Will the phone upgrade treadmill ever stop?

For Forks Sake · 28-05-2016 11:02PM

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Everyone says oh iPhones are a pile of ****e. I got my first iPhone in 2008. I changed it to an new iPhone in 2012. I had the screen replaced and the battery replaced and the phone is good as new. There's not a scratch on it. I'll change it in sept/oct when the new iPhone comes out but in 8 years I've had two phones.

You have a case of Triggers Broom going on there. If the phone was as good as new it's still have it's original components aboard.

tomwaterford · 28-05-2016 11:06PM

For Forks Sake wrote: »

You have a case of Triggers Broom going on there. If the phone was as good as new it's still have it's original components aboard.

Such as its memory/hard drive??? (or whatever you call what works the phone)

Pac1Man · 28-05-2016 11:19PM

If the guts of the phone is the same, it's the same phone. The battery and arguably the screen could be classed as consumables.

Sh1tbag OToole · 28-05-2016 11:26PM

Eugene Norman wrote: »

I change every two years. Obsolescence because technology is getting better is a good thing. The only reason you would keep a MacBook from 2010 is because of the slowdown in moores law.

That's bad news.

It isn't, I always had a hunch that Intel had a stockpile of 30 years or more of tech pretty much ready to be rolled out sitting in their basement, releasing it only as fast as AMD and the lads making ARM chips forced them to.

Each time something new comes out I just wonder "why the hell couldn't they make that 2 years ago, or 10?"

Sh1tbag OToole · 28-05-2016 11:28PM

Pac1Man wrote: »

If the guts of the phone is the same, it's the same phone. The battery and arguably the screen could be classed as consumables.

A battery is a consumable item with a limited cycle life time of about 500 or so. I don't know how you would consume a screen unless you use it for 10 years and it becomes too dim (although AMOLED seems to have cut this down to far fewer years), most screens that have to be replaced are smashed by the owner.

Cienciano · 28-05-2016 11:37PM

endacl wrote: »

Not this consumer. I want a 'phone'. Useful features to include, and be limited to:
1. Make and take calls.
2. Send and receive text messages.
3. More than a days battery life from a charge.
4. No... That's it really....

You forgot:
5. Stream an xhamster video in at least 720p and no sound comes from the phones speakers cos your headphones are in and you're in the jacks.
6. Handy google maps locations of gloryholes in dublin.

As long as my phone can do that, I'm happy

uch · 28-05-2016 11:40PM

I still use a Nokia 3210, only problem is you cant stick in yer jox as it doesn't vibrate

Pac1Man · 29-05-2016 12:00AM

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

A battery is a consumable item with a limited cycle life time of about 500 or so. I don't know how you would consume a screen unless you use it for 10 years and it becomes too dim (although AMOLED seems to have cut this down to far fewer years), most screens that have to be replaced are smashed by the owner.

That's why I said arguably. It's not unlikely that a screen may be smashed during it's lifetime.

KomradeBishop · 29-05-2016 01:02AM

The main thing driving phone upgrades, I think is the way that phone operating systems and program developers, deliberately obsolete old operating systems - with the superficial bells and whistles of new operating systems, pushing the limits of an old phones hardware, before any program tries to use up anything - and programs which require bugger all resources, which provide an incredibly simple service which can easily work on anything, demanding the latest operating system when there's no need.

The operating systems (in the case of Android) also seem to be designed to have a very weird memory management system, which keeps enough crud around or in the wrong place in memory, to gradually use up your resources unnecessarily.

Phones don't have the long-term-stability that desktop computer OS's have - yet they should.

Phone's don't do anything all that special. There are almost no programs for a phone, that are resource hungry enough, to really require updated hardware - not unless you want to play e.g. resource heavy games.

Most of the things a phone can do, most of the programs you have, can work almost as well as just a web page, not a program - things such as the Facebook app, literally spy on your microphone in order to target advertising to you, and many others waste your resources in various ways.

If you know how to clean crud off of your computer - e.g. Autoruns, Process Explorer - there's no reason you can't do the same with your phone, using equivalent tools. I didn't want a smartphone, but since I was given one as a gift 3 years ago, I reckon I can make it last at least 6-8 years.

Capt'n Midnight · 29-05-2016 10:18AM

endacl wrote: »

Not this consumer. I want a 'phone'. Useful features to include, and be limited to:
1. Make and take calls.
2. Send and receive text messages.
3. More than a days battery life from a charge.
4. No... That's it really....

Scrounge an old Nokia, budget a fiver for a new battery to be on the safe side.

You'll easily get a week from a charge.

At the moment 3 are offering 4G phones.
I might be tempted except they can't even offer 3G service in parts of Dublin :rolleyes:

Sh1tbag OToole · 29-05-2016 10:38AM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Scrounge an old Nokia, budget a fiver for a new battery to be on the safe side.

You'll easily get a week from a charge.

At the moment 3 are offering 4G phones.
I might be tempted except they can't even offer 3G service in parts of Dublin :rolleyes:

They should re-release the 3310 with support for 4G networks

Capt'n Midnight · 29-05-2016 10:51AM

entropi wrote: »

As much as Moore's Law continues to stand, if quantum computing ever makes it to handheld devices (if they'll even exist at the same time that is), that may just stop such upgrades, save for design changes.

I won't hold my breath for quantum computing , still don't understand how it can magically solve stuff , and even if it could how it could sole it using so few bits.

Moore's law is still here in sense of the original transistor count doubling time. What's happened is that clock speeds haven't gone up in the last decade. In the past smaller transistors were faster. Now heat and capacitance are problems. The recent performance increase are chips have gotten smarter so take less clock cycles to do stuff and more cores so can multi-task and memory has gotten faster too.

There is still good mileage in silicon and it will still be used as a substrate if a new technology is developed. Satellite TV has been using 11GHZ for yonks now and Saorsat is on 22GHz so magic could happen.

Amateur radio is allowed use 250GHz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-millimeter_band

Sh1tbag OToole · 29-05-2016 11:57AM

KomradeBishop wrote: »

The main thing driving phone upgrades, I think is the way that phone operating systems and program developers, deliberately obsolete old operating systems - with the superficial bells and whistles of new operating systems, pushing the limits of an old phones hardware, before any program tries to use up anything - and programs which require bugger all resources, which provide an incredibly simple service which can easily work on anything, demanding the latest operating system when there's no need.

The operating systems (in the case of Android) also seem to be designed to have a very weird memory management system, which keeps enough crud around or in the wrong place in memory, to gradually use up your resources unnecessarily.

Phones don't have the long-term-stability that desktop computer OS's have - yet they should.

Phone's don't do anything all that special. There are almost no programs for a phone, that are resource hungry enough, to really require updated hardware - not unless you want to play e.g. resource heavy games.

Most of the things a phone can do, most of the programs you have, can work almost as well as just a web page, not a program - things such as the Facebook app, literally spy on your microphone in order to target advertising to you, and many others waste your resources in various ways.

If you know how to clean crud off of your computer - e.g. Autoruns, Process Explorer - there's no reason you can't do the same with your phone, using equivalent tools. I didn't want a smartphone, but since I was given one as a gift 3 years ago, I reckon I can make it last at least 6-8 years.

Computers used to be the same in the 90's. You'd have to buy a new one to run the latest version of Word that didn't do a whole lot extra to the previous version, but it supported the new DOC format that all the cool kids were using.

Yet eventually it calmed down. You can pick up a Core 2 Duo computer from the mid 2000's and still use it away grand for everyday stuff. If you tried the same with a PC from 1995 and 1985 the one from 85 would be an antique in comparison

snubbleste · 29-05-2016 12:13PM

uch wrote: »

I still use a Nokia 3210, only problem is you cant stick in yer jox as it doesn't vibrate

nokia 3200 here :cool:
Battery lasts 5 days after 12 years! It vibrates and get this, you can just insert your own paper designs as the cover. It has internet and a basic camera also.
Most cool

Superhorse · 29-05-2016 12:23PM

Have my HTC 5 years now and replaced the battery 3 times at 25 quid a pop. Very happy with that considering the abuse it gets. Had it mounted on my motorbike as a sat nav in Northern Spain only recently and it fell off at 130klms an hour bouncing down the road in it's silicone cover and still works fine today. Brilliant piece of kit but for the life of me I can't understand people who change their phone every other year for the latest thing at 600 euro a go seems madness.

Discodog · 29-05-2016 01:10PM

My Nexus 5 is two years old. I have no desire to change it because it does everything I need perfectly. I have adjusted to the relatively poor battery life.

I recently got a 5 inch Chinese smartphone for a friend. It was €100 & surprisingly good. We are brand obsessed. In everday use can you really even tell the difference between processors ? Maybe if you are gaming but not in normal use.

The real culprits are the developers - are you listening Boards :pac:
We have created this new job & they can't allow thing to remain the same otherwise they are out of work. Is each operating system update really better ? I won't have my apps on auto update because often the update is worse.

The big problem is that the developers have run out of ideas that the public actually want. You wait eagerly for the new model or operating system & then whoopy it gives you extra emojis.

Will the phone upgrade treadmill ever stop?

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