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Forced to upgrade

herman.bearblog.dev

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Re: Forced to upgrade

#251

Post by tzs »

HermanMartinus wrote: post #101
mrweasel wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upgrading to an iPhone 16 seems like a weird choice, given that the SE3 exists and it pretty much perfect. One argument that I can see it that the 16 is two years newer, and should get updates at least two year more. The price difference between the two phones however is much to big to justify getting the 16, unless there's some feature you really need.

Hey, author here. I decided on the 16 since its support lifetime started this year. If I'd gotten the SE (which I seriously considered since it has a more appealing form factor and touchID) I would only have a 4 year support lifetime as opposed to the full 6.

On the other hand the SE3 is 54% of the price of the 16 (assuming base models of both), so long term it could be cheaper to go with the SE3 even though you would have replace it sooner.

Re: Forced to upgrade

#252

Post by ranger207 »

chr15m wrote: post #26

This situation doesn't happen with hardware running an open source OS. For example laptops running Linux can upgrade basically forever. Why are community maintained open source OSes better at this than commercially maintained proprietary OSes?

Yeah, I finally had to replace my old LineageOS phone when all the plastic clips in it broke from replacing the battery so much. My current phone has a web browser, and email client, a Hacker News app, and Signal, and all but the last are from F-Droid and will probably work forever. But it's just the last one that needs to stop being updated and I'll be forced to stop using probably good hardware

Re: Forced to upgrade

#253

Post by Havoc »

Noticeable change has definitely slowed down.

Personally I don’t mind their cadence. 3-4 year cycle is good for me and well within apples window.

I can understand OPs irritation though. Throwing working hardware out is not nice

Re: Forced to upgrade

#254

Post by nucleardog »

ryandrake wrote: post #179
stouset wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How far back is reasonable to go? How much additional complexity do we tolerate in order to target hardware with diverging feature sets? How much should we hold new software back in order to target older hardware that can’t do the same things without chewing through battery? Frankly I think it’s fucking amazing what Apple has done here, especially when you compare against the Windows ecosystem (at least as of the las…

I think we should expect basic software security updates and third party app compatibility to continue until the last device’s hardware fails. This idea that a device that millions of people still use is “old and icky and we just don’t wanna support it anymore” is user-hostile and should not be tolerated.

I've still got a working Android Dev Phone 1 here. Updated fully to Android 1.6. Got a massive 256MB of internal storage (basically none usable, mind you, all taken up by the OS) and a zippy 500MHz processor with a single core to share between the OS and apps.

What you're proposing is a massive waste of effort and talent--attempting to accomplish something bordering on impossible with a benefit of practically nil.

In fact I'd go so far as to say "negative benefit". It's going to encourage solutions targeting the lowest common denominator and hold back improvements for others. And even on the individual level--_hardware_ security has improved leaps and bounds in the last couple decades. Even with all the software updates in the world, nobody should be using that thing anymore.

Though I mean, it might finally encourage me to get rid of it. We'd be in a situation where it would be cheaper for one of the big companies to hire someone to have me and my family have an "accident" than it would be to actually maintain that hardware.

Re: Forced to upgrade

#255

Post by mcoliver »

nekobrain wrote: post #25

Just "upgraded" to a Pixel 8 from a 4a (it wasn't even my intention to do so, went to have my 4a battery replaced but the shop botched the job and I needed a working phone quickly), I agree with every point made by the author. It does the same things as the 4a did, just marginally faster. Screen is better but I don't really care, and using it with one hand is harder. On top of that, I'm praying the dreaded green scre…

Same here. Pixel 5 has been amazing and would love to keep it but the arbitrary stopping of OS and security updates is forcing my hand. I have searched long and far for the technical reasons (some security chip, ram requirements, processor features, etc) but can't seem to come up with anything. Makes it hard to reason about this in any other way than they want to sell more things.

Re: Forced to upgrade

#256

Post by mcoliver »

grishka wrote: post #19

Android phones are kinda better in this regard because if you really insist, you can take matters into your own hands and install a custom ROM. Especially now that GSIs (generic system images) are a thing. Really though, why do we keep updating OSes? I understand security updates, but why do these major yearly releases have to keep happening? What do they solve? Why can't we for once just settle for something in this…

Yeah I don't know....custom ROMs feel less trustworthy than a publicly traded corporations locked down OS. Things like Graphene can't run some bank apps because of security concerns from the banks. I would rather run a pixel missing a few security updates than a custom rom. I also don't visit shady sites or install non mainstream apps.

Re: Forced to upgrade

#258

Post by apple4ever »

9x39 wrote: post #72
rubymamis wrote: post #18

> I also miss TouchID. I agree - Touch ID is far superior to Face ID.

What do you like about Touch ID? I think I'd switch platforms before going away from Face ID, it's so trivial to authenticate without even moving a muscle that I don't even think about it. I have an older iPad with touch ID, and I simply turned it off because it felt like an anachronism in the experience.

It doesn't fail as often as Face ID - you can touch the phone on table and don't have move your head to get it right (especially on the iPad). Its more secure because it requires an active action (touching) vs passive (looking).

Re: Forced to upgrade

#260

Post by rubymamis »

apple4ever wrote: post #258
9x39 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you like about Touch ID? I think I'd switch platforms before going away from Face ID, it's so trivial to authenticate without even moving a muscle that I don't even think about it. I have an older iPad with touch ID, and I simply turned it off because it felt like an anachronism in the experience.

It doesn't fail as often as Face ID - you can touch the phone on table and don't have move your head to get it right (especially on the iPad). Its more secure because it requires an active action (touching) vs passive (looking).

> you can touch the phone on table and don't have move your head to get it right

This one. And like you said, it's much more reliable and faster than Face ID.

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