Gingerbread? Cupcake? Froyo? Who’s hungry?
When did the updating of a mobile phone’s Android operating system become a reality show on the Food Network?
I know the mobile industry, and more specifically mobile handsets, are evolving at an incredible rate. But, do we really need to have new versions of operating systems clogging up the Twitter-sphere every couple of months?
From what I have seen, these much bally-hoed updates are usually over-hyped events that beyond a few food junkies are non-events.
Heck, I just got a new phone (more on this in a later post) and apparently it’s already outdated? I am almost afraid to mention to those in the industry that my device runs Android 2.2 (Sugar Lump?) for fear I will be ostracized. Sure there is talk that an update to Android 2.3 (Zingers?) is on the way, but having already gone through that process, I am not looking to get too excited.
My previous trip down that path involved a device that at some point during its life was deemed worthy of an upgrade from Android 2.1 (Buttercup?) to Android 2.2 (Cotton Candy?), a process that if you followed on any tech site seemed to be akin to an evolutionary jump of fish beginning to walk on land. There were people claiming they were entitled to the update and that if the carrier or handset maker did not make it available yesterday they would begin burning the devices in front of libraries en masse. (Are there still libraries?)
Eventually my device told me an update was available, an event I now figured would be a life changing moment. In preparation for the update, I made sure that I had on clean underwear, that there was plenty of distilled water at hand and that I had warned the local authorities to not be alarmed when my house started to glow.
Feeling that I was sufficiently prepared, I hit the update button and then waited patiently as the device did its updating thing. While this was going on, I began to make plans for what I would be able to do with this new-found power. Smite my enemies? Obviously. Tackle fly fishing? Potentially. Find out how to turn on the vibration function of the device? Hopefully.
Once the update was completed, I let the device sit for a few moments figuring it would have to cool down from being infused with the soul of the gods. This completed, I dug into the device to see what had changed.
After what I deemed an exhaustive search all I could see was that some of the icons seemed to be different and that I needed to re-log into some of my accounts. What the … ?!?
What about all those awesome updates that the blog-o-sphere had promised? Where was that expected new-car smell? I was robbed!
(I had a similar experience with a BlackBerry device a few years back, but being that Research In Motion is based out of Canada, I really couldn’t get all that upset.)
From that moment on I have become obsessively anti-hype about updates. I am not saying that Google, or any OS maker should stop trying to improve their product, but I do think that the industry needs to back away from over-hyping what these updated systems can provide or that they are somehow a way to market a device as being different.
Thus when I received an invite this week from Samsung to attend a “Major Software Update Event” in New York City, I nearly threw my Android 2.2-enabled device through the Internet. (I figured what else is a 2.2 device good for.)
Really Samsung. A two-hour, media-only event to announce a software update to its Galaxy 10.1 Tab device?This followed by a five-hour window in which consumers can come in and get their devices updated?
I can only hope that the event has an open bar and that the ghost of Hunter S. Thompson shows up.
As for me, please save the sugar-filled hype.
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