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Help samsung tablet software upgrade

S

Shazzadut

Lurker
i am new to android devices so please bear with me. I tried to download an app and got message that said device was not compatible. By researching on net I found out that this is probably due to the android version i have. 4.0.4. I checked for updates in settings/about but it came back there are no upgrades, i am up to date. Yet there must be later versions of android otherwise why would developers release apps that are not compatible with android? i have a Samsung galaxy tablet that i purchased second hand. i believe it was sold via Telstra carrier but is not locked to their network. i have a Vodafone sim in it and prepaid bband with them. How can i upgrade this to a later android version?
I have to say that as an experienced Apple iPad user I find android quite difficult to navigate. For example i cant see anywhere in settings to do a backup now, as opposed to automatically. there is no privacy tab in settings. i cant see a date or time of the last auto back up. it just doesnt have the easy user interface of iPad.
 
I am not sure that your android upgrading package should be from carrier or from Samsung. If it should be from carrier, I think you might change your sim card of Vodafone to another one of Telstra in order to upgrade your android.
 
Thanks James. I'm not sure either. Everything works with the Vodafone sim and Telstra told me that the tablet was not locked to their network, only branded Telstra. Surely when i go to settings/about/check for upgrade it knows where to go to check for latest version as it doesnt give me any choice, just goes off and does it then comes back and says i have the latest version already. I saw that I can force an upgrade called a "root" upgrade? but that feels a bit dicey, and I dont want to load a new version that the tablet cant handle, so am a bit lost. Is version 4.0,4. very old?
[QUOTEJames_Watson, post: 6874579, member: 1776497"]I am not sure that your android upgrading package should be from carrier or from Samsung. If it should be from carrier, I think you might change your sim card of Vodafone to another one of Telstra in order to upgrade your android.[/QUOTE]
 
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If Telstra have branded it I'm afraid that does mean that without rooting you only get updates that Telstra think it's worth their effort providing. 4.0.4 is about 3 years old, so it sounds unlikely that they have plans to provide anything.

I think your problem is that you are used to one user interface and so find things which are different "difficult". I find iOS rather frustrating because some things take many more steps to do or take me much longer to find, but that's because I only use it occasionally. And some things just work differently. Permission Management (which I'm guessing is what you mean by privacy - otherwise try looking in security) isn't available in 4.0, and requires a bit of knowledge to use in the versions it does exist in. But conversely you can see what permissions an app has before installing, which iOS just doesn't tell you (it does, IIRC, gives you control of location access, but you don't know what else an app can do). Backups are automatic and over the air, if enabled, rather than siloed to iTunes/on request, but you can install apps to do backups for you on demand. That's the other thing, you find an app to do what you want if the system doesn't do it or you prefer something different, but usually you can find one.
 
Thanks Hadron. I just want to upgrade it so I can get the apps I want on it that are saying they are not compatible with this version of Android. I have game apps on my iPad for work and I want to take the games off it and put them on the Samsung for my use. Thought this would be a pretty simple process, and I'm used to Apple releasing software updates, not the carrier Vodafone. That seems crazy to me that every ISP has to release their own software upgrades. Very unwieldy and not user friendly at all.

Seems I may have to do an upgrade by rooting. Does anyone recommend somewhere I can get clear instructions on how to do this? Thanks for all the assistance. Appreciate it. :)
 
Rooting is device-specific, so you need to tell us the exact model. We have forums for different devices here, each of which has an "All Things Root" subforum - if you find the one for your model you should find information about rooting there.

The difference with iOS is that Apple control it completely: they don't allow carriers to modify the software, so they provide the updates. But once you let the carrier modify the software then updates have to go through the carrier too (through because the manufacturer will write it and then the carrier will modify it). Also Apple only have a handful of devices to maintain: Samsung release an order of magnitude more different devices each year than Apple have released in total (seriously, try looking up how many different phones Samsung release, and then there are often many variants on each model). So they need a lot more resources to update all of these than Apple do, and hence not all are supported for as long as the flagships.
 
Thanks again Hadron. My samsung tablet is model GT P7320T running android version 4.0.4, build number IMM76D.DVLPE, Kernel version 3.0.8 - 1179339 dpi@DELL132#1 SMP PREEMPT We'd Jan 16 17:46:04 KST 2013. Baseband version P7320TDVLP3. This mostly means nothing to me, but maybe to you. The back of the tablet is stamped Telstra 4g. CE0168' WIFI 16gb. If you can just point me to the correct link I'll have a read and then see what I want to do.
Again, thanks for your help!
 
Well, typically, Android devices are supported for a certain amount of time after they are released. Usually about two years, with some manufacturers going more than that (Nexus phones typically gets updates as long as the hardware is capable). Your Galaxy Tab 8.9 is over 2 years old (was announced and released back in 2012). According to Sammobile, 4.0.4 is the last update it received at around Feb 2014, up from Android 3.2. Mainly I think because Samsung tablets that run anything higher than 4.0.4 have physical buttons now, like their phones, so they didn't bother writing the firmware for onscreen buttons.
 
Thanks Chanchan. This android world is no much more complicated than Apple! Guess I'm either going to have to investigate rooting an upgrade or just go without the apps I want, which really kind of defeats the purpose of having the tablet!
 
The thing to remember is that Apple is one company with a small number of devices, so inevitably some things will be simpler. And even with Apple the point comes where you don't get any updates, albeit a bit later, and apps become incompatible with older versions of iOS too. My daughter has an older iPhone and some of her apps have stopped working, as well as others not being available to her.
 
Kind of makes them all expensive door stops really! I'm old - over 50 is old - and technology moves fast. But maybe not for the better. I still have an old Monopoly board game from years ago. If I want to play it then it still works. Doesn't need any upgrades, software or carriers. Try saying that with a mobile phone, tablet or PC in 6 months..... but that's a whole different debate.
Thanks to all for your responses. I'm now going to go into a corner in the foetal position and contemplate my navel!!!
 
Yeah, I still have my monopoly board from the 1970s, and that works without any updates :D

TBH most apps should still be available to a 4.0.4 device - I think you've been unlucky to so quickly find one that isn't. If you wish to investigate rooting the important thing is to understand the procedures before doing anything. You can find some advice in our Tab 8.9 root forum. I've had a quick look for ROMs at XDA, and it seems there are a few more recent ones. But there are different versions of the Tab 8.9 - I think you have the 4G-equipped one - so it would be important to check whether a ROM is compatible with your model before installing.
 
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