My ‘Obsolete’ Tech
The other day I read an article by Megan McArdle at Bloomberg View, entitled Tech Upgrades Just Aren’t That Great Anymore. In the article, she explains how she came to replace her four-year-old Macbook Pro with a nearly identical Macbook that is – shock, horror – not quite the newest model available! How could a self-confessed hardcore power user (and gamer) possibly have reached this point?
However, the article made me feel much better about my own tech choices. As I read, it dawned on me that I had unconsciously arrived at the same conclusion as McArdle about two years ago. The fact is that even users who demand a lot from their tech just no longer need the latest hardware. For a number of years now it has been possible to buy a laptop, a smartphone or a tablet with all the processing speed and memory required to do everything you need from them for years to come.
As McArdle rightly points out, the upgrade cycle is no longer delivering improvements in processor speed and memory. Instead, what we get is improvement in physical, rather than technical, specifications. The new generation of devices is thinner and lighter than ever before, but processors are, at most, only marginally faster. Indeed, in some respects tech specs are going backwards. McArdle notes the loss of USB and SD ports, memory expansion options, and keyboard quality, all sacrificed in the race to deliver the thinnest devices ever seen.
The problem with trying to improve technical specs is power. And the problem with power in portable devices is twofold – battery capacity and heat. I cannot help wondering whether the inevitable consequence of trying to push all of the boundaries – performance, size/weight and battery capacity – in a single device is the debacle that was the Samsung Galaxy Note 7.
I am pleased to say, however, that I do not own any device that is likely to catch fire. Given that everything I own and use daily is at least two years old, if any of it was going to spontaneously combust then it would probably have done so by now! So in a world of ever-more-incremental upgrades, just how obsolescent is my tech?
If you want to find out, you can read the rest of the article on my new non-patent blog, not {dot} patentology.
Cybercrime Expert Witness, Digital Forensic Investigator, Cybersecurity, IT/Software, CAM/CEM, Scams, Digital Fraud, Software 23+ yrs, CCISO CFE CCE CHFI MCSD/E PRINCE2/P CEH CAMS PSM CCSM COBIT5 ITIL CBP HTCIA IEEE FDRP
7 年I must totally agree. I remember a time about 15 years ago when I was so proud with the amount of RAM I had, that Microsoft Word loaded in 3 seconds. Today Microsoft Word loads in 3 seconds and I run 8 times as much RAM and operate off an SSD about 18 times faster. What has changed? Bloatware! How much of the operating system is packed with RAM eating processes that are built as "helper processes" for services we neither want nor asked for. Not only by default is the average instalation of Windows 2010 install about 200 4gb of unnecessary software, the manufacturers then have their go. They all then want to have full firewall access and toolbars 'making your life easier' and God help you if you want to just install a printer driver these days. No wonder people talk of Spyware and malware because on top of that they go and install secondary unnecessary inbound firewalls when they are behind a router! To top it off almost every Win32 API call is intercepted and passed through about 5 monitoring competing processes all claiming each other is either a virus or malware. In my expert opinion anything installed but barebone minimum is malware as it dirupts your usage of what would ordinarily be necessary. Answer is barebone imaging.
I’m a Patent Attorney & competitive advantage specialist helping mid-size technology companies gain competitive advantage & increase the value of their business | Sydney, AUS
7 年People gasp at my 2012 Mac PowerBook not because it's slow but because it's so thick. In fact, it's got more than enough processing power for my needs. I can't imagine spending the $4K I need to get a new powerbook of similar RAM / SSD space now, or really for the next few years. The point is that we have to look to new areas for innovation, and perhaps that's why software is "taking over the world", not hardware.