Samsung's Latest Note 7 Battery Fix Violates Android Compatibility Docs (arstechnica.com) 117
Over the past few days, we have extensively talked about the Galaxy Note 7 -- and its faulty battery. Amid announcements of a global recall, Samsung noted that it is rolling out a firmware update to let users know if their device is affected by the faulty battery. If the battery icon on the device turns green, it means the device is safe to use. The problem is that according to Google's Android Compatibility Definition Document, a set of guidelines that Google imposes on every OEM that opts for Google Mobile Services-enabled Android aren't supposed to tinker with things like battery icon. ArsTechnica reports:In the CDD, Google also defines some of the interface design -- usually the parts apps need to interact with, like the System UI and shared theme assets. This includes mandating the color of the status bar icons, which seems to throw a wrench in Samsung's publicized plans. The section titled "3.8.6. Themes" reads: "Android device implementations MUST use white for system status icons (such as signal strength and battery level) and notifications issued by the system, unless the icon is indicating a problematic status or an app requests a light status bar using the SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR flag." Google spells it out pretty clearly: status bar icons have to be white. They aren't allowed to be green, which is the color Samsung plans to use in a future update.
And (Score:1)
So what?
Re:And (Score:5, Interesting)
No, it's fine (Score:5, Insightful)
unless the icon is indicating a problematic status
Right. The icon *is* indicating a problematic status: The device is using a battery which might explode.
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The device is using a battery which might explode.
That describes every electronic device made today. Except some explode more often than others.
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The samsung phone may explode from normal use only - unpleasant if it happens in your pocket.
It's a bigger issue on airplanes. A spare battery on an airplane caught fire recently.
https://consumerist.com/2016/09/16/spare-electronics-battery-catches-fire-aboard-delta-air-lines-flight/ [consumerist.com]
Re: No, it's fine (Score:2, Interesting)
But then how do you know if the battery checker app is working correctly? Really, Samsung should have a firmware update that shows the battery RED if there is a problem, plus a separate app that just tells you if the battery is defective model (or not). That separate app only needs to run once.
Re: No, it's fine (Score:1)
They probably don't have a way to force an upgrade.
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For added entertainment value, they could make it red if there's a problem, green if it works correctly. Then, hope that none of their customers have red-green colorblindness. :-)
But seriously, an app does seem like the right solution, but I could see the ai
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But then how do you know if the battery checker app is working correctly? Really, Samsung should have a firmware update that shows the battery RED if there is a problem, plus a separate app that just tells you if the battery is defective model (or not). That separate app only needs to run once.
Why doesn't the damn App just raise an Alert or Notification or whatever Android calls a pop-up message; or even just a stupid page with a big green Checkmark or Big Red "X"?
WTF is all the damn drama about? Just NOTIFY the Luser, FFS! If Google says it is a violation of its OEM agreement to dick with the Battery Indicator color, then just pick one of the other dozen or so methods to impart information.
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They implemented that as well, the phones indicate a problem with the battery on reboot and charging if it has the bad batteries. It is more than a red X or green check though, it actually explains the issue.
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In case of a fault like this, the situation is "default unsafe". That is, the color the battery icon was before the fault, which existed before it was found, was discovered is the best indicator that there is a problem with the device; any device which does not change the color of its battery icon can be assumed to have a problem. That problem may be that it contains the faulty battery, that i
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That's great if they can somehow guarantee that every Note 7 gets the update. Talk to the carriers about that one.
But Samsung has already proven that Android Software Update "difficulty" to be the lie I always suspected it was, by announcing last week that they were going to PUSH an update DIRECTLY to the GN7s in the field to restrict the battery charging to 60%.
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Updates were a bit more frequent on my Nexus 6 only because I downloaded them directly from Google and applied them manually.
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Samsung has their own apps, which receive updates separately from the OS, one of which does interact with the power management of the device. I get at least one Samsung app update per week on my S7 Edge, but I've only seen 2 (or has it been 3 now?) OS updates since the phone came out.
Updates were a bit more frequent on my Nexus 6 only because I downloaded them directly from Google and applied them manually.
Ok, well I guess that does make sense; since they were contemplating changing an OS UI Widget, rather than just running an App that pushed a Notification or something (like they shoulda done). But I guess Google already gave them a "pass" on this, anyway.
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You mean like this warning?
http://www.express.co.uk/life-... [express.co.uk]
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They are treating the hazardous devices as if they are 1/1,000,000 chance of a problem. If that's the case then the differentiator they are using to separate the good from the bad isn't very useful.
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Penalize them, how?
They let Samsung get over 20% of the global Android market share, "penalizing" the in any way now would be shooting themselves in the foot.
Re: No, it's fine (Score:3)
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A living canary tells you nothing about the safety of the world around you.
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There's a lot of scientific papers on lithium batteries and their risks & flaws if you look for it. You don't have to rely on clickbait sensationalist 'journalism' written by someone that doesn't know the difference between an alloy case and a violation of the conservation of momentum and is likely to call both of them an airborn computer virus. (The standards for journalism have fallen so low
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coffee cups explode sometimes too.
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No its not indicating a problem status.
Its green if the device is safe. Effectively and everything is ok alarm.
Why they would not make the update show the battery icon as red or have a ! accross it or something if the device has one of the faulty batteries escapes me. That would both comply with Googles license and probably make people with the faulty batteries take more notice.
Product Safety (Score:2)
Android usage terms and conditions probably need updating to allow changes which are necessary to ensure product safety. It has been shown that Note 7 devices with a white power icon may be unsafe whilst replacements with the green icon are safe to use. The ball is in Googles court.
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Changing the system tray icon color might be the best way to indicate safety to the user, but it's hardly the only way to do it. Therefore, you can't really claim the changes are "necessary," which means Google doesn't "need" to do anything.
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Isn't this what notifications are for?
We need to cut Samsung some slack here (Score:5, Funny)
The problem is that according to Google's Android Compatibility Definition Document, a set of guidelines that Google imposes on every OEM that opts for Google Mobile Services-enabled Android aren't supposed to tinker with things like battery icon.
I agree that, under normal circumstances, Samsung should get dinged for something like this. But the problem is Samsung's copy of this document got destroyed in a fire.
Some problem (Score:1)
Oh boy, and I thought this world has important problems to solve
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Oh boy, and I thought this world has important problems to solve
When why are you wasting time complaining on Slashdot instead of going out to solve those problems?
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It's open the same way that Chrome is. If you fork it, you can't call it Chrome and you can't use Google's trademarks all over it.
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The real kicker with andriod is the google apps. Maps, Play store, Gmail, Hangouts, Chrome etc. If a phone/table vendor wants those then they have to submit to google's UI rules.
Some vendors have tried to replace the google apps with others (for example the "fire" series from Amazon) but afaict said vendors have seen pretty limited success.
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As long as you don't bundle Googe crapware with it. Then you must comply with their rules.
Why do you think Cyanogenmod comes without Google crapware?
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Cyanogenmod is not Cyanogen OS.
The OS comes with gapps but you have to install gapps yourself on Cyanogenmod.
Wrong way to go about it (Score:1)
Seriously, if they're going to push out an alert, it needs to go to the people with explodey batteries, and leave people with OK batteries out of it. A nice big popup reading "This device has been recalled due to exploding. Please return it to the store you purchased it from" that cycles through a few dozen languages and cannot be dismissed except to use the phone.
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I don't think the TSA is okay with just asking "did your last reboot say your phone won't explode?"
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How do you know if you have an unsafe phone if you don't read slashdot and don't know your battery indicator is supposed to turn green if you're OK?
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I think a popup is the way to go.
If you need some indicator to show other people, put it in the settings menu.
A tiny thing like the battery changing green could mean that the battery is fully charged or something.
Red could be interpreted as it needs charging.
This is probably why google doesn't want companies messing with the battery indicator.
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At that point it doesn't much matter. Indicator turned green for unknown reason.
What if you know the phone might be bad, and the indicator doesn't indicate that it's validated it's a safe phone? Is it safe? Did the roll-out miss you? You need some kind of visual confirmation that the test has been done and came back clean, or else you're still in an unknown and unsafe state.
OOooOOOooh! They got CAUGHT! (Score:5, Insightful)
Really though, nobody should care one bit about this. The violation is that the icon is green under normal conditions. Turning red when unsafe is standards-compliant, but the green normal state isn't. The problem is that a white normal state provides no confirmation to the user that the battery status has been checked at all. Turning green confirms that the check has been performed and the result was acceptable. Could they have used some other method of indicating this? Sure, but it would have been more intrusive and less clear to the user. This is simple and elegant, and addresses a problem that the standards writers certainly never anticipated. It's a great solution, really. Why would anyone object?
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It's a great solution, really. Why would anyone object?
Because this is Ars Technica we're talking about. Mental flexibility isn't one of their strengths.
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Changing the icon is a great solution to what, exactly?
It doesn't prevent customer phones from blowing up. It might imply that any phone that doesn't have the special colored icon is liable to explode, something I'm sure competitors would rather not have happen.
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Why would anyone object?
The red-green blind would object.. :)
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If you use a red icon for a dangerous battery, a standard white icon then indicates that the battery has been checked and is fine, OR that that firmware has not been updated,and the battery has not been checked and may cause a fire.
so then use the speaker (Score:2)
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Why use the battery icon anyway? Seems to me that I'm less likely to be looking at that icon when the phone is in my pocket, which just so happens to be the time that really want it to not explode. If there were a loud siren when it started getting to hot, or whatever signals the icon reacts to, that'd be much better. Or maybe just turn the thing off? But an ICON???
It's not meant to be a warning that the battery is actively failing, it's to indicate whether or not your device has the faulty battery so you know if you need to get it replaced -- or keep it out of your pocket.
Why would Samsung care? (Score:1)
Why would Samsung care? They have never used Google's interface for any of their phones. Who cares if they violet Google's UI color rules when they reskin everything anyway.
oh my god who the hell cares (Score:1)
i got cancer reading this. people are dying in other countries.
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I only care if white people I know personally are dying. Even then it's debatable.
Priorities? (Score:5, Insightful)
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The color of smoke emitted by the exploding phones meets the specs, so it's okay.
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Lawyers can't think of everything.
That will be covered in the next version.
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Better option would be to turn it RED.... (Score:2)
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And 3 seconds later there'd be 50 more apps just like it. Prank your friends with an alert that the phone is going to explode! Use your phone on an airplane with this app that claims the battery is fine!
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Android Compatibility ! Safety (Score:1)
Sorry, maintaining full android "compatibility" on a product you are recalling anyway is not more important than safety.
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But Google may want to separate itself from Samsung shame. Being that Samsung has typically been Googles main device having thier flagship OS being part of the exploding phones, Google may be ready to nitpick on details to show that Samsung wasn't using the Real Android but an unsupported hack.
There was an issue a while back with iPhones exploding because of 3rd party chargers, being that these were unapproved chargers Apple was able to distance itself from the problems.
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Why don't they just lock the phone up for all but emergency calling instead of playing with the battery icon color?
is anyone color blind? (Score:2)
Would you be able to tell if the icon is green instead of white?
I'm not color blind, but depending on the saturation of the green and the viewing conditions I don't think I'd be able to reliably determine the color of a small green icon versus a small white icon.
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Are you sure you're not partially color blind? Green looks very little like white. And they're trying to be noticed (to prove you've received the "safe or not" update), so I doubt they're going for subtle.
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Yes, I'm certain, I've been tested.
I also work with displays for mobile devices professionally and operate them under more extreme scenarios that most end users.
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Truly confidence inspiring words.
I'm happy that I was able to placate your concerns.
Everyone gets notifications, don't they? (Score:2)
A flaming phone icon would be better. (Score:3)
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Hey I thought all S7 phones were recalled? (Score:2)
Consumer Product Safety Commission did a mandatory recall, right?
Re:Hey I thought all S7 phones were recalled? (Score:5, Insightful)
A mandatory recall means the seller must ask the buyer to return them. It's still up to the buyer to do so. It's not mandatory in the sense that jackbooted thugs come to your house, take your phone, and hand you a check from Samsung in the middle of the night.
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Just to further clarify:
For consumer products, recall participation by consumers is often as low as 10%, for cars the numbers are 15-70%, depending how much publicity the issue has received.
For instance, for the GM ignition switch recall that was all over the news for a LONG time, GM has been touting a 70% participation rate. That means 30% of the cars which could lock your steering wheel at speed and kill you are still on the road in that state in spite of a free fix from the manufacturer.
I bet Samsung's r
status bar icons have to be white, not green? (Score:1)
I guess blue is okay because that's the color the signal strength icons (wifi and cell) on my official Galaxy Nexus turn to with an internet connection, which just happens to be very convenient.
Poor Samsung. (Score:2)
"Beleaguered" used to be a word I reserved for Blackberry/RIM.
Now I can use it for Samsung.
The Problem (Score:2)
Solution: Added new "Battery on fire" battery icon status.
Problem solved!