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0 pointsantifarben20d ago0 comments

I'm an exception for sure but I have not seen much innovation in the phone space that you'd genuinely make me buy a new phone.

Yes, cameras are better now. But some phones had good cameras years ago. I bought new phones mainly because of battery decline and/or not getting security updates.

If one of these will be solved, that might change my phone buying behaviour.

I don't care whether a display is called "retina" , whether the next edition comes in the colour "space banana grey while lion tiger snail".

And I don't need to impress someone by proving that I'm able to buy a new phone either. Such behaviour gives me a good hint what to think about them though.

A phone that will have the battery situation solved is a killer argument. Then I'd like to have a software distribution on top that it's "mum compatible" and doesn't need nerd knowledge to maintain. Something that allows to use banking apps.

Let's see how it goes. Also I hope that there can be third party batteries without DRM-like behaviour.

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noIdeaTheSecond20d ago

I have a Fairphone 5 which I'm very happy with. Replaceable battery and security updates for 8 years

SlinkyOnStairs20d ago

> I'm an exception for sure

You're not. This is a big reason why "tech" went so all-in on AI.

The era of rapid innovation and rapid growth on phones is over. We hit "peak smartphone" in 2019-2020, look at a chart of iphone or Samsung models. Like a lightswitch they locked in on a specific design.

Hell, the more curmudgeon-y will complain that phones have degraded since. Gone is the 3.5mm jack, gone is the SD card slot. "Fuck you, buy our expensive bluetooth junk." "Fuck you buy our cloud storage".

(The reality is that consumers appear to prefer bluetooth audio and cloud storage, phones that do still retain the 3.5mm/sd card slot aren't gaining ground in the market. Sony is likely to close down their phone division in the upcoming years despite being one of the last holdouts.)

Hence all the desire in tech to find "The next iPhone", and the dozens of attempts to make "AI hardware" despite the fact that literally all of it has failed against the simple question of "why can't this be a smartphone/smartwatch app?"

This extends to AI in general. It can't just be a tool with some specific applications, it has to "Change The World", "Be the next iPhone".

solenoid093720d ago

I think it's a bit silly to compare AI to an iPhone when it is clearly going to be so much more impactful.

SlinkyOnStairs20d ago

1) The comparison is about the perception. While smartphones did "change the world", the iPhone in particular is given outsized weight in that. The tech industry since has just been a cargo cult trying to recreate it.

2) No, actually? It's not all that "clear". The current net-beneficial impacts are highly contained to software development, and even there it seems to be of dubious financial value.

This is the whole problem. AI has to be even more worldchanging, even more used, even more endlessly profitable than the smartphone. Companies are massively overinvested now, if AI turns out anything less than that, they're all fucked. The need to make "the next iPhone" has meant no product is allowed to be merely "very good".

Culturally, AI has already lost. People have always snarked about the iPhone being a luxury product that's too expensive compared to the competition, but the fundamental premise was always accepted. Even in today's era of widespread recognition that people are "on their phones too much", the smartphone itself isn't up for debate.

They loathe AI. Palantir is singing the praises of AI as a tool for fascism. There have been multiple attempts to attack Altman's house because of the "AI is so impactful it'll kill us all!" rhetoric. People are furious about what just the hype around AI alone is doing to the job market.

And in the background, everyone is aware that it's a bubble. That even if AI did everything promised and more, that it is physically impossible to build enough datacenters quickly enough and that the mass-unemployment will annihilate the economy.

cookiengineer20d ago

To me the best "tradeoff" right now is buying used Fairphones from ebay.

It is LineageOS HEAD compatible and has replaceable batteries.

But it has some quirks. Medium performance if even that, non working fingerprint sensor. Camera quality from 2005.

I don't have gapps installed so I'm using my phone without any type of payment/2fa/banking apps. That decision from opsec makes it easily reflashable, so my anti malware strategy is essentially just reflashing the phone every couple weeks :D

My battery usually lasts a week because of using only f-droids chat, navigation, and translation apps for the most part, aside from the browser. I use Firefox with uBlock Origin, saves an insane amount of battery lifetime.

To me, repairability is the feature I value the most in a phone, so I'm kinda willing to compromise on the other features.

Fun fact: Did you know that WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal all restart themselves when you connect to your headphones? If you froze them before, they'll just drain your battery again when you have any bluetooth changes. You can easily verify that by staying in airplane mode and freezing them, then connecting your headphones in airplane mode.

mastermage20d ago

my big thing is honestly storage space which is terible. I have 256 GB but thats not enough with the size of some of my games. The model i got had no 512 Option back then.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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noIdeaTheSecond20d ago

I have a Fairphone 5 which I'm very happy with. Replaceable battery and security updates for 8 years

SlinkyOnStairs20d ago

> I'm an exception for sure

You're not. This is a big reason why "tech" went so all-in on AI.

This extends to AI in general. It can't just be a tool with some specific applications, it has to "Change The World", "Be the next iPhone".

solenoid093720d ago

I think it's a bit silly to compare AI to an iPhone when it is clearly going to be so much more impactful.

SlinkyOnStairs20d ago

2) No, actually? It's not all that "clear". The current net-beneficial impacts are highly contained to software development, and even there it seems to be of dubious financial value.

cookiengineer20d ago

To me the best "tradeoff" right now is buying used Fairphones from ebay.

It is LineageOS HEAD compatible and has replaceable batteries.

But it has some quirks. Medium performance if even that, non working fingerprint sensor. Camera quality from 2005.

To me, repairability is the feature I value the most in a phone, so I'm kinda willing to compromise on the other features.

mastermage20d ago

my big thing is honestly storage space which is terible. I have 256 GB but thats not enough with the size of some of my games. The model i got had no 512 Option back then.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse