- A portable netbook that no longer recognises that a fully charged battery is available for use, restricting me to mains power only on a 'portable' device!
- A Sky digibox that refuses to come out of Standby mode.
- Sky website is down, and phones not being answered, so no tech help available.
- A week-old T-Mobile G1 that refuses to accept that an operating system update (Android 1.5) is available.
- T-Mobile refuse to accept that it's their responsibility - "it's down to Google to send out updates".
- Google web site states "the timing of updates is down to individual operators"
- A 2-month old, G1 (updated Android 1.5 after a week of use) to that suddenly refuses to send text messages.
But let's expand a little bit on item 3 in the list above:
Last weekend, after more years than I care to think about as a Nokia fanboy, and after much contemplation and gnashing of teeth, I bit the bullet and 'upgraded' to a T-Mobile G1 phone. Now, I like to think I keep my finger on the pulse, and I've heard lots of good things about this phone. I'm keen, I'm eager to see what it can do. So much so that my partner got a G1 a couple of months ago so I could see what it was like. Ok, so hers waited a few days, but eventually the 1.5 'Cupcake' update notification arrived. Since then, her phone's been solid as a rock. Ok, so it's not the best camera in the world, but at least it now does video, right?
So I popped into my local T-Mobile store and got the upgrade. It costs me a little bit more each month on my contract, but not enough to worry about.
So like I said, I'm keen. I'm eager. Let's see what goodies are out there that I might find useful. First up, something simple, some toggle applications for Bluetooth, Wireless, GPS etc. to save keep delving into the Settings dialogs. Fire up Market and search for toggle. Nada, zip, zilch. All those lovely toggle apps loaded onto my partner's phone are just not found on mine. WTF?
Ok, let's look for something else. Pop along to the Androlib web site (which is a wonderful web view on the Android Market) and look for some goodies. Armed with a list of potentially useful software titles, I fired up the phone and started searching. Not one of the titles on my selected list was found! NOT ONE!
Ok, remain calm. It must be because I'm still on Android V1.0 (RC8) as supplied in factory settings. I download the AnyCut software (which was found) as suggested by someone in my office, and look at the phone info. V1.0 (RC8) is confirmed, but aha! There's a button at the bottom of the display to 'check for upgrade'. Surely that'll identify that I'm running on a crippled version of the software and spark the upgrade? Nope. Nothing found.
So, a week later and still no automatic Over The Air (OTA) update and time to call tech support. have you ever tried to engage in a conversation with T-Mobile technical support? 20 minutes of wait time to finally speak to someone on another continent who has no idea what I'm talking about when I mention Android. The sum total of her 'advice' was to ask what colour my phone was!
Back into my local branch early on Saturday. They also had no real idea, but did get me put through to someone in tech support who seemed to have a clue. But it turned out he was only Googling the subject as we were speaking. This is a route I've already gone down, and decided that I didn't want to download a potentially old and dodgy RAM image and update the phone myself. I want the official OTA update, but was told that this isn't something T-Mobile has any control over, it's down to Google to send out the updates.
Back home, and onto the web. The first official Google/Android web site I find on the matter states plainly that "timing of updates is down to individual operators".
It's now Monday and I'm sitting here steaming. Still no official notification of update. No idea of how long before I get it (if I ever do). No video on the phone, No useful software - though the Googlemail inegration does work well, it has to be said. No Latitude support in Google Maps.
Where do I go now to get the official update? All suggestions gratefully received...
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