On Mon, 25 Nov 2013 05:47:41 -0500, Spehro Pefhany
wrote:

On Mon, 25 Nov 2013 00:52:15 -0800, the renowned Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
You might not enjoy my smartphone (Droid-X2). Every time I try to do
something useful, it spontaneously reboots. I should probably wipe it
and start over, but I've become accustomed to the reboots and can
probably live with it for a while longer.

I would kill it dead.
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

Your standards are much higher than mine. I don't have a single
gadget that does not have at least one irritating bug, glitch, or
human factors failure. I still use 30 year old HP calculators, drive
a 12 year old Subaru, and 25 year old HP/TEK/etc test equipment.

By the scale of electronic devices, the Droid-X2 is an antique.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droid_X#Droid_X2
It is generally considered a loser by the trade press, which is why
I've resold 8 of them to various friends without incident. Only mine
and one other reboots spontaneously probably because both are just
crammed with apps, utils, and abrevs.

The average life of a cell phone is only about 18 months. A
smartphone, about 30 months. My Droid-X2 is near EOL. It was
introduced in May 2011 and currently sells used for about $40 on eBay.
It will probably be adequate for my needs for another year or two,
when it will be replaced by what would be considered todays latest and
greatest, but purchased used on eBay for 10% of original selling
price. I have no problem tolerating a few inconveniences in trade for
a mature product (most bugs are fixed) and very low cost.

Incidentally, I don't use the Droid-X2 as a cell phone. That honor
goes to a 6 year old LG VX-8300.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_VX8300
The VX-8300 was the last decent cell phone with an external antenna.
An external antenna provides better range than the typical internal
antenna. Carrying two devices is not a problem as I need the phone
far more often than the Droid-X2, which I use mostly as a camera.

However, one of my friends does follow your equipment retirement
policy. He purchases a new phone on contract every 1 to 2 years.
His line of work involves the use of firearms. When the new phone
arrives, he uses the old phone for target practice. I recently
watched him perforate a totally functional iPhone 4. I suspect that
looking forward to this bi-annual ceremony makes using the latest
smartphone more tolerable.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558