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Why should I upgrade my phone?


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Seriously. :idk:

 

I have an iPhone 8. Apple is trying soooo hard to sell me a new phone for obvious reasons...but i find that I'm not even slightly tempted. I upgraded fairly regularly over the years, too...but I'm not feeling it currently.

 

Do others feel similarly? Do those of you who upgraded recently feel it was worth it?

 

dB

 

 

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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I got a slightly better Android phone recently when my older one hit the cement and died.

Bearing in mind that they were both $30 Tracfones and I do not log onto the interwebz or use apps.

 

I call people and text them, that's it. I also get zero Robo-Calls and the only thing that could be hacked is my Contact list.

Plus, I am paying around $80 a year to have cell phone since I don't use it much and every possible Google "service" has been disabled. Just a data suck so they can post ads on my interwebs, sorry not sorry.

 

If I got lost and forgot my Garmin I could log on and use Google Maps. Hasn't happened yet.

Had the old one for years, will keep the new one until it dies.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Seriously. :idk:

 

I have an iPhone 8. Apple is trying soooo hard to sell me a new phone for obvious reasons...but i find that I'm not even slightly tempted. I upgraded fairly regularly over the years, too...but I'm not feeling it currently.

 

Do others feel similarly? Do those of you who upgraded recently feel it was worth it?

 

dB

 

I still have an iPhone 7. I'll keep it until Apple changes the OS and nothing will run on it. I wouldn't mind more memory, but I'm a two-phone guy and my dirt cheap Android has a 128 GB removable SD card AND a user-replaceable battery (are you listening, Apple?).

 

I have a mean trick I play on Apple fanbois when a new iPhone comes out. I say:

 

"Wow, have you heard about Apple's cool new UNI feature? It's incredible!!"

"No, what's that?"

"It stands for 'Unique Numeric Identifier.' Every new iPhone has it!"

"So what does it do?"

"Well, every iPhone has a unique, 10-digit numeric identifier that is assigned to only that phone. If your friend has a new iPhone, just enter the UNI, and you can talk to them in real time - no texting! I hardly text anyone any more with my new UNI-equipped iPhone!"

 

It takes some people a little while to realize what I'm talking about :)

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Okay...there is a very specific reason to upgrade your phone. My daughter (who's a techie...big surprise, right?) upgraded to the iPhone X solely because it has tools needed for augmented reality development, which other phones before that didn't have. Subsequent phones include the same tools, it's not just the X.

 

That's no reason for me to upgrade, but maybe someone else wants to do AR development for iOS would find this helpful.

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I upgraded fairly regularly over the years, too...but I'm not feeling it currently.

Do others feel similarly? Do those of you who upgraded recently feel it was worth it?

 

It's never worth it, but if you use your phone for anything other than making and receiving phone calls, upgrades are necessary in order to keep using applications that you find yourself using more than you ever expected. And that includes even basic necessities like e-mail. Application developers try to find things available in new hardware and operating systems that they can get a little wow factor from, and they don't have "sustaining engineering" departments to keep old versions alive.

 

I've never been an Apple user, but while I keep computers running for 20 years, I find that about four years is the functional life of a system based around an Android phone. For example, I have several apps that I use maybe once or twice a month. More often than I expect, I'll open one and get the message "This version is no longer supported. Download the current version." And after a couple of years of this, the message becomes "This version [the upgrade] is not compatible with your phone."

 

The nice thing about Android phones is that you can get a pretty decent one for $150 (and a highly featured crappy one for under $100) so it becomes another $50/year expense to keep up with the developers.

 

 

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I have old man tech. My phone is strictly talk & text. But it's getting beat up, and will have to be replaced soon. Few to no options that AREN'T smart phones. My supervisor is an Apple sycophant. One more reason that I won't get one.

 

Heck, I still have my Tascam PortaStudio cassette recorder around here somewhere...

"Am I enough of a freak to be worth paying to see?"- Separated Out (Marillion)

NEW band Old band

 

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I went from an iPhone 6 to a XR last year and have been very very happy with the upgrade. It's way faster, much better battery life, nice display, FaceID making unlocking way faster and easier, and probably some other stuff that I now take for granted.

 

That being said, I'm always an advocate of "if it works for you, why upgrade?" whether it be hardware or software. What you're getting out of it has to be compelling to go through all that, JMO.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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iPhone 6 which I've had for 5 years had a battery swelling problem for the second time (first time Apple replaced under an extended warranty provision back when Samsung was having all the battery problems). Phone also was only 16G storage. I had added an Apple watch 4 shortly after the 5 came out (Amazon offered me $100 on any order if I got their store card, figured would not get any better if I waited till Black Friday sales). The swelling may well have been hastened because of the Otterbox really protective case I used causing heat to be retained.

 

Looked carefully after the swelling problem. couple of months ago, ordered a new Apple 8+ direct from Apple (best price I could find, interestingly, their refurbished 8+ was more expensive than a new one). 64G storage, now there is plenty of room for the apps that I wanted on the phone. Looked like the best balance between price and longevity. I'm figuring if I get 5 years out of a phone that is about all I can expect before it reaches a point that the OS can't be updated and apps that I use regularly won't get patched. BTW, I just love the larger size with my eyesight. This time, I chose an Apple leather case and a tempered glass screen protector.

 

My wife's iPhone 6 was same age - she had the battery replaced about a year after mine swelled, but hers just lost capacity, and she got it done during the year that Apple was charging $29. Well, the new battery started losing capacity; so she just got an iPhone 11. She has an Apple watch 3. She is well pleased. I have her old iPhone 6, removed all of her apps, and put Korg Module and iFretless Bass on it, some velcro on the back; and it now lives a new life as a sound generator, velcroed to the PC2, just use a setup on the PC3 to change to MIDI channel 2, and instant Hammond/Leslie goodness. Have it charged while in use, so battery is no problem.

 

I do think that the Apple phones are worth the extra money, largely because there are fairly frequent operating system updates that will work on all phones except the very old ones. With the Android OS, it is more like Windows, where Microsoft provides the base OS, but each manufacturer is responsible for the essential hardware drivers. In practice, this means that some Androids do get the latest OS fairly frequently, and others are permanently stuck on the original OS.

 

Right now on the church praise band, I'm carrying four devices with me: the iPhone 8+ as my regular phone, the iPhone 6 as a sound generator, an old iPad 3 running OnSong (and being charged) with the music charts, and a newer iPad 5 with apps that I use in teaching a class. Yes, I could combine the last 3 into one device, but it is a lot less trouble to carry them than to depend on moving one iPad, fastening it into the holder on my keyboard stand, and trying to both read charts and change sound patches on the single device. All does work quite well.

 

Howard Grand|Hamm SK1-73|Kurz PC2|PC2X|PC3|PC3X|PC361; QSC K10's

HP DAW|Epi Les Paul & LP 5-str bass|iPad mini2

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Jim

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As long as my current Android (Samsung) phone works OK, I see no need to upgrade it.

 

99% of what I use the phone for is making/receiving calls/texts, radar/weather checking when I'm doing an outdoor gig, and and 'google in my pocket' when I'm curious about something. (Actually I use SmartPage for a search engine.)

 

I figure if I don't need to upgrade it, why pollute the planet with more manufacturing and disposal just to make some corporate suit richer? As the world gets more and more crowded, I think it's responsible to consume less and less. So replacing things for me depends more on needs than wants. YMMV

 

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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While we're ranting and raving, another thing I'm finding hard to replace is my laptop computer. I use full size computers with real monitors and keyboards at home, but I use a laptop for travel. For the past 7 or 8 years I've been using a Toshiba Netbook. I've updated it with Windows 7, 4 GB RAM and a solid state drive, but as web pages get more complicated, many are just so slooooooow to load due to its little Atom CPU and whatever graphics processor it has. What I like about it is the size. I think it's nominally 10.5 or 11 inches, and I can travel with a smaller bag and still carry all the accessories I want - cables, a real mouse, a handful of USB thumb drives, a small headphones, and such. I've been wanting to replace it, but the only thing I can find now are either "desktop replacement" 15" or 16" laptops or "surface" convertibles that look more like tablets than computers. Desktop replacements are pretty cheap but I want something smaller. Convertibles are expensive and I don't like them anyway.

 

I have a good local used computer store where I've bought most of the computers I'm using in the house. They got in a batch of H-P 3115s that are just the right size, have the AMD equivalent of an Intel Core2Duo CPU, and they're the right size and have a good looking screen. I bought one, downgraded it from Win10 to Win7, installed an SSD, and was pleased with it on its first trip out - except that I discovered that one speaker wasn't working. I was getting both channels out the headphone jack and Bluetooth stream, so I know it wasn't a software problem. I brought it back for repair. They tried, they got replacement speakers and that didn't solve the problem, so they concluded that it was a motherboard problem. They found one more of that model around and sent me home with that one. It worked for a couple of weeks and then the WiFi developed a problem. They've had it for about a month and can't seem to figure it out, and, because of its age (about 5 years) can't find parts for it. And, because of this size computer has gone out of favor, they haven't gotten anything in that I want as a replacement.

 

I'll be taking my old but reliable Toshiba on my next trip out, it seems, because they no longer make (or rather, haven't made for long enough so most have gone into the dumpster) real travel-sized computers any more. I'm not even seeing anything on eBay that I want. And while my phone is OK for checking e-mail and getting directions, even with an outboard mouse and keyboard, the display is just too small for doing any useful work.

 

I guess I'm just too old fashioned to want to use a computer when everyone else wants a super-powered phone.

 

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Netbooks basically got killed by tablets. Maybe a tablet would do what you want, depending on the apps you need to run. You can use a Bluetooth keyboard, and most Android tablets have a micro USB connection; most iPads have a lightning-to-USB adapter. I'm seeing Android tablets for as little as $120 and iPad minis for $249.
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Netbooks basically got killed by tablets. Maybe a tablet would do what you want, depending on the apps you need to run. You can use a Bluetooth keyboard, and most Android tablets have a micro USB connection; most iPads have a lightning-to-USB adapter. I'm seeing Android tablets for as little as $120 and iPad minis for $249.

 

That's one more example of "I'm not 'everyone else'." Tablets are great for people who either have a specific application for their work like the guy who comes around to read my gas meter, or just want entertainment. I've seen too many people with a tablet struggle with getting a PowerPoint presentation to work with whatever A/V system shows up at the gig, though to be fair, I've seen people with Mac and Windows laptops having similar problems - but that's because they don't know how those things work, and the A/V tech at the gig (if there's one) doesn't know how computers work.

 

The desktop of my netbook is quite full, pretty much everything I have on my "everyday, not studio" computers. The usual web stuff - email (Thunderbird), browser (Firefox and, for when that won't work, Chrome), an FTP client, Sound Forge, Reaper, and Audacity, media players Winamp and VLC, Microsoft Office stuff (Word, Excel, and Power Point plus the Foxit PDF viewer/writer), a graphic file viewer/editor-sort-of, screen capture program. Not much, but practically nothing that comes off-the-shelf with a tablet, and it's all Windows. I don't want to run a Mac on the road and Windows at home, with different software in each place. And an Android tablet doesn't come close.

 

Then there's the ergonomic part. I can put a laptop on my lap or on a desk, or even use it on an airplane tray table. A Bluetooth or USB keyboard is another loose part that I'd have to find room for, that's convenient for the screen, and I'd need something - a case, probably - to prop the screen up to working position. I actually have an Android tablet, a Samsung Tab 10.1, but of course the operating system is generations out of date and will never get an update. I didn't buy it, I won it in a drawing at the ham radio reception at NAB one year. Back when it was still supported, I tried taking short trips with it, leaving the laptop at home, and I just missed so much stuff, and found it so inconvenient to use for anything but reading and web browsing (I didn't have an outboard keyboard for it). And the screen is a little smaller than the netbook screen, which is why I want the next size up from the netbook, not the next size down.

 

I'm just not the tablet kind.

 

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HP in their business line makes some quite compact 14" notebooks, in their Elite Book and Z book lines. I have a client with a Zbook 14 with i7 and SSD, it is quite fast and compact. I have seen some refurbished units available recently from on line vendor Tig**Dir***.

I personally am using an HP 2570P with i7, 8G RAM, and a 500G SSD; it has a 12" screen, a bit thicker than the new stuff, but works very well on service calls to clients.

I had two netbooks, HP 311 and 5103. plus the ElitePad 900 (same size as an iPad, but running Windows). All worked well when I got them, but as times and OS changed, they became too slow.

 

Between the 2570P with Windows 10 Pro, and my 15" 2012 MacbookPro (quad i7, 16G RAM, 1TB SSD) on which I use Parallels to run several different Windows virtual machines plus a Linux VM; my service needs away from home and the shop are presently well taken care.

 

As I get older, my eyes want larger screens, so my work in the home and shop is done on 32" high resolution monitors.

Howard Grand|Hamm SK1-73|Kurz PC2|PC2X|PC3|PC3X|PC361; QSC K10's

HP DAW|Epi Les Paul & LP 5-str bass|iPad mini2

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Jim

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HP in their business line makes some quite compact 14" notebooks, in their Elite Book and Z book lines. I have a client with a Zbook 14 with i7 and SSD, it is quite fast and compact. I have seen some refurbished units available recently from on line vendor Tig**Dir***.

I personally am using an HP 2570P with i7, 8G RAM, and a 500G SSD; it has a 12" screen, a bit thicker than the new stuff, but works very well on service calls to clients.

 

I've had good luck with the H-P desktop computers that I've bought - all a couple of years old when I got them, and all still going. A 12" screen might be OK for me, but I don't want anything larger. I'm trying to save my shoulders and carry a smaller bag, though it's amazing how quickly I can fill a larger bag with the netbook and stuff. Seems like every time I leave something out of it, even a cable, I wish I had it when I got where I was going.

 

 

Amen, Brother. I remember that when DAWs first came out in the common format that we have today, I said I'd consider working that way when I can get a monitor as big as my console. But when it comes to walking 3/4 of a mile through an airport, a computer with an 11 or 12 inch screen works for me.

 

 

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Looking at a spreadsheet of HP refurbished notebooks, I think that the 12" screen is no longer available. There are numerous ones with a 13.3" screen, including the ProBook 430 series and the EliteBook x360 series. There are a lot of them with 14" screens. The actual size of a 13.3" screen notebook today is probably about the size of the 12" screen of a few years ago, since the bezel is not as large. These are available with i7 processors and SSD with sufficient RAM.

 

I used to do the 3/4 mile through the airport routine, remember it well. Now, in my upper 70's, travel generally means by auto (for sufficient reward, I could be persuaded to take on the airport again, I do have current passport).

 

Also, most of the current HP business notebooks have DisplayPort or HDMI output as well as VGA, so that connection to a larger monitor on site is possible.

 

Howard Grand|Hamm SK1-73|Kurz PC2|PC2X|PC3|PC3X|PC361; QSC K10's

HP DAW|Epi Les Paul & LP 5-str bass|iPad mini2

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Jim

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I much prefer my computers at home on a desk. My hands are basically just too damned big to like iPads much, even if their power as additional synths has made them more tempting lately. There's also the main issue I have: there's no SKB case small enough to truly protect a pad as you travel. Phones and pads can be lost, stolen or stomped all too easily. I need one I can wear on my chest that's flat enough that it doesn't impede my sword-swinging abilities when the zombies come.

 

I also tend to upgrade only when the inevitable OS change demands it. I was so involved in Logic 8, I didn't even look up until I bought a new Mac and Logic 10. I have musical things to do. Constantly struggling with upgrading apps and possibly everything else up & down the chain seems less enjoyable to me than establishing a solid system and sitting tight. I rarely need a new plug and my AAS and Arturia buys have installed seamlessly, soooo..... I'm at a disadvantage in this club and certainly no boffin! I see my Mac/Logic as a giant player piano that also brings me KC, evil jpgs and cheap laughs. You see the so-called problem. :idk::laugh:

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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Netbooks basically got killed by tablets. Maybe a tablet would do what you want, depending on the apps you need to run. You can use a Bluetooth keyboard, and most Android tablets have a micro USB connection; most iPads have a lightning-to-USB adapter. I'm seeing Android tablets for as little as $120 and iPad minis for $249.

 

I had an iPad for years and both loved and hated it. {love} Nice display, convenient couch surfing, a few amusing music aps {hate} Since I need to use Windows as my desktop/business computer, getting a lot of large files from the PC to the iPad and back again was a lot more time consuming than hooking a USB to Lightning cable and then dragging and dropping. In fact getting my >700 Australian vacation pictures to it so show my sister was a major PITA.

 

After good service for years, the iPad battery died, and Apple wanted more than I thought the iPad was worth to replace the battery. I bought a Galaxy Tab S2 and couldn't be happier. It's faster than the iPad, the colors are richer, (of course it's newer tech) and I can drag and drop files.

 

I would never consider a tablet as my main computer. But for 2 things it's worth the money.

(1) couch surfing - that's it's main use. I can sit in my easy chair and read the news, a book, use it as a quick reference (dictionary, Google, Wikipedia) or whatever and

(2) traveling to share pictures and stuff with others

 

Right now I'm liking the Galaxy much, much better than the iPad YMMV

 

Other than the tablet and one phone I prefer ThinkPad computers. They are built like tanks and that "eraser head" pointing stick keeps my hands on the keyboard without repetitive time wasting movements to the mouse.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

 

 

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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