Planned obsolescence

[cobito]

A few years ago they aired a documentary called "Planned Obsolescence" on channel 2, where they explained how manufacturers designed their products to have an expiration date. They gave a striking example of a light bulb manufacturer who made their bulbs last less than the maximum possible. This way, they sold more. Today, it's not only a common practice, but it's an indispensable requirement for the system to work.

I think it's an absurd system that, despite providing numerous solutions, causes countless problems. So, in general, I'm quite austere when it comes to buying certain things.

In October 2014, I bought my current phone: a Motorola Moto G from 2013. This month it turned eight years old. It was an old model that cost me €150 (because the 2014 model had already come out). I thought it would be enough to last me 2 or 3 years, which was quite optimistic for a phone.

It has a 4.5" screen, which makes it small and perfect for carrying in your pocket, 1GB of RAM and a ridiculous amount of storage of 8GB without a slot for memory cards, and even in 2014 it was quite tight. It runs Android 5, which, for now, hasn't been an impediment to having all the apps updated.

I've never put a case on the phone and it still has the original battery. Its battery life is 2 or 3 days with moderate use and more than a day with intense use. It's true that I always turn it off at night. I've never had to charge it twice in the same day and there have been times when I've put a lot of strain on it (GPS with Bluetooth for several hours and things like that).

Aesthetically, the screen is a bit scratched and has some minor blemishes that don't affect the viewing area. The back cover is quite worn but still does its job. It's far from looking new, but aesthetically it's kept acceptable.

The use I give it is as follows:

· Whatsapp and Telegram: sometimes they take 3-5 seconds to start, but after that they run perfectly smoothly.

· K-9 Mail (Email): It runs like the first day.

· Firefox: It takes a while until it starts to run halfway decent. It's a bit tedious to navigate, but for looking at restaurant menus, it's okay.

· Maps: Sometimes it takes a long time to start and get the position (it can take up to 2 or 3 minutes). Once it's running, it does its job.

· SSH client: fast and fluid

· Other applications like AEMET, public transport and company: fast and fluid.

· Youtube: Like the first day.

· Bank app: sometimes it freezes a bit, but overall it runs well.

· Google apps like Calendars, Contacts, etc: Like the first day.

In general, I use it quite a lot and in a varied way. I don't miss anything and for most tasks, it does a reasonable job although there are things that sometimes go too slow (Maps and Firefox are sometimes frustrating). From the point of view of comfort, its limited storage memory means that I have to delete things periodically, but I'm used to having only what I need and it's not a drama. That's without mentioning the fact that the camera is pretty weak, although it has been since day one so it's not something that bothers me.

I have no intention of changing it for the moment and it doesn't show signs of breaking soon (although you can never trust flash memory).

And what about you? Have you deprogrammed obsolescence in any everyday gadget?

[jordiqui]

@cobito Well, with the two servers that I would have otherwise bought, they would definitely be noticeable in the store, because we took advantage and we service what I don't think is old. In fact, in many applications that support clustering, it runs faster than modern CPUs. Then, I have no intention of buying anything new, although a few days ago I did want to. When they break, then we will buy.

[Fassou]

@cobito I had the LTE version (XT1039), which in addition to 4G, already supported MicroSD. But it ended up dying because of using a cut SIM card, because my provider refused to send me a mini-SIM

The Motorola Moto G are very interesting, and I recommended them to many people, until Lenovo took over... and some even gave them to me when they changed their phone (although I don't know if it was partly a joke, even though they worked perfectly, but I have two Moto G 3rd, a Moto G5, and a few more around, which I use to manage things around the house, now that everything is done through apps).

Note: If one of those phones can't connect to something via Bluetooth, it's because that thing doesn't have Bluetooth...

I also keep a Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570 from 2011, which I use for a secondary line as a call-hang-up

Maybe it's the years, but on more than one occasion I've considered not renewing something that works (even if it's not 100%), because I see that the "modern" version seems much more fragile, and a little search on the networks already allows you to know what's limping. And if it's not something critical, it stays until it bursts

Salu2!

[Clipper]

An elephone mobile died because to activate the screen you had to press a button and it died in less than 18 months.
An "owl" type bicycle light I think the battery lasted three months, after researching a bit they told me that:
The batteries were a bit "bad"
The charger was worse.
I have it stored around the house, to fix it one of these days.
Several "get out of ticket" (just lights up enough) bicycle lights with USB charging have happened to me with two, on the least expected day it says it doesn't charge and it doesn't charge.
An ngs brand wireless mouse, it started to fail... And well...
Certainly when it failed in the middle of a party some oyster got away.
But it stopped working.
A kioxia SSD. Sudden death.
The last and most ridiculous.
A metal clipper lighter, 6 months. With original replacements, gas and stones.
It doesn't charge the gas, it throws it away.
I think that's all, I haven't thought much about it, the list could be much longer.
Regards

[Sylver]

@cobito I'm envious that your Motorola from 2014 is still alive, because my Sony Xperia Z1 was from January of that same year and just last December it entered a bootloop for no apparent reason. It started to freeze out of nowhere (it had never done that before), I innocently restarted it thinking it needed to refresh the RAM... And the loop of infinite reboots began

Our good friend @Nemo knows that I was having a vital race with the phone, to see which one of us would last longer, but unfortunately I won... (I only changed the battery once myself, it cost me about 20€ online).

At first glance, I think of the main TV, a 42" LG 42LC45 LCD, it has just turned 20 years old, one of the HDMI ports is faulty and you can tell the panel is quite tired of working, but for now it's still there. That said, it cost 1000 euros back in the day, so it was worth lasting

Best regards!

[defaultuser]

I also had a plasma that I wasn't ashamed of, one of those early ones that came out of the white label that could be bought for 1000 euros, it broke recently with twenty-something, and even though the cat got tired of urinating on the screen and even made a subtle border that doesn't go away.
It worked so well that I didn't want to change it, and recently I was told that they changed it because it had already fallen (I'm not there anymore) but I don't know if it was an excuse because things were already good

The mobiles have been passed down to family and things like that, I only keep the second to last one that's being used as a router, and my first smartphone (galaxy 1) that now I look at and it seems like a toy bought at the kiosk for a kid jjj