I used to experience this anxiety too from time to time. But I've since learned it's wasted energy. Now I just enjoy my devices for what they are and don't worry about updates. I still stay up to speed with them, but don't sweat whether I'll get them.
Agreed.
Instead I've gotten into the habit of evaluating any updates, even apps, to determine if they're worth messing with or not (still sitting on 7 app updates, some Google apps such as GMail, Maps, YouTube). Remember updates are not without risk, they can introduce new bugs or change functionality in an unexpected or bad way. I need to see a real upside to an update before considering installing it and dealing with any potential negatives to it. If it ain't broke.....
I understand what you're saying, but I've found that fighting the updates just creates bigger problems. You just have to take your "don't sweat it" attitude, and ramp it up a few notches to where you just go with the flow... keep-up, like it or not. It helps keep ya' young, too... which, at my age, is starting to matter. I'm remarkably adaptable to change, considering what and old fart I am; and I routinely surprise tablesfull of kids who just assume that I don't know what's going on with technology (or pretty much anything else, for that matter). I actually rather work to keep-up; and to ensure that anything I write is true and accurate and not just out of my ****, as some, here, are assuming is the case (and, of course, they're just projecting).
Anyway, the keeping-up thing is especially true with Windows. I could not more despise Windows 8 (and even 8.1), but there's no point in fighting it; in, for example, opting for Win7 when purchasing a new desktop replacement notebook on the Dell website, as I relatively-recently did. Just go with Win8(.1) and make whatever hacks you have to to the registry, and/or general settings, etc., to make it your own. It was that way with Vista, too... godawful piece o' crap; but by the time I finished with it, I didn't really even
need Win7 (which, if you think about it, is just Vista, but fixed) because I had Vista tamed and tweaked to no-longer-annoying, and fast-as-greased-lighting perfection.
While that kind of customization is not possible with an Android device unless it's rooted (and possibly unlocked, as well), it's nevertheless quite possible to really make it your own, and get from it everything possible and more, even if it's carrier-customize stock. I've yet to find an Android feature (which I actually wanted) that I could not bring to my phone, regardless of version, by hook or by crook, using apps and settings and creativity... and maybe
Tasker (and/or
AutomateIt)
[grin] without rooting the phone.
App makers assume dumb things, like that your phone is fast, and you've got lots of RAM, and plenty of storage, and that there aren't a lot of competing apps. We see that with websites, too: Site makers get their big twenty-something-inch screens with pushing 3,000 pixels horizontally, and they don't stop the realize that most notebook computers and tablets don't have those kinds of resolutions, and so their sites, in their arrogance, are too wide.
In the end, what makes a phone obsolete even faster than the manufacturer's planned obsolescence is the app makers -- especially those who came-up first through the iOS world and only "port" their apps over to Android, about which they don't actually care, but they want the revenue -- not thinking (or even giving one whit about) backward compatibility. Phones slow not because their hardware is getting worn out but, rather, because arrogant app makers just keep making their apps bigger and bigger, and requiring more processor cycles, and RAM, and storage.
And so I suppose one could argue that that, right there, is a perfect reason to not always allow apps to update/upgrade. But, in the end, it's just too much to keep-up with; and it's a losing battle from the outset. It's easier and less stressful to just take it all as it comes, not sweating too much when it happens or even if it happens; and then, eventually, when the phone -- though it's in as good a shape as the day you bought it -- slows because of too-slow a processor, too little RAM and/or too little storage (because, remember, in "internal storage" is where temp files are stored, and where RAM swapping happens, etc.; and app makers just keep assuming that their users have new phones and so plenty of it)...
...then we just go ahead and upgrade the phone. But I try to wait as long as I can. As earlier herein mentioned, my wife was using an old Samsung Captivate 'til as recently as last May; and I was still on my Samsung Infuse 4G at that time. But then, when I lamented to an AT&T supervisor (with whom I was talking about switching to the "shared data" plan) that I wished I could get a Note, she cut me a deal too good to resist (because she happened to be in the "retention" department, where people who are threatening to quit AT&T are referred); and then she made me an ever better deal on a new phone for Mary-Anne (one penny with a two-year contract). So we both upgraded. But then my Note's video card started overheating within not even a month of my getting it (not even two weeks of my actually starting to use it) and AT&T offered to replace it, but with a refurb, which I wouldn't accept. So, after being referred back to "retention" again, and this time speaking with the supervisor or supervisors (at least in that call center), I got a Note II (because AT&T was all out of new Notes) for just a tiny bit thrown onto the bill. Otherwise, I'd not have a phone as new as the Note II. I'd still be on the Note... or perhaps even the Infuse 4G (although that one was beginning to not be able to keep-up with increasing app sizes; so I probably would at least be on the Note, now, had other weirdness not happened. And I'd be happy; and I'd likely not be getting a Note II until the Note IV (if there ever even is one) finally came out.
Trust me, my Note II (and this would be true of my Note, if I still had it; and it was true of my Infuse 4G, too; and the phones before it) is as cool and up-to-date, and bleeding-edge as it needs to be. It's customized to the hilt and does things which routinely amaze even technogeeks...
...all on Android OS 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. And I could not care one whit when 4.3 comes out. Not one.
But, that said, here's the other thing that happens: App makers just decide, in their arrogance, without consulting anyone, or even bothering to look at the market penetration of devices running various operating systems, to stop supporting certain OS levels. We've been, for a little while, now, seeing app makers whose apps will no longer run on even 2.3 Gingerbread...
...despite that AT&T, just to name one, was selling phones into two year contracts that are capable of running no higher-level OS as recently as last year.
In the end, it's really only the arrogant, unthinking, never-hear-of-backward-compatibility app makers who force people's hands when it comes to updates/upgrades. If Android app makers would be professional, and think, in terms of backward compatibility, like Windows app makers (who ensure, even now, that their stuff works on XP, Vista, Win7 and Win8), then all this pressure to upgrade would not exist.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram