My ongoing love/hate relationship with technology 🙄

[Mailman]

My wife and I have 5 year old IPhone 8’s, which I guess are now officially dinosaurs because Apple will no longer provide software and security updates for them. Our old phones still look and work like new and we’re still happy with them, so I guess this is planned obsolescence.

Gone are the days of walking into a cell phone store and having them set you up with a ready to use phone when you walk out the door. Nowadays you have to do everything yourself. We bought them online and it was an overly complicated, headache inducing ordeal. They make everything waaaay too hard! But we got it done……eventually.

When they get here we face the next challenge of setting them up. A lot of new ( to me anyways ) technology. No physical SIM card to swap out, now it’s a “ virtual SIM card “ whatever the heck that is. And trying to figure out how to get all of our data downloaded from “the cloud”. And then there are new phone cases, and MagSafe induction chargers…..which need higher wattage power plug ins , so gotta get those too.
And yada yada yada! Hopefully we will be set for at least 5 more years.

Maybe I’ll just go back to my old flip phone!

 

[jetmechmarty]

My wife and I have 5 year old IPhone 8’s, which I guess are now officially dinosaurs because Apple will no longer provide software and security updates for them. Our old phones still look and work like new and we’re still happy with them, so I guess this is planned obsolescence.

Gone are the days of walking into a cell phone store and having them set you up with a ready to use phone when you walk out the door. Nowadays you have to do everything yourself. We bought them online and it was an overly complicated, headache inducing ordeal. They make everything waaaay too hard! But we got it done……eventually.

When they get here we face the next challenge of setting them up. A lot of new ( to me anyways ) technology. No physical SIM card to swap out, now it’s a “ virtual SIM card “ whatever the heck that is. And trying to figure out how to get all of our data downloaded from “the cloud”. And then there are new phone cases, and MagSafe induction chargers…..which need higher wattage power plug ins , so gotta get those too.
And yada yada yada! Hopefully we will be set for at least 5 more years.

Maybe I’ll just go back to my old flip phone!
View attachment 327393

Yep. iPhone 8 here too. My wife has some new technology on her head and in her ears. Without that technology, she’s deaf. Her phone isn’t up to date enough to connect with them. At a picnic last summer she knocked one off her head with her hat. Lost. Cell phone locator wouldn’t function. After insurance, we paid $1,000 for replacement. I should’ve bought her a phone. I still haven’t. I can be a dumbass.

Mostly, life was good without this crap. If I bhad a 1963 Falcon, it would still get me to work. The standard for most stuff we buy today is junk. I iPhone 8 is an exception for me. Apple has a workaround for that.

 

[willis]

I could do without 90% of the features that are installed on my iPhone. I just want internet capabilities, texting and calling features. The rest of the crap is useless to me. Widgets and Siri... all that BS. And now you can't even buy a phone, you have to lease them. What a crock of shit. GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!

 

[nj1639]

Landline with an answering machine still works......if "they" will use it.

 

[jetmechmarty]

Landline with an answering machine still works......if "they" will use it.

You can’t have a landline anymore. SPAM calls! Non-stop SPAM!

 

[nj1639]

You can’t have a landline anymore. SPAM calls! Non-stop SPAM!

Caller ID on the phone and the answer machine kicks on after four rings. If I don't know it I don't answer. If it's legit they'll leave a message. Sometimes I'll answer just to see where they're calling from (Mumbai, Manila, wherever) and I'll ask how the weather is there........

 

[JOHNDADDY]

Landline phone, still. Hell, I'm still listed in the book. Remember the book?
Gotta newer phone now with the generic message, but the old one was me.
You've reached blah blah blah we're not here so if you blah blah blah tone
if we like you we'll call back if we don't well just hang up now.
Not much pranks or other falderal after that.
Spam calls, I just set the phone down on the end table and let them talk till, beep beep beep.
Yup, how much did that just cost you? Waste my time, I'll waste your cash. FM!
If it's a human and I'm in the right mood and have time and some beverages.
"Now explain that part about financing again sonny. Oops, sorry sonny, could you repeat that."
FM! "Oh, I love it, sounds like a great deal. Let's schedule. Ok perfect! Now can you explain that part about financing again?"
They leave me alone.
I'd put the kids on when they were still here, you know how teenagers love to prank.
I'd just sit back and grin, cut from the same cloth dont'ca know. Hilarious!
Best of all is if the misses plays. She beats us all.
Her creativity is unmatched! FM!
Play if you can, it's fun!

 

[G_YamTech_314]

I'm 27... So reading these comments make me chuckle. Not because "haha these old dudes are old" but because I'm 27 and totally agree with you guys. It's a grab for money and total bullshit in a nutshell. But with all that bad there is also a lot of good with having a cellphone... The issue is that the companies are in a never ending "space race" and because they CAN change it, they will. I buy a brand new top of the line phone probably once every two or three years at Best buy and use a credit card to pay it off to own it outright. I enjoy keeping a full day of battery and I use my phone for everything. Calculator, maps, and CAMERA. That's the biggest one... Hell, I'm using it to type this. I dunno... I didn't get a phone til I was 19. I can take it or leave it. I just like having a digital multitool in my pocket at all times.

 

[650Skull]

As a retire'e the gov't supply free hearing aids every 5 years. I received a pair several months ago. They are very good modern ones, (valued, $3000 apeice), with Bluetooth. My android is a $230 phone capable of doing everything I need it to do. Has bluetooth,m so am connected to my aids. It has opened up a new world for me where I don't have to rely on subtitles when there are discrepancies in the quality of the sound in any media I may be watching.

There was a recent exposea regarding iPhone and how it connects with android or any other phone that is not an apple iphone.

They found connectivity between apple iPhones is exelent and has a lot of features that makes it advantageous to have more than one on the household. What they also do is make it disadvantious if it connects to any phone not an apple iPhone, any communication through pics or voice is blurred or downgraded in quality as if there is poor reception or bandwidth. This encourages more people to get iPhones, especially in a social circle. Also any communication, (messager/text), between 2 apple iPhones are completely secure and no 3rd party trackers or hackers can access. If an android phone connects to an apple iPhone through messenger or text none of the communication is secure from trackers, hackers or whatever other nasties are out there, so apple actually makes your phone more open to security breaches

Last I heard there was talk of taking apple to court, or some sort, for breaking unfair practice regulations.

 

[Downeaster]

I'm 27... So reading these comments make me chuckle. Not because "haha these old dudes are old" but because I'm 27 and totally agree with you guys. It's a grab for money and total bullshit in a nutshell. But with all that bad there is also a lot of good with having a cellphone... The issue is that the companies are in a never ending "space race" and because they CAN change it, they will. I buy a brand new top of the line phone probably once every two or three years at Best buy and use a credit card to pay it off to own it outright. I enjoy keeping a full day of battery and I use my phone for everything. Calculator, maps, and CAMERA. That's the biggest one... Hell, I'm using it to type this. I dunno... I didn't get a phone til I was 19. I can take it or leave it. I just like having a digital multitool in my pocket at all times.

Exactamundo.

I have an old Android Samsung (because reasons, but mostly because I have a personal grudge against anything Apple) and I'd have an even older one if I hadn't dropped it and stepped on it.

My main uses are texting, phone calls (bluetooth connectivity to my hearing aids is a godsend) camera (it takes better pictures than my Nikon digital) occasional surfing or Kindle reading while waiting on SWMBO to finish shopping, tho I could manage without that) and a vehicle records app.

I'll keep it as long as it works. Last upgrade was because 3G was no longer supported.

I'm old enough @ 73 to remember 50 pound desktop dial phones and party lines. I have no interest in going back.

I also remember a '56 Chevy that was a miserable son of a bitch to start in cold weather, had a heater that was more of a suggestion than a fact, no A/C, vacuum wipers, needed a tuneup every 5000 miles and was wore slap out at 70,000 miles. No interest in going back to that either.

 

[G_YamTech_314]

That 57 Chevy definitely seems like a relic. It needs to stay in the past too. I can easily appreciate where we came from and be happy about where we have landed. I'd never want to go back to that either. Oddly enough though, my a/c in my truck doesn't work, I have crank style windows, and it's a 4 cylinder so it doesn't even get out of its own way. In a way I'm still in the past but it starts and drives with no bullshit so I'm still ahead of the curve there.

 

[650Skull]

Google your ..................

https://twitter.com/x/status/1802191872682803470

 

[G_YamTech_314]

Boy. That's a double edged sword if I'd ever seen one. You need em to track your data so the service is better to use. But then they track everything about you...

I remember learning in elementary school how to use Google as a web browser
This was before you could search in full sentences. And well before you couldnclick the first link you see pop up after searching.

You used to have to be incredibly specific.

I'm also part of the hybrid generation that had to also use a phone book.

 

[650Skull]

Boy. That's a double edged sword if I'd ever seen one. You need em to track your data so the service is better to use. But then they track everything about you...

I remember learning in elementary school how to use Google as a web browser
This was before you could search in full sentences. And well before you couldnclick the first link you see pop up after searching.

You used to have to be incredibly specific.

I'm also part of the hybrid generation that had to also use a phone book.

We still get a phone book........problem is they are 1/3 of the page size, (with the same amount of information), and print is relative to page size. If......If there was a need to read it, it is impossible, even using the go out into the sunlight trick

 

[CaptCardboard]

I had to buy a new phone this week because the microphone simply stopped working on my three year old $130 Motorola and I couldn't speak to the only person I actually talk on the phone with (my dad)
I bought a brand new $130 Motorola. It makes phone calls, sends texts, plays tunes, and navigates the roads. That's all I need. Still wish I could do with less.

 

[nj1639]

New tech/old tech
Sitting at the kitchen table having my morning coffee a few days ago I heard the sump pump kick on. It hadn't rained in about a week so I thought "hmmm.....this could be a problem."
Venturing into the crawl space I found the water heater was hemorrhaging.
Not a big surprise as it's been 32 years in operation and through a few "rigs" to keep it in service and I was mentally prepared for the inevitable day.....better now than winter.
Searching for an even swap, single element, 40 gallon, 3800 watt replacement was akin to finding the lower left side cover on a Heritage Special. Seems everything is double element and 4500 watt with wifi? WTF do I need wifi on my water heater?

We found a replacement but it has to be built and is a couple/few weeks out from delivery from the factory. This gives me the opportunity to clean up some of the plumbing for a relo from the crawl space to the more convenient cellar. The wife is ok with the situation as we're old primitive campers. At least we don't have to haul water from the spring and then start a wood fire to have our morning coffee.

I've been laying the garden hose out for some solar and have a 100 gallon stock tank for a tub outside for meself, wife prefers the bathroom and stove heated water. I had half a mind to buy a hundred foot of black plastic water line and lay that out for some solar collecting but it came to me this morn of using the old water heater as a collector. Of course once I got it outside I had to strip it down to see where it was leaking from and the leak had been from the top. Think I'll set some concrete block to get the tank where the lower drain is above the stock tank, fill it to below its leak and see what kind of temp I have at the end of the day.

I'll add a snippet of an ear worm that's been playing in me head from one of my favorite Hill jack gospel(?) songs
To paraphrase " Ohhhhh, we all smell good on Sunday, Oh we all smell good on Sunday! When Saturday comes we go swimming in the creek so we all smell good on Sundayyyy."

Wife told me yesterday that her relatively new digital washing machine was acting goofy, and to think I gave away a perfectly functioning wringer washer some years ago........

 

[gggGary]

find the leak, run a sheetmetal screw with a rubber washer in it for a temp fix til the new one comes in..
or weld it shut.
I've welded my 50 year old air compressor tank several times.........

 

[nj1639]

find the leak, run a sheetmetal screw with a rubber washer in it for a temp fix til the new one comes in..
or weld it shut.
I've welded my 50 year old air compressor tank several times.........

Yeah, used to do that on a well expansion tank back in south Jersey. Nice when the tank is exposed to be able to find the leak.

 

[650Skull]

Use DuckDuckGo search engine on my android. Has a, block tracking feature. I forgot to, force stop, Chrome after the last upgrade.

 

[bosco659]

find the leak, run a sheetmetal screw with a rubber washer in it for a temp fix til the new one comes in..
or weld it shut.
I've welded my 50 year old air compressor tank several times.........

Many, many years ago I was “defrosting” my refrigerator freezer using a butter knife. Wouldn’t you know, I poked a pin hole in the evaporator. I put a screw with a rubber washer in the hole to stop the leak and the fridge continued to run gone until I left the rental apartment a couple of years later.