Defects That Make Me Angry....
As someone who works in software development, I fully understand the ramifications of bugs and defects. I’ve got a bunch of pre-release software:
- Cynaogenmod Alpha software on my HP TouchPad
- Ice Cream Sandwich from Bigxie on my Nexus S 4G
- A Google CR-48
So recently Google released “Chrome Beta” for Ice Cream Sandwich users… I began using it immediately. I love the ability to get already opened tabs on my various computers but anyway I digress to the point of this post. Annoying errors make me angry. About a week ago, an update for Beta was release to the market. I foolishly didn’t read the reviews, and as a result, Chrome Beta broke. Now when I open Chrome I get this wonderful error:
Chrome Beta Fails Version Check
It’s been well over a week and an update hasn’t been released. I’m well aware of defect fixes, and release alignment and what kind of terror they can cause. However, if I were a product manager who had an App in Beta, and the release was preventing a good portion of the user community from not using it. I would either:
- Release a new version, with the hot fix.
- At least post an acknowledgement.
Using Python to Verify the Version
However, I started thinking… maybe it’s my ROM’s fault, it might report a faulty version number. My ROM does self report 4.0.3 in the settings menu, but I didn’t trust that. So, I added SL4A and Python to my phone. I browsed the API for SL4A and found “getPackageVersion” module under AndroidFacade. I fired up SL4A and added a new python script, and put in the following:
import android
droid = android.Android()
vers = droid.getPackageVersion("android")
print vers
I had a little bit of trouble trying to figure out what the “package” for ROM was named. However, it turns out it’s called “android.”
Here’s the response I got:
Result(id=1, result=u'4.0.3.0.2.0.1.0-eng.andrew.20120116.220323', error=None)
Sadly, the API doesn’t specify a return format, it says it’s just a string. So maybe the response is invalid, or Beta was looking for something to specific to a official release by Google. Anyway, I don’t really want to spend any more time trying to figure this out. It appears that on the surface, the issue still lies with Google’s Chrome Beta, and I hope that they don’t wait weeks to release a fix. What are your thoughts? Did I miss something?