Bonum Certa Men Certa

Latest Is Not Greatest: The Case of "Foldable" Tech

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Aug 22, 2025,
updated Aug 22, 2025

Beach Chair, Garden Furniture, Vacation

More than 20 years ago I purchased a foldable keyboard for my PDA via an EBay auction. I still have that PDA. It's charging right now; it is right before me. The keyboard was sold by someone who worked for a radio station in the US and it took a lot of persistence to get him to send it (his name too was Roy). Less than a decade later some keys became unreliable (pressing them didn't always register a "click") and over time - perhaps around 2013 - they became completely dysfunctional. I typed a lot on that keyboard, typically while I was travelling. I wrote a lot of things (mostly unpublished) on a device that barely consumed battery power; the keyboard was the same size as the one I am using right now, but it folded into something that goes into a pouch and fits in a side pocket on any trousers.

The thing about foldable technology is, wear and tear are faster and more severe. A recent benchmark showed that foldable "smart" "phones" with lots of hype around them are falsely advertised as being able to endure many foldings. In practice, however, they break apart and became unusable rather quickly - more quickly than the skinnerbox becomes 'obsolete' or unworkable based on inside components and software updates. This past Sunday I saw one such foldable phone (skinnerbox) in the market.

Gimmicks come and go. Everything "foldable" may easily impress people, but semiconductors, wiring (cables) and other things are not too good as "moving parts". There are always limits; it boils down to chemistry and physics. This is why headphones don't last very long (too much movement, including stretching at endpoints), laptops that get opened and closed a lot may develop signal transmission problems (and "modern" laptops are harder to open and repair by replacing the cords/braids - I did that myself when I was 19, but nowadays a lot of things are soldered/glued in, screws aren't standardised because the goal is to discourage repair), and HDMI cables are like disposable junk (we have mountains of them; the DRM in them, especially the newer ones with computers inside the cables, means that anything short of perfection is dysfunctional, hopeless, dead).

Again: Gimmicks come and go. Those of us who stick with older solutions typically enjoy a longer lifecycle of products. The cost of migration isn't limited to purchases; time too is a factor.

Many headlines this week speak of Windows Update doing actual physical damage to storage devices. Somehow we're meant to believe (thank you, Currys PCWorld [1, 2]) that the real problem is people installing "Linux" on the hardware.

This past week I've copied terabytes of my data to an external new HDD (plates, not SSD). I still have with my drives like these that I bought as a student. Nowadays it feels like anything with "SD" in it (not the literal storage device) isn't so reliable, just abundant and ubiquitous. I already lost count of how many dead SD cards I have from my Raspberry Pi devices, maybe 5 or 6 in total.

The bottom line is, don't be shamed into abandoning old things just because the "fashion industry" of Apple and Samsung tells you to. They make more money from the newer things, partly because of patents (that will take longer to expire). You probably don't need a foldable "phone". What you need is patience. Wait till you get home, then use a real computer.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
 
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Snowy Photos and utism is a Spectrum
Links for the day
Microsoft-Sponsored Xenophobia and Nationalism
IBM is very similar in this regard
Vintage is Sometimes Better
Why can't we get back to "simple" if (or where) "simple" means better?
Climate Breakdown Means We'll be Publishing More, Not Less
Press freedom will be a common, recurring theme
Our 5-Year Geminispace Anniversary is Coming Up
I still remember when Gemini Protocol was quite new
It's Right to Point Out Violence From the Right
Violence is a recurring theme
Tentative Summary of Things to Publish in Project 2030
I'll still be in my forties by then
Web Browsers That "Do Hey Hi" (AI)
State-of-the-art plagiarism or "autocomplete on steroids" (not coined by us, nevertheless a nice description) don't have much/any prospect
Links 20/09/2025: Hardware Projects in View, Some Independent Publishers About Russia Prosper After Cheeto Cuts Funding
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Options and TV Time Machine
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Retrocomputer, Antique Phone Experience, and More
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Internet Shutdowns, Media Censorship, and Climate Worries
Links for the day
About 700 New Gemini Capsules in 13 Months (or 54 Per Month)
4.8K would represent a 20% increase
Rust People: Drain the Swap, You're Holding It Wrong
Does Rust make sense?
Techrights the Name Turns 15
About 6 weeks from now we turn 19
Microsoft is Running Out of Time and Floating Fake Figures, Fake Projects, Fake Narratives, Fake Excuses
Also, a lot of Microsoft's "revenue" claims are circular financing (i.e. Microsoft buying from itself, which means Ponzi-like fraud)
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, linuxconfig.org, and Plagiarised Phoronix
Many articles out there are nowadays fake
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 19, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Navigating the Pressures of Modern Life and SpellBinding Accidentally Wrote Another Gemini Server
Links for the day