Upgrading Android: A Guided Tour
Android moves pretty fast. It's important to know when, how and what to expect when you upgrade your device. Let's step through a recent upgrade from Froyo to Gingerbread on a Nexus One.
It has been a busy time for Android with the recent announcement of 3.0 aka “Honeycomb”.
The SDK itself was just released a few days ago, so things are running fast and furious as ever in Android-ville.
Add to that the announcement and impending availability of the Xoom from Motorola and the iPad 2 from Apple and things are on the move in the mobile space.
When the landscape is moving this quickly upgrades are an important part of device ownership. Speaking of which, I had the opportunity to upgrade my Nexus One recently from Froyo to Gingerbread and I thought it would be of interest to share what it looks like to upgrade an Android device.
When to Upgrade
The first thing to understand about upgrading an Android device is that you don’t decide to do so on a whim, unless you’re into hacking your phone which is a different topic.
Android updates are “pushed” to you when the carrier is ready. My phone is an unlocked Nexus One on the AT&T network so at some point the folks @ Google and AT&T decide it is time for me to get an update. When this happens, the first thing I see is a notification that there is a new version of Android available for download.
The small icon in the upper left corner of an arrow pointing to the Android robot lets us know that an update is available.
Upgrade is available
Dragging down from the top I can see more info about the update.
Upgrade notification
Tapping on the update notification, I am brought to a screen where I can commence the download of the update file. This update is 43.6 MB in size. To start the download, tap the “Download” button at the bottom of the screen. Simple enough.
Download the update file
Of course we can also check for an update manually, though in my experience the updates have always been “pushed” to the device. If we’re impatient, we can check for an available update by going into the Settings application and tapping the choice for “About phone”.
Get information about the phone
Comments on "Upgrading Android: A Guided Tour"
Zero information.
man, you reply has zero information!
Waste of time, the article could had been:
1: Upgrade Icon apears.
2: Click on upgrade.
3: Reboots, end of story.
That or CLICK ON UPGRADE!
Not agreed, different devices have a different modes to do it. It’s good to see such a simple manner to do the job.
For myself, it’s good to see this, doesn’t matter how simple it may be.
You and others who posted here are completely mistaken. I have a Nexus One unlocked, bought directly from Google. When they pushed Gingerbread 2.3.3 out I saw the update and followed the normal steps. The system said it upgraded, restarted, etc. but after that the new o/s wasn’t installed, it was still 2.2.2. The phone is not rooted. Therefore I had to download the upgrade manually (plenty of articles showing how to do that on the net).
Conclusion: no, sometimes is not that simple, my friend :) although we all wish it were…
i thought this was about updating a phone when the career do no provide an update most probably by rooting the device (which would warranty)! updates are pretty straightforward and self explanatory – I don’t see the need for this article.
This article is a non-item. Unless you root, everything happens automatically. You don’t really have a choice about when and how it comes, or what to do with it. Android is still a very unstable system. On HTC phones, it killed two of mine. So I just switched to Nokia Symbian 3 (no weird desert name), and what it loses in apps, it sure makes up for in reliability – like I can always make a call – something that doesn’t happen on G2′s. Wanna tablet? Spring for an iPad they are flawless except when they are connect to bad networks.
Symbian? IPad? Must be getting confused, I thought I was reading Linux Mag….
the only time my g2 failed.. was when I had to call 911
If your phone is not rooted the upgrade is easier to do then to read this article.
Steve M
LINUCITY.COM
linucity.com
If your phone is not rooted the upgrade is easier to do then to read this article.
Steve M
LINUCITY.COM
linucity.com
If your phone is not rooted, the upgrade is easier to do then to read this article.
Steve M
LINUCITY.COM
linucity.com
Hi there, You have performed an excellent job. I’ll definitely digg it and in my view recommend to my friends. I’m confident they will be benefited from this site.
I just switched to Nokia Symbian 3 (no weird desert name), and what it loses in apps, it sure makes up for in reliability – like Side effects of Vicodin I can always make a call – something that doesn’t happen on G2?s.
a March 15, 2011 I siemtomes wonder if you chose the most loony people to write about. (For disclosure purposes, I wrote to you, but you never looked at my profile, much less even gave a “thanks, but no thanks” canned response.)I have no delusions of self-grandeur, but it seems like at worst, I would have been written up as a “nice guy, no chemistry”. Isn’t that what most first dates are like (internet and otherwise)?
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I think it’s a good idea to upgrade overall, unless you have the latest version of course. Thanks for the tutorial on this AG jeans.
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