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I don't know that I completely agree. To some degree, sure — most folks probably don't notice the year-to-year updates in e.g. computing power. But my 70yo mot
by mithr 2y ago
I don't know that I completely agree. To some degree, sure — most folks probably don't notice the year-to-year updates in e.g. computing power.
But my 70yo mother, who is pretty far from being technologically savvy, uses continuity every day to copy one-time-use codes from her phone to her computer, even though she'd have no idea what the term "continuity" means in this context. She notices that it's easier to snap better pictures in more conditions than it was a few years back (and that pictures she receives are better looking on average, too). She uses 1Password with FaceID, which I set up for her, because it's so easy to just look at your phone to unlock that there's very little in the way of enabling and using that, and she doesn't need to write down passwords anymore.
I think some of the magic of the Apple ecosystem is that you don't have to know about these things in order to use them. Someone shows you how to do something (Apple could certainly improve on the organic discoverability of many of these features! Some are impossible to find without looking), and then it often just works. And these things do keep getting closer to that ideal over time, with each generation. When I first started using continuity — long before my mother did — it definitely did not work all the time, and I persisted because I'm a techie early adopter. Eventually, though, it reached a state where once folks learn about it, they can just use it.
I'm also not sure about the 3-4 year number, at least from personal experience, fwiw. We pass down phones in my family, and it easily takes 5-6 generations for them to reach the end of that chain and be in use for a year or two before they're switched out for the next model. Battery has never been the reason someone in that chain switched phones.
- sroussey 2y agoBattery can be replaced by going to the apple store and buying a new one which is cheaper than a new phone, so I agree with you on that. Phone definitely last longer so 6 years sounds about right, as after that they tend to get obsolete.
- camjohnson26 2y agoI had no idea this was possible, but yeah, going to “battery health” in my Settings shows battery health is degraded, and provides a link to schedule a replacement.
- Lalabadie 2y agoBattery replacements are priced <100 CAD for for all supported Apple phones. In my opinion, it's a pretty good option given the support period these devices enjoy now.
- jml78 2y agoYep, my 15 year old son is going to inherit my iPhone 13 Pro after I replace the battery. Way better than getting $300 for trade in that I would get.
- ChumpGPT 2y agoI consider that state of the art and brand new. I just inherited an iPhone XS and the battery is at 91%. I figure I can go at least another 3 years. For reference I was using a Oneplus 3T which is still going strong.
- magxnta 2y agoJust recently replaced my XS Max battery. Great phone! :)
- redditor98654 2y agoIt is indeed the most comfortable of the phones in the last decade perhaps. I am still rocking it. Recently my battery died and they replaced it but that battery too wouldn’t charge for hours and then would charge by a trickle. They said they’d just replace my phone so now I have a brand new XS max ready for another 5 years.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoI use an Xs Max to test iOS 18. Works great. Original battery.
- brailsafe 2y agoI used the same OnePlus 3T that I bought used, until it was stolen. Would have probably considered a new OnePlus but all their models were too big and expensive at the time, so went Pixel 7 near the end of the cycle. Even though I've been a mac user for about 12 years, iPhones have never made it into the realm of consideration.
- nkrisc 2y agoOh wow, I had no clue. Perhaps this means I’ll be able to keep my iPhone 12 Mini for quite a while longer. It’s the perfectly sized phone, IMO.
- pratibha_simone 2y agoAnother iPhone 12 mini needs that tooooooooo.
- donohoe 2y agoWholly agree. I was able to use my iPhone SE for an incredible amount of time until damage caught up with it and the iPhone 12 mini came out. Again, it’s the perfect phone.
- cameron_b 2y agoI've nursed my wife's SE along until this past week when we bought a used 13 Mini. She has small hands ( not exceptionally small, just small ) and the larger sizes just weren't appealing to her. I've replaced screens, even have a battery for it ready, but the lightning connector finally wearing out and impending End of Support made her upgrade.
- davidf18 2y ago[dead]
- nobodyandproud 2y agoI had the same plans for my mini, but the TrueDepth sensor failed on me recently and so FaceId no longer works. I’m also weighing out my repair options.
- f1shy 2y agoI’m still happy with my 8
- noboostforyou 2y agoThere are dozens of us, dozens! - Sent from my iPhone 13 Mini
- delaaxe 2y agoSpeaking of continuity, how do you get a Youtube video currently playing on the laptop to pause and continue on the iPhone?
- LegitShady 2y agopause video on laptop. go to youtube history in youtube app on iphone. click the top video (the last thing you were watching) youtube should automagically continue where you left off. you must be logged into youtube on both machines.
- hkpack 2y agoThere are probably multiple ways, but i find the most reliable probably through share -> airdrop to phone.
- haroldp 2y agoContinuity camera is great too. The mouse and keyboard sharing... works great when it works. Looking forward to that maturing a bit.
- cssanchez 2y agoThat's so cool! I had no idea about universal copy/paste and I struggle a lot with one time codes across devices since I don't have universal iMessage set up for privacy reasons. I usually just send them to myself via telegram for simplicity. Thank you for posting all these tips.
- scarface_74 2y agoYou realize Telegram is less secure than iMessage?
- eric_h 2y agoSignificantly less secure at that. I imagine GP has iMessage disabled on their computer because other people use their computer, and they don't want iMessages/SMS going anywhere other than their phone.
- mldbk 2y agoGiven the fact that the most of zero click 0-day exploits were targeting iMessage, I'd disagree with your statement.
- saagarjha 2y agoMost car crashes also happen near your house.
- scarface_74 2y agoWell, Telegram is by definition not as a secure as iMessage. Telegram messages are by default not encrypted on the server. Even when it is encrypted on the server, telegram has the keys and can decrypt it. They have the decryption keys https://telegram.org/faq#:~:text=To%20protect%20the%20data%20that,entities%20spread%20across%20different%20jurisdictions https://telegram.org/faq#:~:text=To%20protect%20the%20data%2....
- eitland 2y agoYou rebutted something GP didn't write.
- ern 2y agoI pay very little attention to features on phones, especially things like improved cameras, but I finally upgraded my iPhone X to an iPhone 15 (one of my kids needed a phone). I've noticed that I've been able to take some stunning pictures out of planes when flying, as well as low-light photos. I agree that even when they aren't explicitly highlighted, they do make a substantial difference, especially when comparing models over a span of a few years.
- AmVess 2y agoI recently bought my little ma a new big ipad. Her first response to it was "holy cats, this is fast!" She used an A14 Bionic equipped ipad. She is in her 80's.
- p1esk 2y agoWhat does she do with it?
- gerdesj 2y ago[flagged]
- teepo 2y agoMy elderly mother uses it for iMessage, facebook, surfing the web, some sports apps, and lots of crossword and puzzle apps.
- bee_rider 2y agoMaybe she comments on hackernews.
- wruza 2y agoMy grandma is 80-ish old and she watches youtube, tiktok, reads “google”, does banking, e-shopping (a lot), messengers, puzzles. All that on a serious level. When she visits friends and tells stories, they always lament that they refused to learn “these computers”. She’s around 6 years into her tablet which I brought her spontaneously. She collected questions (we write everything down as a rule) and I had to find the way to manage the learning complexity at each visit. Don’t look at age, just go and buy it for them. With a little help they’ll figure it out just fine. Edit: don’t buy android ofc
- wferrell 2y agoGenuine question - how do you get 1Password to stop re-asking for the typed in password. It is a pain in butt.
- GlenTheMachine 2y agoSettings->Security->Face ID. Set to "on". By design, 1Password always makes you re-authenticate every time you lose focus on the app. But Face ID (or Touch ID) makes reauthenticating a lot less painful.
- salzig 2y agoSetting FaceId is the first step, but you can also decide how often you have to reenter your password for reauthentication, or just so you don’t forget it. Directly beneath the face-id option.
- pasc1878 2y agoNot exactly - you can lose focus without a problem Recently 1Password has change on IOS (and I assume Android) to ask every two weeks for the password even if you use FaceId/TouchId - it says so on the app. This is probably what the poster was complaining about - I agree it is a nuisance. For macOs and Windows it asks for the password every time the screen saver or sleep happens.
- android521 2y agoyour grandma is certainly a small minority. I am a software developer and i barely know or care about most features on my ios phone. If my apps are not slow and require me to update and my battery is good, i have no reason to get a new iphone. Apple knows it since they require their apps to be updated every year so that it won't be supported on older devices.
- kristianc 2y agoNearly all of the things you describe there aside from the camera are software/services based and don’t require improved hardware year-on-year at all. This is a problem for a company that makes its money selling expensive hardware.
- armchairhacker 2y agoEven the camera quality could be improved with post-processing like upscaling and color correction, which have somewhat recently become much better. Although my understanding is that the new cameras are incredible, so while you could get a "decent" photo on an old phone, unlike the other features it would be noticeably worse than the new phone.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- alfiedotwtf 2y agoIt’s not the cameras that are bad. In fact, I sold my Canon with a 24-70mm f2.8 L because the iPhone photos were great! The HUGE L by Apple is their shitty Photo App. It’s great if you have under 1Gb of photos, but over 100Gb - forget it - it is fucking. God. Aweful. PAINFUL! And then they have the nerve of once in a while having a non-compatible Photo database format and so your WHOLE photo collection has to be converted… over 4 days wtf! I specifically learned Rust so I could make a better Photo app. Sadly, time has shelved that project like many others, but man I would like be for someone to solve the iPhone -> Laptop photo management problem. … and no, cloud backups? Not for > 400Gb thanks. All it takes is for Apple to kill your account and then ALL your family photos are gone. F that.
- calgoo 2y agoI use PhotoSync to sync all photos to MiniO s3 docker container on my desktop pc. The only issue is the initial upload that I slowly did over a week (only synced when charging etc). Works quite well as a iCloud replacement for photos. I use syncthings for anything else like my keepassxc files.
- viscanti 2y agoThis kind of proves the point? Presumably your mother didn't buy the latest phone for "continuity" or camera improvements. The features and additional hardware improvements might be noticeable after being used, but are they driving sales to people who aren't tech enthusiasts?