Latest news [11-07-2017] and FAQ - Fairphone 1 KitKat 4.4.4 update

You are missing an important point; one that has swayed me to buy another phone: Security. A phone is not just a gadget, it is an important and powerful tool for most peoples private and professional lives. In this context, it is important to remember that the power must be handled responsibly. While I’ll agree that most of the updates we see to computers’ (including phones) operating systems are a vessel for the “March Of The Gadgets”, they do regularly include security updates decreasing the likelyhood of hacking. Also, there is no shortage of media coverage of actual hacking taking place, including many incidents which could have been prevented if users had updated their software. As such, the longer you wait to update your apps and o/s, the greater risk you expose yourself to. Until you actually discover that you have been hacked, it will be a matter of gut feeling: My gut has told me that the time has come, and I “need” those security updates.

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Yes, I’m with you.
Security updates are very important.

But luckily, KitKat is still receiving all of them.

But - as I’ve already written - this is just a short-term solution.

In the long run, we are going to need Lollipop (or even better: Marshmallow) to keep up with security fixes.

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It looks like fairphone is nothing better than Samsung and equal companies. Strategy is: to sell every 2 years a new telephone. Fair means for them only a sales feature but not reality. We have to buy it all 2 years new so no resources are saved. The got the big Prices for the fairphone 2 but in two years we have to buy fairphone 3 because the OS isn´t compatible to the actual Apps. But be sure there is nobody in Company fairphone who reads the post, they are only interested in publicity for fairphone 2. THAT IS NOT FAIR!

While I agree that neither the FP1 nor the FP2 are a phone that I would consider fair, the FP1 was the most fair phone available in the at the time I bought it (which was more than three years ago). And the FP2 is a big leap forward with its modular design.

I have too admit that I felt a bit betrayed, too, when they announced the FP2 only a year later. And it wasn’t really a help that this forum went crazy after the release. I still haven’t read most of the posts from this time.

But from the distance of another two (?) years, I begin to understand what they are doing and why. At least, I hope so.

While I would certainly say that Fairphone failed in comparison to my (too high?) hopes and expectations, they did great things - more than I have learned about any other manufacturer. This is a start - and I hope they can do better.

(@anon90052001 if you are reading this:
Hire more people to work on the software!)

In the end, I’m glad to own one of the first Fairphones ever made. But at the current price (and specifications - that phone is almost two years old!) I wouldn’t buy a FP2. (And my FP1 is still working.)

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Hi there,

Is there a place where we can follow the progression of update to 4.4, please ?
it’s not to play PokemonGo (I really don’t care…) but to use a bank app (N26)…

Thank you very much for keeping us informed as soon as you can :wink:

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An overview would be great, but I don’t know an up-to-date one.

If you don’t want to wait, you could either apply as tester or use the unofficial one.

Regarding N26 - well, you may want to watch this talk.

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Thanks for the video ! Very interesting :wink:
They fixed issues anyway, and seems to be open and thankful to get advice concerning security.
N26 is “young” but we need to help these kind of initiative to progress :slight_smile:

The FP1 beta section of this forum will be opened soon for everybody to read. There you’ll see everything that’s going on with the kitkat update. :slight_smile:

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First of all: thank you Fairphone team. I am using my fairphone happily since minute one and it is still running fine.

The information policy regarding this issue is a bit unfortunate. If there is a date set which cannot be hold, the consequence should not be to fall silent. Regular status updates are important in such a scenario so people know where the train is going.

In general I am looking forward to the 4.4 upgrade.

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3 posts were split to a new topic: Fairphone 2 should be more like FP1

The info is all there:

Before posting in a thread called “FAQ” you should really read the answers to those frequently asked questions.

Ok the FAQ has not been updated recently, I give you that, but that’s simply because there is no big new update to announce and the Fairphone team is too small to be able to give someone the task to provide you with regular updates if there aren’t any.

But that’s why the FP1 Beta Section will soon be opened to read, so you’ll be able to see the bleeding edge news.

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Although I’ve got access to the beta section, I’d still love to see an overview of what’s already done and what’s to yet expect.

It’s great to see progress on the individual issues but that doesn’t help me estimate how long it will take. :slight_smile:

Also, there was a newsletter in summer promosing the update for September, and after that there was no message whatsoever via email.

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Before posting in a thread called “FAQ” you should really read the answers to those frequently asked questions.

Umm, I failed to state that I meant the situation in September, October, November, where the set release date had passed and no communication took place whatsoever and in the huge forum thread under the announcement people collected snippets of info from various facebook posts and all.

I read the FAQ … But well, the text you posted can be interpreted as “we passed the deadline, so now we will not say anything anymore” … so basically what I said.

Again, it’s totally fine with me that an upgrade takes longer than expected (I work for a small software company as well, so I know the pain) but announcing first and then falling silent for such a long time is bad. If you (as a company) fail to acknowledge that, you refuse to learn from made mistakes.

And another answer here sheds another light on communication. The email announced the upgrade but no email was sent since. Not everyone follows on Twitter, Facebook, Forums, Blog and email.

Well, what’s done is done. I am still looking forward to the upgrade and still like my Fairphone. :slight_smile:

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The first post has been updated with the latest news we have at the moment.

There is no change regarding a release date: we still can’t make any promises when a final version is ready to be released… We are working to get a better and lengthier explanation about this to inform all FP1 owners.

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Still people, who are only following Fairphone via the newsletter haven’t gotten a message about [quote=“douwe, post:49, topic:23037”]
won’t make any promises when a final version is ready to be released.
[/quote]

The latest they heard was the release date of September 2016.

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Yes, you are right, there is a group of people who only follow Fairphone news with newsletters. I have raised this with the content team and they told me they will see if they can include something about this in the newsletter.

Still, many people who, after reading the newsletter, got curious, have already found their way to the forum, or informed themselves by mailing or calling us, or asking on a social media channel. So we think that this group is very small.

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thanks for the update and may the force be with you!

Regards!
Juan

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Thanks. But what happened to the concept of transparency and open communication? When a blog is posted and a newsletter is sent out stating something, any changes should be followed by communication using same means - regardless of whether the the group is big or small.

Guess who is secretive and are selective about communication? Apple. Not Fairphone. Right?

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May the force be with you!

I know the difficulty of working on a source code you don’t develop yourself… and the difficulty to know when is the end of the tunnel.

All my developer souls are with you!

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