Can I get some help getting a better understanding of some General Android Updates And Alerts?

[creativecurlz]

General Android Updates And Alerts

This is NOT meant to become a battle between Apple vs Android, but I am thinking about buying a Samsung Galaxy S5 after using only Apply products and I'm a bit confused and cautious. First, let me say that I love how easy it is to update my current Apple phone- I get an alert saying, "Hey, it's time to update" and I click a button and it does its thing while I do mine. Somewhere along my research of Android products and software, I keep reading that updates for new OS's take months for some phones versus others, that some phones are jailbroken for types of updates, that certain things update independently from others on Android phones...and I'm am overwhelmed and confused. I have my heart set on the S5, but I love the simplicity of Apple since I'm not tech-savvy and really don't plan on using my phone for more than basic things- music, pictures (point and click, nothing fancy), a few games, financial tracking, mild internet surfacing, mild texting, and phone calls. Can someone please explain things to me?

 

[Rukbat]

Re: General Android Updates And Alerts

Android phones do get notices that an update is ready. Press Yes (or OK) and the phone updates.

Phones that have been jailbroken (rooted in Android terms) won't update - you can do things while rooted that would cause an update to crash the phone, so updates work only on stock ROMs. (It's not difficult to flash a stock ROM over a rooted one to get the update, but there may not be a way to root the new version for months - it's not easy finding some little mistake Google made that lets you do it.)

Timing:

Google writes a new version. It goes to the manufacturers so that they can make it work on their hardware. Then it goes to the carriers so they can add their bloat and turn off options they don't want you to have. Then the carriers start releasing it. Some manufacturers and/or carriers work faster than others.

With Apple, there are two differences. 1) You don't hear about an update until they're ready to release it. (It's all on the same hardware - Apple has full control.) 2) If a carrier wants to sell iPhones, it does so under Apple's (Steve Jobs', really) rules. That means "This is how we release it - nothing disabled, no bloat added by you. Take it or lave it." A carrier that doesn't use iPhones is at a distinct disadvantage - some people wikk only use an iPhone, and they'll go to a worse or more expensive carrier if the best carrier for their needs doesn't use iPhones.

So the release schedule is about the same - it's the anjnouncement schedule that's different. If a woman doesn't tell you that she's pregnant until a month before she gives birth, that doesn't mean that she was pregnant for only one month. If Apple doesn't till you that it has iOS 9 until a month before the release date, that doesn't mean that it started working on it last week - it might have been in the works for a year. Android says "we have a new version" and THEY do - but the carriers don't. Apple says they have a new version and it's ready for the carriers to send out. It's just in which part of the cycle the announcement is made that's different.

Big differences in things like texting, though. No iMessage, and it will never happen on an Android phone. No "plug the phone into the USB jack in a car to listen to music" - an Android doesn't look like an mp3 player, an iPhone does.

But if you don't like the way the scren looks, you can change it. You can't on an iPhone. (You can even make an Android phone work like an iPhone if you prefer.) You can swap batteries in the middle of the day with an S5. And a new battery is about $10. You can work in the OS itself (Linux). iPhones are for those who want to use the phone and available apps as they are. Android phones are for those who see the phone as a starting point, and manufacturer-imposed limitations as challenges.