Last Year’s Model was created by Anil Dash and is trying to save the planet through sheer laziness. Last year’s model’s members love cool gadgets as much as anybody else. They just want to be thoughtful about the stuff they have bought. Even the most cutting-edge, tech-savvy geeks in the world are choosing to hang on to their phones or their iPods that still work just fine. (I still haven’t upgraded my big clunky 2nd generation iPod. Not kidding!)
What about you? Are you sticking with last year’s model?
(thank you kavita)
Is there an Elvis Costello reference in there somewhere?
Jul 30th, 2009 / 10:18 am
whoa you have a 2nd generation iPod? that’s pretty awesome. I hope you’ve updated your music since then. just kidding, though I have a 3rd generation ipod thats hanging in there. i replaced the battery a couple years back and its going strong…
Jul 30th, 2009 / 11:08 am
This is an idea/mentality that I’m glad you’re giving praise to.
Jul 30th, 2009 / 11:43 am
I’ve got a 5GB 1st Gen iPod somewhere in storage. Doubt the battery even works and hopefully it hasn’t blown up!
Also a few years back, I got a MacBook Pro which eventually got relegated to desk duty because of the small hard drive and my reluctance to crack it open. After learning Tekserve wanted some $300+ to upgrade the hard drive, I finally worked up the courage to unscrew some 2 dozen tiny screws and now it’s like I’ve got a brand new laptop!
Jul 30th, 2009 / 12:03 pm
I come from a deeply frugal family, so I generally stick with last year’s model!
Case in point: growing up we only had one car (my dad drove a police cruiser that he legally could not drive us in). It was a Nissan/Datsun that my parents bought before I was born and kept until I was into high school. By the time they gave it up, it had over 250k miles on it and the hubcaps were worth more than the car, but we all rocked it!
Jul 30th, 2009 / 1:20 pm
My tv is 20 years old, works just fine, and uses less electricity than anything that’s come out in the last several years. Most people used keep things like these for a long time… I think it’s just recent marketing tactics that try to get us to replace electronics on a nearly annual basis, whether we really need to or not. I’m glad to see consumers are starting to think for themselves.
Jul 30th, 2009 / 3:20 pm
I still don’t have an ipod, and my tv is one of those ancient non-flat screen kind. What kind of group can I join for that?
Jul 30th, 2009 / 6:42 pm
I work with computers but my own laptop is from late 1990s. It hasn’t been exactly portable for years now (battery lasts less than 20 min) but other than that it works quite nicely. Makes me wish IBM was still manufacturing!
Jul 31st, 2009 / 5:27 am
I keep all my electronics as long as they work to the capacity for which I originally acquired them.
I still use a Power Mac G4 Cube (it’s 10 years old now) and while it is slower than its modern contemporaries, it still runs all of my work apps very well. Where it is starting to show its age though is dealing with web videos. They have become so processor hungry that playback is not fluid anymore.
Jul 31st, 2009 / 10:00 am
Tina,
Elvis Costello humor aside, I don’t entirely buy into this.
My philosophy about computer purchases, and most electronics actually, is to buy the best, most expandable, most high-end model I can afford. And these upgrade any upgradable components until it begins to reach a point of obsolescence.
Example, my current machine is an Apple 17″ MacBook Pro with the onboard graphic card to run an external 30″ monitor. About 5 years ago I bought the 30″ monitor when it had been out for only a few months. I bought them monitor as an upgrade for a G5 tower. I still have the tower as a backup desktop machine. A 2 GHz dual processor, I pre-ordered it before the first dual processor G5s were released.
But if you cannot afford, or your needs cannot justify, buying the top-of-the-line, your hardware is going to have a much shorter lifespan.
Also, sometime new technologies (mobile) are advancing at such a rate that a recent model is obsolete sooner than the decline of its own functionality. My iPhone 3G is just over a year old, but the new 3Gs model has a new piece of hardware, a magnetometer (fancy word for digital compass) that is not included in the electronics of the prior model. The magnetometer, together with the accelerometer (combination of digital level meter and velocity motion meter), and the GPS, is the third and final electronic component to make the device completely location aware — it knows where in the world it is from GPS, It knows what direction it is facing from the magnetometer, and it knows what angle it is tilted at from the accelerometer. Only with this full set of components (together with video) is the device able to support augmented reality applications. In September Apple will make the API for the iPhone camera’s live video feed accessible to developers in iPhone OS 3.1. Doing so will open the floodgates to augmented reality software, but only the 3Gs model will be able to use it because the prior iPhone models lack a digital compass.
As I will be advising clients on the implementation of mobile AR, I will need to have a phone that supports it myself. Hence I will have to upgrade to the 3Gs in September, though my 3G is still a perfectly useful phone.
I never throw away gadgets. If something isn’t worthy of my “collection”, I pass it on to a friend. Not all my friends or relatives need the newest bleeding edge thing. My ‘obsolete’ is often their ‘cutting edge’. Some iPhone-less friend will end up with my 3G.
I donate old computers to charity / non-profits.
It all depends on your needs.
I’m also inclined to believe that more people holding on to older models has less to do with altruism, and more to do with the current economic climate (though telling themselves they’re ‘doing for a good cause’ may help the rationalize and feel better about themselves for it).
Jul 31st, 2009 / 10:47 am
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any camera in this category.
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May 20th, 2013 / 7:16 pm