I agree, this sucks, but in Google's defense, the thing's been out for a day. For all we know, they could be working on a pre-2.0 solution as we speak.

Or most phones will get their 2.0 upgrades by the time Buzz becomes active enough for it to be worth using.

Don't get me wrong, I'm upset too, but let's give them a little more time before claiming they've shafted us.

They did shaft us - this sucks, and I'm having to run around using four
different interfaces to use this stuff, because I actually want to use it.

And yeah, they could be working on a fix that drops right now - but that
means they also could have had it ready yesterday, and chose otherwise.

I don't think we're getting 2.0/2.1 rollouts on myTouches as a nice
surprise, soon. The date isn't even public, yet, but the other phones seem
to be getting it over the next month or so. Google just gave it to
manufacturers like a week or so ago, then it goes to carriers, etc.

Just for some perspective: I'm not even planning on Flash 10 ever working on
the myTouch. I bought first gen hardware, I got that, I'll be taking
advantage of the new upgrade program sometime soon - kinda want to see some
non-Nexus One options, as...I'm really not so crazy about the idea of buying
directly from Google, at this point. But this is ridiculous - this shit
should have been fully operational on all Android phones at launch. It's a
freaking gussied-up web app social client, for god's sake. Not exactly
rocket science or OpenGL territory, there...

--Robert

It may be just a web app, but the Android 1.6 browser can't do enough HTML5 for it. That's why it requires 2.0.

Well, that seems like a pretty dumb thing to leave out of most of your smart
phones to me, and then release a web app that relies on it.

Yeah. Oh well. But again, the thing's two days old. Let's see what the
situation's like when people actually start using it.

It occurred to me, I could put it this way, and maybe it would work better:
the most popular Android phone in the world, right now, is mine: the
Magic/myTouch. By a long shot. This week, Google announced a new social
media offering with a web app that doesn't work on that phone, and then the
next day, T-Mobile released a *new* version of the myTouch with some
hardware upgrades. But it still can't use the Google Buzz web app.

That's nuts.

"Legacy" is supposed to mean the damn thing's not still on sale, never mind
new models coming out *today.* This plus what happened with the Nexus One
doesn't say "Google is evil" to me or even "Google are assholes" or "Google
is retarded." Google, however, has about zero experience selling to and
dealing with consumers, regular folks. I know who Google's previous
customers are, as I've worked jobs where we paid Google lots and lots of
money for stuff.

Enterprise and marketing folks are not the same as people who just wanted to
buy the neatest phone they could this month. Google's learning, but I'm not
laying off them when they shit the bed like this. I buy things from them -
they're not my mom or girlfriend.

Uh...people are using it, already. In fact, I already noted the first
self-proclaimed "Buzz experts" yesterday and saw my first "Here's why I hate
Buzz and Buzz sucks so I'll post this to Buzz" post this morning.

--Robert

I don't think the shafting is really around the lack of accessibility of Buzz to older versions...

I think it starts much earlier, with the fact that so many handsets are stuck on those older versions, nobody should be on <2.0 at this stage. I'm sick of hearing flawed car-based analogies here... the fact of the matter is that if you bought an iPhone a couple of years ago, they're still supporting you with new versions. The same should be happening here, and software targeting new versions should be a new issue.

Oh, and currently it's just a web "app" - meh.

This is altogether a separate question from whether the manufacturer decides to saddle the device with their specific "improvements", and this causes delays to upgrading those devices - as far as I'm concerned every Android device should be available in vanilla or with the manufacturer's widgets and skinning, as you choose. Then if the skinned version is delayed at least there's a clean version you can rely on being able to use with all the latest stuff.

Oh, and it's just the web app, at this point? I thought there was a
downloadable app that, I dunno, might actually have something going on with
it pre-2.0 phones couldn't handle. I can run the web app in Firefox under
Windows if I tell Firefox to pretend it's an iPhone, for god's sake.

T-Mobile, anyway, is definitely going the route of claiming old phones lack
abilities they simply don't - the myTouch 1.2, as announced today, sports
Swype, as expected. But T-Mo claims the new phone is "Swype-enabled," which
is retarded. The only reason you had to run that beta leak a month or so
back on newer phones was it was aimed at higher resolution screens.
So...Swype clearly made one for the lower res screens, also, but you'll only
be able to use it legitimately on the *new* myTouch.

Luckily, all of this nonsense has created a ridiculously active pirate
community, and Swype will be available for everything running Android about
three hours after the first myTouch makeover model gets bought.

Or you can use the exact same software, available for every smart phone
since...what, 2004? But TechCrunch didn't put a whole year behind making
ShapeWriter sound like some sexy new thing you want, so...the standard line
seems to be that Swype is magicaler, plus it was magically invented and
patented in Canada years before the companies who've been making the same
damn thing forever started doing so.

--Robert

"I think it starts much earlier, with the fact that so many handsets are
stuck on those older versions, nobody should be on <2.0 at this stage"

Yeah, it's ridiculous. And this isn't "fragmentation," at all - this is
ditching old friends in pursuit of new ones. Which sometimes works out for
companies - and people - but they have to overtly suck for it to work.

Although, you know, I can see why that unlock that sold eighty thousand
units last month would be the big priority, here.

"This is altogether a separate question from whether the manufacturer
decides to saddle the device with their specific "improvements", and this
causes delays to upgrading those devices - as far as I'm aware every Android
device should be available in vanilla or with the manufacturer's widgets and
skinning, as you choose."

Well, like I've said before, the analogy using Windows PCs works - different
hardware, different flavors of the OS, you can't run some software on your
economy model your neighbor can on her studded out gaming or design or dev
rig. That's fine.

But you can also upgrade your machine or your OS or both, is where the
comparison breaks down. You have to wait around for the manufacturer,
carrier and Google to get their shit together on your phone's similar
upgrade, with the result that there's software I could run right now Nexus
and Droid owners can, but I'd have to run a version of the OS a bunch of
hackers put together.

Which...exists for my phone, so what's Google's excuse, again?

I don't care about what my phone can't do because it's first gen and slower
every month, it seems like. I care about what it plainly *can* do, along
with the bulk of Android phones available, and isn't allowed to because
three companies can't focus on their existing customers for two seconds
instead of coming up with exciting new projects constantly. That's
aggravating.

So anyway, looks like I'm rooting again.