I always wanted a MacBook (the 2015+ Retina one), but they always seemed too expensive once the storage was upgraded, and sadly this year Apple discontinued it. But last month I happened to look on the right Amazon site and hey, they have unsold brand-new stock for the latest model with the upgraded storage in the colour I want, discounted several hundred euros. Finally a good price :D
The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter
11–20 of 74 posts
Re: The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter
#12“We’re in the golden age of smartphones,” he said. “Your smartphone from two years ago still works great and will continue to work for a while.” If this is where smartphones peak - usable for two and a bit years - we need to take ourselves out to the car park for a strong conversation.
I'm still on iPhone 6. 4.5 years old. I want to upgrade for bling factor, but it just doesn't die. I'll probably try DIY battery replacement once next iPhone is out. Either I get to brag about my battery replacement skills or I have a reason to upgrade.. Win-win!
Re: The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter
#13Most of the authors examples involve buying a generation or two older and buying used. I would certainly expect previously owned gadgets to cost substantially less. While there is a lot less early adopter risk in this, most of the savings are realized from buying second hand.
Re: The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter
#14“We’re in the golden age of smartphones,” he said. “Your smartphone from two years ago still works great and will continue to work for a while.” If this is where smartphones peak - usable for two and a bit years - we need to take ourselves out to the car park for a strong conversation.
I'm still on iPhone 6. 4.5 years old. I want to upgrade for bling factor, but it just doesn't die. I'll probably try DIY battery replacement once next iPhone is out. Either I get to brag about my battery replacement skills or I have a reason to upgrade.. Win-win!
With people looking forward to upgrade their mobile and hand-held devices for multiple reasons (including the "bling factor") I can't help but think about the current e-waste management policies and mechanisms in place. Especially in third world countries where new electronic devices are pouring in as gifts or imports (thanks to the migrant workers and inflow of remittance) and older devices are just being dumped as normal trash. The environmental impacts of the improperly discarded batteries just pile up becoming severely unmanageable day by day.
Re: The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter
#15I think Apple knows this perfectly. I'm not even sure whether the "I'll wait for the S upgrade" people (myself included) outsmart Apple or it's Apple who created the market for those who want to feel smarter than the rest.
At the end of the day, the economics of major upgrades vs. incrementals is very straightforward: major upgrades do bring significant new convenience features (e.g. once you are used to Face ID you don't want to go back) and if you want to own them today, you pay more. There's nothing smart about not benefiting from the new features today for the sake of saving a few hundred dollars.
Re: The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter
#16I think Apple knows this perfectly. I'm not even sure whether the "I'll wait for the S upgrade" people (myself included) outsmart Apple or it's Apple who created the market for those who want to feel smarter than the rest. At the end of the day, the economics of major upgrades vs. incrementals is very straightforward: major upgrades do bring significant new convenience features (e.g. once you are used to Face ID you…
> There's nothing smart about not benefiting from the new features today for the sake of saving a few hundred dollars.
I suppose you mean that it's obvious (i.e. doesn't require some masterstroke), not that it's a bad idea?
Sounds great to me. I don't upgrade my computing hardware until it's no longer fit for purpose for the most part, it would be stupidly wasteful to buy a new thing every 6 months regardless of whether I can afford it.
Re: The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter
#17I think Apple knows this perfectly. I'm not even sure whether the "I'll wait for the S upgrade" people (myself included) outsmart Apple or it's Apple who created the market for those who want to feel smarter than the rest. At the end of the day, the economics of major upgrades vs. incrementals is very straightforward: major upgrades do bring significant new convenience features (e.g. once you are used to Face ID you…
> There's nothing smart about not benefiting from the new features today for the sake of saving a few hundred dollars.
Sure there is. For every life-changing new feature, there are a dozen that end up not going anywhere. For the ones that are, their true advantages and disadvantages only become clear after they’ve been in the world for a while.
I’m thankful for all of the early adopters out there that hapily deal with the churn and find out what’s actually good so that I don’t have to— I can spend that time focusing on what’s important to me and still get most of the benefits, if only a year or two later.
Re: The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter
#18I just wish that smartphones had a more standardised OS.
Old laptops are fully usable in exactly the same way as a modern machine. They might be slightly slower.
Well, I mean, it's getting more difficult to deal with 32bit hardware, but that's about 10-15 years old now.
My 32bit atom netbook is still usable; still gets security patches; runs the latest everything (it's just very slow, and e.g. some distros dropped 32bit support).
I think that the phone manufacturers, Google, etc, should address the fact that they are creating mountains of e-waste for no good reason. The last new phone I bought was partly because old software stopped running on my version of Android. That's really a shame.
I'm keeping an eye on the progress of the Librem but that's a tiny niche market for nerds like me and doesn't address the wider problem.
Re: The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm still on iPhone 6. 4.5 years old. I want to upgrade for bling factor, but it just doesn't die. I'll probably try DIY battery replacement once next iPhone is out. Either I get to brag about my battery replacement skills or I have a reason to upgrade.. Win-win!
With people looking forward to upgrade their mobile and hand-held devices for multiple reasons (including the "bling factor") I can't help but think about the current e-waste management policies and mechanisms in place. Especially in third world countries where new electronic devices are pouring in as gifts or imports (thanks to the migrant workers and inflow of remittance) and older devices are just being dumped as…
I only recently moved from an iphone 5 to a 6. I actually consider it largely a step down due to the larger form factor. The 5 worked fine except for some applications I needed moving passed 32 bit support. If not for that I never would have upgraded. I'm always amazed at how people just must have the newest phones. Other than my issue with the 32 bit I saw no reason to change.
Re: The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm still on iPhone 6. 4.5 years old. I want to upgrade for bling factor, but it just doesn't die. I'll probably try DIY battery replacement once next iPhone is out. Either I get to brag about my battery replacement skills or I have a reason to upgrade.. Win-win!
With people looking forward to upgrade their mobile and hand-held devices for multiple reasons (including the "bling factor") I can't help but think about the current e-waste management policies and mechanisms in place. Especially in third world countries where new electronic devices are pouring in as gifts or imports (thanks to the migrant workers and inflow of remittance) and older devices are just being dumped as…
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd say "third world" (as much as I despite that term) has issue with waste management overall. Not just e-waste.
Here in "2nd world" e-waste is under control. Big portion of supermarkets have bins for disposing batteries and small electronics. We also have "electronics waste taxi" that comes to pick up large appliance for symbolic fee or even free, depending on exact location and item. Definitely better than collecting abandoned fridges and TVs from forests and roadside...
Fingers crossed 'third world" will get it under control sooner rather than later too. It requires a shift of mentality and some $$$. But it's totally doable.