There are few things quite as emblematic of late stage capitalism than the concept of “planned obsolescence”.

  • skulblaka
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    21 year ago

    I remember back in the day when I had apple devices where they would push updates for devices long past their capability to actually run the updated software. Rather than refuse the update or get a pruned patch with security fixes only, it would force updates and bloat your phone and grind it into unresponsive unusability after a few years.

    I hear that’s not so much the case anymore, so that’s nice. But I remember. The main reason I upgraded my phone was because of that, the hardware was great, but I could hardly use the software anymore even after clean installs.

    My point being, I guess, extended support is great if managed properly but it can also become a bludgeon with which to drive you toward the new generations of devices.

    • @Sina@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      long past their capability to actually run the updated software

      Well, Apple intentionally slowed those devices down to make the users update, instead of using an insecure device, that would’ve provided a good experience otherwise.

      And these days Apple is retiring devices arbitrarily for profits too. For example this year they are retiring the Iphone 8, which has better hardware, than the ipad 2018 that is still being supported…

      • bedrooms
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        81 year ago

        That slowness was, at least officially, for the battery health. Do you have the support to prove otherwise?

        • @supercheesecake@aussie.zone
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          101 year ago

          These conversations bring the weirdest people out of the woodwork. I remember talking with a guy who explained to me how crap Apple laptops were because you (according to him) can’t customise them. Turns out he’d never owned or even used an Apple laptop. I was like, why do you care?! Especially about something you have no experience with!

          • bedrooms
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            11 year ago

            The problem is that those people often can’t read. Everyone has a biased opinion or two they forgot to back up with support, but those people can’t be argued with. I want to know how to talk with them.

        • @Boiscull@lemmynsfw.com
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          41 year ago

          And then if I recall correctly (though I can’t be bothered to look) didn’t they get sued for slowing phones?

          So people were mad that their phones battery wasn’t holding a charge anymore, “im being forced to upgrade”, so Apple throttled older phones to keep the battery running, aka allowing people to keep their phones longer, and then they got sued for slowing down phones lol.

          I am an apple fan boy, I wont hide that. But it does seem like they tried to do a “good” and make peoples phones last longer, and then got sued.

          Also the whole forced upgrade just isn’t apples game IMO. Do they want you buying the new one every year, of course. But the more important thing is that you keep using AN iPhone at all. Stay in the ecosystem, stay in the app store, stay paying for icloud, etc.

          Going to a new phone gives the user a window to move away from IOS. (Though most won’t haha)

        • @Sina@beehaw.org
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          11 year ago

          Actually yes. I bought a brand new -discounted old stock- Iphone 4s for my mum near the end of the ios 8 cycle. The day before we installed ios 9 on it, it had okay performance and good battery life. Following the update to ios9 the performance went to complete shit. (the battery remained usable for 2 more years after, but it was not a good experience for her)

          • bedrooms
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            11 year ago

            How does that prove that it was not for your battery health?