I once read an article about an old iPad Mini, one that was slowly dying, and the author’s grudging acceptance of it.
It wasn’t that the iPad was dying, it was that the whole system upon which it depends had broken down. Unlike an old camera, or even an old computer, it required servers from the outside world to function:
A pristine iPad from the same era, forgotten in a storeroom and never touched, would be equally useless. The moment it came online, it would demand to be updated; as soon as it was, it would find itself in the same grim predicament as my device, which has been at work for half a decade.
Digital death is a problem that we haven’t faced up to. If you doubt this, try opening a file you created 10, 20, or even 30 years ago.
While corded phone technology has basically not changed in anyone’s lifetime, mobile phones are not so fortunate. And phones made less than a decade ago, some of them just will not work anymore.
Why? Because the networks on which they depend have been shut down.
[Read more…] about What you need to know about the phase-out of 2G/3G networks