Dell Streak causes user fury Dell's Streak might now be running Android 2.1, but those who've upgraded are finding the newer OS takes away more than it adds to the tablet/phone crossbreed. PC synchronisation, Windows Media Video playback and the Facebook widget are among the reported casualties of the upgrade process, and some who did manage a smooth …
I followed the update instructions to the letter, my Streak was full charged and on mains...
but ended up with:
1) an out of whack touchscreen that said i was pressing on an opposite end of the screen (for example)
2) a keyboard that started typing "L" on it's own like a stuck key
3) a menu shortcut bar that *whenever* you try and rearrange whats there reboots the whole phone.
This on top of random reboots (which TBH has happened on most smartphones i've owned since the Sony Ericsson P90)
A bit of digging and I found how to get to Factory Reset and Screen Calibration, i;ve posted what I did here:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/mobile-devices/f/3824/t/19345387.aspx
and it's fixed everything bar the Menu bar-reboot and the random reboot.
Spoken with O2 and they've said to reinstall again or get it repaired... i'll persevere.
All in all it's a great device for the typical early adopter. It's got masses of potential and the form factor is great... despite the problems I'm fully hooked on the wee beastie. However this does appear to be an utterly borked situation, for whatever reason, and Dell is being eerily silent on the matter: certainly not good from a customer relations or PR perspective.
A shame really, as thats a very easy thing to fix.
Someone I know experienced the menubar reset bug too. Solved this by flashing the 1.6 stock recovery image (the actual recovery image, not the rom) then using the stock recovery to flash the 1.6 rom.. then finally trying a clean update to 2.1 with Upgrade.pkg on the sdcard and doing the usual. May be worth a try.
A lot of fixes like this can be found on the modaco forums (android.modaco.com) as well as all the recovery and rom images as well as self cooked roms.
Off topic.. you can also get Froyo on the streak too:
http://www.talkandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/tumblr_l3z5lz8tQf1qauiczo1_500.jpg
Dell Streak s.t.r.e.a.k.s. and I'm heartfelt sorry that SOME people are unable to use this piece of equipment to it's full potential, or are unable to follow instructions correctly.
Why do you think IKEA have so many returns doh!
I'm just a soul who's intentions are good. Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood...........
If all else fails, read the instructions.
I have my 'issues' with Android ( hype, fragmentation, forks, promised 'liberation' for phone users being just a pipe-dream in practice ) but in this case only Dell and O2 can take responsibility for releasing an upgrade which doesn't come up to expectations.
The trouble is ,when selling phones on the back of "Android" branding, people talking in terms of buying an "Android phone" rather than a Dell or O2 phone, then mistakes such as these impact on the Android brand itself. Most end-users won't understand the technicalities; as far as they are concerned, "Android is broken, doesn't work".
The question is whether Google can afford to put the blame on Dell and O2 to protect Android's image or whether they'll take the hit to maintain the relationship? Do Google even care while Android remains flavour of the month?
The Facebook which comes preloaded on the Desire works fine, however if you update it (which is the same version Dell streak users have), it no longer works on the Droid until you upgrade to 2.2. The bug is known by Facebook, however I have no clue if they plan to do anything about it.
Erm. If anything I would've thought that if ANY phone OS was aimed at the technically-minded it's Android. It's sparse, dull, but also particularly nippy and extremely expandable....which pretty much describes desktop Linux to me - a nice easy install to have a blank slate with no data, and then a few applications you set up for an hour or so and get it all working....and then wipe the whole thing, put Windows back on, load up a game and heave a huge sigh of relief.
When the s*** hits the fan and we're back in the dark ages - all too soon the way things are going with religious/political/social conflict, it's the thinkers who'll survive.
See you on the other side :)...........................................................
Maybe.............................................................................................
If you come to your senses............................................................
"""IT""" won't always be here for you LOL
anyone "caught out" by the need to "replace all their data and installed applications" is clearly too stupid to be allowed to breathe/vote/reproduce. Every Android OS update I have even done has come with huge warnings that you will need to re-install apps (though data on an SD is card is safe as houses).
Getting even a heavily modded Android phone back to the pe-upgrade status is never the work of much more than an hour, if that.
Not a problem with Android, but a problem with the world being full of bleating fools.
Most other Android devices are moving to 2.2, and Dell JUST got 2.1? That's just sad. I'm sorry, but this is purely Dell's problem. They implemented their device on a severely out of date version of Android in the first place, then rushed and put out a half-ass patch for it. There's no excuse for this. Android 2.x has been out for a long time, and releasing a NEW product running 1.6 is inexcusable.
"work in hardware design for long enough and one gains a grudging respect for Microsoft Windows and its ability to integrate with just about any chunk of hardware. Linux still strives for the same thing with immeasurable resources at its disposal."
Not really. I've found slapping Ubuntu onto a box, it's far FAR FAAAR more likely to be able to just install and have everything work than any version of Windows. Out of the box, XP Vista and 7 all have fairly poor driver support, requiring driver downloads for loads of hardware (XP is of course worse about this since it's drivers are almost 10 years out of date.) I've found this view of Windows having such ubiquitous support to be a fantasy consisting of combining driver support of multiple Windows versions -- XP no longer supports some newer hardware since there's no XP drivers for it, while Vista and 7 have dropped support for numerous pieces of older hardware.
Anyway, I don't know what this has to do with Android or this Dell -- the Dell-added apps disappearing is strictly Dell's problem, they either didn't add those apps to the update, or didn't make sure the Dell-added apps were backed up from 1.6 and reinstalled under 2.1.. this is not a driver problem in any sense. People not backing up data, that is unfortunate, but again not a driver problem, it's difficult to do a major update of this type in place, especially if there's just not extra space on the phone. The reversed volume buttons can be strictly speaking a driver problem, but key mapping is something that will be different on almost every phone, it's not some deep driver problem, it's a lack of QA on Dell's part, there's either a table of button->keys that Dell can fix the volume keys in, or swap them higher up (between the driver and apps).
I just don't see Android supporting a lot of different hardware as a big deal. If people want a locked down, restrictive experience they can already buy an IPhone, that is not what Android is about.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
