[ale] [OT] Cell phones

Thu Aug 18 17:02:46 EDT 2016

Just for fun I'm going to jump into this pillow fight.    I mean no
disrespect to any of the opinions stated here. 

Regarding longevity:  My original HTC Incredible is, what, 7+ years old
and will still power up.  I would still be using it, but for the 4G and
free upgrade to the HTC Incredible2, which is now... 5 years old and
still running fine, in spite of having dropped it face-down in the rain
whilst biking through a part and coming back for it 30 minutes later. 

IMHO, a big factor in longevity is using a clip-on holster instead of
shoving it in your pocket.   Folks that stuff it in their pocket end up
racking the frame and circuit board on a daily basis.  If they don't
break the screen that twisting force has to eventually hurt. 

Regarding batteries: I cannot buy a new battery from HTC.    Most of the
replacement batteries available on Amazon are counterfeit.  Honestly
Counterfeit, i.e. the SN# on the labels are all identical, and were
copied off a very old batter.    The ones that have worked for me are
Mugen Power.  They are dependably new batteries and perform like it. 

Then again, both of my Kyocera Palm phones still power up and would work
if need be. 

Regarding Carrier:  A crucial question is where you expect to be?
Verizon works out in the sticks.    You will have coverage at Humbolt
State park 4 hours north of San Francisco in the campground with the
redwoods.   You will have coverage at LutherRanch, off I-20 near the AL
border.    You will have coverage in the Florida Keys 5 miles out on a
boat off Key Largo.   The other folks with you will NOT have coverage
their on the GSM phones.   Maybe that is important to you, maybe not.
OTOH, maybe international coverage via GSM is more important to you.  

Regards, 

Neal 

On Thu, 2016-08-18 at 16:02 -0400, Solomon Peachy wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 02:32:03PM -0400, DJ-Pfulio wrote:
> > I'm not asking google to support all ARM devices, just their own with OS
> > updates. A $350 device isn't meant to be replaced every 3 yrs, IMHO. The
> 
> Your HO is wrong in this case -- Modern smartphones are expected to last 
> about two years.  (Though these days they're not typically physically 
> robust enough to manage even that...)
> 
> > Nexus4 was sold for about 1 yr thru Google's website - available until
> > 11/2013. It has been less than 3 yrs since the last N4 was sold!
> 
> The N4 was shipped with Andorid 4.1, it received updates to 4.2, 4.3, 
> 4.4, 5.0, and 5.1 over a period of roughly 18 months, and its last 
> security update was released on October 15, 2015 -- which lines up 
> nicely with Google's formal support promise of "three years from initial 
> availability or 18 months after it was discontinued from the Play 
> store."  
> 
> (Released on November 13, 2012, and discontinued on November 1, 2013)
> 
> They support some devices longer, true -- but complaining that they 
> didn't support a device longer than they promised is just silly.
> 
> > Ubuntu LTS supports thousands of different possible configurations with
> > a tiny company (privately funded w/ about 500 employees). Redhat
> > supports for even longer periods.
> 
> No, Ubuntu LTS supports two platforms; commodity x86 and x86_64 systems 
> **that work with the mainline Linux kernel**.  That's it.  The list of 
> "supported" packages is also rather small, and said support is limited 
> to providing security fixes.
> 
> ....Ubuntu's phone OS only worked on what, two devices ever?  And 
> they're doing much worse than Google on the ongoing support front.
> 
> > Google (HUGE corporation w/ 500+B market CAP & 45k+ employees) can't
> > support ... lets count ... 1, 2, 3,  ... 9 devices that THEY designed
> > and sold?
> 
> I'm not sure what your point is here; even Google's worst example of 
> Nexus support is better than the typical industry standard.
> 
> (And again, it's also in line what they promised up front)
> 
> > BTW, my Nexus4 (purchased in mid-2013) was $100 more expensive than my
> > Ubuntu white-box Core i5 PC - built in 2010 which is still supported and
> > running.
> 
> And my camera is still worth more than I paid for my truck.  So what?
> 
> Less facetiously, even assuming equivalent functionality, you only 
> demonstrated that one pays a major premium for compactness and 
> portability -- which has been the case since.. well, forever..
> 
> > Google is definitely low on the support timeframes. We should expect and
> > demand better.
> 
> So... put your money where your mouth is and pay someone willing to 
> support their devices longer.  Not to say that Google couldn't do 
> better, but keep in mind that they are one of the *best* players in 
> today's market.  Nearly everyone else does *much* worse.
> 
> Personally, I don't even buy something until there are Cyanogenmod 
> builds for it.  Of course, that requires manufacturers to actually 
> realease their source code properly.  Again, Google is by far the best 
> player here...
> 
>  - Solomon
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