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< Esato Forum Index > General discussions > General > Firmware ...(post contains made-stuff/satire,etc.) Bookmark topic

Yesterday I collected my new C-class Merc. - great, you think. Yeah, until I noticed it's only doing 70mph... The garage and Mercedes informed me that "regrettably they hadn't yet figured out the ideal engine configuration. An oil-upgrade at the first service would probably improve various of the car's features including its top speed..."
Oh bullsh*t, you say, where's the phone-relevance, you rant...
WELL... I cannot be the only one here or anywhere with a growing grudge re. the catchy multi-purpose solution that is "the next firmware upgrade"!!! Sure, I understand software updates, little monday-bugs, improvements, etc... But phones' firmwares have become THE BIG DISTRACTION! In reality, we are turned into beta testers for unfinished products in an ever-more competetive business, with daily "next-big-thing-inventions-and delusions".
I read a review of Nokia's N91 (not some lay person... cnet, I believe - but it's not really important: it's one of 100's of examples...) recently. It stated there weren't "any cons with the handset that a future firmware-upgrade wouldn't solve..."! One of the little "cons"? a "3-4 second lag between songs on the n91's music-player" WHATEVERTHEF*CK: It's branded the/THE flagship MUSICPLAYER-cum-phone... A 4-sec-lag... Well, my Merc's only doing 70mph...
A friend here in Ireland bought a voda k800i the other day (THIS IS TRUE!). Unfortunately, he waited beyond the 4-week-no-quibble-return period. Anyhoo, the dude in the shop suggested a firmware-update for the slowest k800i ever seen... When asked if that wouldn't ruin the warranty as there was no voda-authorised firmware upgrade at the time, the dude grins and says, "yeah, you're right..."...
So, my friend accidentally dropped the phone right there in the shop... Got a new one... no sh*t. And no sh*t... we should all EXPECT proper, finished products. Or, the manufacturers should take a lead from the better software makers, who do offer free or cheaper beta/test versions...
Before I started writing this I spent just 35 mins on the internet checking "firmware"- related hits...
on the promise-side I found:
- faster music-player N91, - faster menu k800i, - faster web-browser e70, - better (i.e. acceptable) video quality N73 ( a camera phone, remember)
etc. etc...
On the minus-side: - reduced music-volume all e-series phones' - lower overall volume w810, - aworse this and this and that...

O.k., you ask, how's that a VIRUS? Is it really that damaging?... Well, one aspect (among many others) is this: More and more people adapt to the idea that some future firmware update WILL solve their phone's below-par-performance... Manufacturers can then rush more and more unfinished products onto the market, while the first buyers pay extra to beta test... NOT GOOD. Plus more and more people who own branded handsets for which there is no official update now turn to force-flashing/updating damaging their handsets beyond repair or warranty if they aren't lucky.
SO FELLOW ESA-TOES: more badly performing handsets should be accidentally dropped!
(a good and proper software update improves on and/or adds to an existing working "thing" - see e.g. opera...-, a bad firmware update tries to fix an incomplete phone model... We are all paying complete prices though...)
P.S. long post you say? well, count all the threads/posts on esato alone where someone has a firmware problem, and someone else says, "ey, new firmware man! That'll fix it"
very homeopath(et)ic

_________________
... What you need is what they're sellin' - make you think that buying is rebellin'... thin line between entertainment and war... ratm

[ This Message was edited by: maggflodd on 2007-01-29 08:10 ]
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Posted: 2007-01-28 16:58:03
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@maggflodd

You are preaching to the converted in my case and i have pointed out as long as us the consumer continue to allow Companies to get away with what i consider extremely bad practices things will never change as thier is no incentive for them to change.

Re your Merc besides just how ridiculous that is i would of driven through the shop front @70mph and said i thought it had automatic braking, Oh sorry that's in the next firmware upgrade then is it?


Marc

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Posted: 2007-01-28 17:52:52
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That's why I'm after an OpenSource phone
The whole World is the beta tester's group
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Posted: 2007-01-28 19:18:10
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Remind me to stick with Peugeot.....

Phone firmware testing is a problem I agree. However, you have some bad information. There is no way in hell a manufacturer could legally invalidate your warranty for updating a phone's firmware to an officially sanctioned firmware as long as you use a trained professional phone repairer to flash the phone (or just use SEUS online).

Also, if you spent only 35mins looking through google, then you can't really claim to be up on firmware issues. When you google, you will get the most relevant results at the top of the search, so while it looks like there are thousands of hits, only the first few pages are people with true firmware issues. So that might be 100 people at the most out of 100 000 users of that model phone.

Another factor is that "firmware complaints" are not always generic ie: only very few phones of a certain model actually have a problem. Often reflashing these models with the same firmware they already have, is often enough to fix the phone of it's problem. I agree this is a manufacturer problem, but it is covered by warranty and easily fixed.

I've also seen many people claim firmware issues only to do a master reset and find the problems have disappeared. In these cases the firmware has become corrupt and that's reasonable common amongst all phone makers handsets. Firmware is software - it is susceptible to electro-magnetic fields and other things that upset the inbuilt software.

I'm not saying there isn't a problem, but I believe you are blowing it out of proportion....

As to your Merc however, that's just crazy. Hell these things are built in Germany where they have the Bundesautobahn! Mercedes really need their arse kicked if they are doing that to their customers.



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Posted: 2007-01-28 21:45:41
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Hell, yeah,
actually I do agree with most of what you say...
It's just ironic, isn't it, that you are the second of 3 repliers to (almost?... Hmmm?) almost believe the Merc-bit!!! I made THAT up... Cause that'd happen if phone firmware standards WERE applied to other goods... satire! And similarily, lay-phone-users will fall for the firmware-myths of the alpha and omega of all probs... The 35 mins before posting was a re-check. I have read, literally 1000's of firmware related "posts" - trust me on this, it's my profession... And just compare esato today to, say 6 or 12 months ago... now folks who obviously haven't ever read a phone manual harp on about firmware - somehow hoping "that"'ll be it.
Maybe you were joking that you fell for the Merc-story - but you might have repeated it... not because you're naive or ignorant... Maybe you were just reading with 1 eye/watching telly... Whatever,... Mobiles are ever more intricate systems within systems... But for most they should be "just fun"... And really: be manipulated into paying €300-600 and the product isn't "firm" enough, yet - maybe later?!
F*ck, without some degree of imagination more than once I would have returned a "faulty" thing - looking like an idiot...
No really, firmware to add and improve, NOT to hopefully complete! Finally, I also suspect that some of the firmware-priests know full well what's going on, but for some reason or other they go with "the flow"... inflating the use of "firmware" beyond reason. Challenge: check backissues/old posts from 12 or even 6 months ago and today (pick esato/cnet/pocketlint/allaboutsymbianetcpipapo...) I bet you'll find a massive, MASSIVE increase in the referencing of "firmware", yet ZERO increase in informed-ness or product-quality!!! Game on?
Still, you're plenty right - only this is not just about you and me... AND THEY DO USE US TO BETA-TEST...

challenge 2 (loooongterm):none of todays hyped up beta-models will still be working in 5 yrs...
See what I mean?
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Posted: 2007-01-28 23:57:16
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Well mate, you never actually stated that you were joking , and your english is good but your grammer is not 100%, so it really isn't clear to an english speaker that you were being sarcastic. Well maybe I am stupid, but I've look back at what you say, and it's still not clear to me that you were being sarcastic.

I believed your story out of respect (ie: I assumed you weren't lying). To me I was very surprised and found it odd that mercedes would be so bad as that. Thankfully they aren't.

Personally I don't believe they are using us as guinea pigs. I believe they could try harder to get better tested firmware out, but I don't believe they do it on purpose, and probably the development team doesn't get enough resources to test properly. We are demanding more and more powerful phones, and the manufacturers are running to keep up with demand.

This is the same for all companies. And the reason there is more reference to the word "firmware" could be anything. Firmware is the first thing everyone blames. Also, the popularity of online firmware updating has also brought problems. How many times I've seen people with a perfect working phone that never crashes, do a SEUS update and then find the firmware they have updated is faulty. I mean why update in the first place? WHY???? I don't get it. If people want the latest for no reason than being able to say they have the latest, then they deserve a buggy phone.

I've done a seus update before that seemed to put buggy software on my phone, then I did a master reset and it was okay. That and other similar experiences have always left me feeling SEUS itself is not 100% reliable. Many people with perfect working phones, do a SEUS update, get dodgy firmware then beotch forever about firmware and never take any constructive steps (such as trying a master reset) to fix the problem.

So I know there is an issue, but I don't believe it's as bad as you perceive. I believe it's blown out of propertion by people who like to play with their hardware. Half these people probably have malware laden computers with ZERO system resources and reliably managing firmware updates is impossible.


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Posted: 2007-01-29 06:40:39
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Right... Interesting,,,
For the sake of clarity, grammar and a slight loss of interest I've added a satire-warning to the thread's title - though maybe masseur can just delete the unholy mess??? Until then, standing corrected yet firm-er:
Thanks

_________________
... What you need is what they're sellin' - make you think that buying is rebellin'... thin line between entertainment and war... ratm

[ This Message was edited by: maggflodd on 2007-01-29 08:15 ]
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Posted: 2007-01-29 09:02:56
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yeah, sorry mate, been having a bad day and I'm over-reacting to stuff.

peace bro.
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Posted: 2007-01-29 10:20:31
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Quote:
On 2007-01-29 10:20:31, max_wedge wrote:
yeah, sorry mate, been having a bad day and I'm over-reacting to stuff.

peace bro.

we all get that... No worries...
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Posted: 2007-01-29 10:25:22
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