<story><title>Google discontinues the Pixel 4, nine months after release</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/06/google-discontinues-the-pixel-4-nine-months-after-release/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Guest19023892</author><text>I was thinking the same thing the other day. I just updated my parents&amp;#x27; computers (which are 10 years old) to Windows 10. They still work great for their needs and they&amp;#x27;re up-to-date. I&amp;#x27;m running a 7 year old ultrabook also on Windows 10. I&amp;#x27;m planning to upgrade this year, but at least it&amp;#x27;s secure with the latest updates. I feel like we&amp;#x27;ve been able to get a ton of use from these devices.&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, I have a Samsung Note 2 phone which is 8 years old. It&amp;#x27;s fast enough for what I do (browse the internet for 10 minutes a day, send a dozen WhatsApp messages, book an Uber). That thing was released in 2012 and could no longer upgrade to new Android releases in 2014. That&amp;#x27;s pathetic. I need to replace it this year, not because it&amp;#x27;s too slow, but because it&amp;#x27;s insecure and no longer supported by anything. I was going to buy a smart scale the other day, but the app doesn&amp;#x27;t support my Android version. Also wanted an app for syncing the time with my Bluetooth GShock. Not supported. Sonos speakers? Not supported. It&amp;#x27;s a garbage phone now not because of the hardware, but because of the lack of support.</text></item><item><author>aloknnikhil</author><text>&amp;gt; Just like all Pixel devices, Pixel 4 will continue to get software and security updates for at least 3 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the U.S.&lt;p&gt;This is something I just don&amp;#x27;t understand. As phones get more powerful, there is absolutely no excuse to not support them for longer. When did the standard for supporting consumer devices get so low? Love it or hate it, Apple still supports the iPhone 6s Plus. A phone which is almost 5 years old now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>exmadscientist</author><text>You&amp;#x27;re talking about three different classes of device: PCs, phones, and IoT (IoS)&amp;#x2F;deep embedded.&lt;p&gt;Embedded development is hard. Really hard. And much of that difficulty is intrinsic to the problem space, so it isn&amp;#x27;t going away anytime soon. But much of it is just embedded developers being masochists and embedded tool developers being sadists. For phones, the pain is probably 90% avoidable. 90 percent!&lt;p&gt;No, I don&amp;#x27;t know why we live with it either.&lt;p&gt;The reason your phone is different than your PC is that the PC&amp;#x27;s OS has all the drivers for everything built in, then loads whichever drivers your specific machine needs. Embedded Linux images are built specific to one model of hardware, with weird crappy OEM-provided drivers baked in and nowhere else available. It doesn&amp;#x27;t _have_ to be this way. But it is.&lt;p&gt;So to support your phone, the vendor basically maintains a custom-patched kernel with a bizarre build process. And that&amp;#x27;s done more or less independently for every model they&amp;#x27;re supporting. It&amp;#x27;s a huge headache!&lt;p&gt;Why deep embedded is this way is a little more understandable. (It&amp;#x27;s also where I prefer to work if I&amp;#x27;m doing software; I don&amp;#x27;t like embedded Linux. It&amp;#x27;s just not my thing. So if I&amp;#x27;m wrong when talking about it, that&amp;#x27;s why.) Deep embedded is often working with very limited hardware, custom circuits, and general strangeness. It also can serve the industrial, automotive, or medical markets, which naturally tend to longer product cycles. So the product is generally less standard, meaning it makes more sense (at least to me) why the support flow is so bespoke.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google discontinues the Pixel 4, nine months after release</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/06/google-discontinues-the-pixel-4-nine-months-after-release/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Guest19023892</author><text>I was thinking the same thing the other day. I just updated my parents&amp;#x27; computers (which are 10 years old) to Windows 10. They still work great for their needs and they&amp;#x27;re up-to-date. I&amp;#x27;m running a 7 year old ultrabook also on Windows 10. I&amp;#x27;m planning to upgrade this year, but at least it&amp;#x27;s secure with the latest updates. I feel like we&amp;#x27;ve been able to get a ton of use from these devices.&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, I have a Samsung Note 2 phone which is 8 years old. It&amp;#x27;s fast enough for what I do (browse the internet for 10 minutes a day, send a dozen WhatsApp messages, book an Uber). That thing was released in 2012 and could no longer upgrade to new Android releases in 2014. That&amp;#x27;s pathetic. I need to replace it this year, not because it&amp;#x27;s too slow, but because it&amp;#x27;s insecure and no longer supported by anything. I was going to buy a smart scale the other day, but the app doesn&amp;#x27;t support my Android version. Also wanted an app for syncing the time with my Bluetooth GShock. Not supported. Sonos speakers? Not supported. It&amp;#x27;s a garbage phone now not because of the hardware, but because of the lack of support.</text></item><item><author>aloknnikhil</author><text>&amp;gt; Just like all Pixel devices, Pixel 4 will continue to get software and security updates for at least 3 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the U.S.&lt;p&gt;This is something I just don&amp;#x27;t understand. As phones get more powerful, there is absolutely no excuse to not support them for longer. When did the standard for supporting consumer devices get so low? Love it or hate it, Apple still supports the iPhone 6s Plus. A phone which is almost 5 years old now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>knorker</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s not a fair comparison. PCs have barely gotten faster in the last 10 years. 20 years ago you could spend $2000 every 3 years and get a 10x better computer. Not so last 10 years. Aside from graphics cards the hardware has not gotten noticeably better or faster for day to day work.&lt;p&gt;So of course you can upgrade to windows 10.&lt;p&gt;Phone hardware has. Very much so.</text></comment>