About the security content of iOS 15.8.5 and iPadOS 15.8.5

Pixels 8 and later get 7 years. Not as good as Apple but reasonable.

Pixels 6-7 got 5 years. I'd say that's on the low end of okay.

For "lol" you have to go back to 2021 or earlier. Or look at some of Motorola's offerings.

I left Android at the Nexus 5 after years of buying every Nexus phone. The deal breaker: Despite staying on official ROMs, Google broke audio in video recording such that all my vacation videos with a special friend ended up with garbled audio. My mistake for trusting Google updates right before my trip. You'd think for their reference phone they would test a primary feature like video recording for regressions? Apparently not.

My friend at the time had an iPhone 5, I noticed her phone worked without issue while my Nexus 5 was constantly draining its battery.

I finally bought an Apple device and 11 years later never looked back. Finally said goodbye to Windows & Linux as well. I presume this is how many Apple conversions happen.

Back when Pixel came out I used to argue with a friend because it supposedly had a better camera: I'd always point out that the Pixel phone has its own Wikipedia article describing all its issues: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_(1st_generation)#Issues

Its been like 12 years since the G1? They are still playing games till this day. Give it a rest already.

> Pixels 8 and later get 7 years.

looks like Pixel 8 was released October 2023, so not even 2 years ago. not sure I'd put much stock in what Google says about support after <30% of the stated time.

> Pixels 6-7 got 5 years.

looks like Pixel 6 was released October 2021, so not even 4 years ago.

The phones and the policies haven't been out long enough to see if Google actually releases updates at five years. The Pixel 6 will drop out of support in a year, so we'll see!

I remember when Google broke 911 calling, and decided it was ok to wait for the next maintenance patch to fix it. People could have died, but Google just couldn't hurry up and release an emergency patch.

Remember when the CEO of Google testified before Congress that if they were allowed to purchase DoubleClick and enter the advertising market that they wouldn't link your use of Google services with your advertising profile?

I'll believe Google's promises after they keep them, not before.

I'm reading this now on a Pixel 2XL. It runs reasonably well, though I've currently got a few too many apps running in the background crapping it up. It's asinine that Google dropped support for this model so quickly, and I really have no faith in them at all anymore. 7 years is what it should have always been.

> Pixels 8 and later get 7 years. Not as good as Apple but reasonable.

I had 3 pixels over the years. all 3 died after 1-2 years tops. And repairability is zero. absolutely would not recommend if you're a digital nomad. meanwhile my iphone 14 is still going strong. Battery life has gone down but still acceptable.

I used to be on android, but after the Samsung Galaxy S3 started fucking with my settings in updates I went to Apple and have been on iPhones ever since. Specifically what sticks in my memory the most was an update that reset the shortcuts on the bottom menu bar to default and locked it so it was no longer possible to customize it. At the time I used none of those default apps.

Actually, similar reason that I ended up abandoning Windows for Linux on my home desktop (I had been using Linux on work computers for years at that point). Windows 10 kept changing my settings back to default after every major update and it was infuriating. I would have gone for a mac if there were better support for games.

It's legally binding.

> Pixels 8 and later get 7 years. Not as good as Apple but reasonable

7 to 10 years is a 50% increase. Diminishing marginal returns dents that. But it still represents huge quantities of metal and resources.

So, up until 3-4 years ago (around the time of iPhone 13), you couldn't buy a Pixel phone with more than 3 years of security updates? Lol indeed.

"got" as in announced to be given. Not as in the 5 years of support is already done.

I went back and forth over years right up until google was caught tracking people even with the feature disabled.

It’s honestly kind of sad. Google could still print money without the endless spying but they just can’t help themselves

Apparently it still isn't fixed

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-10-911-calling...

> It’s honestly kind of sad. Google could still print money without the endless spying…

They literally couldn’t.

911 calling issues have been a persistent problem for Pixel devices.

Exactly, that IS Google’s business model.

All of those phones should have been within warranty and swiftly replaced.

> The deal breaker: Despite staying on official ROMs, Google broke audio in video recording such that all my vacation videos with a special friend ended up with garbled audio.

For me it was also the Nexus 5.

It just lost many of my photos, of our firstborn child.

Unrecoverable. Gone. And so was I from the Android-platform.

Early pixel models comes with unlimited google photos feature etc. I think maintaining is more of a lost revenue to google than patching cost. If customos devs can do it on donation so can google. Probably a reason for google to obselete them and a reason for us to keep alive and running it as long as possible.

I still see few custom roms spoofing as early pixel models to enable unlimited google photos.

How is that even legal.

Yeah everyone seems to have horror stories that pushed them to Apple, and of course there are some more minor horror stories from Apple too but they just don’t reach the same height for most users

It’s not unreasonable to blame google for this reliability issue, but this is also a little bit on the user who didn’t appropriately back up their important data to a different device/service/building/account.

While quite frightening, how could you even test this? You can't just make test calls to 911, can you?

(I'm actually somewhat interested in the answer... I have a use-case, and the seeming inability to test is a bit worrying)

Haven't tried it myself, but this official-seeming website suggests that you can schedule a test call ahead of time with your local 911 call center.

https://www.911.gov/calling-911/frequently-asked-questions/#...

You can schedule a 911 test call. "Test calls can be scheduled by contacting your local 911 call center via its non-emergency phone number." [0] More info here:[1]

[0] https://www.911.gov/calling-911/frequently-asked-questions/ [1] https://www.nasna911.org/home

We really should be requiring these types of things to be bonded, i.e., if Google says that, they have to bond all company owned stock and all executive stock options and compensations against it.

Same for politicians; they make a claim, they have to sign a bond against all their assets that they’ll do it after the election.

Like a cease and desist letter, but inverted. Persist and insist, perhaps?

They could use Google Photos to store them off the phone, but…

https://www.reddit.com/r/googlephotos/comments/xsn9ij/people...

Pixel 4a… announced Aug 2020… EOL’d Jan 2022… updates stopped Aug / Nov 2023

Android is abandonware IMV

Yes, and Pixel 6 is still supported for at least another year. I'm not sure what your point is.

> Pixels 8 and later get 7 years. Not as good as Apple but reasonable.

Pixel 8 gets 7 years of OS updates, not security updates. That's actually more than the 5-6 years that Apple commits to.

The camera clicked, but they were never saved. Hard to back that up, really.

I'm pretty sure Google can buy a femtocell to simulate local mobile network of their own.

They're legally required to in the EU.

their point is that it has not yet taken place, so shouldn't be talked about using past tense

Phone makers (and even their supply chain partners) operate their own in-building cell networks with carrier-type hardware, and extensive debugging and observability, including simulation of multiple towers and location.

It wouldn’t get you 100% E2{ for 911 testing, but it does let you develop and test the stack extensively before taking it to the real world and scheduled testing coordinated with 911 call centers.

From first sale, right? The interesting date to me is years of support from last sale—when a company would still sell you a device as new.