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Topic: Android

Google working on returning missing December to Android 4.2 users

Summary: A bug in the Android 4.2 'People' app has removed December as an option for users trying to input birthdays or other events in a contact's information.

David Meyer

By David Meyer |

Google is reportedly working on a fix for a strange bug in Android 'Jelly Bean' 4.2 that makes it impossible to set a contact's birthday for December.

The bug affects the Android 4.2 People app, in which the month of December simply does not exist for those entering a calendar 'event' in a contact's details. According to reports, Google is already working on a fix that will be found in a 4.2.1 update.

Android-no-December

Android 4.2 is only found on a handful of devices at this point, including Google's Nexus 4 and Galaxy Nexus handsets, and the Nexus 7 tablet.

The version shares its Jelly Bean codename with Android 4.1, and offers only minor differences compared to that iteration, chiefly the addition of 'Gesture Typing' and a 360-degree panorama feature for the camera app.

Topic: Android

David Meyer

About David Meyer

David Meyer is a freelance technology journalist. He fell into journalism when he realised his musical career wouldn't pay the bills. David's main focus is on communications, as well as internet technologies, regulation and mobile devices.

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19 comments
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  • Either

    Google knows something the rest of us don't i.e. the Mayan's were a month off. Or this is a really bad black eye for the premier OS Jelly Bean. Either way it certainly looks bad no matter what.
    MrCaddy
    Reply 1 Vote

    • No big deal

      Its a minor matter, that should be fixed any day now.
      Some Internet Dude
      Reply 1 Vote

      • So much for FOSS quality

        Next time FOSS apologists give you a load of many eyes, quality and so on, you know you are getting a whole lot snake oil.
        LBiege
        Reply 1 Vote

    • It's a fairly common mistake...

      They probably had some code where Jan through Dec were numbered 0 through 11 (a typical numbering scheme for programmers) and some other code numbering Jan through Dec as 1 through 12... and got these two bits of code mixed... ending each year with month 11 as Nov rather than Dec...
      BIGELLOW
      Reply 1 Vote

      • A mistake that should had being caught during regration testing

        But Google doen' perform ANY SQA testing or even basic regression test on any of the software they develop.

        Things are released when the developer says is OK without any kind of independent testing. This is why the quality of Google code is always so poor.
        wackoae
        Reply 2 Votes

        • I agree

          No way should this have got through testing.

          However, claims that google don't test their code? Nah, don't believe you there. Clearly not enough testing or this would have been caught and this goes deeper than a single app developer chucking a half finished app into the store.
          Little Old Man
          Reply Vote

  • Galaxy Nexus GSM "takju" JOP40C 4.2 Jelly Bean Camera Rotation

    4.2 Camera app does fullscreen rotation instead of rotating only those 2 little icons. transition PortraitLandscape very laggy due to that fullscreen rotation.

    http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=39595
    thomstrack
    Reply 1 Vote

  • What do you want?

    What do you want for free?
    Susan Antony
    Reply 1 Vote

    • what do I want for free?

      Instead of December, the calendar should eliminate Mondays.
      common sense
      Reply 2 Votes

      • eliminate Mondays

        But, because that will benefit users, they must pay for it.

        December is lost in holidays anyway :)
        danbi
        Reply Vote

  • All working fine

    My Nexus 7 had it's stock 4.2 update OTA on 14/11/12 and I have no issues with it. Works like a dream.

    The calendar entries work fine for December 2012 and the Rotation works like how it's intended to be.
    pugsy77
    Reply Vote

    • Quite Specific Problem

      The article actually says "the month of December simply does not exist for those entering a calendar 'event' in a contact's details", so I guess you wouldn't see it with the calendar itself.

      It's strange though, looking at the moire fringe like pattern between November and January, if I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd say the image has been tampered with! Fortunately I'm not, but I guess the photographer should have cleaned the grease off the screen before taking the picture.
      DJL64
      Reply Vote

  • tiny4579 from xda fixed this yesterday

    http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=34332673&postcount=3208
    Hey mmuzzy, I don't know if you saw this commit but from the looks of it, it broke the events showing december:

    https://github.com/android/platform_...51aea8b6bad6c7

    I think if you change line 1370 based on what I'm reading from
    setMaxValue(displayedValues.length - 1);
    to
    setMaxValue(displayedValues.length);

    December should show once again under events.
    David Goldstick
    Reply 1 Vote

  • screenshot?

    why use that screenshot?
    it's showing 12 months missing - Feb '12 to Jan '13
    warboat
    Reply 1 Vote

    • Screenshot explained

      Each parameter is individually set. Month, day and year.
      Jerrad Flaherty
      Reply Vote

  • If it was iOS....

    I would see 1000+ more posts saying how could apple do that and probably tie the whole thing to Mayans and Nostradamus. but its Only a month missing, not a big deal right?
    AbeM
    Reply 1 Vote

    • Yep, and if it was IOS,

      ToddyBottom#? would be posting saying something like:
      It's Apple, this is a feature, not a bug!"
      T-Wrench
      Reply Vote

  • Fix the sluggishness of 4.2

    Nexus7 with quad core Tegra 3 chip lags , which wasn't the case in 4.1.x

    I also noticed general framerate drops sporadically in every places.
    Seems like Google undid some of the Project Butter stuff in 4.2
    thandermax
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Here is the workaround

    I have updated the work around here

    http://dcosh.blogspot.com/2012/11/no-christmas-for-jelly-bean-42-users.html
    Nyvle
    Reply Vote
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