It is to some degree, but it does a lot more than your RAZR and I think we're at the point where it is just being intentionally stupid to still consider a modern phone to be nothing more than a device to make phone calls.

The point here is that if you have say an iPhone then an iPad isn't really going to get you anything you couldn't do on your phone aside from it being perhaps a little more convenient to do it on a larger screen.

If there is such a thing then run the Android app in Bluestacks.

The problem with them is the poor resolution of the screen. Also most had the terrible 1366x768 screens which is the awful 16:9 aspect ratio.

Well that's a pretty key point, is there any evidence to support that? Also it isn't just 4.3, this vulnerability is anything prior to 4.4.

Like I said, if it doesn't say "hey, here's an update" they won't care, Windows does that, Android does not. Android's approach to updates is a new operating system version rather than a patch.

Search is a great feature! Having a mouse and clicking around a GUI browsing for files was the most gimmicky, mouth-breather way of launching programs that added nothing for users. If you want something then just type it, it's faster than hunting through and clicking ever-expanding menus trying to reveal what you're looking for. Not only that but I don't need to rely on different operating systems having all the items in the same place, for example if I need mouse settings I just search for it and whether it's Windows 7, Windows 8 or OS X it gives me all the mouse-related items. I can do it with programs too so I don't need to worry that somebody may have organized their programs or files differently to me if I use their computer.

This also works on phones, I know where I put Safari on my iPhone but I don't know where it is on somebody elses so instead of hunting for it the more efficient way is to search. I could just browse for it but search is quicker.

Power users can go further than search and do things like scripts that copy lnk files from the start menu folder (yes it is what drives the start screen in Windows 8 too) to a directory that you add to your PATH variable so you can just launch any applications directly from the command line without having to remember where they are. This is great for when you have to work on a different system where things aren't where you expect them to be.

You can still put things in sensibly named and organised layouts if you prefer, and you can create shortcuts to things you need and place them in the most appropriate locations. I'm not sure where you get the idea that you cannot do that anymore.

Where did you get that information from? I saw they are going to charge for it after the first year and that they will obviously charge OEMs for it so they can make money but I didn't see anything about "subscription".

Well if you look at the usage of versions prior to 4.4 it is most of the Android userbase. I don't think there's a hard and fast rule on how long but given that most people are still using earlier versions I think it's pretty clear there needs to be some support.

Well really this is a special case anyway, the problem has been mostly resolved in recent Android versions where this is all moved into the Google Play app/services so Google can update these things directly. Webview specifically has been moved there in later versions.

I doubt it, most people would have no idea about vulnerabilities such as this or that there is a new version of Android for their phones. If it doesn't say "hey, here's an update" most people don't know or care.

That's a fair position to take but in my opinion Google should see the situation and adapt to it by patching the older version especially since many of those phones do lack the capability to run 4.4 (though some may be able to skip 4.4 and run 5.0).

Even an unlocked bootloader isn't going to help you if you don't have a compatible system image, the binary drivers of one version don't necessarily work with the next because of the instability of the kernel ABI.

What Google should do is force a support requirement through the OHA.

I'm not sure why you said "car" up until this point when you are specifically referring to the ECU component of a car that has one, which of course not all cars do. Were you trying to be intentionally misleading? ECUs can be replaced irrespective of the First Sale doctrine because that copyright is not tied to the car but to the ECU.

But that is irrelevant anyway, unlike the case of Ubisoft revoking keys for games no ECU has a requirement that ties it to an owner but if it did then it would still satisfy the First Sale doctrine because it is not about being able to use the goods after they were sold but to be able to sell the copyrighted goods in the first place.

So I still don't see how you're relating an ECU to re selling insurance policies, or to Ubisoft game keys for that matter.

Even *if* your suspicions are correct the fact remains that they cannot be upgraded to 4.4.

We're talking about the First Sale Doctrine, it doesn't apply to your car.

No, it is definitely you. So please explain to me what you think the First Sale Doctrine is.

Correct.

No it would not.

No.

Where do you get the idea that when a FOSS hole is found nobody is exploiting it? How do you even know when one is found? You wait for somebody to tell you about it and assume that nothing is ever found by anybody until then?