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A comment on More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads. Parent comment

Re:More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for ... by on_and_off on Saturday May 06, 2017 @05:57PM (#14282480)
The landscape of people who actually download apps is very different though.

And he has a point : Google could easily ask that all new apps target the last version of the OS.

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Re:More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for ... by pjmlp on Sunday May 07, 2017 @06:32AM (#14284780)
Just as they could "nicely" require OEMs to get their game straight.
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Re:More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for ... by on_and_off on Monday May 08, 2017 @09:36AM (#14291317)
Not sure how it could work out tbh.

Ok I am not a lawyer or a part of the negotiations between Google and OEMs but I don't think Google can force OEMs to keep phones up to date for a given amount of time.

First, it is not just up to the OEMs, they need new drivers for new platform versions.

Secondly, what leverage does Google have here ? Preventing OEMs from releasing phones with Play Services looks like a really sharp double edged sword. Even triple edged actually since consumers would also suffer from this kind of deal.

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