can be found at a low price (the price on the last 2 was really high though). some nexus phones had wireless charging and phones like the nexus 6P have a camera comparable to the camera on the iphone 7 and expandable storage has never been a big issue as much as the trolls make it out to be. if you are looking for security in the android world you could always get it from nexus phones because of the fast updates and even when google stops updating the phone after a few years its easy to put a custom rom on it that will still keep it up to date

although that was the idea in the beginning they have forgotten their way. The last few phones from them were just as expensive as HTC and Samsung variants and offered less. Although they did not receive any bloatware they lacked features. Even their new Pixel phone took a huge step backwards. How can they remove wireless charging when the last 2 models had it, did not even give it water proofing, stuck to their guns with no expandable storage and expect it to compete with the S7, HTC10, and LG model.

Maybe by 2018 they will understand what their customers want