DROID MAXX: 4.4.4 Update (skipping 4.4.3)

Ry

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After skipping 4.4.2, Motorola will be skipping 4.4.3 as well.

Here's an update from David Schuster of Motorola on Google+:

Sorry for the delay in giving an update on the 4.4.3 upgrades but I had to wait unit Google announced KitKat 4.4.4 today (I am bound by a NDA). A significant security vulnerability was discovered by OpenSSL (https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20140605.txt) and is fixed in KitKat 4.4.4. We had to wait until KitKat 4.4.4 became available. Consequently, all of our 4.4.3 upgrades that were in carrier labs worldwide (including the 2013 Droid's) had to be respun, tested and resubmitted again. This was a significant unplanned effort that we had to undertake. We should be re-entering labs next week and hopefully getting TA (technical approval) in 3 to 5 weeks later depending on the carrier.
 

SeigaGen

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Future Update from David Schuster.....

Sorry for the delay in giving an update for 4.4.4. We have decided to wait until Android 5.0 becomes available after the announcement at Google IO. We know everyone has been patient in this process, but we figured that we would jerk you all around a little more just to squeeze a little more hope to all of you before we have to break your hearts and tell you that we decided to put the 2013 Droid Lines on our Legacy devices list.

Just saying, they're going back to the drawing board with yet more delays... And it's getting to the point in which the Maxx and Ultra will reach the 1 year mark, but be what is now 3 versions behind.
 

Ry

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Future Update from David Schuster.....

Just saying, they're going back to the drawing board with yet more delays... And it's getting to the point in which the Maxx and Ultra will reach the 1 year mark, but be what is now 3 versions behind.

What did Motorola promise for the 2012 DROIDs? IIRC, they promised to get them to KitKat. They're already there. Anything more is a bonus, IMO.
 

SeigaGen

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2012 droids wasn't built by the Google Team. 2013 was. 2 different teams. And the Google team promised to keep this phone up to date. They only kept 50% of that promise. Moto X and G are getting near instant updates even on Verizon. Why not the 2013 Droids? Same exact hardware minus battery sizes.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
 

Ry

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2012 droids wasn't built by the Google Team. 2013 was. 2 different teams. And the Google team promised to keep this phone up to date. They only kept 50% of that promise. Moto X and G are getting near instant updates even on Verizon. Why not the 2013 Droids? Same exact hardware minus battery sizes.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

My fault. I was updating all the forums and thought I was in the MAXX HD forum.
 

doogald

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Future Update from David Schuster.....



Just saying, they're going back to the drawing board with yet more delays... And it's getting to the point in which the Maxx and Ultra will reach the 1 year mark, but be what is now 3 versions behind.

I bet we get this update well before august 20. The bugs are annoying, and the google authentication error is really bad for people who suffer from it regularly, but, for the most part, kitkat has been good on the phone, and we are on the latest API update for android for longer than any other phone sold in the US except for nexus and gp editions and the Moto x. It's hard to complain too much about the way the phone has been supported.

And that OpenSSL bug looks potentially nasty. At this point it probably was smart to hold 4.4.2 to get that patched rather than push an update with a security flaw and then have to wait many more months to get OpenSSL fixed.
 

doogald

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I believe the security hole was a result of 4.4.3.

I don't think so; I am sure that it was a new critical flaw discovered in OpenSSL around June 9, which was just a few days after 4.4.3 was released. Ever since the Heartbleed bug was discovered the OpneSSL library has been getting strong review and something like 9 flaws were announced a couple of weeks ago. It's not an Android problem, as the same OpenSSL libraries are used in many other OSes.
 

GoBigRed4

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I thought the promise came from Motorola and was that all of their phones would be kept up to date for 2 years, which not coincidentally is the standard contract period. Am I remembering that wrong?

Regardless, I don't think anybody posting here knows even 10% of all of the finer details of what goes into a phone being updated or not. Did you catch the part in Schuster's message that he is bound to a non-disclosure agreement? Don't think for one second Verizon doesn't have them bound even more tightly.

So many people here bring up the fact that the moto X and MAXX are essentially the same except the battery, so they should automatically both be updated within a very short time frame of each other. If the update came direct to us from moto, that would seem to make sense. But Verizon surely knows that a vast majority of their android users probably couldn't even tell you what version of android they have, let alone care if they have the most updated version or not. Moto probably cares, but Verizon sure doesn't.

Posted via Android Central App
 

doogald

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I thought the promise came from Motorola and was that all of their phones would be kept up to date for 2 years, which not coincidentally is the standard contract period. Am I remembering that wrong?

The fact that the 2012 Droids were recently updated to 4.4.2 I think is a good indication that our phones will receive similar update support from both Motorola and Verizon. The only question is will this intention change when Lenovo takes over ownership? I can think of no reason why Lenovo would want to stop such support, and Verizon certainly will not change ownership.
 

Ry

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I thought the promise came from Motorola and was that all of their phones would be kept up to date for 2 years, which not coincidentally is the standard contract period. Am I remembering that wrong?

Punit Soni pledged two years of support.

After the Galaxy Nexus didn't get KitKat, Google said support for Nexus would last for 18 months.

Posted via Android Central App (Moto X)
 

BlueLions81

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We will probably never get another update. Just my opinion.

Posted via Android Central App

It's starting to look that way. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the Maxx didn't get another update.

I just wish they would've stopped before they changed the icons from blue to white. I can't stand the white icons. I can't tell if I'm connected to wifi or not. Is there an app out there that will let me change those icons back to blue like they should be.
 

Ry

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That doesn't help. They should've made it orange on the status bar.

3. B—BUT MY BLINKENLIGHTS?! So this (the removal of the little in/out data traffic arrows from the RSSI) was mostly a performance consideration, believe it or not. The way the data bits are bubbled up and drawn was not only causing a ton of extra rendering work, but actually forcing a layout (!) in the status bar as well. We could have more aggressively cached the bitmaps (rather than creating new BitmapDrawables from resource IDs every time, which was causing the relayout) but that would still have left all the drawing—multiple times per second in some cases—sucking away precious CPU and GPU from your game or Launcher animations or whatever. In the end it seemed like a lot of work (and battery) for what was effectively visual noise, so this too was booted to Quick Settings where it would be available for us nerds.
 

perkdog65

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3. B—BUT MY BLINKENLIGHTS?! So this (the removal of the little in/out data traffic arrows from the RSSI) was mostly a performance consideration, believe it or not.

But.....those little in/out data traffic arrows have not been removed...so that doesn't really explain anything about the color.
 

SeigaGen

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Regardless, I don't think anybody posting here knows even 10% of all of the finer details of what goes into a phone being updated or not. Did you catch the part in Schuster's message that he is bound to a non-disclosure agreement? Don't think for one second Verizon doesn't have them bound even more tightly.

Posted via Android Central App

We all have non-disclosure statements at all of our jobs. But the items in the non-disclosure statements are case by case based on the companies. One of the most things in common with those statements is in regards to Public Companies and insider trading. Personally, telling people about a non-disclosure statement is like another way of stating "I'd like to plea the 5th"

As far as a phone getting updated, again that goes case by case with the different companies. But if you like, I can give you a general insight to how an upgrade process works. It works just like any software company/clientele interactions (not up and coming software companies). That means there is a standard SDLC (doesn't matter what methodology). Which means there is an approval process after development that is done by Verizon! So somewhere there was a gap and the team saw that 4.4.4's release as an opportunity to delay any further.

Now, it doesn't matter who's fault it really is. Why? The Consumer loses out. When things don't get agreed upon, the Consumer always loses out. Another great example is what is happening right now in the L.A. market for television. All DirectTV owners in Los Angeles can't even watch the Dodgers! Why? Because there is a billion dollar dispute between Time Warner Cable and DTV. Losers in this... Consumers! Especially those that love the NFL Sunday Ticket package and are Dodgers fans.

Talk NDS as much as you want, but most of them have all sorts of grey areas.

FYI. Your theory is completely wrong in regards to the Moto X and MAXX argument. Moto X and MAXX come from the same exact update and are exactly carrier driven as well. Which means, Verizon did approve Moto X updates, but not MAXX updates. And that may very well be due to exclusivity.
 

Alcarnor14

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But.....those little in/out data traffic arrows have not been removed...so that doesn't really explain anything about the color.

The linked article says why:

1. Whiten ALL the status bar icons! Aesthetic concerns definitely factored into this (as has been mentioned elsewhere, a more neutral SystemUI allows apps to manage their own color palettes a bit better), but also keep in mind that with the new translucent bars feature, the color became a usability problem. Good old 33b5e5 doesn't pop as well on top of random wallpapers, even with the background protection.