h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Ni-MH don't suffer from a memory effect " ??

According to the instructions that came with my Fuki digital camera and Ni MH batteries they certainly do.

Anyone care to anser for certian?

CH

that should have been "Fuji"

CH

But a Fuki camera sounds better

'Memory' seems to have become a generic term to cover the fact that the battery capacity drops over time, since the original 'cyclic memory effect' that used to affect NiCd cells has essentially been banished by improved formulations.

Both NiCd and MiMh cells lose capacity over time due to changes in the crystal structure of the Nickel electrodes, and NiCd cells have additional problems due to changes in the Cadmium electrode. Much of the lost capacity can be restored via appropriate pulsed charging.

Blaming most deterioration on the 'memory effect' is a good way for manufacturers to imply the user is to blame for the fact that batteries don't last for ever.

I've had my latest phone for 2 1/2 years with no battery memory problems at all. It has a lithium ion battery.

Does anyone still keep a phone for more than a year or two?

I know people who do. There are still curmudgeons around who (and I was one once too) say 'a phone is a phone and that's all it needs to do' and if they do actually need one will hunt about for a £10 Nokie 3610 or something. This phase with me lasted until my wife got herself one with a colour screen about 10 years ago (ish) and I immediately - or when my contract was up for renewal - began my love affair with the smartphone.
A phone call is about the last thing I do with it now.

Mine generally last until the next contract which is 2 years now.

Having said that, I still have my last two iPhones and last I checked they still worked - albeit one a bit smashed up.

My phone is a Nokia that I've had for about 8 years. No idea what the number is for it. It cost me £10 new, and I only have to charge it once a month.

I usually ignore it.

<BB<

Ditto, except I know my phone number, as it has a good pattern so I remember it

Oh I know my mobile number, just not what the phone's model number is. It is a Nokia something or other.

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I know mine as I've never changed it since day 1 (which was about 1999 I think - pretty much since i've been on here!)

My phone is my camera, my work diary, my email, a mobile office if I need it, my bus ticket, my plane boarding pass, my coach ticket, my photo album, my music centre (I can just airplay to my stereo in my house now, none of the fiddly mucking about with my CDs any more). My mobile info centre via google. A bit of Kandy Krush on the bus if I'm bored admittedly (well I *do* have slightly more sophisticate games too) - also I can use it to read books when I'm on the train or my favourite thing these days, - listen to history podcasts. It's a *very* hand navigation device if I'm somewhere unfamiliar... It's a torch in the dark....the list goes on.

They're kind of uber-handy. Maybe that's why the Germans call them handys

Oh I can text and make calls on it too

Oh and when I lost my wallet recently it came in handy as a stop gap bank card. Though only until I cancelled the ones I'd lost.

Isn't 'Candy Crush' the 'Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine' copy? It didn't look colour-blind friendly.

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Probably, it's just another complete a triplet of colours/shapes game. There bazillions of them.

(actually I long ago got bored with Candy Crush saga - I just used it as an example)

On average, I have kept mobile phones 3 to 5 years - until the batteries no longer hold a reasonable duration of charge. Even the lithium ion ones do fade after time. Since early 98, I have owned 4 previous devices - the latter (my first 'smart one') being replaced last week only because my bride insisted on buying something for my Christmas. And after nearly 3 years, that last one is in fine enough health to give to a friend in-need.

My last ones all had to be replaced when the screen went blank and no amount of charging, or pressing buttons, would revive them. Connecting them to the computer also drew a blank. So I can't even throw them away, as the data is still on them, and someone may be able to access it.

The limiting factor for many phones these days is indeed the battery, not because of their limited lifespan, but because of the inability to replace them (economically). I would think that around 3 years of a daily charge/discharge cycle will do for most Li-Ion batteries.

Where a smart phone still has a user-replaceable battery (do any now?). I would expect the phone to last longer, however another limiting factor which is about to force the issue for me now, is the need for ever more built-in memory. Again this appears to be built-in obsolescence which handily for the mobile industry seems to tie in roughly with a 2-year contract.

It seems that the standard built-in memory is generous when the phone is first released, but around 2 years later you get caught up in a constant need to remove apps or shift them to the memory card. I've been at this stage for a while. 16gb seemed more than adequate when I got my HTC M8 2.5 years ago, and indeed once all the apps I used were on it, I still had around 6 gb to spare (excluding photos, videos etc, which it really is essential to store on an external SD card, or the memory will fill up in a few weeks!).

Now (2016/17) almost all smart phones come with 32gb as standard, which would leave me with around 32gb spare if I installed all my apps on a new phone, but i'd bet you anything that in 2 years time that wont be enough.

It really doesn't help that Android has a bug/design feature which they appear to be in no hurry to fix, whereby if you manually move an app to the external SD card, it will move back to the built-in memory all by itself the next time it updates

It's a shame, because despite me usually chomping at the bit to upgrade my phone after 2 years, I have no such enthusiasm this time around because my HTC has not slowed down significantly the way previous phones have and none of the new phones that have come out in the past couple of years have a 'killer app' that my current one doesn't. To me it seems that phone innovation is plateauing out somewhat and when I do get a new phone in the next few months, it will definitely be case of minor evolution rather than revolution.

As a I'm getting increasingly dependent on various smartphone apps to make my life easier.

When seeing someone with a stroke I have an app to work out the NIHSS stroke scale and to calculate the appropriate dose of a certain drug. I use medcalc to work out endless other calculations of kidney function, anion gap, and numerous other things.

The 'Deprescribing app' gives me the number needed to treat of certain drugs in different situations,I have stored the DVLA pdf so I can check the latest driving and health regulations and the BNF app is on my phone too. I also have an app which is the hospital internal phone directory, and our acute care guidelines.

Everything's also on the intra-net, so I can manage whilst my phone is charging. It's just so much more of a faff.

I kind of suspected of some doctors that I have seen . . . the key skill is knowing which app to call up. Thank the gawds that so many of us survived before Google and iMed . . .

It's really irritating not to be able to remove pre-installed applications - for instance Facebook and Twitter.

I don't use them and they take up memory I could use.

PP..