Phones and computers

[tobyaw]

The new iPhones look appealing, but with the forthcoming iOS 7 supporting our family’s iPhones and iPads, I don’t feel the need to upgrade. However good the hardware revisions are, I tend to find more value in software updates, and as long as those keep coming I am happy with the hardware that we own.

The same thing applies to computers. I was motivated to upgrade my old Mac Mini when it would no longer run the latest OS X; I suspect I’ll be using the replacement Mac Mini until it too no longer runs the latest operating system.

Does this mean that phones now have a useful life of four years? I don’t feel the urge to upgrade every two years, as I was doing a decade ago. This is partly influenced by buying my recent devices outright and using SIM-only contracts, so I don’t have the upgrade cost included in my monthly payments.

Comments

Killer feature

[houstonjames.livejournal.com]

For me, the most appealing feature announced this week is probably the fingerprint unlock, if it works nicely. The most disappointing, the lack of anonymous call blocking. (Perhaps because the network is apparently required by law to offer that as a no-cost option in the US anyway, so they don't see as much need for it.) When I heard it featured a call blacklist, I was quite hopeful, but no: apparently it can only block known numbers, for now at least. (One of this morning's two telemarketing calls was "withheld", the other was "unavailable", so that would only have blocked one. Still, better than nothing!)

Four years seems a bit long to me - longer than the useful lifespan of lithium ion batteries, unless kept at low temperatures. My old 3GS struggles to get through a day of standby these days, even without being used; my original MacBook Pro reached a battery life of just 2-3 minutes of use from a full charge.