Rapid tech decay is getting me down

JoeWras

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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Sep 18, 2012
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Remember when you bought a phone in the 80s, after the breakup, and it lasted forever. I still have an 80s phone I use occasionally. There are phones from the 50s still at work out there.

Not anymore.

This post isn't only about phones, although they are a great example. It is about everything tech these days. The shelf life is so short. It is short not necessarily because the technology or manufacture is bad, it is short because the company producing it requires one or more of the following:
- A subscription
- A proprietary way to configure it
- A kill switch
- A security update, not supported anymore, i.e. a forced update schedule
- A battery that has a short lifetime, and needs expensive replacement or just buy a new version
- Frequent time consuming monitoring of its operation

Over the last three weeks, I've been slammed by this problem.
1) Old router (2018) was end of life and insecure, it had to be replaced
2) Many devices needed a Wifi update after the router was replaced, which was time consuming and difficult on some of them
3) Amazon Echo first gen was non-configurable unless I had an iPhone, they have given up on the Android app support for first gen. Echo goes into the e-trash.
4) OBItalk is dead. All us wise guys who moved to free landline service now have to scramble, and it will require work. Is this the end of free Google Voice/Obi landline service
5) Security cameras went offline. Company who built them went bankrupt during pandemic. Fuddled around with those for a few hours getting them working with 5 year old buggy software.
6) The laptop I bought in 2018 (Lenovo) is working great. I got top of the line to make it future proof. Turns out top of the line performance didn't align with Microsoft's idea of security, so Microsoft won't support windows upgrades. Will AI chips find their way into desktop PC's in 2025? This is a solid, awesome computer, but will be trash in a year (not really, I'll Ubuntu it, but Ubuntu won't run some old software I need to configure old devices)

And so on. One thing that especially bugs me about rapid tech decay is that these companies tout how "green" they are. When looking for a new Amazon Echo, they tout their sustainability pledge. I'll give you true sustainability: How about not making us throw this stuff away after a few years?
 
Preach! I feel your pain. And seeing all the debris from the recent hurricanes made me acutely aware (yet again) how imperative it is we STOP treating everything as if it is disposable.

Edited to add: my comment in no way was directed at the poor people who suffered damages from the two storms. Only that the debris was overwhelming and it made me think of all the stuff that gets thrown away every year.
 
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"Legacy" is a word built into product planning...... "Support for legacy products ends after.....(date)."

I'm on Chromebook number three due to non-support dates being reached.
 
Legacy back in the day meant human generations ago.
 
I guess it's about expectations. I don't think you can "future proof" any tech.

Devices - 5 years - 10 tops? But even then expect SW upgrades and patches as the norm. Smaller stuff on the lower end of that timeframe. Under $500, under 5 years.

Legacy infrastructure like land lines have been on the way out for years, and if the main customer group is 65+, well, that's a shrinking market so no one is investing there.

Security Co going out of business is different, one does expect that to last, but that's why the smaller players are higher risk.

And yeah they all greenwash...
 
As someone who worked in tech and knows about end-of-life issues, I get it. I worked on a device in 1998 that is still widely deployed and is a horrible security risk, even though Megacorp implored people to replace them. I'm horrified to know they are out there as zombie take overs, and I can still see the piece of code in my head that I wish I never wrote. The old tech is just not secure enough with the new hacker ideas. Tech is moving along. I don't mind patching, configuring or upgrading, if they give me a means to do it! Hence my complaint about the old Amazon echoes. I think 10 years is a good window for companies to shoot for.

This is really just me being an old man complaining a bit. And it does get me down that we are creating so much e-trash, so quickly. That's not sustainability.
 
Future proof came up a lot when I was buying a new computer. I concluded that it was better for me to just accept that the future (lifespan) of computers is short and go with specs that were able to do what I needed today and not worry about trying to future proof it by buying more ram and a bigger SSD. Unfortunately, we are indeed in a disposal world.

As I look forward with the transition to EV’s and even all the electronics in ICE vehicles, I wonder how long it will be before we’re trading in cars (very high ticket items) just because the tech no longer functions or suits us.
 
There are three reasons I rarely buy top of the line high-tech goods:

1. I don’t really need a top level device to meet my needs.

2. Today’s top level device, is next year’s normal device, and a few years later a soon to be obsolete device.

3. The sweet spot in terms of value is often in the mid range area of prices.

4. I would rather BTD on something else.

OK, that’s four reasons. But, #4 is very often true for me.
 
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There are two reasons I rarely buy top of the line high-tech goods:

1. I don’t really need a top level device to meet my needs.

2. Today’s top level device, is next year’s normal device, and a few years later a soon to be obsolete device.

3. If it breaks or is lost of stolen, I am out a lot more money.

OK, that’s three reasons. But, they all make sense to me. YMMV.
I've come around to your thoughts. It would have saved me $700 on that Lenovo, too. :)

There's a current thread on AI chips and trying to buy a PC with them being discussed on this board. I think Midpack suggested, "Don't worry about AI chips, too early" (paraphrased). I agree. That thread is also about the impending non-support from Microsoft.

Top of the line doesn't mean it will be supported longer.

My friend recently bought a new car. The salesman kept prodding them to look at the higher trims because of all the gee-wiz stuff. He had to start walking to the door to stop the salesguy from pushing this. They got the base car, but it still has a bunch of stuff that could obsolete quickly.
 
My friend recently bought a new car. The salesman kept prodding them to look at the higher trims because of all the gee-wiz stuff. He had to start walking to the door to stop the salesguy from pushing this. They got the base car, but it still has a bunch of stuff that could obsolete quickly.
I have to admit if I had to buy my car again, I would have upgraded one trim level. But the top of the line level? Not worth it to me.
 
Almost two years ago WSJ had this story about Arlo cameras going end of life real fast, especially for people who bought them for "lifetime" cloud storage. The company backed off for a few years, but their time is soon up. Interesting reading, at free link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ca...6?st=kp1JeK&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

The Cameras Worked Fine. Their Maker Said They Had Reached Their End of Life.​

How long your smart gadgets last isn’t up to you​

In late 2018, Ms. Clum spotted a five-pack of Arlo security cameras at Best Buy, with enticing offers printed on the packaging: “Including FREE cloud recording” and “With rolling seven days of FREE cloud recordings.”

She purchased 30 cameras, totaling over $6,000, and spent hours wiring and mounting them throughout the kennel herself. Today, 26 are still running.
...
This year, on New Year’s Day, Ms. Clum received Arlo’s email explaining that her five-year-old cameras would move to their “end-of-life stage” in April. Firmware updates, as well as the seven-day no-fee cloud storage benefit, would end. Instead, Arlo device owners could upgrade to one of the company’s paid plans, starting at $13 a month or buy an add-on device to store videos.

Ms. Clum felt Arlo was taking away something she had paid for. And as a small-business owner, she didn’t want to incur another monthly cost.

“To me, this was false advertising,” she said.

Frustrated customers took to Reddit, Twitter, Arlo’s support forums and the inboxes of Wall Street Journal reporters.
 
Totally agree, it's sad to throw stuff out that is useless while it still works.

For my router that I upgraded, I made sure to get one that would do old wifi frequency, so all my old stuff will still work. I gave the same ssid and pwd so I don't have to change all my other things.

I am not upgrading my thermostat as I don't want a connected device as its a risk and will someday be too old and need replacing.

I only pay $50 for a phone (no plan), as I know it's garbage in ~2->3 years due to the battery weakening.
 
Considering the world is always complaining about finite resources (Oil used to make plastics that are in everything) it is so counterproductive to limit the life of products, unless they literally break of course. One arm (of the law :)) is telling us one thing then the other is doing something else.
 
I think about this from time to time and have for years.

I'm still using an HP laptop from 2012 and a main desktop PC from 2011 with Windows 10, which is supported for now. While Windows 11 is not officially supported on my hardware, it can probably be made to work on them based on my research. Maybe I'll keep this run going. lol Well, actually, I consider building a new one desktop every year lately and may finally just do that, but I really don't want to be buying another laptop because I use it so seldomly.

I upgraded from my first router to get wifi, upgraded to my next one due to failure, upgraded to the next one to handle the higher bandwidth. I figure one of these days, Comcast will tell me I need to upgrade my cable modem as has happened to others I know.

Visible said that my sister's Moto G would no longer work on their network (Verizon) and that she had to get a new phone. I did some research, and it ended up, she said she had an iPhone, so they sent her a new SIM, and the Moto G still works perfectly fine.

My car is a 2007 model with low miles, so I'm hoping to keep it going a while longer and hold off on any news ones and the ridiculous price tags for technology with obsolescence built in and just tracks more info about you and requires subscriptions to use your own car.

I've been using smartphones that cost me $130 or less every few years, although I might need to step it up another tier or two to support some separate devices, which is frustrating.

I have some cloud timer outlets, cloud security cameras, smart clock, smart thermostat, smart bulbs, that I figure will all be useless at some point, but they were each $50 or less, so not too painful if that happens.

I bought a Dell Venue 8 years back, which was one of my worst investments ever. Runs Android 4.x that it came with, can't be upgraded, hardly used it.

I wonder how repairable my ebikes will be down the road. Just purchased a new Yamaha. The old standard bikes, you could usually keep running forever with easy to find parts. My standard Trek is from 2007, and I have a Free Spirit 12 speed from 1985.

Even my Echelon exercise bike requires an app to get various stats.

I don't have any, but I saw that $5000 hearing aids with rechargeable batteries were only warranted for 3 years, and you can NOT replace the batteries yourself, you have to send them to the company at high expense.
 
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Take refrigerators for example. They are disposable. There has to be a business case for a company that could build a tank of a refrigerator and then guarantee that it would last, say, twenty years. Some company has to be able to engineer refrigerators where the vast majority would last that long. People would pay, let's say, twice the price but they would be buying something environmentally sound with sustainability. I bet Elon Musk and his engineers could do it.
 
And so on. One thing that especially bugs me about rapid tech decay is that these companies tout how "green" they are. When looking for a new Amazon Echo, they tout their sustainability pledge. I'll give you true sustainability: How about not making us throw this stuff away after a few years?

I think this is the main complaint, not necessarily that things go obsolete, since tech advances so quickly nowadays. It's not really the cost because usually the devices you buy to replace the obsolete stuff is better. (Not necessarily better built, but better and more features.)

What's galling is having to throw it away after 5 years of service and it's not really broken, just obsolete. Worse, they make you pay money to dispose of some of these things.
 
I have been getting familiarized with 2024/2025 vehicles with an eye towards a purchase. Most have more creature comforts and driver assist features than I care for. I just want a reliable and safe vehicle (crash protection) that drives well. More functions are now accessed through a dash panel tablet. What happens when something breaks in the software or hardware and the operator can't control some major subsystem? Will the manufacturer still make that screen and provide updates 10 or 20 years later. If some of this technology was open source or exposed in a way that a third party could upgrade it 5-10 years from now in order to support the next wave of technology that would help with obsolescence. Maybe apple carplay and android auto will still be supported on new phones in 2034, but what if there an apple/android alternative that the car owner would like supported.

My smart TV (TCL with Roku OS) is not that old but I already want to replace it with a non-smart TV. After a few years of software updates some features were downgraded and it often reboots in the middle of streaming. One could not really afford to replace their car because of a buggy infotainment screen, but what if that bug was in the adaptive cruise control or automatic braking.
 
My smart TV (TCL with Roku OS) is not that old but I already want to replace it with a non-smart TV. After a few years of software updates some features were downgraded and it often reboots in the middle of streaming.

[off topic] If you haven't done so already, unplug your TCL smart TV for 1 minute and then plug it back in. It might clear up your problem.
 
[off topic] If you haven't done so already, unplug your TCL smart TV for 1 minute and then plug it back in. It might clear up your problem.
I do that every week or so. It does seems to make it run a few days longer before getting laggy and crashing. This has been going on for a few years, I assumed the manufacturer would recognize this and put out an update but I think they have moved on to newer products. I have not searched online for some way to downgrade the software back to some level that might be bug free yet still stream youtube and a few other channels.
 
My smart TV (TCL with Roku OS) is not that old but I already want to replace it with a non-smart TV. After a few years of software updates some features were downgraded and it often reboots in the middle of streaming. One could not really afford to replace their car because of a buggy infotainment screen, but what if that bug was in the adaptive cruise control or automatic braking.
If the TV continues to give you trouble, disconnect it from your network and use a streaming box or stick. The TV display should be ok for a while.
 
I don't like how so many things are app dependent. Simple traveling like taking a train or parking requires an account with app. I miss the good old days of just using a paper ticket instead of having to jump through hoops. Oh, and don't me started in all the self-check out lines in supermarkets.
 
Future proof came up a lot when I was buying a new computer. I concluded that it was better for me to just accept that the future (lifespan) of computers is short and go with specs that were able to do what I needed today and not worry about trying to future proof it by buying more ram and a bigger SSD. Unfortunately, we are indeed in a disposal world.
On the other hand, laptops in particular have "matured". 20 years ago, it would be almost necessary to replace a laptop every 2 years; that's how rapidly tech-cycle advanced. But my most recent laptop was bought in 2018... 4K touch screen, 1 GB RAM. It's still close to state-of-the-art. I've had to replace the battery (bloated and lost charge), the keyboard (keys fell out) and the CPU cooling fans (bearings broke, and fans became screechingly noisy). The case is dented and likely other bits are fraying too. But overall the machine is going strong, knock on wood. It's likely to be obsolesced not by evolution of hardware, but by failure in mandatory updates of software... here's looking at you, Windows 10!

More broadly, physical products remain fairly robust. The death-knell is from software updates and resulting incompatibility. Many of the miniaturized hyper-advanced electronic gadgets are evincing slower pace of advancement, much like mechanical things did, many decades ago. What's forcing our hand, isn't shoddily made plastic bits built by indentured servants in some foreign sweat-shop, but the clever machinations of $400K/year software jockeys forcing yet another upgrade... "for our own good", of course!
 
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