I agree that there should have been an official announcement here in the forum. But with a big warning that it is only for experienced users. It’s because of the difference between Xda and the Fairphone Forum: On xda you expect users to be experienced, on the FP Forum you cannot make such an assumption.
I also reported this in another thread. It is highly annoying to me.
I’m done reading through over 80 posts in this thread, which have amounted today, and 85% were posts from people, who did not search for a solution, which has already been posted, or, it was from people writing before thinking, and not being constructive. It is a good exercise, to read through a post before hitting “reply” and evaluating, if you would also write your post as it is, when being in a calmer temper.
I agree partly. However, it sounds to me that you are saying that people are not able to learn. A solution against all the useless stuff posted here in the last afternoon and today would be to put up an admin revision, on the days an update is issued. So moderators could avoid threads stuffed with all sorts of rubbish questions, and refer people to the answers, which have already been approved of. Then, I believe, the next time people will consider searching around first.
It was not a beta version, but a release candidate. Terminology matters in these situations. Also I think that not everyone knows what a beta version means. Many of the FP community are first-smartphone-users and not experienced in software affairs.
Hello @Frederik_Zimmermann, we are considering running a private f-droid install to host most of our applications. This would also allow us to make more updates available without the need to do full system updates. The current solution we are targeting to solve the current problems is to have the two launchers present in the installation and putting the launcher in the app store would start making this more complex.
Also (tech stuff) we moved some of the gapps installation code to the system updater and thus a different apk. The result of this is that the v1 launcher apk we will create will be different from the current one and can therefore not be shared between different Fairphone versions.
But this will put a tremendous workload on moderators, and if postings are delayed people won’t get any answers and will get even more frustrated.
Yes, there has been a lot of multiple threads asking the same questions or reporting the same problems. But this happens all the time on all forums - I suppose one just have to accept that we humans are no better than that. What happened this time was that the flood of multiple threads and superfluous posting was larger than ever before. And why?
Maybe the most important factor was that the update was launched without sufficient information about how it would change things, without a completed tutorial, and (maybe) with some novelties (the new launcher) that maybe shouldn’t have been put in the package. This is of course just my opinion, but I don’t think it’s completely unfounded, rather it is supported by the fact that the update is postponed at the moment. Compare this with the launching of the repartitioning update: this was followed with much clearer information, warnings even, of what could be expected and the desperate cries for help were very few. Forewarned is forearmed.
People are capable of learning. But that doesn’t mean that they do. Being a historian, I would say that if there is one thing you can learn from history, it is that mankind never learns from history.
For those people (like me) that already downloaded the 1.8 update but didn’t launch the install process afterwards, it’d be cool the next upgrade is marked something like 1.8.1 instead of 1.8, to prevent any misunderstanding (or even, my installer stating that as I already downloaded it, it’ll install straight away the… old 1.8…)
Hi Herve5 the new update will have a different name - so that should be ok!
@kgha the problem with updates is that sometimes we only now what should have been in the tutorials - after we get feedback on what is happening in the field - so it took time to make it complete with the things we did not know yet but it’s also brand new so still learning!
really excellent advice, the best in the circumstances.
I only had one problem implementing it. Because of the update I couldn’t go access anything googley.
Therefore, anyone despairing, if you have run the update and can’t access google, go through the update posts, there are a number of solutions to get the google widget to work. Use the one you understand best. Once you got it running, install the fairphone launcher and you have all the benefits of the new version and the functionality, beauty, uniqueness of the five-screen desktop.
I already requested, that on the day of the update launch there is more Fairphone staff present on the forum to help out. Everyone was a bit overwhelmed about the run on the forum.
@jempix Wasn’t my idea, I just forwarded it! But thanks anyway!
you are talking from the point of view of someone who is used to smartphones or setting up small digital devices. I’m not. I use those things like I use a truck. It works or it doesn’t. A non-working truck costs me a lot of money. What I expect is this. I buy the truck, I expect it to work, that’s why I bought it. I didn’t buy it to leisurely discuss the problem with a mechanic to see if we could possibly have it working again tomorrow.
So to you, this might be just “one of these things” and from your POV you are right. But you see, to me it’s a lot of "*ç% money going in the ditch. My worktime does not consist of re-installing these icons of whatever size, I never looked at a truck and wondered how its size has changed over the years, my worktime consists of taking a tool to work, not looking at it in bewilderment.
Therefore, I still love the fairphone but someone else is now using it. I still support the project fully, but for the time being I rely on a reliable one.
You also make a common mistake. You have the time/interest/profession to study these things, mess around with them and such. You also have the tim/interest/curiosity to post threads about this on forums, people like me don’t. It doesn’t work, f…k it chuck it, end of story. And so people like me, those who are a big sector of the market, generally don’t ever come to forums to post their experience. Already they have other things to do than go on smartphone forums. It’s just a little telephone with useful appendages for us. So the opinion of a large number of smartphone users with money rarely ever appears anywhere.
In my case I am very interested by this project. It’s my present private pet project. Which is why I support it and comment to add what I hope is constructive opinion. The reason being that I see the fairphone as a protectable species which should come handy in the future.
Dear all,
with the new update I lost all my settings etc. Some of you know that. I don’t want to set everything again. Is there a posibility to undo the update and get back to the last istalled version?
I you downgrade to the former Version 1.6, you have to set up everything again.
Besides, normaly the system settings are okay, you “only” have to personalize your screens.
Like @timbuktu mentions if you downgrade you will need to setup your homescreens again.
Please give 1.8 a try you might end up liking it very much.
Here are 2 videos explaining how the KitKat launcher works.
How to add homescreens and apps - http://youtu.be/czQUxDF7Sns
How to re-arrange your homescreens - http://youtu.be/BX_9hUafIhM
Wanted to leave my own feedback + a weird observation after having done the update.
I did the update before it was pulled back. Also I read the mail and looked into the support page for the new update before doing the update. So this may have impacted my updating experience.
The update itself worked flawlessly. Had to try twice to install the Google apps again. But then it worked just as fine. Had some weird messages right afterwards about apps not being able to update. Not sure what this was, but it only appeared once and everything works fine now.
The only disappointment is having to rearrange my launcher again. I’m not a big fan of the bigger icons and therefore having to rearrange my previous quite packed launcher slides. But it’s just a small annoyance and I’m already starting to get used to my new setup and the bigger icons. The only negative thing really was having to rearrange everything.
I am very happy about the touch/drag-issue being fixed with this update! This was bugging me a lot and I like that a “tap” is not interpreted as a “drag” anymore! That makes using the phone way more efficient. Haven’t come across any bugs, everything seems to run smoothly. Have yet to test if my bluetooth works better now.
Now to a weird thing that happened twice this morning:
In the notification bar there suddenly appeared a download for a Fairphone update. I checked in the Fairphone updater app after that happened and it says I’m all up to date and running 1.8. When I tap on the notification nothing happens. The notification disappears after a few seconds/minutes (not sure how long exactly) without really having downloaded anything. Not sure what this is about? (Happened while being connected to wifi)
// Edit: I’d actually be interested in / wouldn’t mind beta testing from a user POV, in case that’s up to debate anywhere. Read talk about this in a few posts here but not sure what the current situation in that regard is, since I haven’t been active on the forum for a while now.
Hi, unfortunately I already downloaded the Cola Nut. Does anyone know when the updated Cola Nut will be available? Is it better to just wait until it is available or will that take a long time? Because otherwise I’ll have to start with all the loose steps and and stuff to undo the errors.
You make a valid point and are right about what you say. In general it’ll be true that people who have experience with smartphones and a bit of technical know-how won’t experience the hurdles that come with the system update as a big problem, because they’re easy to overcome if you know how. It’s true that it may be an unpassable obstacle for others, which will completely ruin the experience for them.
I should say I wrote my other post mostly because I wanted to add a bit of a different sound to the forums after all the complaints everyone was posting. I generally do still think though, that with the right help and support, the update process should be smooth for even the most unexperienced users.
but it’s also brand new so still learning!
