General > General Technical Chat
I hope some smart phone manufacturer/designer would understand this
Rick Law:
--- Quote from: IanB on August 14, 2021, 04:54:37 am ---You say in your title you wish some smart phone manufacturer/designer would understand this--but how do you some manufacturer doesn't?
You are using your bad experience with one phone, and then using that to complain about all phones and all manufacturers.
This seems a bit unreasonable to me. Did you research the phone before you bought it? Did you compare different models and manufacturers to find one with the best design?
...
--- End quote ---
[RL: bold added to quote]
Yeah, you are right! It is a bit unreasonable to paint with such wide brush. Bit of a rant there actually.
The phone was not purchased. I've been a long time customer, the account is so old (> 10 years) it was a grand-fathered account with plans that you can't buy anymore. They send me new phones for free to aid me in my transition as they kill 3G.
It is probably unsold stock (0% battery remained when received) but it is actually a rather nice looking sleek phone. I rather like it but for the software bloat and lack of user-control. It is a waste on me. Someone who likes to be net-enabled everywhere one goes would probably rather like it. Heck, it actually made me think about a phone-plan upgrade...
--- Quote from: nali on August 14, 2021, 10:21:16 am ---...
Then my apologies for the implied slur :) I would expect an upgrade to be part of the process for any new smartphone, and a reboot to be part of that process - possibly more than one depending on how up to date the factory build was.
My wife is definately one for clicking/tapping without looking...
...
--- End quote ---
No harm done. It is unusual for me to be extra careful and read every prompt wearing my reading glasses. Beside, who is to say I actually didn't make a mistake. Certainly could have happened there.
* I never made mistakes, one time I thought I did but I was wrong... *
--- Quote from: austfox on August 14, 2021, 11:05:51 am ---How would the OP research the phone before purchase? I can’t recall any specifications that state ‘if you don’t update the firmware after 10 prompts we will automatically do it for you’.
Sure, you could read private reviews, but many times these are hit and miss.
--- End quote ---
Yup, if "...after 10 prompts we will automatically do it for you..." is embedded in a paragraph in one of the end-user agreements instead of a prompt, I might have missed it.
Rick Law:
--- Quote from: nali on August 14, 2021, 10:31:24 am ---
--- Quote from: Rick Law on August 13, 2021, 10:20:30 pm ---These days, people around are more likely to just video capture the emergency event instead of calling for help.... So may be the meaning of emergency-phone has shifted by now or soon will shift.
--- End quote ---
You're right there; "Smartphone" is becoming a bit of a misnomer now as the "phone" part is becoming very much secondary. Yes, it's not 1988 anymore and they are more mobile computers that can also do calls.
There was a recent case of a young lad who got stabbed in London. What did he do - call for an ambulance? No, he Facetimed his mum who had to work out where he was and she then called the emergency services who managed to get there in time to save him. Maybe I'm just getting old but :wtf:
--- End quote ---
After one faced a real medical emergency, one's perspective changes...
One danger is: when one is hurt, one may not be in a good enough mental condition to understand the nature of the emergency. Particularly when the emergency involves blood lost or anything else that may impact mental acuity.
Normally, I rather not get so personal. I had my reservations about putting this in a public forum, but I rather fellow forum members not to have to face such "excitement" and also be aware how ones judgement can be impaired when one is in poor physical condition before having to face it.
One time, I made my wife go to the emergency room. She had out-patient tumor surgery earlier that day. I was not seeing what they told me to expect. By late evening, I begun taking photo's to measure progress/deterioration. By late night, I was alarmed but she thought she was ok and just wanted to go to bed. Reviewing the pictures I took, I know she may be in more danger than she thinks, so I argue with her into submission. We got into the car and drove. I did not call emergency because I believed the time it took for the ambulance to pick her up and get back would have taken too much time.
All along the way to the emergency, I was thinking, there would be hell to pay if she was indeed AOK and I just made her go in the middle of the night.
She was well enough to walk in. After vital check in the emergency room, the medical tech reached for a big red alarm button on the wall. As the alarm started blasting, she got on her walkie-talkie and said something as she wheeled my wife into what they called the "resuscitation room" -- perhaps expecting she would need that any moment... It took a few hours to stabilize her and emergency surgery the following morning. She needed a couple more days in the hospital before she was well enough to be released.
My wife saw those photos I took that night a month or so later. She was shock that she refused to go to the emergency that night. That really strikes me how blood lost can impair a person's judgement. That "night at the emergency" seer into my memory very deep.
It was that night I was thinking of when my phone was "upgrading..."
AaronD:
This is the first time I've seen "the forced-update problem" in the context of a possible medical emergency. But of course, personally not seeing it doesn't mean that it never happens.
My common experience is with Windoze machines that are only ever on when they're used for something critical (projecting lyrics in a church service, for example), and they force an update then. My standard answer to that is, "MAINTAIN YOUR STUFF!!!! If you don't schedule maintenance on your time, then the machine will schedule it for you on *its* time."
Practically, that means intentionally accepting updates when you know you won't need the device, so that it doesn't force them later when you do need it. And then check things afterwards to make sure they still work and there aren't any new surprises. Get familiar and comfortable with exploring the settings - ALL of them - so that you can both turn off every bit of tracking (which itself requires some thinking to see that a description of disabling an attractive feature actually means "enable tracking" because of how that feature works) and explore them again after a "feature update" to see what's new or reset.
It's illegal in most places to force tracking, but it's apparently okay to have it on by default and to deceive/manipulate users into keeping it that way. Again, explore the settings and turn it all off bit by bit, and then it won't.
Then you can leave it powered on and connected to the network, and the only tracking that can be done is which tower you're connected to at the moment. (the network itself needs that, so it doesn't search the entire world when someone calls you) When you actually need it, the 100% CPU load from startup is long gone.
m98:
Every smartphone is a personal computer with an internet connection in disguise. Treat it as such. If you don't, the manufacturer needs to do your homework in order to prevent your device becoming part of a botnet and actually harming others, or criminals stealing your identity or emptying your bank account. Forced updates are absolutely necessary from an IT security perspective.
NiHaoMike:
--- Quote from: AaronD on August 14, 2021, 08:14:19 pm ---My common experience is with Windoze machines that are only ever on when they're used for something critical (projecting lyrics in a church service, for example), and they force an update then. My standard answer to that is, "MAINTAIN YOUR STUFF!!!! If you don't schedule maintenance on your time, then the machine will schedule it for you on *its* time."
--- End quote ---
There would be far less backlash if they do it the Linux way - get most of the updating done in the background so it's a very quick reboot to finish. Or if a machine is only used occasionally, apply the updates the next time it is shut down.
As for Android phones, one that supports LineageOS would give you the option to eliminate the junk and just have an OS that works.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version