How are tech updates decided upon?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I know I’ve posted about this before, but it never ceases to surprise and frustrate me when my computer or phone is “updated” and, in the process, ceases to perform a function I value.

The most recent example was my Verizon Droid phone. To set the stage, I should make it clear how little I use my phone. I have a grand total of 10 contacts stored. There are 18 total icons visible on my 5 home screens. I make a few phone calls, send texts, and do the occasional web search. I’ve downloaded a grand total of one app in the 2 years I’ve had the phone - a notepad for jotting down things I wish to remember. One other thing I use periodically is the timer - there was a loaded app called Alarm & Timer, which allowed me to set it to go off in a certain number of minutes. It had a pleasant binging tone.

Last week an update was loaded and I installed it. I’m not sure what all was improved, but I’m happy to assume that something about the perfomance has. Just about all I noticed was a change in the font. But what I don’t understand is why they would change so many little things that make it more difficult for me to use my phone as I have over the past 2 years.

Last weekend I went to a movie, and went to turn the sound off. There no longer is an option under settings to turn off the sound. The only thing my wife and I were able to come up with was to change the ringtone to silent, which then required that I change it back to my regular ringtone after the movie. (I’ve since found that by turning the volume all the way down it appears to go to silent mode.)

I said I send a few texts. Well, I used to be able to use exclamation points or question marks by pressing shift-1 or shift-/. Not anymore. Now if I hit shift-1, it simply types out “1”.

Then yesterday I went to take a nap. Thought I’d set the timer for 30 minutes. So I went to the Alarm & Timer app - and the timer is nowhere to be found! (Or should I say 1/) I dicked around for several minutes, but couldn’t figure out how to access the Timer function where it used to be. So I set the alarm for 30 minutes, and was unpleasantly awakened by an annoying buzz, which I then could not figure out how to change under system settings.

I know this seems like a pretty petty rant. But my underlying confusion concerns the process that leads to functions such as these being disabled during upgrades. Why did whom decide that it was a “good idea” for me to no longer be able to intuitively punctuate my texts in the same manner I have?

Don’t get me wrong. I know my phone is amazing. I feel like friggin Dick Tracy every time I use it. But it is nothing more than a tool. And I expect my tools to perform as expected every time I use them. When I need to remove a screw, I don’t wish to have to relearn how to use a screwdriver. And when I get in my car, I don’t want to find that the radio know now operates the wipers.

Anyone have any insight into the process that leads to such “improvements”? I find it frustrating because - at age 52 - I know I am increasingly becoming a dinosaur. I recognize my luddite tendencies and really wish to remain minimally relevant in this rapidly changing society. But each time I confront something like this I think, “Why even bother learning how to do it, if it will simply change at some time in the near future?” And - as hard as it may be to believe - I can think of few things I would less rather do than fiddle around with my phone trying to figure out how it has changed and what neat things it can do.

2

The responsibility for all my company’s cell phones falls under my department, so these are just observations from experience.

This is a difference between a minor update and a major upgrade, and smartphones in general aren’t good at showing/explaining the difference. Minor updates generally are to fix bugs and othe small things; similar to the monthly updates for Windows or Macs. I believe the recent Verizon Droid release was a major version upgrade - think upgrading Windows XP to Windows 7. People often try to extrapolate desktop/laptop experience to their smartphones, and that doesn’t always work; in the example above, Windows XP wouldn’t automatically download and ask a user to install Win 7, so they assume their phone wouldn’t do the same.

In addition, some cellphone companies customize the standard Android operating system with their own layouts, screens, etc. So the same phone from different providers may look very different from a user’s perspective. I don’t know, but Verizon may be making changes to harmonize the look and feel of different Android phones it sells.

A related factor is what I call “the fallacy of average” (I’m sure there’s a technical term) which is when people believe they represent an average person or the majority (“why did show X get cancelled, I loved it” for example). Maybe 80% of Droid users dislike using shift-1 for !. I have been on the technical side of this type of issue many times for my company’s in-house developed software.

3

Since you just got a good answer to your real question, I’ll take a whack at a couple of the things you’re having trouble with.

  • Mute your phone when you first turn it on by sliding the “slide to unlock” in the opposite direction. Alternately, once past the unlock screen, hold down the power button and select “Silent” from the menu that appears.

  • To type “!” try pressing and holding (long-press) “1” until it appears. Otherwise, look for it as a secondary long-press character on some other button.

4

Thanks for the reply. The automatic download itself caused me some initial concern, as it gave no indication what was being downloaded. I had a notice saying something like “Download interrupted, 88% complete” - but tho I tried for a while, I couldn’t figure out what was being downloaded. Didn’t know if I had hit something by accident, if it was malware, or what. I talked with our IT guy at work, and he told me what it was.

Perhaps what makes this so frustrating for me is that there is no “handbook” or other obvious source to explain what has been changed. Instead, as you go to do everything you are used to doing on your phone, you might be surprised to know that it no longer works the same way. There is no notification that something has been changed, and there is no direction to a resource to find how to do it now.

Good point about the average user fallacy. But I have no delusion that I am an average user. To the extent I am operating under a fallacy, it is that I am an extremely low-end user. Of course, as such, I am not likely to be a profitable target consumer, and I have no reason to expect my preferences to be considered.

Having such minimal expectations, I desire no changes or improvements, only reliability. Given my lack of sophistication, I am less able to respond when my status quo is changed. And I guess I don’t understand how technology is upgraded, because I can’t imagine why someone decided that - in the process of adding some new capabilities, that it was a good idea to hide the timer.

Final note, this morning I sent a text and the shift-1 worked!!! This kind of thing reinforces my lack of interest in technology. My first thought is, “Was I imagining that it didn’t work before?” But I know I wasn’t. So, instead, this reinforces my expectation that my phone is unreliable for anything other than the most basic uses. I don’t know enough about it to trust it, and am not interested in expending the time and effort into learning how to do it and maintain it. As I look around, it seems as tho a good portion of society either enjoys noodling around on their phones, or has at least accepted that considerable attention is needed on a regular basis to keep abreast with what their phones can do and are doing. I don’t need another hobby, and can’t think of much I would less like to do than mess around with my phone with no specific purpose.

5

Thanks.

When I unlock to the left, it seems to go right to camera. I had no idea a menu appeared if I pressed the power key longer.

And - what makes absolutely no sense to me - the shift-1 now seems to work. Why on earth would that change from day to day? When I long-press my 1, it gives me options for fractions.

Moreover, how does one learn these sorts of things? They certainly are not intuitive to me. So now that I know how to do that, where should I look for mute and punctuation the NEXT time they decide to “improve” things! :wink:

6

At least with the mute issue, the thing is that there are multiple ways to perform the same function. This is usually a good thing, and it makes it easy to eventually figure out how to do something, instead of searching all over for the one and only way to do it. It also allows for there being a slow/obvious way (settings menu) , an intuitive way (turning down volume all the way), and a quick/shortcut way (lockscreen and/or holding down power button).

So, it sounds like they figured that there were already multiple better/easier/quicker ways to silence your ringer, and decided to take away the one and only way you happened to know because it was the least used and least practical way. Sure, it’s slightly annoying to have them change stuff and force you to learn a better way, but the end result is that you now know how to much more quickly and easily silence your ringer - you figured out two ways on your own, and I gave you another two ways.

(This message typed on my phone.) :wink:

7

Updates are usually the result of reaching a point in software development where a release is finalized and no changes will be made except to fix serious problems. Development will continue, but QC procedures have to be performed on some fixed version of software, and when it’s been tested out sufficiently it will be released. Sometimes that release is necessary to fix existing problems or introduce new functionality. Other times it’s just a convenient place to stop and go through the testing phase.

8

fuck1 now i can’t figure out how to print capitals in a post1 and if i hold down the letter, it just repeats. is my phone freaking, or is this another ‘feature’ of the update/

does anyone know how it is decide which features to keep and which to jettison/ it always made sense to me to make changes to my phone or computer in systems setting. i don’t care if it takes an extra click or 2 - it makes sense to me, and i don’t find the other methods ‘intuitive.’ do they consult focus groups?

SHIT1 The ? just worked1 Now I can capitalize, but I still can’t get the exclam1 And it does not automatically cap the first letter after punctuation.

to what extent do updates like this reflect how devices are used, as opposed to social engineering to influence the way they are used/???//? damn - sometimes i get the quest, and other times the slash1

9

LOL, I’m gonna take a wild stab in the dark and guess your “Verizon Droid” is a Motorola Droid 4. Yes? (I’m about 99% sure)

Well, if it makes you feel better (probably not), you’re not the only one having problems, as evidenced by a quick glance at a forum specific to your phone model.

First thread currently listed in that forum: shift key fail since most recent ice cream sandwich update

Third: Want to go back.

Fifth: Shift key

According to a post in one of those shift key threads (and backed up elsewhere by someone else), the problem is somewhat alleviated by going into “Settings” then: “Go to Manage Apps, uninstall the Chrome updates, do not let Chrome update automatically or disable it entirely. Reboot and see if it helped.”

A couple other things that you might find useful:

Motorola’s page detailing the changes in this update.

Note under “Removed Apps” they removed the Motorola Alarm and Timer app, which was apparently replaced with Google Clock. Here’s a whole writeup on the new way to set an alarm: How do I set an alarm on phone after Jellybean Upgrade?

So, anyway… It sounds a lot like this particular upgrade is not going very well compared to similar upgrades on other phones. It is a major upgrade from Android Ice Cream Sandwich to Jellybean, but it sounds like they didn’t test stuff too thoroughly, since the shift key issue is far from the only issue people are experiencing. Basically, that means that they’re going to be pushing out further minor upgrades to fix the problems this major upgrade introduced.

Good luck with that, hope this helped in the meantime! :slight_smile:

10

PS: And this is Motorola’s general support area for your phone model.

One of the links on there isa writeup about the lockscreen (when you first turn on the phone) and about half way down there’s a screencap pointing out where and how you would mute your phone from there, which is what I was referring to before. (although slightly different)

11

Thanks, man. I’m so stupid (and uninterested), I don’t even know the model number. It is a Motorola Droid - all I know is that it has the slide out keyboard. (Yes, I am such a loser that I do not LOVE touchscreens.)

Thanks much for the links. I’ll check them out. And the folk at the Verizon store were always very helpful on the occasions I went in.

But my main complaint is that I don’t want to have to search on-line or go into a store just to have my phone do the very few things it has done for the past year or so. Very frustrating! Also frustrating that expressing such frustration is pooh-poohed by so much of society, which views me as a freak for not wanting to fiddle around with my phone for hours to find out what neat secrets might be hiding behind every key.

12

I can see your frustration. A lot of these types of changes in any software package usually stems from a Return on Investment (ROI) decision. For instance, Motorola decided they did not want to pay anyone to support the Time & Alarm functionality (or update it for the new OS) so they just took it out and used Google’s default.

Actually, it is more likely that since Google bought Motorola, they just decided to eliminate as much custom code as possible. Custom code = $ and since Google already has an app that will do that, just wipe out the custom code and replace it with the code you know already works.

The Shift key issue you are seeing is probably a bug and Mot will most likely be releasing a fix soon.

I’ve found that to really use my tech gear to its full potential, I need to go online and find the tips and tricks.

13

Thanks for all of the answers. What makes me a dinosaur is that I really am not interested in using my phone “to its full potential.” I just want it to reliably do a very few things. I continually find myself in a quandry where a “stripped down” model simply isn’t as nice as the current standard, or will be lacking one feature I desire, but the current standard model will expect much more investment of effort on my part than I wish to make. Just another aspect of why I’m generally happiest digging in the dirt or walking along a beach…

14

It’s always a balancing act to figure out what new features to add, and what old features and controls to remove or combine into a single location. You want to be able to keep improving things, you can’t just add new things forever without taking some old ones away (or you get horrible complexity problems, both for users and for the software maintainers), and you want to avoid confusing people by taking away the things they know how to do. And, of course, try not to introduce new bugs.

Sounds like they failed pretty hard on the last two.

I can see someone thinking “we don’t need to have a silent mode in the options; users can just turn the volume all the way down”. And you did figure that one out, so they were probably right on that front. It was briefly annoying, but now that you know it, it is simpler

15

FTR - I did not figure that out (nor did my wife.) Someone showed it to me when I was discussing this update.