By Victoria Gill
Opinion Editor
If you are an avid Apple user, you are probably a fan of the easy usage it provides all levels of technologically literate consumers. Or, the sleekness and style is pretty cool to look at when fitting your own personal aesthetic. However, we all come to a point with our beloved devices where they get old and worn-out.
This past week, Apple notified its users with older iPhone models to update their software or else they would risk losing access to most apps. Even though I am not touched by this dilemma with my 6s, Apple should stop trying to reach for bigger and better and just stay at where they are.
According to BBC News, “users who did not download iOS 10.3.4 by Nov. 3 would be locked out of features that rely on the correct time and date. This includes the App Store, email, web browsing and storage service iCloud.”
While it is not the latest version of the operating system, it is the most up-to-date available for the model.
Users of older iPhones have also been advised to update their software in order to maintain accurate GPS location services.
According to the Apple website, “iOS 13 introduces a bold new look, major updates to the apps you use every day, new ways to help you protect your privacy, and improvements across the entire system that make your iPhone even faster and more delightful to use.”
For older phone models, the physical technology is not as up-to-date to run new software quickly and oftentimes slows down regular support. We as the consumers are told that each update will fix “bugs,” but what does that mean? This is what I have found between myself and my friend who still carries a 5c around.
According to a 2017 New York Times article by Brian X. Chen, “Between September and early November — when Apple made the iPhone 8 available, followed by the iPhone X — Google searches for the keywords ‘iPhone slow’ jumped about 50%.”
Is it coincidental that every time the launch of a new phone model approaches the market your current one begins to slow down?
Former CEO Steve Jobs dubbed the iPhone 4 as the thinnest smartphone in the world at the time.
“This changes everything. Again,” was the slogan at the time.
I think technology, this “whole new look” on a “whole new level” for the cellphone has come too far and should either stop or take a step back. We are able to call between continents. We are able to see each other while we do it, too. It has come down to just aesthetics.
Historically, within the first 50 years of its invention, the telephone had become an indispensable tool.
Phones were created for the sole reason of communication. Is there a valid reason as to why the color should matter, or if it needs to be as big as your laptop screen? The only one I can think of is showing a difference in status by having the means to immediately purchase a newer phone once it launches.
Even Steve Jobs, the inventor of the iPhone, pictured a simpler and more contained experience than the one we had today.
During a keynote in 2007 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, Jobs understood that his new phone would help with several small activities — listening to music, placing calls, generating directions. However, in the last decade, even after his passing, these phones have generated a different pattern of living for the common man. Like any inventor, he wanted to take a found experience and make it better.
“The killer app is making calls,” Jobs said.
From this, ask yourself: do you need the rest of that digital chatter clamoring for your attention at all hours of the day?
What happened to just connecting with the means of what you have and letting that be enough?