Grumpy complaining

[olivermoss]

My iPhone's screen is having intermittent issues with the screen not responding to touch. My main computer can no longer connect to the internet via ethernet cord. As of today, it can no longer connect via one of the two channels my router puts out. My tablet that I use for photo editing and drawing is being slow and the battery wont charge past 78%.


Yerg. None of these devices are particularly old. My phone is likely 4 years old. I think my Surface tablet is only 2 years old or so. My laptop is just over 3 years old according to Bios. Also it has keyboard issues because I use it for gaming, but I tend to forget about that.

I know companies want us to upgrade every 2 years, but who has the money or the time for that? I don't want to buy a phone right now. I am not putting up with airpods and I don't want to lose 12 years of ap purchases and knowing how to use this OS and these specific aps. The home computer market is a mess because companies want us on tablets instead of computers. Even when I bought this laptop, getting one with the basic array of ports a laptop should have was a struggle. It's my last remaining device that can play DVDs/CDs and I need that drive for several things I do.

[Insert 3 hours of grumpy ranting about how consumer electronics keep limiting what we can do with them, so they can force us to use clouds, transfer data through itunes rather than directly, leave our privacy vulnerable or sell us apps and/or additional devices. Also, grumpy ramblings about how apple's big current 'we respect your privacy' PR push is a sick joke if they are making us turn on bluetooth just to listen to music.]

I used to like tech and the future. I was an early adopter of smart phones and a lot of things. Now it's all shit. I am also no longer 'in the know' enough to easily make the best choices to replace any of this. Figuring out the best move will take a lot of research. Repairs are possible, but every time I've had devices with these sorts of problems, they were near dead anyway. Every time I've repaired a device it was money down the toilet.

I am going to try to have my iphone repaired anyway. That is the one device where I just do not want to replace it in the current market. There is no good option.

I kind of want some of the features of a Samsung, but they keep using dSLR images in their ads to mislead people about the camera. "Oooh... look what you can do with a camera phones these days!" No, they can't do that. Literally no camera on any phone can make those images. Well, maybe if you use certain apps and do pixel by pixel corrections that will take 40-100 hours per photo. Otherwise? no. It just ... no. I love camera phones. I used to do photography on my flip phone. There are things a phone cannot currently do and we are likely near the ceiling of what can be done on the computing side to enhance it without connecting phones to very complex remote AIs.

Some of Samsung's ad images that they gently imply are related to their camera phones have been tracked back to photographers and what equipment they actually used. This isn't just me ranting, it's informed ranting :)

As for my tablet and my laptop, I am going to back them up and use them until they actually die. Since I have them both, I am not really up crap creek unless they die on the same day.

Comments

[entwinedlove]

When it rains it pours, right? I'm not sure if you're using all Apple products when it comes to desktop/laptop but building things from scratch rather than buying pre-built is an option if you're using Windows or Linux systems. It might not be a cheaper option if you're trying to build a gaming platform but that way you can make sure your DVD player component comes along and you can get the ports you want and need. Obviously, completely disregard me if you're all-Apple. I don't have any idea how those work aside from they are expensive. (And the single mouse button that drove me bonkers in university art classes, lol!)

I didn't know that about Samsung's ads (though to be honest I don't know if I've even seen them). I do know that my Samsung phone is a cheap tracfone so I assumed that's why it took photos like it was a potato. Husband's Motorola's pictures are much better though if I want a good quality photo I know to pull out the dSLR.

I hope all of your devices keep chugging along until you're at a better place to repair/replace them. And hopefully you don't have to do them all at once!

[olivermoss]

Yeah, three of the above problems only started in the last few days. I know this is old fashioned of me, but I expect tech to last longer.

Outside of my phone, all my stuff is Windows. Samsung actually was the closest competitor to Apple camera wise last I looked into things, it looks like it's now Huawei.

My main camera system is a mirrorless m43. I still take a lot of shots on my phone, though.

I don't know about building me own. I used to be very good at troubleshooting Bios and had the right knowledge base, but now it's all way out of date. If I run into snags I don't have local resources. I am going to try get my current stuff running better. Do basic trouble shooting and maybe replace the wireless card. They are cheap enough. Every time I've replaced a drive or card the root problem turned out to be elsewhere, but it's worth a shot.

[entwinedlove]

I totally understand about the knowledge you have being out of date! I used to be my family's go-to person for all the tech know-how but these days that's my husband's purview. It was easier to let that be his thing since he's way more interested in keeping up with it than I am. I forget how spoiled I am when it comes to gadgetry with him in easy questioning range.

Good luck in getting it all sorted!

[olivermoss]

I used to know All The Things and fixed problems for other like magic. My online info gathering skills still seem magic to some. These days I have enough projects hitting snags I can't solve without inviting more :)

Thanks!