why do people upgrade their cell phones?

[heartlikealion]

One of the phones I waited a LONG time to upgrade died on me at exactly the same time my car died on me. There I was, stuck on the shoulder of the freeway, and my phone was being idiotic.  I finally got one text through after about 15 minutes.  My dh came and got me, we followed the tow truck to the repair shop, and then we went straight to the phone store and got my next phone.  That was phone #2.  

 

Of all the bad timing, though!

 

That's awful!! And we only have one car too so that would be really bad for me lol. I think I need to look at phones this week.

 

[ProudGrandma]

Check it out on the Google Play Store.  It is "open source" as I recall. It is very powerful, if one knows how to use the power of the cameras in their phone. I don't...

I rarely take photos.  It is also easy to use, for people like me who only take photos on very rare occasions.  Here's the URL:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&hl=en

 

Note: When I searched for it, there is another App, with almost the identical name.  Not nice.  The one on the above URL is the App I have.

 

It is free.  I don't think there is a Pro version.  

 

P.S. You may be looking at the amount of empty space on your SD card.  If you are on Android KitKat (my phone is on Android 4.4.2 which is KitKat) Google made it almost impossible, or impossible, to move Apps to the SD card. They also made it hard to write to the SD card. PITA...  My phone is Rooted and I have "Titanium Backup Pro",  but moving Apps to the SD card, so far, for me, has been impossible.  I have Uninstalled a number of Apps that were installed by Samsung or that are in the Firmware I installed last Sunday, which is for a large provider called Claro.  I have tried, but this is probably THE worst thing about Android 4.4.2. If you can upgrade your phone to Android 5.x I suspect you will not have that limitation with the SD card. I have also  frozen some apps that I am afraid to remove and have put other Apps that I do use, into Hibernation, to reduce the battery consumption. 

it appears that pictures taken with the open camera app are just the same...or even a bit worse than with my regular camera ....unless I am doing something wrong here....not sure what to think.  I was hoping for better pictures...but maybe my camera is better than I think.

[Terabith]

I usually update mine because my old one has stopped working well.  Most recently, the battery had stopped holding a charge for more than a couple hours. 

[foxbridgeacademy]

In dh's case it's because he has to have the latest and greatest. He says it's because he's in tech, but I personally think it's due to his possession of a Y chromosome.

 

When I upgrade it's more what you describe. Phone gets slower. Battery issues begin, doesn't handle updates well. OR Dd's phone has the issue, so I get the new phone and pass my current phone to her. I'd say every 18 months to 2 years seems to be my average. I think they design the phones to only last that long. The updates really seem to be a sticking point after 12 months or so. They're always designed for the newest phones and can really slow down older phones.

:lol:  :lol:  :lol:  Yeah, mine would like to as well (in a tech-ish field) but I have put my foot down, we have 4 teenagers I have a crap $50 phone he does not need the latest and greatest.  

 

I replace mine when it breaks beyond repair (usually I break it within 3-4 years) because honestly I don't care what I use as long as it works most of the time.  Most of what I do doesn't require updates so no worries about that causing issues.