topic Re: Corona app in XA Series

Corona app

MyxWorx — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 17:36:48 GMT

Today a new corona app has been released by the German government. However, it cannot be used on my XA1+, but fails with the error "Fehler bei der Kommunikation mit Google API(17)". I guess the app would require a system update. Will Sony care to provide an update for this live saving app?

Re: Corona app

RottenFoxBreath — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 19:31:21 GMT

Looks like you are not alone.

Update or make sure that Carrier Services, and Google Play Services are up to date over the Play Store,

Also make sure you have the official version of the app from the Play store, side loaded versions, and recomplies and source code self signed version will not work.

As to Sony providing an update, I think your 3 year old phone is past it's support life, and as noted on the official blurb for the Tracing app using Translate, it won't work on all phones for everyone.

Re: Corona app

MyxWorx — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 21:11:22 GMT

There's no more recent "Google Play-Dienste" available for this phone.
Clearing the cache and rebooting did not help.

Maybe that this XA1+ is beyond the update period - but that's entirely
the choice of Sony to provide yet another update. The latest is from 1.
August 2019. So that's close to the market introduction 2017 and the
legal warranty period within Europe?

Re: Corona app

MyxWorx — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 21:17:21 GMT

My phone was purchased november 2018 - so that's still within legal warranty and should provide such essential updates.

Re: Corona app

RottenFoxBreath — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:34:13 GMT

Warranty, and software updates have nothing to do with each other.

Your phones last update was nearly a year ago.

Sony are under no obligation to provide any updates due to you buying it in 2018.

As I say, the applications are not guaranteed to work on all phones, for all people.

If your phones screen was broken, then I would imagine they would fix it under warranty, but to provide an update for a 3 year old phone..I think the support window has closed.

Re: Corona app

MyxWorx — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 05:00:22 GMT

These are different matters.

On one hand there is the legal obligation to provide updates within at least the legal warranty period. But there is no law, yet, within the European Community. Companies like Sony may cripple your phone with preinstalled apps, which you must not delete, but still claim a total of (free) memory, although a large part of this memory is frozen by apps I do neither want nor use. Software comes with legal footnotes neglecting any kind of damage due to software failures. That sucks, but there is no ruling against, yet. Nor am I aware of a legal obligation to provide security fixes within the legal warranty.

On the other hand there is a moral obligation whether to provide a fix for the Corona App. This was designed to work from Android 6 on. Let's see how Sony will react here - and how they will care for the health of their customers.

Apple refused to fix iOS for customers up to the iPhone6, which is more than 4 years old. That is a well known fact by now. The XA1+ is less than two years old, is even still sold, and is still within legal warranty.
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Re: Corona app

RottenFoxBreath — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 05:49:43 GMT

Look no matter how you look at it, your phone is over 3 years old now.

It was released in 2017, and really Android phones typically have 2 years of updates.

Heck your phone didn't make the cut for Android 10.

They've done their part and provided security updates but they stopped a year ago, when oh that's right, the phone had seen out it's 2 years of updates.

You dont get updates for your warranty period, you get updates from date of the phones release for a set period.

Coming away with the warranty period thing is nonsense, and matters only for you for breakages in the warranty period from when you bought it.

Your phone may still be sold, as are others but as it stands, it does not meet the standards for the tracking app, either in hardware(Bluetooth low energy) or with Google's API access.

No point in begging Sony, it's Google and Apple who decided what the phone would be available on hardware wise.

Sony aren't responsible for your health, that's purely on you and no-one else.

If you really want to use that app, buy another phone.

Read the notes on that app, it says it will not work on all phones, so the onus is on you.

Maybe you as a consumer should have gone and bought a different phone by doing your homework instead of buying a, at the time, what was a 2 year old phone.

Re: Corona app

MyxWorx — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 14:17:19 GMT

So you are a genius. You did not only know that a COVID-19 pandemie would be to come, but that this device here would not have been able to handle the Corona App.

Personally, I would hope that a device is serviced at least as long as it is sold, plus two years.

The XA1 plus is not available any more in high numbers - but I feel it was sold until 12 months ago, with high sales up to october 2019.

But support ceased immediately with the end of sales. August 2019 was the last update.

Re: Corona app

RottenFoxBreath — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 14:34:15 GMT

No, not a genius.

But I do know that there is no way that buying a mid range phone that was released 3 years ago and still expecting it to still be current with technology advancing all the time isn't going to happen.

Probably not high sales till last year, more than likely the first year then support was still active for 1 year after that, and security updates to the end of the 2 year period.

With your logic a phone could be sold for 5 years after release and you want support for a further 2, but there's no way a financially viable company would support a product for 7 years.

Android on 3rd party manufacturers is usually 2 years from release date, some stick to it, others will continue if the phone is possibly a flagship phone, but it has nothing to do with date of purchase. If that was the case tech would never move on, we would all still be using phones from years ago.

If I went to a store last year and saw that phone I would think, ok it may be at a bargain price, but it's 2 years old, so getting a bit old, and I would look for a more current model.

Re: Corona app

MyxWorx — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 04:34:41 GMT

The German government claimed, that 85% of all smartphones can be used with the corona app.

So it's even worse, it's Sony who cares even less for their customers. Even Huawei/Honor managed to fix this bug.

Re: Corona app

RottenFoxBreath — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 05:53:16 GMT

@MyxWorx wrote:
The German government claimed, that 85% of all smartphones can be used with the corona app.

So it's even worse, it's Sony who cares even less for their customers. Even Huawei/Honor managed to fix this bug.

85% is still way off 100%, and leaves thousands of phones that won't be compatible.

And for them to say that is irresponsible, as they don't know either.

Have they tested 100% of the phones out there...I hardly think so.

Still hardly Sony who don't care, and if you can't understand that, then thats your issue.

As for Huawei "fixing" the "bug", it's not a bug, it's that they don't have access to Googles API's, so have had to release their own "Contact Shield API", and as such, the app writers/authors/companies may decide to still not include that, in which case, Huawei will be out on a limb.

The thing is, your phone is 3 years old, updates ceased a while ago, and if Sony decide not to update their phones, or indeed Google Services, isn't updated for it, it's hardly their lack of customer care, it's just the phone won't work with it..

That's like me saying my car can't go at 130mph, as it's 3 years old, but the new 2020 model can, so Vauxhall don't care about owners of the 3 year old model..but there are far more things at work than at face value.

Incidentally, the app is untested in the wild, and the biggest issue is the unreliable nature of it, due to it not being able to correctly decipher between distances.

At the moment, on some tested phones, it can't differentiate between 1 metre and 20, so you may not have ever been close to someone who is +, but as the connection detects a "hit", it still registers.

Apple I believe have this as the biggest issue, as noted in the UK press, but they are not the only ones.

And your health is your responsiblity, so you are the one who should take steps to protect yourself, not rely on others, or an app.

Just like people who rely on reversing cameras to park their cars, it's an aid...not a replacement.

Re: Corona app

MyxWorx — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 06:13:43 GMT

Apart from repeating that this phone is "three years old" (which it isn't as you know, but yes, I got your point, long ago),

do you have any insight whether this very specific phone has an actual hardware problem so that it can not be fixed?

The Corona-Warn-App was designed to work from Android 6.0.0 on! So there should be much older hardware around, which still would be usable.

People noticed by now that corona will hit the poorest most - e.g. if Sony does fix the Android system for high end devices only. So apart from technical reasons we could also argue about ethics of this company's decision.