I have a Pixel 4a (with Calyx) for a few years already (start of 2021) and it’s still going great. The battery is okay. Everything works nice. It’s smooth. It runs everything perfectly fine.
This makes me glad to see that hardware wise this phone was really built to last, I can’t even count how many times I dropped it so hard that I was scared to see the damage (which was always either nothing or a broken screen protector)
But software wise I’m screwed as security updates are already gone from Google and I only get the extended support from Calyx which will also end soon.
Now I’m forced to choose between having a phone that is insecure or buying a new one.
So thanks Google for the high quality hardware, but what’s up with this software planned obsolescence??
I know this isn’t exactly right to repair, but it also kind of is because if Google decided to ditch the 4a, they should be forced to open source the software so that the public can actually repair it.
I’m sure that some of their latest updates can be modified slightly to work for the 4a, but they don’t care and for them this is a win-win since they don’t have to maintian support and they get new customers who would otherwise be satisfied with an “old” phone.
What happened to the days when an old phone meant a phone that was already crumbling to pieces, and not a fully functional computer that is slightly older then a toddler?
I don’t really care enough to spend a lot of time searching, but I found this opinion article breaking down a severe Apple iOS vulnerability from 2019: https://www.tomsguide.com/opinion/your-iphone-is-less-safe-than-it-was-yesterday-and-thats-good
If a device isn’t getting security updates anymore, it’s vulnerable. And a lot of the time these things aren’t caught right away. This is the exact same reason why you should never put a computer running Windows XP or 7 on the internet - it’s no longer secure and your system can be accessed by any person motivated to do so.
If you don’t care, that’s another matter. But you’re inarguably at a higher level of risk when your system can be exploited in a greater number of ways than one with more recent security patches.
and again, not being a sea lion, as sea lions request others to research easily identifiable information, which my posit is precisely the oposite of, i’ve asked if there ever has been a smart phone vulnerability like a botnet/virus campaign that has ever been actually pushed out to smart phones, anywhere, at any time, any where due to the ending of manufacturers security updates, and again, i’ve yet to be presented with any evidence it has (only that it could be). so, not knowing of one personally (which in no way means it hasn’t happened, just that i don’t know about any such occurance) i put it to the comment section, and having been replied to almost a dozen times now with “vulnerabilities” i’ve yet to be presented with an actual infection case. not one.
If you want documented evidence that there is a nefarious cadre of organizations hacking phones en masse using high-profile exploits before you’ll believe that out of date phones are something to give a shit about, then you’ll never be “presented with an actual case.”
What you’re describing isn’t the reason why we should care about security. If you don’t care, whatever, but planning for bad things that could happen is just basic preparedness even outside of computing. If a fire started in my apartment and I didn’t have a fire extinguisher I’d be fucked regardless of how likely I think a fire would be.
I know people who have had fires in their apartments, I have seen news reports on tv and the internet, there are entire subsections of literature giving excruciatingly grand detail of historical fires throughout time. You know, proof that a thing happened, and investigation of why and how it happened.
What I have not seen any proof of, at any time, from any source, is a mass infection of consumer grade smartphones which would have been prevented by ongoing timely security updates. Not one. Rien. Bubkas. What I am seeing a lot of is people convinced that a warning is as good as an experience which has been studied and learned from. What I’m seeing without fail in this thread are people so jammed up with “could” and “possibly” but no “here’s what we learned from this exploit being detonated in the wild, and here’s the reason it happened”.
I like your fire analogy, I’m worried about fires, I’ve seen the results. The same can’t be said about not getting ongoing manufacturers security updates for smart phones.
Okay, then you don’t care. That’s fine. There’s no mass hacking of phones going on, that’s not the risk and whoever told you that it was is stupid.
It’s an individualized problem, which is why it doesn’t make the news and why you’re on your own when companies fail to keep your device up to date. It’s not as sensational as a massive fire so it’s hard to care about.
Anyway, hopefully you’ll never have to worry about being hacked. The odds are in your favour, after all. The issue is when you get unlucky.
I do want to add that there are also mass hacking of phones, they just tend to be non-disruptive to the user, so it rearly gets coverage.