From 8 to 13.

[hedbonker]

Prior to 2007 I did not carry a cell phone. I owned a Motorola Flip phone but it was not comfortable to carry in my pocket with the antenna nub stabbing me in the groin and I was disinclined to use a holster (remember those?). From my perspective I wanted the phone to use on long road trips where call boxes might not be available. I did not really think that through as areas without call boxes generally had no cell service but that is a story for another day

In 2006 my wife had switched computing platforms from Windows to Mac after taking a job editing video for a mac based company. In late 2007 my wife and I bought 1st gen iPhones. No antenna nub and we loved the touch interface and and many other features. My wife gave up her beloved Compaq iPAQ and switched to the iPhone. In a lot of ways the iPhone was a step backwards for her (no copy paste among other things) but she soldiered on with the new phone.

In early 2008 I made the jump to macs from Windows as well. I will say, the best computer I have ever owned (I built my first one in 1977 on a wire-wrap board) was a Mac Pro Early 2008 - 8 core and 32GB RAM. 100% reliable and served me well until I finally had to upgrade it in 2017. Got 9 years out of it. Not bad! The WORST computer I have ever owned is a 2017 5K iMac. 64GB Ram, decent VRAM/GPU, 4GHz quad core. Power button on the back - all ports on the back...I knew that going in but I always thought this form over function with the iMac was stupid.

The iMac has a audio hardware issue where it starts to crackle and pop internittantly and Kernel Panics are far more frequent than on the old Mac Pro. At the time Apple had no Mac Pro offering so my choices were limited. Overall though, the computer works well enough and handles editing RAW 8K footage to a degree and has no issue with 4.6K BRAW so that meets my needs just fine.

I'll be honest. I hate the insanely high prices that a lot of smartphones go for these days. The original iPhone went for $499 (with 2 year ATT contract) and dropped to $399 (to the outrage of many early adopters) which was when the wife and I took the plunge. That $399 is about $615 today adjusted for inflation. I also know that ATT subsidized the cost of that phone. The cheapest iPhone you can get from Apple today is the 15 that goes for $700 and the phones range up to starting prices of $1200 before you add more storage. Consumer tech prices should go down, not up!

Consider this graph of HDTV prices over the years. IMO Phones should have done the same. Around 2017 the average price on an iPhone jumped from $700 to $1000. OK, OK I will stop crying here and get off my soap box. You were wondering what all of this had to do with drones I suspect - Whelp, here we go... In 2017 I needed to upgrade my iPhone from a 4 to the current gen, 8. I was pretty horified at the $700 price tag so I put the wife to work finding a deal on the phone. Eventually she found some kind of a deal that basically cost me nothing. Perfect. The 8 served me well until I upgraded my drone. I went from a P3P that I paid about $1K for new (used an iPad Air 2 with it) to an air 3 that I paid less than $1K for new... As it should be

The new Fly app seemed nice enough and I was grateful that it worked on the 8. Then I went out and actually used it and found that the app was cutting out the video feed regularly as well as warning me about CPU overload on the phone and flat out just crashing in the middle of flights. So, time to go through the whole iPhone upgrade debacle once again. I did some research and decided that some kind of refurbished iPhone 13 would be adequate for this use. So I spent $300 on one off of Amazon and I have to say, the jump from the 8 to the 13 is substantial. It works beautifully with with the Air 3. Smooth as silk. And the phone itself is beautiful. $300. As it should be

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Have a safe memorial day for those in the US. Thank you to all fellow veterans who have served and especially to those that paid the ultimate price to which today is in honor of.

 

[Max Headroom]

I haven't paid more than £150 for a pone in many years, a budget phone will do everything 90% of us need if the other 10% want to pay many hundreds more for a phone because they need all the features fair enough I will spend that money on something I need.

 

[Felix le Chat]

I haven't paid more than £150 for a pone in many years, a budget phone will do everything 90% of us need if the other 10% want to pay many hundreds more for a phone because they need all the features fair enough I will spend that money on something I need.

Agree. I won't cheapskate with cameras, but a phone is just a phone (when it isn't an emergency flight screen). My old Android Motorola E30 does everything I need it to.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

I've had Macs for 30 years (since I use them at work). The worst one I had was an eMac. My best friend (who is also my IT/tech guy) called it the devil Mac, he'd never had one be so unstable before. He apologized to me for suggesting I get one for home. LOL He finally got rid of it for me last year (he had it exorcised first) LOL All my other Macs have lasted for a long time. I have a 2006 MacBook that still works but has cooling fan issues, a 2012 iMac that I still use as well as a 2013 MacBook Pro (2 of them actually) that I still use on drone shoots, and a Mac Studio M1 Ultra which is a beast of a machine. Except for the d(E)vil Mac, I've had nothing but good luck with them. Also have the iPhone 13 max (mostly for the camera at the time) and iPad Mini 5 for flying the drone.

 

[Flying Shroppie]

Six years ago I bought a new phone to make phone calls. Not to have access to 99.99999999 % of stuff I have not the slightest interest in. I cost me (brand new) less than 4 pounds sterling. Just over 5 dollars. It still does all I need it to do. When I get desperate for a need to know answer I have a laptop I paid less than 60 pounds sterling, for.
I have spent considerably more on my drones, but these are my toys so cost is irrelevant
What am I missing out on?

 

[1gratedulflyingdawg]

Work always found me in front of a dos machine, while home found me in front of a Mac starting in the 80’s. I have all the overpriced fancy stuff. Being a bit older I use the health features on my watch & iPhone to monitor my heart. There is way more technology than I need. And so it will be with my first drone either a Mini Pro 4 or 5. There will most likely be way more technology than I will ever use and I can hardly wait to not use it.

 

[moldorf]

my first computer had a 60MB hard drive and wrote on floppy disks

my first phone had it's own parking spot and to pick it up I had to lift with my knees

my first car was a Rambler Classic Station Wagon with overdrive. I paid $75 for the mobile junk pile

my first wife became my first ex-wife in 10 months

my first beer tasted terrible but I didn't give up. Still haven't given up 57 years later

 

[Max Headroom]

my first phone had it's own parking spot and to pick it up I had to lift with my knees

I remember mine it was so big you put the phone on the front car seat next to you it also had a corded handset like a landline phone.

 

[1gratedulflyingdawg]

I remember mine it was so big you put the phone on the front car seat next to you it also had a corded handset like a landline phone.

Let me know if you ever walked into your phone like Dr. Who.

 

[Max Headroom]

I remember mine it was so big you put the phone on the front car seat next to you it also had a corded handset like a landline phone.

Kids today wouldn't believe you even if you showed them the picture

 

[1gratedulflyingdawg]

Ok let’s move to land lines when I was a kid on our farm.