7 ms·

As a software developer, people tend to assume that I’m really into hardware as well. They’re usually surprised when I tell them that I prefer to buy older hard

by hnruss 8y ago

As a software developer, people tend to assume that I’m really into hardware as well. They’re usually surprised when I tell them that I prefer to buy older hardware and keep it running for longer. I often skip multiple generations of devices. I just bought a new TV with Roku built in. My last TV was a tube TV. I’m writing this on a iPhone SE, which I upgraded to for $100 when my 5S stopped working. I kept the same phone case. I’ll probably buy another iPhone when they release a new one with the same size screen. I might get a new phone case then, too. I was playing Zelda on the original Wii earlier. It’s the newest game console that I own. Don’t get me wrong, I think new stuff is cool, too. I’d just rather go on a trip than have the newest cool thing.

skookumchuck 8y ago
I use a separate Roku box from the TV so the TV can't spy on me with their frackin' microphone. I don't plug the TV into the internet. Haha, take that, N SA!
- techsupporter 8y ago
  At least in the case of a Roku TV, it's the exact same Roku hardware just strapped onto the board of an off-the-shelf flat panel display. The only real difference is that the UI has selections for the TV's inputs. There's no microphone unless you use the phone app to yell at the TV or buy a different remote than the one supplied. That's why I have a Roku TV (well that, and I like the Roku software better) versus one of the other smart TVs. I'd have a Roku anyway so this just frees up an HDMI port.
a11595 8y ago
I'm a little different, but same result. I buy the best thing out at the time, then use it till it dies. It's because it's a tool, and these modern tools take a while to set up, and that's a task. Had a nexus 6, rooted, custom rom with unneeded crap disabled. It died last year when I finally broke the screen. It was running fine, and the battery got me through the day w/o a top-off. I picked the max config pixel2xl for over thousand bucks, put a custom rom on it w/o google crap, and that's going to last me till it physically dies. My boss on the other hand, gets both the pixel and the iphone refresh every year, and fiddles with each for an hour each day for weeks. Screw that. End result though - both you and me aren't as good a customer as companies want - they want my boss. To address your point, which I cannot relate to. If money is the limiting factor and you still think the new stuff is cool - why not just buy a $200 phone every 3 years? the top of the line stuff is overpriced, but the margins are close to zero on everything else, and specs and features, at least for android, are pretty much the same.
Void_ 8y ago
As a software developer at startup I don’t have time to go on a trip. :-(
- rawoke083600 8y ago
  I've been where you are... I hope you get more than a salary. "Time-for-money" only scales for the very top ! (Beyonce, Brad Pitt and some NetFlix engineers). Takes this time to skill up in everything! (full stack and the business) so when you get out you can build a business.
- alehander42 8y ago
  Be very careful with this, work-life balance is more important than any startup
hevi_jos 8y ago
Well, you are into hardware, so you only use stable products :-D As industrial engineer I know what it takes to develop any new product. The real world is enormous and you will always face the unexpected when releasing something new. People is going to buy your product and travel to Siberia or the Sahara desert, or to the beach, and discover things about your product you could not plan. The fact is that early adopters usually are "long tail beta testers". So when I buy a product is 2 years or so after it was first released and never have the problems that my friends that are early adopters have.
jayd16 8y ago
If its about saving money I wonder how much you wasted on powering that tube tv.
- TelmoMenezes 8y ago
  $5/year or something like that.
ekianjo 8y ago
Honestly people who buy new hardware every year are not "into hardware", they are into wasting their money and finding a pretense to justifying it. Most of them are probably just bored or treat it like fashion.
- bunderbunder 8y ago
  This is roughly what I observe. With the exception of a subset of techies, the people I know who always have the latest and greatest also tend to make very minimal use of the latest and greatest features. I'm not convinced many of them are upgrading for any purpose other than retail therapy. A secondary hypothesis is that there is a contingent of people who buy and install smart home devices just to annoy their non-tech-inclined spouses. That one's not mine, though, I got it from one such spouse.
- fucking_tragedy 8y ago
  I know a guy who buys a spec'd out MacBook Pro each time Apple updates the line. He uses them to check his email and Facebook.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  I think I can agree with this with regard to modern phones, but not universally. For instance, in the early days on the iPhone, anyone who upgraded every year was getting a huge improvement each time. The iPhone 3G brought 3G support, so you could actually download things at a reasonable speed. The 3G S had a huge and very noticeable performance increase across the board, and the 4 was the first with a Retina screen. Another example... for PC games, I really wish I could upgrade my GPU each gen. Especially when you're in charge of adjusting your own performance settings, the extra headroom you get from a new card always feels super nice. (Whether the increase is really all that noticeable is perhaps debatable, which I suppose would go to your point...)
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
learnstats2 8y ago
The problem for me is that the iPhone SE suits me much better than new generation phones. Maybe if they made an SE-like phone with a better camera, I would buy it: but instead they discontinued the SE.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  I was really surprised Apple discontinued the SE. I'd expected them to quietly update the internals again. The people who own SE's all seem to love owning an SE.
- samat 8y ago
  I was in this camp too, but bought iPhone X and very satisfied. Bigger screen and easier to read. It’s interesting that iPhone XR has some other virtual resolution, so text on the default settings is actually smaller than on iPhone SE. Don’t tell me about font settings and accessibility controls, it looks awful. :(
bootsz 8y ago
Same. For me I think part of the reason is that the more I get to know the intimate inner-workings of technology, the more I realize how incredibly brittle and unreliable new technologies can be. So if I have something that is reliable and working great after a year or two, I'm very hesitant to part with it. Plus these days what's passing for 'cool new features' is pretty underwhelming. I'll keep my stuff that works for now, thanks.
nanoseltzer 8y ago
It’s about efficiency too - I love skipping generations but usually I go for the max every time I skip, so that I have peak performance for a couple of years. How does an iPhone se even work efficiently? I could not stand my 6+ because it has become too slow to do anything, and just got rid of it this month for an xs.

by hnruss 8y ago

skookumchuck 8y ago

I use a separate Roku box from the TV so the TV can't spy on me with their frackin' microphone. I don't plug the TV into the internet. Haha, take that, N SA!

techsupporter 8y ago
At least in the case of a Roku TV, it's the exact same Roku hardware just strapped onto the board of an off-the-shelf flat panel display. The only real difference is that the UI has selections for the TV's inputs. There's no microphone unless you use the phone app to yell at the TV or buy a different remote than the one supplied. That's why I have a Roku TV (well that, and I like the Roku software better) versus one of the other smart TVs. I'd have a Roku anyway so this just frees up an HDMI port.

a11595 8y ago

I'm a little different, but same result. I buy the best thing out at the time, then use it till it dies. It's because it's a tool, and these modern tools take a while to set up, and that's a task. Had a nexus 6, rooted, custom rom with unneeded crap disabled. It died last year when I finally broke the screen. It was running fine, and the battery got me through the day w/o a top-off. I picked the max config pixel2xl for over thousand bucks, put a custom rom on it w/o google crap, and that's going to last me till it physically dies. My boss on the other hand, gets both the pixel and the iphone refresh every year, and fiddles with each for an hour each day for weeks. Screw that. End result though - both you and me aren't as good a customer as companies want - they want my boss. To address your point, which I cannot relate to. If money is the limiting factor and you still think the new stuff is cool - why not just buy a $200 phone every 3 years? the top of the line stuff is overpriced, but the margins are close to zero on everything else, and specs and features, at least for android, are pretty much the same.

Void_ 8y ago

As a software developer at startup I don’t have time to go on a trip. :-(

rawoke083600 8y ago
I've been where you are... I hope you get more than a salary. "Time-for-money" only scales for the very top ! (Beyonce, Brad Pitt and some NetFlix engineers). Takes this time to skill up in everything! (full stack and the business) so when you get out you can build a business.
alehander42 8y ago
Be very careful with this, work-life balance is more important than any startup

hevi_jos 8y ago

Well, you are into hardware, so you only use stable products :-D As industrial engineer I know what it takes to develop any new product. The real world is enormous and you will always face the unexpected when releasing something new. People is going to buy your product and travel to Siberia or the Sahara desert, or to the beach, and discover things about your product you could not plan. The fact is that early adopters usually are "long tail beta testers". So when I buy a product is 2 years or so after it was first released and never have the problems that my friends that are early adopters have.

jayd16 8y ago

If its about saving money I wonder how much you wasted on powering that tube tv.

TelmoMenezes 8y ago
$5/year or something like that.

ekianjo 8y ago

Honestly people who buy new hardware every year are not "into hardware", they are into wasting their money and finding a pretense to justifying it. Most of them are probably just bored or treat it like fashion.

bunderbunder 8y ago
This is roughly what I observe. With the exception of a subset of techies, the people I know who always have the latest and greatest also tend to make very minimal use of the latest and greatest features. I'm not convinced many of them are upgrading for any purpose other than retail therapy. A secondary hypothesis is that there is a contingent of people who buy and install smart home devices just to annoy their non-tech-inclined spouses. That one's not mine, though, I got it from one such spouse.
fucking_tragedy 8y ago
I know a guy who buys a spec'd out MacBook Pro each time Apple updates the line. He uses them to check his email and Facebook.
Wowfunhappy 8y ago
I think I can agree with this with regard to modern phones, but not universally. For instance, in the early days on the iPhone, anyone who upgraded every year was getting a huge improvement each time. The iPhone 3G brought 3G support, so you could actually download things at a reasonable speed. The 3G S had a huge and very noticeable performance increase across the board, and the 4 was the first with a Retina screen. Another example... for PC games, I really wish I could upgrade my GPU each gen. Especially when you're in charge of adjusting your own performance settings, the extra headroom you get from a new card always feels super nice. (Whether the increase is really all that noticeable is perhaps debatable, which I suppose would go to your point...)

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

learnstats2 8y ago

The problem for me is that the iPhone SE suits me much better than new generation phones. Maybe if they made an SE-like phone with a better camera, I would buy it: but instead they discontinued the SE.

Wowfunhappy 8y ago
I was really surprised Apple discontinued the SE. I'd expected them to quietly update the internals again. The people who own SE's all seem to love owning an SE.
samat 8y ago
I was in this camp too, but bought iPhone X and very satisfied. Bigger screen and easier to read. It’s interesting that iPhone XR has some other virtual resolution, so text on the default settings is actually smaller than on iPhone SE. Don’t tell me about font settings and accessibility controls, it looks awful. :(

bootsz 8y ago

Same. For me I think part of the reason is that the more I get to know the intimate inner-workings of technology, the more I realize how incredibly brittle and unreliable new technologies can be. So if I have something that is reliable and working great after a year or two, I'm very hesitant to part with it. Plus these days what's passing for 'cool new features' is pretty underwhelming. I'll keep my stuff that works for now, thanks.

nanoseltzer 8y ago

It’s about efficiency too - I love skipping generations but usually I go for the max every time I skip, so that I have peak performance for a couple of years. How does an iPhone se even work efficiently? I could not stand my 6+ because it has become too slow to do anything, and just got rid of it this month for an xs.