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Samsung's latest software update may be bricking older phones (www.engadget.com)

submitted 1 month ago by misk@sopuli.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/43997478

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[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Older phones get updates?

[–] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The primary reason I moved to iPhones was because I got absolutely sick and tired of my android phones being abandoned by the manufacturer after a year. I'm sure it is better these days, but those earlier days of extremely slow Carrier-based updates completely ruined my trust and I know I'm not the only one.

[–] Lippy@fedia.io 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah it was pretty terrible until recently. It at least seems to be changing now. The Pixel 8 line and up now get 7 years of support, and Samsung followed shortly afterwards by doing the same with the S24 series (but not their lower end devices). There's still plenty of other Android devices that get barely any support though, so it's getting there, slowly.

[–] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Correction: Google and Samsung have said they’ll do that. Time will tell if they actually stick to their promises.

Apple on the other hand has already done so for over a decade with no fanfare or promises.

[–] narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah, I won't trust Google on that unless they actually deliver. Too many canned projects by that company.

The iPhone 6S got iOS 9 to iOS 15, so 7 years of mainline software support and as of now it's still getting security updates - 9 years later (latest version as of now is 15.8.3 released end of July this year). The iPhone XS entered year 7 of mainline software support with iOS 18.

Sure, some phones only got 6 years of mainline software support, namely the iPhone 7 or iPhone X. They're all still receiving security updates though.

Google just now promised to more or less match that starting with the Pixel 8 series, but they didn't retroactively apply that policy to their previous devices. The Pixel 8 now has just shy of 6 years of mainline software support to go to fulfill Google's promise and we'll see how long they'll release security updates after that.

[–] misk@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 month ago

Security updates are usually provided for a long time even if in a trickle.

[–] babybus@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It depends on what you count as an old phone. It's Galaxy S10 in this case, it'll probably stop receiving updates soon.

[–] Lippy@fedia.io 4 points 1 month ago

The S10 stopped receiving Android security updates in March 2022. The issue here is with an issue with a SmartThings app update on Android 12. Not sure if there's any Samsung devices that both run that version of Android and are still supported, and that's likely why the issue wasn't caught.

I suppose with an issue this serious, they're probably compelled to fix it regardless of whether or not the affected devices are still supported.