Text flow and KitKat

[Lady Grinning Soul]

I was recently checking out a RAZR HD and in the process updated it from Android 4.1.2 to 4.4.2. I was surprised and disappointed to find that zoomed text no longer flowed to fit in the window's width, requiring horizontal scrolling. I thought it must be a bug, but quickly learned that flow capability was intentionally removed from 4.4.2, that no flow is working as intended, and that's that.

The RAZR HD had other issues that led me to reject it, but for me KK's inability to flow zoomed text is a deal breaker right off.

I know this won't be an issue for some. But I'm wondering how those who would use zoom and expect text to flow are dealing with this. Are there workarounds, via rooting, or something, that will return this basic functionality?

 

[ray1945]

This really sucks, especially for older smartphone users!

 

[Lady Grinning Soul]

They've made it incredibly difficult to buy a new phone! Even a used one. They've reversed the logic where instead of looking for a newer phone and making sure it can be upgraded, I'm looking for an older phone and making sure it can NOT be upgraded, especially since it's pretty impossible avoiding either a forced OTA upgrade or frequent nag reminders to do so.

Reading web pages is one of the main features of the phone, and of the data plan that bumps the price of service. In effect, they've built a denial of service scheme into the OS itself.

Requiring horizontal scrolling -- which means 2 scrolls for each line of text you read -- is as insane as it is insulting. Like pecking for peanuts.

What surprises me is that there hasn't been more sustained blowback on this.