In Canada, for years, you were almost a fool for not upgrading your device every two years. The “regular” plans we all had involved a 2-yr contract in which time your phone would be paid off. But after that term was up, the monthly bill remained exactly the same. It was stupid, but a lot of Canadians just said, “Welp. Might as well upgrade then.” Then the CRTC here stepped up and told the big three carriers here to knock it off.
I had a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ that I held onto for three and a half years. That was the longest I’d ever kept a smartphone. It was going strong too. Alas, I found out security updates were knocked down to quarterly from monthly. And after this year, it would receive nothing more. I reluctantly looked into the Galaxy S23 Ultra as a replacement and thanks to a good deal, I have that phone now. It’s an amazing device too and I hope it carries me for another 3+ years.
Same in the US. You’d pretty much just pay tax and could get a free phone every two years. Since that ended, I had a S7 for 4 years then only upgraded to a S9+ for a bigger screen. Every new phone I’ve ever had has been an upgrade and for the first time there’s almost no way to upgrade. I know I’m in the minority but I want an SD card slot and headphone jack; I use them all the time.
I used to do that about 10-15 years ago. I think the subsidies got to be not as good around the same time that phone prices rose sharply. Whereas you might have previously paid $200, and gotten a $500 subsidy for a $700 MSRP phone, now that $500 off a $1000+ MSRP doesn’t seem like as good a deal. I think they also widened the pricing gap between the prepaid and post paid plans, and/or started offering “discounts” for BYOD plans. Seems like the last couple upgrades the cheapest option for me now is to just buy the phone outright and then find a cheap plan.
For anyone in Saskatchewan, check out LUM mobile. It’s a Sasktel run MVNO that actually has a unique pricing structure that’s pretty competitive.
Love opening a thread all excited for some answers only to get 100 repeats of the same unfunny joke.
Here are some answers I’ve found by looking around:
basil, catnip, citronella, lavender, mint, etc. Most bugs don’t like fragrant plants because they can’t smell their prey or predators accurately anymore
If you can find where they’re breeding, establishing some frogs would make a buff difference. Tadpoles gobble the larva up from what I understand. I’ve also read that bats are way helpful, and you can apparently establish a small bar colony in a bat house.
Unpopular opinion: everyone focuses on productivity, then on features. Literally zero consideration for performance. Also lack of customization. I can flash Linux, hackintosh or any other random OS on any laptop I buy, but not on smartphone…
Kind of sucks that my Cat S62 Pro smartphone suck ass with it’s slowness and lags and I can blame Cat as a manufacturer for that, but lack of standards (so I can flash generic OS onto it simply sucks).
So I am forced to buy new phone every 1-2 years because it gets slow… 🤷
Oh wait! Batteries are not replaceable! USB-C port is also incresibly hard to change!
There’s lots of focus on performance from vendors like Apple, Samsung and others operating in the same space. Cat phones, however, are known for having crappy perfomance due to the cheap CPUs they use.
This is why I exclusively stick to Pixels. Honestly don’t really care about the hardware, it’s okay. But it’s the only phone that lets you flash it and reflash it with a custom key so you can have verified boot on a custom OS.
Android is a tricky situation, there’s very few phones that actually allow you to unlock the bootloader, and only Pixels can do it securely. Samsungs are basically a no go unless it’s an older phone that has gotten cracked open. Like Samsung S5 old.
So ironically Google phones are by far the best to degoogle your phone lol, and they actually go above and beyond to let you do so. Even the new Pixel fold and tablets support this. I personally recommend GrapeheneOS or CalyxOS for these devices, both are really good.
I choose my custom OS first and then pick the actual physical phone second. For me, I value software over hardware, but obviously that’s important too.
I remember when I has a kid my dad was Watching “Pink Floyd The Wall” and the scene where the kids walked on an assembly line to become sausages scared me a lot. It became kind of a misterious movie to me because the melody was kids popular and I could remember how dark that sensation was.
Many years later I started listening to Pink Floyd and watched the entire movie. I still love it.
This could be a Jerboa question, so see !jerboa. You might be looking for tips on mobile apps - please see our pinned post. Otherwise, I recommend checking the sidebar for suggestions on the best place to ask support questions.
It still need features. 85 issues about enhancements on GitHub approve it. But it does not mean it will be complex. If everything will be done right performance would be nice.
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