Switching from Apple to Android Phone

[LordMortis]

Planned obsolescence. I only replaced my 7 last year because it just couldn't handle the updates.

Bruh. I think it's time to acknowledge that smart phones aren't for you.

The iPhone 7 is a 2016 phone. Using it until 2023/2024 and then kind of griping that you had to replace it might be the most old man thing I've ever heard. For the record, it's perfectly fine to believe that, but you really aren't in the demo any more for these things. The young whippersnappers are working on 2 year upgrade cycles.

I was never a in the demo for a smart phone and am totally an old man. I was last to the party. At the same time, our contemporary society pushes you in to them so a smart phone I must use to get hit the floor of consumerism that we must partake in.

I was not an old man when I had my Handspring and everyone made of me for having such a huge phone and they all wanted to see if they could surf porn and wait to watch it load. So that's, what, 2003? It was largely a novelty for its usefulness at the time and when Sprint wouldn't honor the warranty when it broke, I went to a flip phone.

[raydude]

I was reading up on software support for phones and looks like the iPhones get supported for about 6-7 years for iOS updates. While it may be true that older iphone models end up not being fast enough to run apps I can't imagine newer ones (like iphone 12 and up) getting slow; unless we're talking about games or complicated apps. I kept my iphone6 for six years until I upgraded to iphone 12 pro. I intend to keep my 12pro until 2027 when its no longer supported. Granted, I don't feel the slowdown because I don't play games on my iphone, but I still use other apps for it and feel that it's still running fine.

As for battery life, yeah I also feel that it runs out of joice faster now (haven't replaced the battery yet). For that I just put it in low power mode all day, recharge in the morning and evening, and carry a battery pack in my bag.

Everything technically ran. It's more a question of how responsive things were and how much they chewed the battery. Before retiring my 7 this year, with a battery that was less than a year old (as I assumed the battery was at the core of my problem and was told by Apple staff that it would help but not solve the my problems) all of my grocery apps would take several minutes to load and another several minutes to populate. My calorie tracker while active would just eat the battery alive. The 7 itself I think was going to be supported for another 2 years when I laid it rest. The OS and sucked up so much of computing power and everything else had to work on that framework. Such is life. I don't have to like the game but if I want to stay with what I am accustomed to then I have to play ball.

Something doesn't compute. You retired the iphone7 this year (2024). This Macworld article shows the iphone7 was supported up to ios15. ios16 was officially released in 2022. Is it me or was your phone not supported for 2 years?

[LordMortis]

Something doesn't compute. You retired the iphone7 this year (2024). This Macworld article shows the iphone7 was supported up to ios15. ios16 was officially released in 2022. Is it me or was your phone not supported for 2 years?

When I was reading up on it when I was initially deciding if I was going to replace the battery the deciding factor to keep it was that I could get another two years before they stopped supporting security for it, so I stopped paying attention then. (and two years was from battery replacement, so it would be said at the time it would be going away about now)

[RunningMn9]

The young whippersnappers are working on 2 year upgrade cycles.

What can a today-phone do that a 2-years-ago phone can't? (Asking as an old man who's still thinks 4G is plenty.)

Two years ago phones were already 5G ultra wideband.

A smart phone is more or less two things. A computer in your pocket, and a camera. A today phone is better than a two-year old phone as a computer and as a camera. It’s faster, it’s almost always more energy efficient (with better battery life), the camera optics are better.

Once upon a time, most of the people here probably upgraded their computers every couple of years, Now they are a bunch of grumps with 10 yr old computers. Same principle.

[hepcat]

A smart phone is more or less two things. A computer in your pocket, and a camera.

For many of the executives I work with, it’s three things. The two you mention and a sign of prestige. Gotta get the newest and most expensive or you ain’t no thing.

[Jeff V]

It's when little age-related annoyances build up over time and become untenable. A year ago, I was dealing with a phone whose GPS would become spotty until I reinstalled the Uber driver app. This was annoying when it happened in the middle of a long ride, and I was close to breaking point when it was unceremoniously drown in the Cayman Islands.

The replacement has been fine for the past year, no GPS issues. Last week I lost GPS connection twice, no reinstallation was necessary, just one restart and one app restart. But around the same time, I started having issues with Audacy --that app shares talking with the Uber app, so I can hear instructions and music at the same time. It dims the volume when Uber is talking, except now only sometimes does it restore volume. So I need to turn up the volume, making the Uber app too loud. Then it will randomly restore the volume which is now too loud. Wife is starting to complain about hers (same model as my drown on, A32).

I'm not too squeamish when it comes to upgrading my phone -- it's an essential business accessory so the cost and service is a write-off.

[McNutt]

I used to upgrade my PC every two years too. Since I stopped playing the newest games I've extended my current PC to five years and counting.

I've switched the two year schedule to my phone.

Sent from my CPH2583 using Tapatalk

[Kraken]

The young whippersnappers are working on 2 year upgrade cycles.

What can a today-phone do that a 2-years-ago phone can't? (Asking as an old man who's still thinks 4G is plenty.)

Two years ago phones were already 5G ultra wideband.

A smart phone is more or less two things. A computer in your pocket, and a camera. A today phone is better than a two-year old phone as a computer and as a camera. It’s faster, it’s almost always more energy efficient (with better battery life), the camera optics are better.

Once upon a time, most of the people here probably upgraded their computers every couple of years, Now they are a bunch of grumps with 10 yr old computers. Same principle.

The pace of advancement in PCs slowed, and I think the same thing is happening in phones. I mean, they make incremental improvements but their basic functions are pretty well set. I use mine as a music player, GPS device, text send/receiver, a googler, and occasionally as a camera. Every now and then it's an alarm clock or calendar. All of those function as well today as they did 6 years ago. I know the cameras steadily improve, but I just take snapshots; I don't need professional grade optics or effects. Eventually the battery will wear out or the manufacturer will stop supporting it, and I'll grudgingly upgrade to the latest and greatest. In fact I might do that next month, before tariffs potentially spike prices by 20%. I don't *want* a new phone but I recognize that I'll need one.

[hepcat]

Side note: I’m in rural Ohio for the holidays and last night I saw an Amish family at a local restaurant. The father was using a flip phone.

[RunningMn9]

Old People Stuff(tm)

The pace of development didn’t really slow down. The pace of us caring slowed down.

And I’m not suggesting that the way you feel is wrong for you. You want a phone to do X, as long as your phone is acceptably doing X, why would you need to change it out?

I would agree that it doesn’t have the same drivers as PCs did (with video games constantly pushing the envelope as an example). And if the things that drive mobile phone development aren’t your bag - that’s cool.

But that’s what I mean when I say that we aren’t really the group to ask these kinds of things anymore. No one is creating or marketing cutting edge technology to appeal to us, so it generally doesn’t, and leads to a lot of “why do I need this phone when my 2016 iPhone 7 does what I need it to do?”.

We need more young people here to better address these things.

[hepcat]

One other thing that bothers me about my iPhone: it sucks as a hotspot. And I’ve had numerous users tell me the same at work. This has been an issue for years. I have to reset the network on it multiple times a day when using it as a hotspot. My android though? Flawless connection every time.

[Kraken]

Yeah, my Android/Verizon hotspot is flawless whenever I need it. It was our main internet connection during the week that we moved house and the quality was fine.

[naednek]

Another reason to switch to Android. It saves you money when ordering an Uber

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/niraalip ... 80608-E75O

Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro XL using Tapatalk

[RunningMn9]

One other thing that bothers me about my iPhone: it sucks as a hotspot. And I’ve had numerous users tell me the same at work. This has been an issue for years. I have to reset the network on it multiple times a day when using it as a hotspot. My android though? Flawless connection every time.

I hotspot like a MF'er all the time when on travel. It has never failed, not even once.

[hepcat]

Conversely, I hear about how awful it is all the time from people I work with. My own experience is equally shitty. I’m traveling for the holidays and my elderly father believes the internet is a fad, so I’m using my phone. I tried the iPhone again for one evening and it sucked…hard. It will just disconnect without notice.

[RunningMn9]

Weird. This is a work phone? I wouldn’t ever try to use my work iPhone as a hotspot. They’ve basically rendered that device inert.

What carrier do you use, as I know they can impose throttling rules on the hot spot functionality? But even with the rules Verizon imposes, I’ve never had it not work.

[hepcat]

Verizon. It (and the others I mentioned) are managed through Intune. But so are the few android mobile devices we still have. Hot spot functionality has been an issue only with the iPhones for ages. There are numerous sites with supposed fixes if googled. The reset usually works for a while though. But never permanently.

[RunningMn9]

Verizon. It (and the others I mentioned) are managed through Intune. But so are the few android mobile devices we still have. Hot spot functionality has been an issue only with the iPhones for ages. There are numerous sites with supposed fixes if googled. The reset usually works for a while though. But never permanently.

Roger. Although I basically get the same response from Google if I swap “iPhone” out for “Android”.