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."
This is news? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:wait, what? ppl are buying Sony stuff still? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Have There Ever Been Good Updates From Sony? (Score:2, Insightful)
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?
Someone doesn't know what a can of worms is (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:LT18 WiFi works on LT15 (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Who Provides Upgrades? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:wait, what? ppl are buying Sony stuff still? (Score:4, Insightful)
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".
Re:Not Unexpected (Score:5, Insightful)
This is very good information, but... isn't it Sony's responsibility to test their products before they ship?
Reminds me of all those 1st-gen SSDs powered by JMicron controllers. They studdered and froze the machine constantly while trying to flush the buffer, rendering the whole PC virtually unusable. When I bought an OCZ Apex and had nothing but problems with it, several people yelled at me and told me that I should expect to have problems with such an early, immature product. For long-term reliability, sure, but for extremely obvious problems at launch? Fuck that. I sold that OCZ drive to a Linux junkie who was willing to tweak it until it worked, and got myself a Corsair P128, which is still working flawlessly.
I didn't blame JMicron. Supplier issues are not my problem. I squarely blamed OCZ for not testing their product properly and deciding to ship such a buggy piece of junk.
Strange how smart phones and tablets are far more closed and proprietary than PCs, and manufacturers are still having the same interoperability issues. No, wait... it isn't.
Re:Not Unexpected (Score:4, Insightful)
Absolutely the manufacturer's fault.
Considering that every ICS handset manufacturer seems to see this problem, why is anyone releasing any ICS build without testing for this specific issue? Are they so internally focused that they are unaware that this is going on in the market as a whole?
Re:It's not a bug, it's a feature! (Score:4, Insightful)
For the two people who haven't figured it out, MAC address spoofing is trivial, and finding a valid MAC address is as easy as listening in on ONE packet from a connected device.
It may keep the average user out, but it'll barely slow down even the lamest of script kiddies.
Re:Not Unexpected (Score:4, Insightful)
Nobody has the advantage.
Yeah, our product is defective, but so is everyone else's, so you might as well buy ours.
Computer marketing in a nutshell. These same people sit around wondering how Apple makes so much money.