Yeah. They did exactly that

  • rikonium@discuss.tchncs.de
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    4 months ago

    Google removed “Ok Google with the screen off” (made the toggle disappear, replaced with the option to allow its use in apps) on my Moto Z Play via Play Services updates and later advertised it as a Pixel-exclusive feature. (this was when the Pixel 1 was new)

    Their support threads were ended curtly with statements of the phone not supporting the feature which I guess was technically true now that they changed it. (but no, the hardware always supported hotwords)

    Never got that feature back and I bailed. For the ups and downs, I’m glad Apple doesn’t do that, instead omitting or handicapping new features for older devices. Of course not the best but yeesh, at least I don’t have to worry about “Hey Siri” being pulled to promote the iPhone 20 yet…

    • ben_dover@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      yeah Apple doesn’t take away your features, it just slows down your old device altogether so you’re forced to buy a new one

      • rikonium@discuss.tchncs.de
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        4 months ago

        Honestly I’d disagree. Past the iPhone 4S, my iPhone 8 was fine through it’s life before being replaced with a 13 mini a year or two ago when it suffered a naked gravitational incident at my hands. My parent’s generally had hand-me-downs or used models and dad’s 6s is still kicking and performing alright and even got a security patch a month ago.

        They had that battery snafu which I will absolutely fault their lack of transparency for (good ol’ hide-the-workings-from-customers Apple) but I did encounter the issue it sought to trade performance for preventing in the past. (a worn battery causing random reboots on my 6s)

        Now my BlackBerry Priv? I miss that phone but I did not miss it’s combination of slowing down with age plus updates running out at 6.0.1. Worst of both worlds but I miss sliders and Blackberry’s additions. (not the size though)

        Similar in age (2015 models) but I doubt dad would be as tolerant of how it performed even a few years ago.

      • Custodian1623@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        that’s generally how computers work though? Updated OS is more resource intensive and require upgrades after some time. My current iphone launched like 6 years ago and is running fine - yes there have been generation bumps that were rough for iPhone but is it supposed to last 10-15 years?

        • Chadus_Maximus@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          I have a deep hatred for companies that used to create responsive software pivoting info feature bloat over time. Discord used to be blazing fast. It proved that you could design software based on chromium without it being slow and unresponsive.

          What happened? It’s just as crappy as everything else nowadays. Every new feature that gets added reduces performance by less than 1% so nobody gives a shit?

          Same for apple. They don’t care that all those cool iOS additions keep making the phone slower. But I do and that’s why I prefer custom OS. Nobody will decide that this feature is worth x amount of memory/battery/whatever but me.

        • Luke@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          that’s generally how computers work though? Updated OS is more resource intensive and require upgrades

          That’s not how computers work unless you have an OS that intentionally creates that situation. Devices with Linux on them don’t get any slower over the years. Sometimes an old device even gets faster with OS updates because the OS isn’t being written by a corporation intent on driving you to new purchases incessantly.

          • Custodian1623@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I agree with you,I use FOSS software and old hardware all the time. I should have specified better but my point is that this is something that generally happens in the consumer electronics world. it doesn’t make sense as a dig against Apple in this context (comparing with competitors), given that iPhones don’t have a particularly short life cycle against competitors

            • Luke@lemmy.ml
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              4 months ago

              I feel like that’s just a longer way of saying “they all do it, so why bother mentioning it”, which is a lot more defeatist than I think we ought to be. Pointing out anti-consumer behavior is worthwhile for more than merely a simple dig.

              • Custodian1623@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                I’m not in disagreement with you, but I personally find dry “apple bad” takes to be a little overdone