This is Technology Bytes, episode 41 for December 17th, 2023.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
My name is Joel.
Enjoy, and here we go.
This week I want to talk about updates for any specific technology that you might own or use, but probably focusing more on Apple than anything else.
And for a likely reason, well, you know at this point that I’m an Apple nerd, but there’s something about Apple and keeping their customers updated as best they can on the devices that they have.
Security updates, safety updates, new feature updates if you have newer devices.
The fact is that for Apple it’s a very common occurrence.
In fact, sometimes people say, already another update?
And I can understand why someone thinks that.
It’s like there’s nothing wrong with my phone, there’s nothing wrong with my iPad, my Mac, my Apple TV, whatever else may be wanting to get updated.
But there’s always new things that Apple is working on, and I think that’s part of what makes them successful.
And the other thing is, I’m not sure that others do the same.
You know, I think Google is fairly constantly working on updates to Android, but they don’t always get to all their users.
I think if you’re using a Google Pixel, then you might have more success at getting those updates.
But if you’re using another device from another manufacturer, say Samsung, you may see the updates or you may not from what I hear.
Now, I don’t live in that world, so maybe it’s different now, but I’m not sure it is.
But the fact is that Apple makes their devices useful and even more useful, I guess, for years beyond what many other manufacturers do.
And I know that Google has made some promises and Samsung has made some promises about how long they will support devices in numbers of years.
And that’s good, but I think it’s a little bit of a catch-up game.
But the reality is that those updates for your devices are important.
They keep your devices safe when you’re online, they give you useful features, and they are not just a bother because now you have to actually stop looking at Facebook to spend 10 minutes updating your phone.
And then at times we think of other technologies like cars.
So I use Apple CarPlay in both the cars that I have, my wife’s car and my car.
So I don’t really think about updates in that sense.
But back when you didn’t have CarPlay or Android Auto, car makers did not update their software like ever.
And if they did, you would have to go to a dealership and it was very difficult.
And then you think of things in your house, they try to make the technology available, but maybe TVs or microwaves or refrigerators.
So my refrigerator is wireless accessible, so I can see what it’s doing through an app on my phone.
Sorry about that, a little under the weather.
But I have yet to see an update for that refrigerator.
No firmware update, no anything like that.
And I think that just passes things by.
I have a TV that I actually let my daughter keep when I moved into my new place and I got a new TV.
And that one is saying, hey, your stuff is out of date.
And there’s nothing you can do about it.
You can’t use the smarts of that smart TV to connect to anything anymore because it’s behind the times.
And the manufacturer just didn’t bother to give you an update.
It’s not that they couldn’t, it’s that they didn’t feel like it was necessary.
They’d rather have you go spend another 3, 4, 8, $1,200 on a new TV.
So I really appreciate technology that I use that keeps itself up to date, that the manufacturer is conscious of its users, they’re conscious of its lifetime.
And there are things that last a long time.
And TVs could be one of those.
You can buy a really nice TV that can last you for 8, 9, 10 years.
Your Apple devices will last you that long.
And when those are ignored, when updates are available, and your system all of a sudden becomes less useful than it used to be, it can be very frustrating.
But it is somewhat understandable, but nonetheless frustrating.
And I think it’s something that manufacturers need to think about.
I don’t know.
In my purchase world, sometimes I think about that, but most often I don’t.
And then at some point, I just get frustrated.
So I’m going to go back to the Apple world for a moment and talk about options when it comes to updating your devices.
So there are really two options.
One is automatic and one is manual.
And automatic means that when there’s an update, the system will find a good time, best time that it knows, to push those updates to your device.
And that’s really the mode that my wife operates in.
It’s like, did you know that iOS 17.2 is available?
And she goes, well, no.
And when I look at her phone, it’s set on automatic, and it’s like I’m going to try to do the update today or this evening, tonight while you’re sleeping or something like that.
But oftentimes she is a week plus behind the rest of us who in our family do it manually.
When it comes out, we push it to our phones because we’re that kind of people.
And my wife is not really that much into the technology from that standpoint.
So automated is one way that you can do it.
I choose to do things manually.
All the apps on my phone I do manually.
My updates for operating systems I do manually for everything, for my Mac, for my watch, for my phone, for my iPad.
All of those things I do it manually.
And one of the reasons that I do it that way is because I like to read what is changing.
And I like to know that on this day I push the button and I should start to see those changes or on this day I know that the update occurred.
So if there’s problems, I can often trace it back to maybe problems with the update and then either reach out to Apple or read more online about how to fix those things, where in the automated mode it happens to you.
And so at some point you’re like, hey, where did that go?
Oh, well, that changed because they moved it to another layer down or another layer up.
Or, oh, well, that doesn’t exist anymore, whatever it may be.
But oftentimes you may not be ready for those when you run it in the automated mode.
But whether you choose auto-update or whether you choose to manually update, it doesn’t really matter.
The most important thing is that you do the updates because there are important changes that your device manufacturer is pushing to you, especially in a security world where it’s a cat-and-mouse game between people trying to find ways to break into your personal information and the makers of the devices that you use trying to help you protect it.
So oftentimes you’ll want to maybe read up on it if you’re that kind of person.
But even if you aren’t, set it to automated and just get the updates done.
Well, that’s all I have for today.
Thank you for listening.
If you have any comments or suggestions or questions, you can send them to technologybytes at merrickfamily.com.
I want to thank you for listening to the Technology Bytes Microcast, and I look forward to the next time we are together taking another bite of technology.
