What is Life Expectancy of a Smartphone?

Video – VLog #14

Do you use a smartphone?

If yes, do you find over the years of continuous usage it slows down?

In this video we discuss the challenges facing Willie Nicol when he tries to use Clips app on his apple phone.

Script – VLog #14

David Logan: Hi, my name is David Logan, the IT Geek based here in Annan south-west Scotland. Here with Willie Nicol to discuss another topic today, this week. So Willie, welcome. How are you and where are you?

Wilie Nicol: Thank you, David. I’m very well, thank you. I’m in Loans near Troon, south Ayrshire in Scotland.

David Logan: Was that Owens or Loans?

Willie Nicol: No, it’s Loans, as in bank loans.

David Logan: OK. Willie guess what? We are on week number fourteen. Did you think we’d get to fourteen videos when we started this?

Willie Nicol: Probably not, David, but we should give ourselves a medal for persistence.

David Logan: For the viewer, we need a medal – especially Willie.

David Logan: OK, so for week 14. Last week, we did a talk provided by yourself. Willie, this week we’re looking at a technical question. Do you have one for me?

Willie Nicol: I do. And it’s rather selfish of me because it refers to my phone. I think it refers to most types of IT equipment. I was using an app on my phone and immediately the phone became very hot, over heating and the battery drained.

Willie Nicol: When I talked to tech support, I was told that probably the chip in the phone, which I understand is a processor, was not up to the job of operating this particular app. So I might be having a look at a new phone. What, I wondered, was this processor thing on my phone? Is it equivalent to what we get in our PCs and laptops?

David Logan: OK. So you said you’ve got an Apple phone?

Willie Nicol: Yes.

David Logan: OK, and you said you’ve spoken to somebody, an expert on the apple phones?

David Logan: What steps did they take you through to suggest .. may reduce that? What steps did they take you through?

Willie Nicol: They did it remotely. They checked battery health, check the capacity, et cetera, et cetera, but essentially told me that the chip on my phone, which is three years old, admittedly, is now being superseded by several other generations, which are newer.

David Logan: OK. You are aware as new apps are updated on your phone do tend to take up more capacity in your phone? There’s one suggestion out there in the field. I say the field the internet when doing some research. Before I start into that though, you got to remind, I’m not an expert on apple phones, and I prefer to stick to what the expert says, but will go along with questions.

David Logan: There’s one suggestion was saying, have you tried to uninstall the app, do a total shutdown with the phone, bring it back up and reinstall the app? I’m assuming you’ve done that?

Willie Nicol: Yeah, I have. I uninstalled then re-installed the app. I have shut the phone down, but I haven’t reset it as such.

David Logan: Okay. We don’t need to reset, it’s more just – total shut down. So it’s good that they’ve done us some basic testing.

David Logan: So, yeah, as programs, phone apps advance as they put more code in, to sort these programs out, it pushes technology to its limits. Push technology out. This applies to phones whether it is Android, Apple, or a computer. So the question is. Do you need a new processor?

David Logan: First of all, do you know what a chip is? Not as in a chip you eat, you know what a chip is?

Willie Nicol: Well, I was assuming that when the chappie referred it to the chip, I equated that to a process of what you would get on your PC or laptop.

David Logan: OK, so a chip is a function. Is a function, it’s like the fan, or it could be the memory, and then the processor is actually the board. The board is the chip, where the bits are put on.

David Logan: The processor is the bit that does all the mathematical calculations, so the faster the speed you go, the faster the speed is quoted process. The more operations it can do per second. So you tend to get processors in mega hertz (MHz) or gigahertz (gHz). Just like a frequency. The modern ones do tend to go faster, do work more efficiently.

David Logan: Now as these as technology hits limit. Which may be the case in your phone. As its hitting that limit, it may be saying “OK, I need to go faster here, work harder”, hence the reason you’re feeling the heat on your phone and the battery draining. Does that answer your question?

Wilie Nicol: Yeah, I think it does. The analogy I would make is almost like what we’re doing during lock-down – we’re working harder, and we’re probably stressing more. We’re putting more strain on ourself. So, like my three year old iPhone, we risk burn-out over-heating as our battery is drained. I just threw that in there.

Willie Nicol: So the processor needs to be up to the job of doing what you’re asking it to do. Although if it’s not, we’ll have overheating and bleeding and slowing down. Is that correct?

David Logan: I’ll say so, that is the thing. It’s like your car it will not last forever. Think of your first car, can it go as fast as you car now?

Willie Nicol: Yeah, probably not.

David Logan: So it’s down to technology, but also in the car it’s as much as safety whereas the phone is technology, but they try to make it smaller. At the same time, keep it cool, so you can touch the phone and you don’t go “wow – it’s too hot.”.

Willie Nicol: Well. That was what was happening. And also the battery disappeared in front of my eyes. So I think I think we’ve got to get to the bottom of that, so it’s either don’t use that app or get a new phone.

David Logan: There is other apps out there. If you don’t mind me asking on behalf of the viewer what app is it that you’re trying to use?

Willie Nicol: It’s an app peculiar to Apple called clips, as in paper clips. This clip’s app allows you to record videos and it will superimpose what you’re saying on the video as you speak.

David Logan: As in subtitles?

Willie Nicol: Subtitles, captions. Once the app recognizes the way you speak, it’s actually very useful, but not if your phone starts to overheat, so as when one opportunity arises, another door slams in your face.

David Logan: Absolutely. One door closes, another one opens. So I think that’s great for this week. Fantastic.

David Logan: If we’ve answered your question and I think that’s us? We are good for this week Willie?

David Logan: So to the viewer, if you have any other questions about phones, about processors fire them to us, fire on to us on the comment down below YouTube, Facebook. Put it there and we’ll answer back to you, or give us a shout privately on our LinkedIn profiles, Facebook profile, were there to help. If you’re stuck with technology, give us a shout if you’re stuck, if you’re worried or anxious as we come out of lock-down , give us a shout. Willie will answer those questions. Onto technical questions? If we can’t answer them, we’ll come back to you.

David Logan: So for now, thank you for listening. Have a great weekend, everybody. Take care. Stay safe and stay healthy. Goodbye.

Willie Nicol: Goodbye from Wilie, the Techno Dinosaur and personal development coach. Goodbye.