The Fun of Technology...Out with the Old

I am taking preemptive action here, as I have decided that my faithful LG Optimus LTE has done it's duty to me for nearly three years.  It has been a great phone to me, mostly because it was more than a phone.  It took pictures and video, connected me to Facebook and all the other great places out there in the online world, allowed me to look up whatever stupid questions popped into my head, and I am sure it was capable of doing a multitude of other things that I just never got around to trying out or never really needed in the first place.  If it were a more popular model of phone I am sure it would serve me well for some time to come. 

Mobile phone companies would hate me for this, but I would probably be content to keep using my "obselete" device, but they make it far easier for me to just get a new one.  I had a hard time finding accessories for it, and in the past year, it was hard to source a battery for it locally.  I ended up having to get one ordered in.  Call me weak, but all the ads, and temptations, and offers from my carrier convinced me, that for just this once, I would get in on the ground floor of a popular model.  It will be welcome to just walk in a store and find a case, batteries or what have you without having to look for a salesperson.  I can remember some of the looks as I tried to tell them what model I was looking for accessories for.  Of course they never had anything in store.  The one time I did find a case, it wasn't quite the colour I wanted, so I ended up settling.

With the end of it's service life with me, I am now faced with getting all of my precious data off of my old phone.  I just found out I have over 1,000 photos on the phone, various other bits of data, contact lists, and apps.  It's going to be a blast trying to get it all to go where I want it, which for now has to be the hard drive on my laptop, as my new phone is still in transit, although I am assured it will be here mid-week.  As I sit here, I have one batch of photos uploading via Google Drive, but being a bit impatient, I think I will unmount the micro-SD card and transfer the rest of the stuff that way.  The way I see it is that this is yet another learning experience.  It never hurts to know more than one way to get something accomplished.  I may not be one of the young 'uns anymore, but I'm not too old to figure things out.  I find it mentally stimulating to play around with the gadgets to see what I can get from them.  My brain will probably be on pleasure over-load when the new phone arrives, and yes, I am going to take a selfie with it, probably as the last photo from old faithful Optimus LTE.  Makes me wonder what the future is going to hold for mobile devices.  Just like through history, one day I will be recounting the wonders of my day, and be told it is now old school, a relic.  I find it amusing to see computers from 30 years ago, that were state-of-the-art in their day, now merely technological dinosaurs of the past.  It is mind-blowing how quickly things become old technology.

A few personal examples shout out, like our ADSL modem which was considered a relic at the age of twelve, our satellite receiver at thirteen, and all the SD cards I have about that cost a small fortune at the time but are virtually useless today, because storage size has grown by leaps and bounds.  (I once gave away a SD card I paid $60 for new, because by the time I didn't really need it, the amount of storage it had was considered pitiful!)

I do not know immediately what I will do with my LG.  It still works, still does what a smartphone is supposed to do, but it definitely isn't worth the $630.00 price tag it came with initially.  I don't know if I should keep it, just in case, sell it for a few bucks, or find a way to recycle it.  My carrier says on their webpage that I should "pass it down,"  Not sure who I should pass it on to, so don't know if that will be an option.  All I know is that it isn't going anywhere until it has given up every last byte of info I have put into it!
After all if there is one thing technology has taught me, it is that you can never be too careful with your data!

In closing, I salute you LG-P935.  Thanks for making my wireless life so easy and fun for the past three years!