Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by joshspankit 1066 days ago
In terms of battery life, you could probably give it a renew by having the battery replaced with a new one. Other than that you could likely keep using it. There’s no reason for old devices to become slower except:

- The internal databases (such as the messages database) growing larger than the devs intended

- Not enough free storage space to comfortably allow swap files

- 3rd party background processes taking over

Bad code can sometimes happen (usually “just” memory leaks requiring a reboot), but what we usually think of as a rule (“old devices are slower”) is manufacturers pushing more and more features on to the device until it can no longer keep up.
1 comments
MiddleEndian 1066 days ago
Nah the manufacturer isn't pushing anything, this phone hasn't been updated by the manufacturer in many years. It's the apps that are slowing down. I have replaced the Palm Phone with newer Palm Phones after breaking a couple, the battery life isn't any better.

For me, the tradeoff is still worth it for now because it has the best form factor. But at some point within the next decade, it will become impossible.

link
joshspankit 1066 days ago
> Nah the manufacturer isn't pushing anything, this phone hasn't been updated by the manufacturer in many years.

That’s what I was thinking, and my instinct says you could just keep using it for another decade.

> It’s the apps that are slowing down.

That doesn’t make sense to me unless it’s one of the reasons I mentioned above: their internal DB getting too large (solution: wipe data), or the app company pushing updates.

But I can tell you know what you’re doing so I’m not going to try to convince you you’re wrong.

link
MiddleEndian 1065 days ago
>the app company pushing updates.

It's not one specific app. I need to use up-to-date versions of apps to connect to various services, and I need to visit modern versions of websites because those are the only websites that are available. They are increasingly resource intensive but my phone will not get any faster. Therefore at some point, this phone will become unusable. Probably within five years.

link