Did Google and At&t wait on ICS for a reason

[brounmoney]

Well I have been waiting on the ICS update to get to my I9020A. Still nothing, but seems that it could be a blessing that I don't have it. I see a lot of people having lots of problems that I don't want to deal with. It got me thinking as to why google held off on sending the update to any At&t users. Was this something google did on purpose letting ICS get tested and find bugs first?

I talk to an At&t rep the other day, and they said google has all the control over sending out updates, and then it is up At&t to let customer have the update. This really got me to think about does At&t have strict rules when it comes to updates on phones. I know I never got 2.3.6, and I heard people say it had some big issues too. Maybe At&t is really trying to take care of their customers.

I know I was mad at first when I did not get ICS, but man right now I think I am in a better spot. I don't want to give At&t much credit, but maybe they are looking out for the nexus s customers. I don't want ICS if is does not work right.

If anyone has more insight into this please post. Or if you have any ideas I would love to hear them. I know I am giving At&t the benefit of the doubt, but it makes me feel better. I do know that google halted ICS for now, but that does not change my questions cause not even when the original updates was sent out did At&t Nexus s get the update.

 

[kkh786]

ICS has been working fine for me for nearly two weeks mate.
I don't know what issues people are getting.
Battery life is bettter than Gingerbread (granted "Android OS" is biggest user)
I have everything synced and I use the phone a lot during the day for browsing, calls and texting.
By the end of the day I am down to 30-40% battery.
I love ICS.. so much better than the bland Gingerbread.. it is your loss for not upgrading to ICS in my opinion!

 

[CocodaMonkey]

AT&T has nothing to do with it. Google never released an update for the I9020A model. Google always releases the updates for I9020A much more slowly then other Nexus S versions. Last time i remember really wanting an update was when they added video call support to gtalk, the I9020A for that came out a full month after all the other versions. No reason was ever given and at no point had google ever publicly stated they had stopped the rollout.

Odds are you won't see the update till next month, as google still hasn't even resumed the rollout and I imagine once they do that you'll still have to wait many weeks for a I9020A version and then possibly longer for AT&T.

If you check the top stickied thread in this forum you can see when it gets released as they are keeping it up to date with the ICS release news. If you want they even have a guide to get ICS onto a I9020A but it's a bit tricky and obviously not supported by google.

 

[brounmoney]

AT&T has nothing to do with it. Google never released an update for the I9020A model. Google always releases the updates for I9020A much more slowly then other Nexus S versions. Last time i remember really wanting an update was when they added video call support to gtalk, the I9020A for that came out a full month after all the other versions. No reason was ever given and at no point had google ever publicly stated they had stopped the rollout.

Odds are you won't see the update till next month, as google still hasn't even resumed the rollout and I imagine once they do that you'll still have to wait many weeks for a I9020A version and then possibly longer for AT&T.

If you check the top stickied thread in this forum you can see when it gets released as they are keeping it up to date with the ICS release news. If you want they even have a guide to get ICS onto a I9020A but it's a bit tricky and obviously not supported by google.

Yea I really would rather wait for the phone to get the update. When I talked to At&t they said google had to send them the update before they would send it out. Which I can understand. If that is the case then I guess 2.3.6 got pulled for the I9020A because I am running 2.3.4, and At&t said that my phone has no updates.

I know a lot of people that love ICS, but for everyone of those people I hear about 2 that have had problems. Most people like what google is trying to do with ICS, but just like with every new update it had issues they have to work out. I would like to have it, but I will be glad to wait until all the bugs are out.

 

[CocodaMonkey]

You're in the same boat as me. Just waiting for google to release ICS for the I9020A. At this point though I'm not really expecting it any time too soon.

Just as a note though, 2.3.6 is released for I9020A and I'm sure if you check these forums you can find a download link for it. Installing an official release is pretty simple and doesn't require any advanced tech skills. Although I'm not sure 2.3.6 offers anything you'll care about over 2.3.4. If you're not getting 2.3.6 that one is AT&T holding it up, not google.

 

[BreatheElectro]

Yea I really would rather wait for the phone to get the update. When I talked to At&t they said google had to send them the update before they would send it out. Which I can understand. If that is the case then I guess 2.3.6 got pulled for the I9020A because I am running 2.3.4, and At&t said that my phone has no updates.

I know a lot of people that love ICS, but for everyone of those people I hear about 2 that have had problems. Most people like what google is trying to do with ICS, but just like with every new update it had issues they have to work out. I would like to have it, but I will be glad to wait until all the bugs are out.

What do you mean Google has to send them the update? I thought Google sends the update to the phones themselves. You know since it's a pure Google Phone, AT&T should have nothing to do with the phone expect that it's on their network.

 

[brounmoney]

What do you mean Google has to send them the update? I thought Google sends the update to the phones themselves. You know since it's a pure Google Phone, AT&T should have nothing to do with the phone expect that it's on their network.

You are right they should not, but guess what they do. They have to be the ones to push it to the phone. Google sends the update to the carrier which then pushes to the phone. Before I got the Nexus I thought it was all up to Google, but after I called At&t I was surprised to find that out. It was not to my liking, but nothing I can do. Now if you have the unlocked version Google has everything to do with it.

 

[quantumrand]

You are right they should not, but guess what they do. They have to be the ones to push it to the phone. Google sends the update to the carrier which then pushes to the phone. Before I got the Nexus I thought it was all up to Google, but after I called At&t I was surprised to find that out. It was not to my liking, but nothing I can do. Now if you have the unlocked version Google has everything to do with it.

All of the Nexus S' should be unlocked, whether it's the I9020T, I9023, or I9020A. The only difference between the models is which carriers they're 3G compatible with.

It's possible AT&T does push the update, but I doubt it. I'd bet if you called AT&T 10 times, you'd get 10 different answers to that question. Most of the time, carrier tech support doesn't know much about the things that go on behind the curtain.

As a bit of proof that the updates are direct from Google, all of the OTA updates for the I9020A so far have come from Google servers, specifically android.clients.google.com/packages/data/ota/google_crespoa/*.

 

[brounmoney]

All of the Nexus S' should be unlocked, whether it's the I9020T, I9023, or I9020A. The only difference between the models is which carriers they're 3G compatible with.

It's possible AT&T does push the update, but I doubt it. I'd bet if you called AT&T 10 times, you'd get 10 different answers to that question. Most of the time, carrier tech support doesn't know much about the things that go on behind the curtain.

As a bit of proof that the updates are direct from Google, all of the OTA updates for the I9020A so far have come from Google servers, specifically android.clients.google.com/packages/data/ota/google_crespoa/*.

If it is true that all the updates come from Google then why in the world do they not have a support line of some sort. They tell you to talk to Samsung, but Samsung sends you to At&t. It really just surprises me that a company so big like google has no support. Why would they not have support? To me it only gives the customer more comfort in the product. I love the Nexus s and android OS, but man having to go through all the hoops just to find out the tech person has not idea what they are talking about makes me very angry.

I know no one wants to hear this on this site, but Apple's customer service is 10 times better. You can call and talk to a tech that knows what they are talking about. Also the people at the At&t stores know how and answer questions about the iphone. The only people that know anything about the Nexus devices are google people that you can not talk to. If google wants to compete with Apple they are going to have to get a customer services department. I think that is one reason a lot of people are afraid of android. I mean if my mom is looking for a new smartphone and was trying to decide between the Nexus and the Iphone, I am going to tell her the iphone. She is not tech smart, and if I was not going to be around to help her at least she could call apple and ask them. Where can any go for support for nexus? Here sure, but none of us are official Nexus tech guys. Google just needs to step their game up.

 

[Deleted User]

If it is true that all the updates come from Google then why in the world do they not have a support line of some sort.

Google only provides the Android operating system (OS), not the hardware or apps that are made by third parties. You can't expect Google to support hardware or software they didn't make. Samsung made the hardware, but you can't expect Samsung to support software they didn't make either. The carriers get training on both the hardware and software, so that's why the carriers are responsible for all support.

I know no one wants to hear this on this site, but Apple's customer service is 10 times better.

Apples support is much better, but that's because they have complete control over the hardware, software, and even the apps that get published for the iPhone. Complete control means they know what's going on with the phone. However, that control also means they control what you can and can not do with their phones. What apps you can and can't put on their phones. And they control how you use their phones by forcing you use their highly restricted iTunes software.

My wife is not highly technical, nor is my daughter. But they both enjoy using Android phones more than iPhones because they can do more with them, easily and without restrictions. Customization of the home screens is their favourite part of Android - it looks and works the way THEY want it to look and work, not the way Apple thinks it should.

 

[brounmoney]

Google only provides the Android operating system (OS), not the hardware or apps that are made by third parties. You can't expect Google to support hardware or software they didn't make. Samsung made the hardware, but you can't expect Samsung to support software they didn't make either. The carriers get training on both the hardware and software, so that's why the carriers are responsible for all support.

Apples support is much better, but that's because they have complete control over the hardware, software, and even the apps that get published for the iPhone. Complete control means they know what's going on with the phone. However, that control also means they control what you can and can not do with their phones. What apps you can and can't put on their phones. And they control how you use their phones by forcing you use their highly restricted iTunes software.

My wife is not highly technical, nor is my daughter. But they both enjoy using Android phones more than iPhones because they can do more with them, easily and without restrictions. Customization of the home screens is their favourite part of Android - it looks and works the way THEY want it to look and work, not the way Apple thinks it should.

Oh Don't get me wrong I love android. I have owned an Iphone and just got tired of it. I do understand what you are saying about Apple and android, but I think google could offer customer service for android alone. I mean my only question is about when I would get an update, and I wanted to make sure nothing was wrong with my Nexus s. My biggest complaint with the system is neither the carriers or Samsung have a clue about what they are talking about.

Google had a very close watch on the Nexus s being made, and nothing that Samsung did was without google approve, so google should know what it going on with the phone.

If Samsung can't help you and the carriers can't what are we suppose to do?

 

[krislibertine]

ICS has been working fine for me for nearly two weeks mate.
I don't know what issues people are getting.
Battery life is bettter than Gingerbread (granted "Android OS" is biggest user)
I have everything synced and I use the phone a lot during the day for browsing, calls and texting.
By the end of the day I am down to 30-40% battery.
I love ICS.. so much better than the bland Gingerbread.. it is your loss for not upgrading to ICS in my opinion!

Just noticed this, how long does your battery last ? Please have a look at my post with battery usage... I am suffering with something

 

[Deleted User]

Just noticed this, how long does your battery last ? Please have a look at my post with battery usage... I am suffering with something

Try doing a Factory Reset from the settings. It will wipe the phones memory and reinstall a clean firmware. You will lose your settings, call history, texts, and have to reinstall your apps, but it means you have a clean firmware without anything getting in the way. If the battery usage improves, then it was just a fuzzy installation. If not, then it's probably one of the apps you're using is causing the battery drain. Install one app at a time and monitor how it affects battery usage for a day, then continue.

Google has paused ICS updates due to some issues, so it might be a bug in the code that affects certain users or configurations as not all ICS installs have battery issues. You may have to simply wait for a fixed version to be pushed out.

I'm still waiting for an official ICS update here in Canada...