Microsoft opens first flagship store: Vibrant space showcases best in innovation

Who invents a phone you canâ€™t do a standard battery-pull reset?

I can see them doing it for quality-control issues. Lots of third-party stuff is junk, and some users screw up in doing a replacement.

But I'm in some agreement with you here. As I write, I'm taking apart a failed battery for a MacBook. Since it's easily removable by using a coin to turn a lock knob, the battery is easily swapped making it easy to replace. The battery is third-party and failed soon after warranty was up. I got six years out of the original Apple battery (2006 MacBook) before it started losing its charge. The third-party battery simply stopped working after two years and won't even accept a charge.

It's a trade-off, ease of swapping batteries versus trying to keep only quality parts in a machine. I vote for ease of swapping even though there are crappy third-party parts that don't hold up, because I can do repairs. I've made my own cases to hold off-the-shelf battery cells to replace non-standard battery packs in various devices (non-Apple), mostly to use higher-energy cells. New stuff by Apple, it can't easily be done.

Not having access to the SIM, a memory extension slot, etc. is another major drawback. The iPhone and a piece of fruit have quite a bit in common - I’m not sure the designers ever really intended for iPhones to last very long. It’s like they planned on them, actually required them, to die off in something like three years or so. Planned obsolescence at its quintessential.

It’s working for them. People are dumb enough to buy them at huge, huge markup and in the back of their head they know they are going to dump it in less than two years.

All cell phones are made with planned obsolescence. I've seen pics of thousands of phones in garbage piles that are scheduled for shredding - millions get trashed every year. People rarely keep them beyond 2 or 3 years. Any company designing a phone to last a long time will go out of business; Apple can not be singled out here. When you buy a phone you are not paying for owning a piece of hardware; you are paying for use of the features. It's the same with computers, what you pay for up front is averaged out over the years that it is useful for you, and at the end the hardware is worthless. Again, that's the way it works for all companies manufacturing electronic devices.

That having been said, I own a cheap TracFone with some smart features. It costs me about $10 a month for using it (including averaging in the cost of the phone over the years I use it). I can toss out the phone anytime in favor of a better one and transfer over the unused time. Cheaply. The rest of my family uses expensive smart phones, but my needs are simple; I use the phone for calls and sometimes for pictures or texting. I don't worry about drawbacks on any phones.

Reception on the TracFones is wonderful. Never had a problem. They have a deal with carriers where the carriers are reimbursed. I can only speak for use in the U.S.A., having traveled to many states. But haven’t used it internationally. TracFone offers deals where you can get triple minutes from buying cards that add minutes, for the life of the phone. However, you can only transfer the purchased minutes to new phones and not the tripled accumulations. Not a problem if you use a lot of minutes and don’t run up unused minutes over time. I buy a one-year card each year, that averages out to $8 a month. Good for kids to cut down on costs, if you want them to be able to call or be called. Phones cost nothing up to perhaps $100 each, and there are always sales on their phones at Target and other retail stores. I have an LG840G I bought under $30 at Target, same thing at Amazon for $75, so shop around.

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