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jammerbirdi



Joined: 23 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: 12/24/17 6:54 pm    ::: Fake News Reply Reply with quote

So THIS is a thread that's long overdue here. Of course, people are free to post whatever they want, but I would hope that the emphasis is on an honest look at the problem of fake news and not endless political arguments to the contrary. We know the president is an asshole and his administration is dangerous and that isn't fake news. But this thread, I hope, can focus on the nevertheless very real and very misleading information that is presented by what is now a machinery made up of ambitious busy careerists clustered together and producing endless streams of newsy content at all costs and with, I would allege, very little concern for the impact of it all on public life. I would add that that last part isn't new. In fact, I would suggest many of us on the left have for decades assumed and levied the accusations that it has been intentional and in service to a more sinister purpose.

But we'll see in this thread as I'm sure by the the time we've been at it for a while we no doubt will be in total agreement as to the answer to it all. As we always are. Shocked

So let me quickly start things off in a non-political way.

A few months ago, our local tech-reporter on KTLA, Rich DeMuro addressed the subject of iPhones suddenly running slower. He took on the long held allegation of 'planned obsolescence' wherein some accuse Apple of purposely slowing down older iPhones so that people would be inclined to buy newer models. He said it was not at all the case and that the reason this happens is because app-designers make more resource hungry versions of their apps to better take advantage of more robust and capable iPhones as Apple produces them.

I watched that report and cried bullshit. Literally, weaping. But I personally wasn't having any problems at that time with my iPhone 6. It was running like a top. But this 'report' just didn't sound right to me. When I bought my iPhone 6, just now a couple of years ago, it was touted as being, basically, a super computer. Period. It contained the latest processor that rivaled laptops etc. And I just didn't buy that these little app makers', or the boobs running the apps for the LATimes or any of the apps I commonly use, are pumping up things that only the latest iPhones can handle. Especially given that, as I've already said, the iPhone 6 was sold as having a breakthrough processor unmatched in mobile phone technology. A lot of things with that generation of iPhones were not representative of Apple staying ahead of other phone makers technology. The processing power in the iPhones was not one of those things.

Then, after an OS update, my iPhone was suddenly painfully slow. None of my apps were noticeably slow, however, like Rich DeMuro had suggested. Nope. It was all the utilities and functions that are inherent parts of the OS. Screen captures, Siri, pulling up, addressing from contacts, sending an email. Anything having to do with the iPhone's basic functions were now terrible slow.

Now I can't find a link to anything on Rich DeMuro's report. BUT... lol... that's okay because it wasn't long before there was a piece saying the same thing Rich was saying, exactly the same thing, incredibly, in The New York Times. Shocked And I DO have a link to that.

Smug article title is Five Tech Myths People Still Believe

Myth 4: “Planned obsolescence” is why your phone slows down right before a new model comes out

It happens every year or so: Just before the latest and greatest phone comes out, your phone suddenly starts running slowly. Maybe it starts freezing, or the apps you use get sluggish. Either way, if you can relate, you can probably also understand the common feeling that this is all a plan by tech companies to force you into upgrading — a trick called “planned obsolescence.” While that’s a real problem in some specific cases, assuming it’s the reason everyone’s old phones get slow before new ones are announced is, well, a bit of an oversimplification.

In reality, it’s not a conspiracy, and it’s not some corporate trick to force you into the newest tech, or trap you on the consumerist treadmill. It’s just a side effect of an ever-evolving and ever-improving industry. As those new phones are released, they come with more memory, better screens, faster processors and other specs that, in general, you shouldn’t care about — unless developers start building their apps around them. When they do, they optimize their apps for the newer devices, leaving your older ones in the dust.

So as apps are updated to make use of all of the features on those new devices, they seem to slow down on older phones. And unless the developers care enough to make sure your older phones are properly supported, the problem only gets worse over time. The annoying end result may be the same, but you can at least rest comfortably knowing there’s no massive conspiracy (here, anyway) to make you keep spending money.


Rest conformably people. It's just your two-year-old supercomputer iPhones being left in the dust.

But the mighty New York Times wasn't done by a long shot. Their head tech writer doubled down, calling people who believed that Apple was responsible for their slower iPhones, 'conspiracy theorists."

The phenomenon of perceived slowdowns is so widespread that many believe tech companies intentionally cripple smartphones and computers to ensure that people buy new ones every few years. Conspiracy theorists call it planned obsolescence.

That’s a myth. While slowdowns happen, they take place for a far less nefarious reason. That reason is a software upgrade.



Except that now we know that's not the case at all as the news hit far and wide this week that yes, indeed, Apple has kicked processor speeds on iPhone 6's from 1400 to 700 to do us all the great favor of saving our battery life.

"If you have an old iPhone with an old battery in it, Apple may be slowing down your phone via software so the phone doesn't automatically shut off someplace, or do something else wonky," Stern said.

Some iPhone users, however, told ABC News they believe slowing down older models is an intentional move by Apple in order to get more people to purchase new iPhones.

"I think once you upgrade your phone it works slower on the later models so that you are forced to go into the newer one and pay the extra $1,000 to get a new phone," Jessica Prozor told ABC News.


Are you fucking kidding me? ME, who is now, once again, right about everything?

So, again, this really isn't a thread about one thing, politics, iPhones, etc. But we should certainly break these breakdowns down on a case by case basis. If you'd seen Rich DeMuro's piece, and then read the New York Times' pieces... taken together, you'd get the impression that someone had fed these narratives to the tech-reporting side of the news business and the tech-reporting side of the news business brought the desired narrative home to all of us. Shut up or get a new iPhone, losers.

So to this, I humbly cry, FAKE NEWS. And that's my opening salvo. Cool

Merry Christmas, everyone.


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