Hacker News Reader

Comment by laichzeit0 | Hacker News Reader

I can't help but ask, why? I'm using an iPhone 4S and I feel like it's time to "let it go". I feel the life force ebbing from the battery each day, the camera quality is starting to feel dated, it's becoming increasingly rare to find an "old style" Apple charging cable when I'm somewhere else, etc. It's nothing more than a disposable electronic good to me and trying to fight this is, ultimately, a losing battle.

View on HN

You can actually get an iPhone 4S replacement battery + tools to change the battery for less then $10 dollars. Certainly a-lot cheaper than replacing the whole phone.

Here is one for $9 http://www.ebay.com/itm/1430mAh-Internal-Replacement-3-7V-Li...

That's what I did.

Also updated it to iOS 8 GM and boy was that a mistake. Everything is slow, lot's of bugs.

I upgraded to iOS 8 on my 4S and found it to be a nice improvement. I'm not sure if I'll even upgrade my device during this cycle. It feels like it has plenty of life left to me.

Same. The betas where buggy and crashy but the GM works OK. I don't notice it being slower than iOS 7.

That's an incredible price. Thanks!

Because to some, either an iPhone was a major investment, or one they couldn't make at all and were gifted/handed-down an old device. I ran out and grabbed an iPhone 6, but I'm a pretty lucky person to be able to. I know others who can't afford to - who are on pre-paid minimalist plans and can't even practically afford the monthly uptick for a new device payment plan.

Or you have a kid. I don't know...

Exactly.

Once I moved away from the expensive plans with "free" phones, it made me value and appreciate the major investment that a pocket computer is much more than I had before. And I'm saving lots of money — I recoup the cost of the (used) devices within 12-16 months, with every month thereafter being a bonus ~60 USD (for two iPhones). The $800-1200 outlay for two replacement phones is a very nice motivator to stretch them as far as we can, too.

There's something to be said for trying to get as much life as possible out of older devices. For not just discarding them because they're 'old' even though they're still fully functional (battery replacements aside). I'm not saying I can do that myself--it's hard to willingly keep using an inferior device when you have the option to upgrade to something better--but I see why some people think otherwise.

I think this is actually the epitome of hacker culture, for the same reason that some folks still create games for the NES and a few people still run dial-in BBS's. The feeling of taking old tech to its limits and seeing what's truly possible... that's a strong desire for some folks. I don't personally have the time to play around with such things anymore, but I still think it's awesome.

What I think would be interesting is we started focussing on making "LTS" phones which would receive updates and fixes for a long time, that had less frequent releases, and were for people who don't care about the latest and greatest but just want a fairly decent phone that lasts ages.

Perhaps it's not a sustainable business model, though.

I guess the problem with that approach is that most modern phones are useless without the app ecosystem. So you're stuck with whatever set of apps run on that particular handset/os version. You'll need an appstore that serves LTS software.

I'm still using my iPhone 3GS without hitch. The only problem I'm facing is that the docking connector is on its way out and needs replacing. I'll decide whether it's worth my time fixing it when I get to that hurdle.

It's nothing more than a disposable electronic good to me

To you, yes. I suspect you have a lot more money than others do.

I have an iPhone 5 and I'm not going to upgrade until I absolutely have to or a new phone with at least two of:

- same size screen as iphone 5 & 5s

- really good battery life (STOP MAKING IT THINNER AND MAKE IT LAST LONGER!)

- some killer feature that justifies the ludicrous amount of money I will spend on a phone.

If what you want is battery life, there are phones out there that last a couple of days on one charge (I'm thinking for example the Huawei Ascend Mate 2).

I have 2 android phones and a windows phone, I might consider switching to android when android L comes out but currently I just don't get on with it (used it as primary phone for 2 months and couldn't wait to go back to my iPhone).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com