Smart phone is no longer a device that I choose to use and enjoy it. It has become a tool that I have to use in order to navigate through this modern world.
More and more real life services requires Bio-authentication. More and more banks are migrating their services to the online world, which I can only access through their smartphone app. And for many times, I have to use a smartphone app to scan the NFC chip inside my Japanese national ID card in order to login to some online civil services. To use all those, I have to keep my phone up-to-date! Because app, services, web technologies tend to quickly drop support and close service if you are on an old OS — even 2-3 years old OS.
So why don’t I want to use the latest phone and the latest OS? Because they all really suck in recent years. Softwares become bloated with AI algorithm injected to everywhere. Phones become bulkier, heavier, larger with ridiculously huge camera lens. UI become overly spaced out with huge buttons and images filling the whole screen. OS quality become lower and lower with jaggy animation and more background tasks constantly consuming battery power.
I don’t want all those! All I want is a well designed mobile device to take pictures, listen to local musics, watch videos, talk with friends (aka iOS 9). And a desktop device for photoshopping, coding, making documents (aka MacOS 10.15).
But I don’t get to choose, because I must use the latest and greatest to navigate through the modern world. Maybe I should build a local eco system that I enjoy and doesn’t rely on update at all, while hold another device only for navigating modern world and let all those company do whatever update they want to it —- ideally a foldable phone.