The Androids of Eve

We've all tried to read an Asimov at one point or another, I sure have and I'm not afraid to admit it. "Robots of Dawn" it was. Not to say it was a miserable experience, but I wasn't impressed. His repetitive explanations bored the hell out of me, and only made me wonder if he's as lost in his own plot as I am.
That terrible novel has nothing to do with what I'm intending to write about today, but the title seemed fitting.
Android is Google's linux based, open-sourced operating system for mobile devices. It has gained momentum in the industry since it's initial release, but evidently the open source evolution has not yet caught up with all stake-holders involved, and here's why:
Rogers is currently offering the LG Eve with very positive promotions that fail to note an important issue. The LG Eve is running Android 1.5 and neither LG nor Rogers is even remotely interested in providing a firmware upgrade to any of versions 1.6, 2.0, or 2.1. Not considering the security fixes and optimization the newer versions provide, some of the newer apps, Google Maps Directions, specifically, won't work on anyting under Android 1.6.
So basically you're getting a great piece of hardware with an obsolte OS and no support whatsoever. It's as if you're given a discontinued model, as i told Vicky from Rogers management (tier 2 customer service) today over the phone.
After some research, i discovered this attitude is not unprecedented. The HTC dream, another model offered by Rogers also sports the not so flashy Android 1.5 with no intention of upgrade. An Android forum opened up trying to get this matter into public attention.
After 3 months(?) they actually managed to get Rogers to issue an official statement promising to exchange every HTC Dream under contract with an HTC Magic, a model that HTC has commited for an upgrade in the coming months.
But before patting Rogers on the back, keep in mind that this is entirely thanks to HTC, who seem to be the only company out there that cares about its customers.
A similar conundrum with the Samsung Galaxy, another of the first Android 1.5 phones resulted in an open pettition dating back to June 2009, and as of today Samsung has no intention of upgrading the firmware or updating the phones.
It seems that the Vendor (e.g. LG) will not commit an upgrade unless the carrier (e.g. Rogers) requests one. However, the official response of BOTH parties is that it's the other party's responsibility to initiate the upgrade. Takes me back to kindergarden when i think about it. This is likely why we're currently seeing the first Google phone - the Nexus-1. Google probably realized this retarded attitude by both vendors and carriers is killing their dream of standardized devices able to run any version of Android. A world in which phones do not become obsolte after a year of use? Not gonna happen. LG would rather push their new model than work on firmware upgrades for an older model. Rogers would rather its clientele bought new phones every year, rather than pay the vendors to commit an upgrade.
Considering the current market attitude, the only way you're going to see Android upgrades is if one company actually makes a commitment to maintain their phones over a period of time -- enters the Google Nexus-1. Now that Google distributes their own phone, there is at least one vendor out there that you can assume to provide proper support for their product. When the other carriers realize that users will only buy supported products, that they themselves do not distribute, one of two things will happen:
1. The vendors and carriers will decide that Android phones are a too costly liability and will cease to produce/distribute them.
2. Both vendors and carriers will adapt to the new market attitude and FINALLY accept their responsibility to upgrade their products.

After reading all this nonsense, i have to ask myself why is it the consumer's responsibility to push the carrier to push the vendor to release what should be basically essential product support? Having to go through the typical corporate runaround with deffered responsibility to no end.
Do they not realize that loss of customers = loss of money?
I, for one, will return my LG Eve today, and wait-out the remaining of my contract with my old phone. Then, possibly, assuming HTC makes good on their promise, get the HTC magic - upgraded, because i do love the Android platform and it's too bad i can't keep the LG Eve. I'd much prefer the physical keyboard, the awesome display, the normal-sized headphones jack and the Android OS, but i will not buy an unsupported product on a 3 year contract.

If you think about it, it's also Google's fault for not setting a contractual obligation on the vendors and carriers to provide consistent firmware upgrades.
Think about this if you're considering an Android. The only vendor that will likely support your product is Google. And in all likelihood the only reason HTC is doing an upgrade is because they're the ones who manufacture the Nexsus-1!

Finally, the plot unravels.

new blog ~!

I was about to start this blog with the line "Hopefully, this blog is Googleable..." and then I realized the almost unforgiveable offense I was about to make. Instead, I will merely hope, half heartedly, that this blog is indeed Googleable so that i may use it for documenting installation processes of new hardware/software and minor fixes that i typically deem too simple to be worthy of documentation and later regret not having done so.

A little background for the unsuspecting reader:

Canadian as I may be, I've spent a meager 13% of my life on this continent.
Consequently, English is not my native tongue, nor is it the one I'm most comfortable with.
I don't like paragraphs and capitalizaions, and you would likely find that i sometimes forget to capitalize the I in a sentence. Though i appreciate the language, and frequently find myself reading English litterature, its exceptional nature has not escaped me.
I find that i more respect rules encapsulating common sense, than those based on nothing more than tradition. For example, if i were to walk on a deserted street at 4 in the morning, I would not likely wait for the light to turn green before crossing.
Tradition aims to bypass decision making but can never quite replace common sense.

From a linguistic perspective, being that my native tongue is Hebrew. I am used to a language structure in which everything is pronounced as written. But... (ho ho! my very own But sentence) it has its fair share of excpetion handling. For instance, in Hebrew, every object has a gender reference. There is no neutral "It".
I often wonder how newcomers to the language master the art of figuring out the gender of every single object in the universe, and though there are distinct patterns, having to do with certain letter-sequences, there remain a great many exceptional cases one must memorize.
It is also fascinating to note the typical errors people of a foreign culture make when importing their thoughts into another language, and equally, if not more so fascinating to note the reaction of the natives to the unavoidable flawed result. What i find, personally, and i am sure i'm not alone in this, is that the linguistic difference and traditional litterary influence affects the way we formulate thoughts and the way we express ourselves. Thus, with those grammatic errors, something else transcends the import process, and a careful reader will detect the positive exotic contribution rather than linger on grammatic flaws.

What else is there to say about me... I, like Hemingway, must work very hard to attain something very simple, though it is always what i strive for. And often, I delete and rewrite before i am content with the final outcome. I am comforted by the thought that the process itself, fake though it may seem, serves to inspire me into a state of sincerity, and thus it isn't as fake after all.

I think this is enough for an introduction.
Till the next post.