Replacement of computer technology

[jbcohen]

When it comes to all things computers I have a general policy to replace every four years unless something major happends. My question is this - in your oppinion has there been enough of a technological advacement in electronic book readers in the last four years to warrant a replacement of the reader? Are there forum members that have used original kindles and kindle fours? For those of you that have do you thing that there is enough of a technological improvement between the original and the fours (any model) to make it worth your while to upgrade? Since I have a three that would mean that I would be waiting for a kindle seven.

[tubemonkey]

I would think reduced weight and increased battery life would be significant enough to warrant an upgrade from gen one models.

[Jessica Lares]

I don't replace my tech until it breaks. That's how it really should be. Although, I have a K3 and probably won't be buying another Kindle if I'm honest. I much prefer the apps.

[jswinden]

Pearl eInk screens were released less than 4 years ago, so that was a major upgrade. The pre-Pearle screens were much lighter as far as text. The Pearl screen alone is worth the upgrade for many people. I cannot remember when touch screens were introduced, but the have improved greatly in the last couple years. Otherwise, just incremental updates from various manufacturers.

[jgaiser]

I'm with Jessica. I upgrade when something breaks (or when I spill a pint of beer on the keyboard ). I keep the OS, Linux in my case, up to date and let the hardware take care of itself.

[MissKittiness]

Absolutely. The introduction of Pearl screens and the increase in battery life is more than enough for me to be able to justify an update - had I been using ereaders four years ago, of course. They might look funny compared to other computers, but that's still what they are, so the four-year rule still applies. (Of course, I tend to break my things within four years, so... )

[pidgeon92]

I really like touch screens, so I got a Touch when they were released. I still use my K3 occasionally, but I vastly prefer the Touch, and that includes the new lighted cover design.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

I don't replace my tech until it breaks. That's how it really should be.

I agree for the most part.

But, I'll usually make the leap if I have some kind of discount or something that makes it too good to pass up. Since I tend to take care of my stuff, I can sell the "older" device or pass it on to someone else who would use it.

[Blossom]

I have no problem upgrading if there is newer technology I want, especially with eReaders and MP3 players. I upgraded to a Pearl screen and I will upgrade to lighted Kindle when they come out.

However on other technology such as my PC not until I have to which is getting pretty close. I bought my desktop in 2007 and I'm starting to have issues. Hard Drives dying less than a year old, Bad Disk block on my DVD Writer everytime I use it. I suspect the SATA controller on the motherboard may be going. So this means it's time to save up for a new PC.

I'd love a new phone but I am happy with little Android one I own. I just wish it played Hulu Plus.

[tubemonkey]

I upgraded from K3 to K4 because it was smaller and lighter. I always hated the keyboard and was glad to finally ditch it. The $49 price tag was an added bonus.

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

I agree for the most part.

But, I'll usually make the leap if I have some kind of discount or something that makes it too good to pass up. Since I tend to take care of my stuff, I can sell the "older" device or pass it on to someone else who would use it.

I upgrade in a similar way. I try to get as much usage out of any HW I buy as possible and unless there's a good reason that usually means pushing usage to 5 years or more before upgrading. The longer the better.

Exceptions do apply though, like with the hanlin to kindle upgrade. The cost of the kindle was so little (£45) and the added features wifi brought along with the improved screen and lighter weight were sufficient a reason For more expensive items though like iPad, laptops, TVs, as long as the device is still usable* I'll avoid upgrading.

Once I hit the 5 year mark with anything though, I no longer feel guilty about upgrading because I want the latest rather than need the latest helps avoid buyers remorse.

*only exception is related to work, if I need (need not want) a newer item for development/testing then that's that.

[jbcohen]

Certainly the price reductions in the newer technology makes it easier to justify the upgrades.

However I had an incident a few years ago where keeping computers till they break would be a very silly idea - I had a four year old desktop PC from emachines and the hard drive controller simply could not keep up. Many times I would have to stop doing what I was doing to give the hard drive controller some time to get caught up and a few times I would stop what I was doing and go upstairs for dinner and come back in a half hour and maybe the controller had caught up. The hard drive controller is the component in your PC that actually spins the hard drive and in my case the controller was so old that it could not keep pace with the demans put on it. I replaced the PC and the new one, with a new controller, could easily keep up with the software. So that's one incident where replacement when it breaks does not make sense, the older technology could no longer do the job.

However I am getting off the subject here, my kindle three by no means is in the same boat as the old emachine was, the software has some problem but nothing that I can't live with. Tube moneky does have a point about the increased battery life and the $49 price tag lowers the boundry a bit. As the price of the electronics goes higher I require more to compensate me for the cost, conversly as the price goes down I don't need as much compensation as I would at the higher price. JS Widen's point about the pearl screens is another of what I am talking about, that's a technological change but still is that enough compensation for the price tag? I am thinking of the touch with the front light, thats two technolgical jumps there, but for how much $? $100 for the touch, I don't know if thats enough compensation for the dollars.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Certainly the price reductions in the newer technology makes it easier to justify the upgrades.

However I had an incident a few years ago where keeping computers till they break would be a very silly idea - I had a four year old desktop PC from emachines and the hard drive controller simply could not keep up. ... I replaced the PC and the new one, with a new controller, could easily keep up with the software. So that's one incident where replacement when it breaks does not make sense, the older technology could no longer do the job.

That was probably NOT a hardware problem. Windows XP had a known problem where the hard drive access MODE could fall back to SOFTWARE I/O (extremely slow) and it would stay there. There was a registry change that could fix it to advance to faster modes after successful reads.

Slow drive speed can also be caused by a badly fragmented drive (needing degragmenting), or by a lot of disk activity such as from a virus checker. It is especially bad if you had TWO virus checkers scanning a drive, because that would thrash the drive heads making it extremely slow.

Your slow drive was VERY probably a SOFTWARE problem and not "slow drive controller". Modern SATA hard drives can be held back a bit by an add-on SATA controller plugged into a PCI slot, but still faster than older IDE drives.

Your new computer came without that software problem, of course, but restoring the old computer back to factory defaults would probably make its hard drive fast again too.

[mdovell]

Eh. I have a DXi that is about 2 1/2 years old ( I think). I updated it up to 3.3 (can't use active content I guess but o well). I can't see that much of a reason to upgrade until there is another the same size at least. Nothing wrong with the smaller ones but generally I like the feeling for having something the size of a hardcover book. Touch screens could be good. they keyboard is ok.

For computers they usually last me five years with windows but since switching mostly to linux the upgrades aren't needed as much. I "tried" using a newer printer but the ones these days are awlful. I don't want a screen or a all in one.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I don't think in a dedicated e-reader there is much point in upgrading right now. I have a K3 and see no reason to upgrade outside of book availability for me as I would like to have more buying and library loan options than I have with the K3 in Canada.

If you're using a tablet there's going to be a lot of interesting options coming out this fall as well as a pretty sweet retina-display on the iPad 3 right now.