I hate technology

On 01/09/2015 at 01:33 AM by VisuaLIES

Gonna rant a bit. My phone, a Galaxy SIII, has decided that it no longer wants to live. Truth be told, it's suicide wasn't entirely unexpected, as this is about the same age my wife's SIII was when it took its own life. Apparently Samsung provides every one of its phones with strict instructions to end its existence after 3 years along with the means to do so. My wife's phone died suddenly, so I imagine it had a little cyanide capsule that it bit into before she could recover all the information that she needed from it. Mine on the other hand, still powers on and shuts off randomly at this point, so I'm thinking it is surely deriving some sick pleasure at my frustration. I was planning on upgrading this year anyhow, as I dropped the phone and cracked the screen over a year ago, but I was hoping to wait until the new HTC One model was announced. Apparently my stupid sadistic phone has other ideas. Which brings me to my point.

How did we get here? I mean, where shit that costs hundreds of dollars only lasts a couple of years and we as society are OK with that? I have a Nexus 7 tablet that's around the same age, and Google has decided that it was working too well and crippled it with their new version of the Android OS, lollipop. Now its pathetically slow, and I can't do more than one thing at a time on it (no more listening to music AND surfing the web) without ridiculous lag.

Video game systems are no better. Our ps4s and xb1s are still new, so it may be too early to get a read on the shortness of their lifespans (though many of the games are releasing DOA). This wasn't the case last gen. Xb360s were red ringing a few months after launch, and ps4s had the ylod issue as well. Heck, I had to send my Wii in for repairs because the gpu failed and we rarely even played the damned thing. I miss the days when things worked as advertised and lasted a lifetime, and when people cared as much about quality as they do about having the next big thing. Everything's so... disposable now.

So I'm off to get a new phone that will be outdated in a few months, but it's OK, because I'll have to replace it in a few years anyway.

KnightDriver

01/09/2015 at 01:46 AM

I secretly think Apple is sending bugs through iTunes to my iPod Touch to mess with it so I'll get frustrated and upgrade. I'm sticking with it even though it's only a generation 2. I think it's stupid too that my gen 2 iPod Touch can't run 99 percent of apps out right now. Granted it's now 6 years old, but seriously not a single app I've tried has worked other than Twitter and Facebook. Why would I buy a game on that if I knew in a year or two it would be unplayable. Totally stupid!

VisuaLIES

01/09/2015 at 08:45 AM

Yeah I was going to mention that in my blog but I forgot. Apple forces people to upgrade by making newer versions of iOS incompatible with older gen iPods/iphones, making them useless for running apps. That's why I'm not considering a new iPhone as a replacement. I can at least have hope that a new android will work until it dies. With apple, I KNOW they'll force me to buy a new one even if the old one still technically functions. And don't get me started on Windows lol.

01/09/2015 at 04:29 PM

I use mine 99 percent of the time for listening to music and podcasts and it still works fine for that. I'm not spending $200 to upgrade it just so I can play Angry Birds on it.

Cary Woodham

01/09/2015 at 07:22 AM

I could probably plug in my Atari 2600 right now and it would still work. That thing was a rock!

01/09/2015 at 09:02 AM

My Atari 2600 worked until my mom included it in our garage sale years ago. I'm sure it still works wherever it is. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those copies of ET that they buried in the desert still work lol.

mothman

01/09/2015 at 10:29 AM

Luckily they stopped putting out Android updates for my Acer a200 tablet so I'm happily still on 4.0.3 and the tablet still works and can run everything I need.

I do hate how new consoles are built to break. I was one of the lucky ones who had a 360 for 3 years before it red ringed. My launch PS3 lasted until late last year before I got the ylod too. I had it repaired for $100 in September and *knock on wood* it continues to work.

Funny though that I have an NES, a SNES, a Genesis and an N64 that all still work fine.

It sucks that these days you spend 4 or 5 hundred dollars on something that dies in just a few years but that seems to be the way it goes with everything these days.

01/09/2015 at 04:31 PM

I'm really worried about the long term reliability of my 360. I know I'll use it many years into the future even if they turn off online support but the hardware is delicate. I'm watching to see if MS lowers the price of 360 to $100. I might get one as a backup.

01/09/2015 at 11:16 PM

I have an original model 360 (not a launch model but before the slim came out). It works but I hardly ever play it. I'm more concerned about the ps3, since I used that more regularly. Ever since PS one I've pretty much had to buy 2 PlayStations per generation cause the launch ones developed problems.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

01/09/2015 at 05:36 PM

Yeah, old consoles you could leave in your trunk of your car for a decade and they'll still work. If I look at my PS3 wrong, it can't read a disc. Goddammit!

01/09/2015 at 11:32 PM

I miss the old days. I never worried about my NES or SNES breaking. One good thing about video games being considered kid's toys--they were built to withstand abuse.

xDarthKiLLx

01/09/2015 at 09:40 PM

To counter this:

My Galaxy sII smartphone and PS3 are still in excellent shape, and work flawlessly.

01/09/2015 at 10:08 PM

Yeah my slim ps3 works fine. Of course I had to buy that one after my 60gig backwards compatible model got the ylod. I also had to get another ps2 to make up for the fact that the newer ps3 didn't play my collection of ps2 games (my wife threatened to make me sell them if I didn't have a console to play them on). I never even opened it. Yep, I have an unopened ps2 lying around. I assume it works too lol.

01/10/2015 at 03:48 PM

a PS2 is always a good investment. The huge library of games still floating around out there (you can still purchase PS2 games on Gamefly) makes it a really solid investment.

I wish I still had a PS2 to hook up to my kid's TV. He'd be more than happy with games of that gen's ilk, as he finds immeasurable pleasure in playing his 2DS.

PixlBit