Page 86 - May-June-July Life In Naples Magazine

naples mac help

Is it time

to Upgrade?

I t is almost taken for granted these days that you are eligible the older model lacks. If your
for a new cell phone every two years, and many people take printer is reporting low paper
advantage of this generous ‘offer’ from cell phone service or a paper jam when neither is
providers. But how often should other technology equipment occurring, it could be a failed
be upgraded? Certainly we do not consider replacing our sensor. In cases like this, it’s
televisions or computers every two years, so I will attempt better to replace than repair. You
to establish some guidelines for when you should consider can be almost certain that your
upgrading your equipment. new printer will not use the same
ink as your old one, so if you
CELL PHONES have the convenience of waiting until your current ink supply
runs out, by all means do so before getting a new printer that
Features and size are the uses different ink! In my experience, most inkjet printers sold
biggest selling points of today have a useful life of three of four years before an error
cell phones, and as features or hardware failure deems replacement necessary.
increase the size gets smaller.
The latest trend is for larger COMPUTERS
screens on very thin phones.
For comparison, the top-of- This is a common question.
the-line iPhone sold in 2007 How do you know if your
was priced at $599 for 8GB computer is ‘old’? The most
of storage, the current iPhone 6 has 128GB of storage for common sign, slowness, may be
$399, and camera resolution has increased from 2MP to 8MP easily and economically fixed by
in that time. Common features offered today like fingerprint- simply adding more memory
authentication and motion-tracking were not even options (RAM) to your machine. Go
that were available eight years ago when the first iPhone was to crucial.com to find available
introduced. memory upgrades for your computer. Other signs that your
computer is aging is an outdated operating system, which
If your cell phone is still a ‘flip-phone,’ you may want to will prevents some newer programs and even web sites from
consider upgrading to a ‘smart phone’ where you will benefit functioning on your computer. Often an operating system
from features such as text messaging, email and web browsing update will solve these woes. If your computer hardware is not
that are now common to all carriers and models. Your monthly capable of adding memory or upgrading the operating system,
bill may increase by just $10 or $20, and you will find that is it is time to consider replacing it. Computers are becoming
money well spent. faster, more efficient and less expensive every year, so there is
never a bad time to upgrade your machine.

PRINTERS CAMERAS

It seems that printers now fall into two categories: those Many of the features offered
workhorses that seem to last forever (which is now anything by the next-generation cameras
longer than five years,) and those that last only two or three are not used by most amateur
years before needing replacement. A printer that cost $300 photographers. Sixty-one
two years ago may go for $150 today, plus have lots of features

86 Life in Naples | May • June • July 2015