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Sony Android Bug Upgrades

Android 4.0 Upgrade For Sony Xperia Smartphones Opens a Pandora Box 181

First time accepted submitter ctrl-alt-canc writes "The udpdate to Android ICS offered for free by Sony to the Xperia smarphone users has caused plenty of troubles. Not only the decision by Sony of not updating Xperia Play phones to ICS caused rage among customers, but those who were lucky to get an upgrade for their smartphones discovered that WiFi connection did not work anymore. Up to now, the only suggestion proposed by Sony to fix the problem is to turn off the encryption, and reboot the smartphone and the access point."
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Android 4.0 Upgrade For Sony Xperia Smartphones Opens a Pandora Box

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  • by man_of_mr_e ( 217855 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @06:17PM (#40347465)

    If it opened a pandoras box, then all hell on earth would break out.. all manner of terrible things would be unleashed upon the world.

    Having a few problems with your phone is not a pandoras box.. at best, you could say it opened a can of worms.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    LT18 WiFi works on LT15

    I have an Xperia Arc (LT15) but have flashed on the Xperia Arc S (LT18) without any issues to WiFi.

    • by Shrubbman ( 3807 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @07:00PM (#40347823)

      LT18 WiFi works on LT15 I have an Xperia Arc (LT15) but have flashed on the Xperia Arc S (LT18) without any issues to WiFi.

      I've got an unlocked Arc (LT15) myself and Sony pushed out the ICS update for me two weeks ago. Wi-fi works perfectly. Maybe part of the reason they decided to hold back the update for the Play was because they knew it might bork the wi-fi... any time you flash unofficial firmware you're taking your chances without a safety net.

  • This is news? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @06:17PM (#40347469) Journal
    Has Sony ever been anything but miserable at software?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16, 2012 @06:18PM (#40347473)

    Didn't we learn our lesson from the last N rounds of user-hostile actions taken by Sony?

    Who in their right mind buys Sony gear any more, after them suing their customers, removing advertised features from products after you bought them, root-kitting people's PCs, leaking your private data to the whole world, etc etc?

    Seriously? People are STILL buying from Sony? Why on earth would anyone want to encourage their behaviour?

    • by v1 ( 525388 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @06:45PM (#40347685) Homepage Journal

      Who in their right mind buys Sony gear any more

      Sadly, despite them kicking us in the junk all the time, they do make a lot of superior products.

      My most recent purchase was a PS3, not for the games, for the bluray player. The first one I bought was complete garbage. And was pleasantly surprised to find I could stream movies from my extensive video library on my computer too.

      But that's probably why they're abusive and still around, there are enough people that tolerate the abuse because they otherwise have the best product.

      • by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @09:48PM (#40348733)

        My most recent purchase was a PS3, not for the games, for the bluray player.

        Which has a nasty habit of ramping up its power supply fan to take-off speeds about 30 minutes into a movie and staying that way until powered off, sounding much like a vacuum cleaner with a wad a paper stuck in the nozzle. I don't know about you, but that's a killer flaw from where I sit.

        • by v1 ( 525388 )

          I have a high quality very solid entertainment center with reinforced glass doors, no sound escapes it. Though I did notice the fan on the PS3 can get loud when the door is open.

          • I have a high quality very solid entertainment center with reinforced glass doors, no sound escapes it.

            Impossible. If heat can escape then sound can escape, unless you have a far more sophisticated setup than I think you have. I believe that our definitions of "no sound" differ. I can practically guarantee that my ears will detect the fan of your PS3 and be annoyed by it whenever the sound track becomes quiet.

            A better solution for the videophile is to not use the PS3 as a crappy Blu-ray player, where "crappy" is the only technical term that accurately describes its performance in that regard.

    • by jtownatpunk.net ( 245670 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @08:47PM (#40348431)

      I compared Sony to a beautiful but abusive ex a few years ago. You swear you'll never talk to her again but a year goes by and you run into her at the mall and she's looking hot. Dinner seems safe enough. Public place and all. One thing leads to another...

      Someone pointed out that /.ers don't know what it's like to have a hot ex and I should stick to car analogies.

      I've sworn off Sony a couple of times but then they put out a product with the perfect mix of features and price so I make an exception "just this one time".

    • by kamenr ( 67603 )

      >Why on earth would anyone want to encourage their behaviour

      Sony is now effectively a financial services (insurance) company, so it doesn't matter what happens with hardware. It's kind of a loss leader for them, like the Macintosh hardware at Apple.

    • Personally, it's a decision that I still regret.

      I bought an Xperia X10 Mini Pro because it was the only Android device I could find with a slide-out keyboard. The actual Android portion of it has been as fine as you'd expect, but from the Sony side:

      1) They've refused to release an official update beyond 2.1. Among other things, this means that it doesn't have the feature of saving apps to memory card- a colossal draw back. There's no technical reason for this, they just don't want to support their old phone

  • by RyuuzakiTetsuya ( 195424 ) <taiki@nOspAm.cox.net> on Saturday June 16, 2012 @06:27PM (#40347535)

    Because android is open.

    • Exactly!

      That's what I came here to point out. This is no time for whining, griping, teeth-grinding.
      This is the time for real hackers to get in there and fix the problem! After all, that's what open source is all about!

      So no complaining, no misplaced hacker rage, just lift up your head, let your neckbeard jut out proudly, suck in the cheetos-gut, make sure mom hasn't moved and/or turned off the wifi router, and get hacking!
      • Because the last time someone hacked a Sony product it ended up swell for him...

        No, wait, it was a horrible, horrible mess that paved the way to having such a bad public image that when your network is pwned the collective response wasn't of outrage, but of a giant "Ha-Haa!!!" (in Nelson's voice, of course).

        The issue is that consumers have a stupidly short memory when it comes to pain. How many times have you gotten called to fix a computer for someone, clean out the massive amount of porn related viruses/T

        • Doesn't matter how many times you tell someone don't go to those sites, they still do. Why?

          Im going to save you a lot of pain and hassle and explain to you why your acquaintances keep getting viruses, because you dont really understand it.

          Theyre getting viruses because they have out of date {plugin | browser} and are visiting {any website with ads}. People get viruses from facebook, because facebook has ads, and every ad is untrusted content from who knows where that can launch and exploit any vulnerable plugin.

          Want to keep them from getting viruses? Stop yelling at them to be clairvoyant about

      • Except for the fact that the problem is in a binary firmware blob, that we can't really do much with.

  • News at nine (Score:5, Interesting)

    by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @06:28PM (#40347547)
    Sony sucks at proper software upgrades.

    The real problem is that Sony totally blew at testing the WPA stack before release. This isn't altogether hard to fix, but it's time that could be taken away from their next great phone they want you to buy. Android vendors are hit and miss on this upgrade thing. Some vendors are really amazing at providing updates and some just blow. Being able to root one's phone is the only real salvation. So I don't think this deserves the hype to author is putting into this, Sony sucks, is there anyone of us surprised by this? Will they fix it? Who knows, maybe, however this is yet another reminder that this mobile stuff is still pretty new shit. Tread with caution.
    • Re:News at nine (Score:4, Interesting)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @08:12PM (#40348261)

      Indeed, it's not just Sony, and this is one real benefit Apple has. Control over the one device and the software roll-out provide for a consistent upgrade experience. Also because Apple have a centralised user base (i.e. one upgrade that doesn't work will likely piss off ALL their customers) they have more incentive to test upgrades properly.

      My big stink was still with Samsung. The Galaxy S was a wonderful bit of hardware in its time, but Android ran on it so slowly that some apps were thought to have crashed by the system. The problem was identified really early on in the 2.1 releases by xda-developers who offered a quick fix (they called it the lag-fix). It was a poor choice of a file system and a poor kernel drivers for it. The fix was as easy as converting the system to ext3. Yet Samsung rolled out 2.2 and it was still slow, 2.3 and it was still slow, 2.4 and it was better but still slow compared to the xda fix.

      The phone ran amazingly with Cyanogen mod, and frankly the only reason I would buy from Samsung again is that the hardware has been great and the bootloaders aren't locked. Actually quite the opposite they must have one of the most easy to flash phones out there.

      • I still have a Galaxy S (T-mobile Vibrant) and it's still a good phone. The GPS chipset bad (it only gets a lock after being rebooted, and that prevents it from going into deep sleep. Still haven't figured that one out after hours of combing through the source) but I get about 30 hours battery life with moderate to heavy usage on the original battery. If I leave it on idle it lasts nearly 3 days. It's overclocked to 1.3 ghz, I've added a front-facing camera, and of course am running ICS. It's quite fast, an
  • WTB Actual Editor (Score:4, Informative)

    by iceborer ( 684929 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @06:30PM (#40347561)

    Android 4.0 Upgrade For Sony Xperia Smarphones Opens a Pandora Box

    It's a smartphone, ffs, and the box is Pandora's.

    I'm beyond even thinking about asking Slashdot to edit; I know that's too much to ask for. Could you at least run a fucking spell check?

    • by Anonymous Coward

      And udpdate instead of update...

    • Android 4.0 Upgrade For Sony Xperia Smarphones Opens a Pandora Box

      It's a smartphone, ffs, and the box is Pandora's.

      I thought "Smarphones" were phones used by Smarphs.

      • by sFurbo ( 1361249 )
        It's pronounced "Smarph-Ones", and it is used to described the people who are from Smarph.
    • I propose a moderation system for editors so we can prevent the lazy ones from doing new posts.

    • It's a smartphone, ffs, and the box is Pandora's.

      Hmm? What? Hey! I thought the box was Pandorica's.

      And I should know. I'm a doctor.

  • by Man On Pink Corner ( 1089867 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @06:36PM (#40347615)

    When geeks, gamers, and other people who are interested in technology buy from Sony, it's like when a wealthy, 80-year-old Jewish businessman goes to a high-priced dominatrix who will dress up in an SS uniform, shove a ball gag in his mouth, and...

    .... well, no, that doesn't explain it either. Never mind.

    Anyone else got any ideas as to why people keep giving their money to these jackasses?

    • It's easy: PS3 is the best console on the market, and playing online is for free. Most of the gamers I know have both Xbox360 and PS3. The first one is for pirated games, cheap play, the second is for premium exclusive games and online play. Dualshock is way better than Xbox gamepad, and the quality of slim ps3 consoles is higher.
    • I would say the people still buying Sony have an Idée fixe about them.
      Like religious nutjobs, fanbois, conspiracy theorists, stalkers, etc

      "An idée fixe is a preoccupation of mind held so firmly as to resist any attempt to modify it, a fixation. "

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id%C3%A9e_fixe_(psychology) [wikipedia.org]

      It's not an official term in case someone has an idée fixe that terms describing psychological conditions Must Be Official.

  • by alen ( 225700 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @06:45PM (#40347689)

    Android is open source. All you have to do is build your own rom

  • With iOS 4 and some wifi access points. At work I could never get my 3GS to work with ios 3 or 4

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Aren't updates from Sony almost always related to shutting off features or disabling jailbreaks or crippling functionality that they perceive as a threat? Has Sony ever released an update (and left it in place) that opened up their products or added some great free feature that was met with applause by customers? What was it?

    • by Briareos ( 21163 ) *

      Aren't updates from Sony almost always related to shutting off features or disabling jailbreaks or crippling functionality that they perceive as a threat? Has Sony ever released an update (and left it in place) that opened up their products or added some great free feature that was met with applause by customers? What was it?

      What, you mean like this site [sonymobile.com]?

      I don't think too many other Android manufacturers support that...

      np: Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea (Accelerator)

  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16, 2012 @07:10PM (#40347885)

    Meanwhile my WP7 phone (like all phones running Windows Phone) is up-to-date running silky smooth.

    And yet slashdot continues to make posts about how terrible WP is and how great Android is.

  • by rueger ( 210566 ) * on Saturday June 16, 2012 @07:41PM (#40348071) Homepage
    Maybe I'm just spoiled by Linux, but it really irritated me that Telus (in Canada) (aka one-third of the oligopoly that controls all cel phones in the country) took months to upgrade my Google branded Nexus S to ICS. Short of rooting the damned thing there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

    We've reached a point where phones are becoming computing appliances, and end users shouldn't be held hostage by this sort of nonsense. If a major upgrade is available, I should have the option of installing it now, not when some bean-counter in Toronto decides it can no longer be avoided.
    • by longk ( 2637033 )

      And you do, provided you choose the right phone. Several vendors now officially allow you to root your phone. This may not be suitable for all users but neither is re-installing your PC with the newest OS. Anyway, there's no point to bitch about this any longer. Vote with your cash and buy phones that support rooting.

      • Which vendors are those? I'd love to buy one of those for my next phone, but a quick Google didn't turn up anything...

        Also, I know running a rooted phone is against my carrier's TOS (Sprint).
    • You don't have to root it at all -- the Nexus S is easily updated to official Google firmware so you can avoid this issue. I did it, so have many others:

      http://webtrickz.com/guide-to-update-samsung-galaxy-nexus-yakjuxw-to-android-4-0-4-and-get-future-updates-from-google/ [webtrickz.com]

    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Maybe I'm just spoiled by Linux, but it really irritated me that Telus (in Canada) (aka one-third of the oligopoly that controls all cel phones in the country) took months to upgrade my Google branded Nexus S to ICS. Short of rooting the damned thing there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

      We've reached a point where phones are becoming computing appliances, and end users shouldn't be held hostage by this sort of nonsense. If a major upgrade is available, I should have the option of installing it now, not

    • Dunno about Telus in particular, but the way it usually works is:

      Google releases new version of Android, gives it to phone manufacturers.
      Phone manufacturer has to adopt it to their devices (add drivers, make tweaks like Sense or Touchwiz), gives it to carriers.
      Carrier adds their own modifications (pre-installed apps you can't uninstall, disabling certain features like tethering, etc).
      Update is rolled out to you.

      I'm guessing Telus is a CDMA carrier? Google dropped its level of support for the CDMA [androidcommunity.com]
      • Telus and Bell were exclusively CDMA until late 2009/early 2010; they partnered to introduce a GSM/HSPA network just in time for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, that way they didn't just let Rogers have all the fun charging millions of visitors massive international roaming charges. The only thing they didn't build in was the legacy EDGE system, so it's 3G (and better) or nothing.

        They still sell some CDMA phones, but IIRC most of their new phones are GSM or its successors.

  • by pegasustonans ( 589396 ) on Saturday June 16, 2012 @08:11PM (#40348249)

    Sony should've tested the upgrade a bit more before releasing it.

    That said, I imagine users with rooted phones probably have many alternatives to get Wi-Fi working.

    Wi-Fi problems are possibly the most common issue in Android (possibily Linux as well, possibly in every OS).

    While I imagine it's a pretty big issue for those people who upgraded, I wouldn't be surprised if the fix is pretty straightforward.

    Overall, I wouldn't describe it as a "Pandora's Box."

  • hasbeen [merriam-webster.com]
  • by Anonymous Coward

    No other major manufacturer has committed to delivering ICS to their last range of phones like Sony has. I recently purchased an Xperia mini pro from which I'm typing this post and that was on the basis that it was both cheap and would have ICS support. This came in the form of the upgrade being presented to me the second it synced up with Sonys software.

    They support the community as much as they can, releasing beta ROMS for feedback, feedback that lead to the decision to not release ICS for the Play. While

    • No other major manufacturer has committed to delivering ICS to their last range of phones like Sony has.

      I think HTC is arguably the best in that area. Either way, both Sony and HTC are light-years ahead of Samsung (in releasing updates).

      • I got burned by HTC. The phone I bought was always way behind on Android versions, and never even got an official upgrade to Froyo, although the guys on Cyanogen had Froyo running on it with no problems.

        Across the board, Android phone makers have a horrible history of supporting their phones with the latest OS. Apple looks positively angelic in this respect.

  • At some point we just have to say anyone who is still buying any Sony products deserves everything they get.

    It wasn't like they weren't warned.

  • He writes like a 'tard.

  • How many phones effected? Was it quickly fixed? I updated my Sony Live Wt9i (based on Xperia) and still accessed wifi without problems

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