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Tell HN: Google tells users with telephony issues to rollback and factory rest

15 points by curiousgal ↗ HN
https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/143183382/december-2021-update-paused?hl=en

Google has managed to mess up the only thing a phone should be able to do which is place/receive calls.

The fix won't be coming until late January and the current solution is to roll back to the November update which requires a factory reset.

How did software development, especially in a company as big and as renowned as Google, get so broken?

5 comments

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rightbyte
This is why I wait in the longest to apply updates on my phone or work computer with Windows.
curiousgal
The problem is that the December update came with a large number of bug fixes that users had been waiting on.

https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/139017133/googl...

rightbyte
Oh ye sounds annoying. This is why you want LTS and backports.
hdjjhhvvhga
Actually this would be a good business model - update as a service (already exists but for paid products mainly or in a slightly different form[0]): you get the product for free (Android, Google, etc.), but if you want to continue using it past a certain date and enjoy security patches, you need to pay. This wouldn't be that hard for Microsoft to pull off - their updates are already crap so they don't risk that much. Basically a free additional stream of revenue with almost no downsides. Yes, Satya Nadella, I'm talking to you - I know you read HN so think about it.

[0] E.g. kernel-livepatching-as-a-service like Canonical Livepatch for people who care about uptime

rightbyte
Aren't consumers already used as guinea pigs for corporate users in Windows?

The nice things about backports is not only security fixes, but general bug fixes and no "new feuture" bug introductions. E.g. gcc backports to older versions.