Android devices being up to date

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Hey!
I have been thinking of getting an Android phone for months.
But I have a problem.
You can never seem to upgrade them to the latest and greatest OS (Without risking bricking your mobile and making it a nice looking paper weight) . Making the phone rapidly come (from what I assume) incompatibile with apps and the browser will start to become incompatibile with pages too.
The reason I want an Android phone is so I can have it as a PDA rather then a mobile phone (I already have one thats rather old, dont really care). Thats the thing I like about Android, you get more personalization to it some how. But thats no good if you cant upgrade it to the latest OS.

Nonsense. You nake it sound like there's some constant and long-standing problem with bricked phones but that's just not the case.
As for shovelling out the updates - even idiots like Orange can do it without problem - although unlike most other carriers they seem to prefer spending a few months twiddling their thumbs before actually doing anything with updates.
Don't understand what you mean here. Of course there have been API changes in Android which make some apps incompatible with earlier releases - but it's no different to Apple and IOS versions and perfectly sensibly structured. Also, like Apple, apps are built using an almighty great API and application development environment so you've actually got to work quite hard to make something incompatible. Of course there's nothing to stop you from creating an application specifically for the very first version of Android ever released that no-one uses any more - but that would be a bit daft, wouldn't it?
The standard web-related Android application would use Webkit anyway, so it's not exactly some unheard of nonsense that no-one uses.
It's not like there are updates every week or so, you know!
Best way to ensure you get the latest as it's released is to get an unbranded phone because then you get it OTA straight from the manufacturer instead of OTA via the service provider.

Why not spend a bit of time looking around the developer forums before panicking?
http://developer.android.com/index.html

Ah thanks! I have never had that much experience in the Android area of things.
I thought rooting an Android device would be risky, I assumed wrong.
Interesting.... Any unbranded decent phones that are cheap you know of that are any good?

But rooting has nothing to do with standard OTA OS updates.
Depending on the phone make/model rooting can either be a one-click operation or running a couple of simple binaries. Plus, HTC (at least) have decided to "bless" people wanting to root their phones and are making official ways of doing it.
They're all good.
You should be able to pick up an HTC Desire for next to nothing - probably pre-rooted too.
Check out the forums - this is one of the more well-known developer ones: http://www.xda-developers.com/
There is a lot to learn.

Ah thanks.
Sorry, Im half asleep. Its been a long week ahah.
I ment with the risk of bricking, I ment custom roms if the service provider dont provide you with an update.

I think the consensus is Android devices are harder to brick than IOS. At least it used to be. The biggest risk is updating the radio firmware. Most other problems are usually fixable (that red triangle with the exclamation point freaked me out the first time, lol).

My initial journey with Android went like this:

1. Purchased HTC Legend.
2. Charged it. Made sure it worked properly.
3. Rooted phone.
4. Installed CyanogenMod.
5. Completely forgot what an OTA update or official release meant.
6. Enjoy phone that works the way I want. And can try any of the many third-party OS/kernels and stuff without (much) risk of ending up with a paper weight.

I'm thinking of getting a Samsung s2 or something now as I also use my phone more as a pda/pocket computer than a communications device, and want a bit more power and they're easier to root than many HTC phones like my Legend. Not sure if that's changed with newer models though.

Reflashing anything logically carries some degree of risk, hence the warnings about reflashing battery-powered kit when it's on a wall power unit and not just yanking out the USB cable part way through.
Plus, you could probably make a bit of a mess by flashing the ROM for one type of phone onto one it's not designed for.
But you wouldn't do that, right?

The only reason people root their phones and play about with them is (1) because they can, (2) it's extremely interesting and (3) there are some damn clever replacement ROMs available. But you still basically have a smartphone like before.
I don't think anyone's fussed, bothered or madly interested in standard OTA updates because they just work and they're rarely significant enough to be an absolute "must-have" and in any case, the phone becomes so-called "obsolete" within a year or so and most carriers provide free phone updates: that's how I went from a Desire to a Sensation - cost me nothing, plus I got a better monthly deal for the same money. I'd had the Desire 14 months. It's only a phone, innit?
It's only by farting about with stuff that things get really interesting.

Yep, that's it exactly.
Much of that can me minimised with careful research first, too.

Yes. Orange are especially good at packing the crapware onto their branded phones and it was worth rooting just so I could get rid of it all!

Im thinking of an Orange Monte Carlo if I do end up getting one.
But yeah, might root it if I get it, the Orange trash like you said appears to be a big pain. They should provide a vinilla rom, imo. But then they would not be able to "Promote" the phone to its knees.

Just make sure you research whatever one you choose before buying it.
Yeah, they all stuff worthless crap onto them in a desperate attempt at "adding value". Idiots - the value is already there!
I wouldn't care if it was optional but it's not.

I completely agree.
Why the hell do you want 2 of everything!?
Do they really have to make an orange coloured version of whats already there?
But yeah, it looks to be a good phone from what I have heard. I like the fact that it has a 4 inch screen, along with a 800 Mhz CPU (People think thats pretty slow, but in my eyes its pretty damn good. Or is it? Android is a pretty hungry OS from what I have seen).

The Sensation has a 1.2GHz dual core CPU. http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_sensation-3875.php (HTC don't seem to list the specs any more?)
Heh. 1.2 GHz dual core - on a phone.
Hungry? What does that mean?

Sorry, forgot to put recause.

Am I wrong? I have had no experience with Android what so ever. I have used Droid devices before but to be fair it had a 300 Mhz CPU... I take that back.. I take it all back. (I forgot about the CPU speed completely. )

As for that dual core CPU.... IN A PHONE.... Wow.. Thats really really nice.

Android uses a modified Linux kernel so no, it's not hungry.
An Android smartphone is practically a Linux box that makes telephone calls.

Oh god, Android is sounding more and more apeeling. I never thought of it like that. Its an Linux box that makes calls . I knew it had the Linux kernel, but I never pictured it that way .
I could use Linux Terminal to do some web development if I install Apache (Or the next best alternative).
Then you have the issue of a good keyboard, no problem, just take a mini Bluetooth one (I would actualy take it that far ) and im away.
Endless possibilities.
Wow.

I just read a couple of reviews on the Monte Carlo and two of the biggest issues mentioned were the display being mediocre in bright light and low app memory.

Slightly off-topic: Hey Cornflake, I think you mentioned a while ago you were into microcontrollers is that correct? I'm thinking of playing around with Arduino and I've seen this board:
http://www.freetronics.com/products/usbdroid

Now, I haven't looked much into the ADK yet, but would this allow using an Android phone to connect the board over a wifi network, among other interesting things?