[nicboobees]

This is an awful user experience though.

Look at mobile phones.

An old Nokia 3210 or something, just works. It does everything fine. It works as a phone. It was designed from start to finish, and built.

Compare that with Android. Every update they seem to break or remove some functionality. Endless software updates, restarting, etc. It was shipped with bugs, it'll always have bugs.

I'm not convinced this is an improvement. Also obviously has some pretty big consequences if the update system is hacked, or if there's critical bugs etc.

[jpiasetz]

What type of phone do you use? If it's an Android phone and not a Nokia 3210 I would suggest that you examine whether you actually value just working at the expense of lots of new features.

[nicboobees]

I have both. If I need maps/browser/camera, I use my android phone, and moan at all the crappy UI issues and endless updates etc.

One of my worst gripes with android is just how often it changes the UI just as I'm about to click on something, so that I click on something else. It's maddening.

If I need a phone, I use my Nokia 3210 (With its ridiculously long battery life and far superior reception).

[rdtsc]

Aslo battery life. I used to charge my phone once a week, tops. I could drop it, throw, it fit in my hand my pocket find. Now I have to charge it every day. My android is more of a portable computer that also knows how to make calls via the cell phone network.

[oaktowner]

If you turn off data and don't use the screen, you'll get much better battery life (and have approximately the same feature set as your old phone).

Old phones didn't have apps that required constant connectivity and didn't have screens at all, essentially.

So the problem is that this is comparing yesterday's phone with today's pocket-sized computer.

Note: you can still buy a feature phone today if you'd like.

[ddingus]

This is entirely true.

If I run my Samsung Note 4 in it's extreme power saving mode, it's got a standby that is something like 17 days! I can easily go a few days, if I'm just talking on the phone, text, and the occasional web browser session.

If I want to play audio, it will do that for the better part of a week in that same mode. Just point Chrome at the files and go.

[hnal943]

I've found I need to do a factory refresh every time there is an Android OS upgrade, because my battery life goes in the tank. ADB shows processes going crazy, trying and retrying to access things that are no longer there.

[jrwoodruff]

If it's done poorly, of course it's a terrible experience. Restarting my car and it's suddenly faster and smarter? Sounds like a positive experience to me.

[nicboobees]

What if they decide to remove a feature like Android removed "silent mode" as a feature...

Also, software will always be more buggy than hardware. The more software there is in something, the less reliable it is.