• Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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    8 months ago

    That could is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that headline.

    Also, we can barely get OEMs to support phones for 5 years now…

    • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      8 months ago

      I’d say, 10 years is more than enough, the device is practically unusable after that, even if it’s still working.

      • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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        8 months ago

        the device is practically unusable after that, even if it’s still working.

        Not if you can change the battery…

        I am having to retire my 7 year old S5, which still works perfectly, because 3G networks are being switched off in a couple of months.

        • TheMurphy@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          The S5 is from 2014 which this year makes 10 years.

          Pons_Aelius says: “the device is practically unusable after that, even if it’s still working.”

          You say: “Not if you can change the battery”

          AND THEN YOU GO ON to tell that your 10 year old phone is working but practically unusable, confirming in the most spectacular way, that Pons was right all along, even matching your very own experience to the point and date! And you still started your argument against it.

          It’s amazing really. Bravisimo.

        • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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          8 months ago

          It won’t work with modern apps in about 3 or 4 years, or even if it does, it’ll be so slow, it would practically be unusable.

          I have an Asus Zenfone 3 Max from 2016. It has 8 cores @ 900MHz and 3GB of RAM. I only use it for BT auido streaming (play music on a modified audio system from the 90’s), that’s it. It can play YT videos at Full HD, but searching and screen flipping is so slow, it’s practically unusable. Everything is generally slow on it, even browsing. It takes like 10+ seconds to load a more complex page (with media). Sorry, but that’s unusable to me.

          • abhibeckert@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            It won’t work with modern apps in about 3 or 4 years, or even if it does, it’ll be so slow, it would practically be unusable.

            Maybe on Android… my iPhone is 5 years old and works better now (faster, more features, more apps) than it did when it was brand new. It has a 6 core CPU with two of the cores running at 2.65Ghz (the other four cores are 1.8Ghz) - plenty fast enough and fully supported by all the latest software. Really the only thing I’m missing out on is 5G. And wireless charging doesn’t have fancy magnets to hold it in place - oh well.

            Upgrading to the latest model would give me the same number of CPU cores and about 20% higher clock speed and slightly more RAM - both barely noticeable. I would get a better camera - but I’m OK with this one for a bit longer.

            I replaced the battery a few months ago, which was free - under warranty even after five years because Apple’s extended warranty can be paid monthly and lasts until you stop paying (and gets cheaper, as your phone ages). The warranty even covers accidental damage (screen repairs, etc).

            • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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              8 months ago

              That iPhone has at least double the CPU power my Zenfone has. Plus more cache, I presume. If I had double the CPU power I currently have on that thing, I would probably still use it.

              Upgrading to the latest model would give me the same number of CPU cores and about 20% higher clock speed and slightly more RAM - both barely noticeable. I would get a better camera - but I’m OK with this one for a bit longer.

              See, that’s the difference (one of them) between bying an iPhone and an Android phone. Android phones are usually a lot more powerful. I currently use a Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro. 8 cores, 2.0GHz per core, 8GB of RAM, 128GB storage, 4 cameras on the back. And all that for 300€. No iPhone has those specs at that price. Sure, support is shorter, but why people throw that kind of money on something like a phone is beyond me. Still, it’s everyone’s personal choice, and I guess Apple can put in a battery in their devices that will last, oh, 20 years, if they really wanted to, but for most regular Android phones, 10 years is more than enough.

    • elshandra@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      If this was an economically scalable proven thing today, phones wouldn’t be sold with batteries in 5 years.

      • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        8 months ago

        It is doable, but it’s not practical. Technology moves so fast nowadays, a 10 year old i7 is easilly surpassed by a modern day i3.

        Don’t get me wrong, I use old tech all the time, but it’s becoming increasingly impractical to do so.

          • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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            8 months ago

            I was talking about desktop CPUs, but the same principle applies to any sort of SoC or CPU. What is “the best” today is surpassed within a month or two.

            This is also why I usually buy second hand computer equpment. There’s no point, it’s extremely expensive the day it hits the market, and in a year, it’s like 1/3 of the price. This is especially true for GPUs.

      • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        8 months ago

        And they don’t support anything higher than 3G, which will go in history in a few years… and then the only thing you can use them for is a paper weight.

        • Noerttipertti@sopuli.xyz
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          8 months ago

          Bollocks. Nokia 800 tough, 2660 flip, 2720 flip, 225 4g, 6300 4g, 8000 4g - just from one manufacturer, and there’s plenty of others.

          • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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            8 months ago

            They’re called burner phones. No real OS on them, no upgrade path, nothing. You wanna make phone calls and send SMS, that’s fine, but let’s face it, most people nowadays don’t use phones just for that.

  • a1studmuffin@aussie.zone
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    8 months ago

    Remember when light bulbs used to last decades? A phone battery that lasts that long is incompatible with capitalism.

    • mipadaitu@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      When they were really dim and far too red like 80 years ago? Or when they switched to LED and actually lasted a decade, like now?

      Batteries that last a decade will open up the opportunity for expensive tech like we never imagined.

      • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        8 months ago

        Or when they switched to LED and actually lasted a decade, like now?

        LEDs with Edison screws on them don’t last that long. Maybe Siemens or some other brand name manufacturer, but the cheap Chinese ones last only a few months.

        It’s the heat buildup that’s the problem. Disassemble them, slap a CPU heatsink on it and yes, they will last forever.

        • frazw@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Seems like a manufacturer problem. I’ve have the same LED bulbs in my house for 5 years plus with no replacements. Various makes too .Some of them came with me from my old house. No idea how old they are. With incandescent bulbs, I used to have to replace at least 1 a year. I used to keep a stock in the back of a cupboard.

        • MuchPineapples@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          The problem with led bulbs is that they are build to operate at their limits. It’s still within spec, but just barely which is why they break so quickly. If you would reduce the current by half they would last for decades.

          But of course Big-Light doesn’t want that, so after the initial well-build led bulbs became standard they switched to cheaper designs with less internal led modules for the same brightness.

    • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
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      8 months ago

      The battery is not the main point of failure in contemporary phones, especially not one that makes you buy new unit. This new radioactive battery doesn’t change much

  • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org
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    8 months ago

    Sensationalized clickbait.

    100 microwatts, aiming for 1W in 2025. That’s a big difference and 1W is still not enough for a cell phone. Phone-scale batteries aren’t even on the roadmap.

    • fidodo@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      1 Watt is plenty to power a phone on average. While idle a phone uses less than 1 Watt. The thing is, nuclear batteries are a misnomer, they’re actual electrical generators. For this to work in a phone, you’d want to pair it with an actual battery, and the generator would charge the battery while the phone is idle and that would provide enough power on average for when you’re actively using your phone.

      • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        8 months ago

        My thoughts exactly. Unless it can output at least double of what the phone’s max drain is, there is no other way.

    • abhibeckert@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      1W is enough for a cell phone, if you combined it with a capacitor for brief bursts at higher watts.

        • ferret@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          You throttle the cpu with long heavy workloads, just like phones already do due to the significant thermal constraints of the form factor.

        • nous@programming.dev
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          8 months ago

          Not all phones need to play games and gaming phones don’t need to use this type of technology. I would love a phone that I don’t need to charge and most people could benefit from one. And for the select few that like to play intensive games on it then they can get ones that would need to be charged.

          Though I doubt this technology will be the answer to that want though.

          • fuck_u_spez_in_particular@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Yeah especially with just 0.001% of the estimated workload (~10W when gaming, but even when standby 0.5W, 100uW are still just 0.02% of that…). Needs a lot more research…

      • Lojcs@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        My phone uses 0.6W when idle and 1.2-2.5W while I’m using it. Peaks are 8W+. No way an internal reactor only can power a phone.

        Edit: 0.3W when screen is off.

  • Juviz@feddit.de
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    8 months ago

    Some of the first pacemakers used radioactive batteries. We left that concept pretty fast. And that is considering you have to cut your patient open to change a pacemaker battery. This will not happen in commercial cellphones

  • RememberTheApollo@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Oh, good. So whenever some fool tosses a phone out of a car to get crushed on the roadway, shoots one because TikTok, or otherwise mangles a phone, we now have a potential for radioactive material to be spread around?

    • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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      8 months ago

      And that’s for a battery that only produces 100 microwatts. A battery that produces 10000 times more power will be a lot spicier.

    • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      8 months ago

      The size is smaller than a coin. Put enough of them in parallel and they’ll output enough power.

  • nicetriangle@kbin.social
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    8 months ago

    These tech articles on some new advancement are basically the same phenomenon of bullshit as articles ending in a question mark. The answer is always “nah”

  • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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    8 months ago

    So the reinventing of the Nokia is here. Capitalism probably won’t allow it unfortunately, the enshittening depends on degradation of everything

    • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      8 months ago

      True, true.

      Stil, it’s a nice idea… we can dream.

      I just pitty all those artists that envisioned the 21st century with flying cars and stuff like that… we still run almost everything on petrol.