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Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
141–150 of 353 posts
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have horrible luck. I've never had an AC-to-DC converter die and I've owned 6 going back to 2006 timeframe. Two of them are still used daily and they're from 2011 and 2013 respectively.
I've had two XPS laptops die due to worn out power connections. I doubt these kinds of issues are rare.
Certainly not rare for Apple users. I've replaced many MagSafe connectors over the years. My wife managed to go through three in the span of two years.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#143Stop trying to make hardware last forever. Who here would like to use hardware from 2017? iPhone x anyone? The lifetime of these devices is defined by the reasonable update schedule of the consumer, which is based on moores law. 5 years is a reasonable update schedule. Then put one in a museum and live in the now. You get this much time forget the nostalgia https://www.bryanbraun.com/your-life/months.html
I am just about to leave my iPhone SE first generation. That was 2016 when it was released. I probably bought it around 2017. It's absolutely fine, when it works.
But now the display is getting weirdly jagged at random, odd reboot loops, and so forth. Time ... to die.
Five years, a little more than your average replicant. It's still delightful for my use. The replacement will be larger and will cost me money I would rather spend on other things. With the protective case and the Applecare and the ablative glass addition, my fondleslab will run me over a couple hundred a year, if I include my data plan. I would like just a little more life, father.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#144Sadly, I found many other devices are also designed to become trash. The battery in my Philips Sonicare toothbrush not only can’t be replaced — it’s fixed so firmly inside that the manual says you have to take a hammer to it just to throw it away (because batteries can cause trash fires). “The battery is firmly placed, in a water-resistant handle, to ensure safety, durability, longevity and robust performance,” says…
> I have no doubt they could design an electric toothbrush which is both waterproof and has replaceable batteries
They can, because mine is, and does! It was strangely refreshing to get an electronic device that takes plain-old AAA batteries in 2022.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thankfully USB-C charging on my laptops has made that less of an issue. Of course the good chargers are like $80 instead but still.
$80USD? GaN 90/100W chargers from manufacturers like Anker and Monoprice can regularly be had for half of that. Right now there are a lot of 90W ones from unknown-to-me manufacturers for ~$32 on Amazon. I'm not trying to correct you here; I'm just wondering if there's something I'm missing.
The cheapest 100w Anker I see on Amazon is the $79.99 PowerPort III. The cheapest I see on their website is the $84.99 Anker 736 Nano II (with no listing for the PowerPort III).
There are cheaper Anker chargers on Amazon that say 100w in the title but that's only because they include a 100w capable cable, the charger is a lower wattage.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve personally found usb-c ports aren’t great longevity wise. They have a similar issue as I had with micro-USB: they stop clamping onto the plug and then you don’t get a reliable connection. I’ve found Lightning ports more reliable (with periodic lint cleaning) but it’s a shame that it’s a proprietary standard.
I've been using this magnetic USB-C adapter on my laptop to reduce the wear and tear on the port: https://a.co/d/4JCadfi . I've been using it since March with no complaints. It'd be great if manufacturers could standardize on something like this so that the port could be flush.
They can't; Apple has a patent on Magsafe.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#147Stop trying to make hardware last forever. Who here would like to use hardware from 2017? iPhone x anyone? The lifetime of these devices is defined by the reasonable update schedule of the consumer, which is based on moores law. 5 years is a reasonable update schedule. Then put one in a museum and live in the now. You get this much time forget the nostalgia https://www.bryanbraun.com/your-life/months.html
I am just about to leave my iPhone SE first generation. That was 2016 when it was released. I probably bought it around 2017. It's absolutely fine, when it works. But now the display is getting weirdly jagged at random, odd reboot loops, and so forth. Time ... to die. Five years, a little more than your average replicant. It's still delightful for my use. The replacement will be larger and will cost me money I would…
I’m afraid that’s a little out of my jurisdiction. The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I have been a long time enthusiast of high power flashlights. We typically use 18350, 18650, 21700, or 26650. But I have been in dismay as even in this community, companies are starting to move away from these standards and provide proprietary batteries (Olight) or sealed (some newer Fenix models). We went through this exact cycle with laptops and cellular phones. The hardcore internet users were furious when compa…
Laptops are not an emergency item. when the power goes out I for one don't go immediately looking for my laptop. I look for my phone, and then immediately go looking for any flashlight, because I need to save as much power as possible until the power is back up. Every year there's a hurricane, wherever it passes, a good amount of people will be out of power for maybe a week, If you cannot buy a battery in the corner…
In my house, we hand candles and oil lamps instead of flashlights. To this day, I still have more candles than flashlights. A benefit of candles is most people are okay with them being part of the decor and visible where flashlights/torches tend to be in a drawer and maybe the batteries are still good when needed.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
$80USD? GaN 90/100W chargers from manufacturers like Anker and Monoprice can regularly be had for half of that. Right now there are a lot of 90W ones from unknown-to-me manufacturers for ~$32 on Amazon. I'm not trying to correct you here; I'm just wondering if there's something I'm missing.
I value the absence of house fires too much to buy no-name power banks and chargers (chargers also come with the extra risk of yummy 230V on the output).
Exactly this. I tried buying cheaper chargers but they'd inevitably break and I worry that they're damaging my USB-C cables. (I even ran across knockoff fake apple chargers). I don't always buy this[0] $80 charger but I've got a few of them lying about.
[0] https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MX0J2AM/A/96w-usb-c-power...
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#150I've made AirPods last longer than any other pair of earbuds I've ever had. It's the cord. For me, a max of six months of fiddling with the damn thing and it breaks. I've had real headphones last quite a bit longer— but I buy the ones with replaceable cords. The pair I still have is on its fourth cord and second pair of muffs. I don't view it as any sort of economic, human, or environmental catastrophe, that they sto…
Yeah I don’t get the environmental angle as well. It’s 10g, I’m sure there’s more lithium in a single AAA cell than 50 AirPods. Imagine how much more polluting a single dude in Texas rolling coal would do compared to everyone in Texas using AirPods.
Why the specific Texas dude? Like rednecks in other areas don't roll coal in their neck of the woods too?