004 - Why Your Gadgets Get Slower Over Time

Most of us slow down as we age. We’re similar to conventional machines, like old cars or hair dryers that run less efficiently as they get on in years.

But digital gadgets, particularly smartphones and computers? We expect them to operate quickly. Forever!

There are plenty of conspiracy theories seeking to explain why our phones, tablets and computers always slow down as they get older. In today’s episode I will look into what is happening behind the screens.

If you remember my first episode where I spoke about the magic of reset, I would have mentioned that there are few problems which cannot be fixed even by a system reset, these are such issues when both hardware and software can suffer causing the gadget to slow down.

The main reason why phones slow down over time is that software updates often leave older hardware behind. Companies also update apps to take advantage of faster processing speeds and more efficient architectures. 

So for the users of the older hardware models, It often means that the new version of the app they loved will run slightly slower than the older version of the same app. 

During a software update process the older and less efficient code can get overlooked and left behind. The cumulative effect is that your older phone or laptop is having to work harder to get the same results, as more demands get placed on it by this newer software.

If the latest and greatest smartphones and laptops have better hardware capabilities, then developers are inevitably going to take advantage of them by introducing more advanced features or by optimizing their code. That’s fine if you’ve picked up a flagship device in the last 12 months, but gradually, older devices struggle to keep up with the code changes and eventually get left behind completely.

More about me on www.ivkrm.com

---

Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/glitch1001/support