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I want to go back to a more recent technology that has become mostly hot air. This is a warning about inventions that promise to change your life.
Starting about three or four years ago, America’s big phone companies and smartphone makers, including Apple, won’t give up on 5G, the next generation of cellular internet networks.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in 2021, “We’re only in the early innings of 5G, but already its incredible performance and speed have made a significant impact on how people can get the most out of our technology.” “
AT&T, Verizon and other US phone companies got us covered with ads that bragged about how 5G would make your phone faster and better and help physicians find cancer earlier.
Now you can have a 5G phone. I do Did it make a significant impact on my technical experience? No. (You might also want to turn off 5G because it can drain your phone’s battery. Stay tuned for a tip on that.)
5G could be a huge tangible advantage for you. It was also an inevitable and necessary advance – albeit an incremental one. And that’s fine.
What wasn’t okay was the corporate 5G hype that treated us scornfully who fell for any promises of new and awesome technology.
One lesson is that we cannot trust companies to be honest about how today’s cutting edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, driverless cars and the metaverse, will or will not change our lives.
Disguising the Truth About 5G
There were two problems with 5G: First in the United States, it didn’t work as advertised.
Those who tested 5G service found it was sometimes only available for a block or two, or in many places slower than 4G cellular networks. Companies sometimes said that we are getting 5G connection when it is the same old 4G service.
The other problem is now that 5G service is more widely available in the United States, many of us who have 5G can’t really tell the difference.
Yes, it is true that a phone connected to a 5G network can theoretically download an entire movie in seconds instead of several minutes. 5G could also in theory speed up response times for devices connected to the network. This means that a driverless car or robotic surgical arm is able to respond to commands more quickly.
But the real world impact of 5G shows that improvements in technology on paper aren’t always relevant to where you live. There are a number of reasons why your phone may be locked out of your family FaceTime calls. Having a 4G connection instead of 5G is almost no problem.
Technology is fine. The marketing pitch was a mistake.
I want to admit that some people are winning with 5G now. In places where traditional home internet service is unavailable or substandard, 5G connections may be an alternative. Some companies are building their own 5G networks for tasks that require super-fast response times.
But bottom line: Most of you haven’t really benefited from Apple, Samsung, and the phone companies trying to persuade you to buy a new phone or upgrade your cell service just to get 5G. .
Your next phone will be able to connect to 5G, and your phone service will probably be too. Great.
You shouldn’t think twice about the number of Gs, just as you probably shouldn’t care that your next smartphone will have a more advanced computer chip brain.
Those incremental improvements that make technology better, faster, and cheaper are how inventions work in real life.
(Well, about that cheap thing: Chetan Sharma, a telecom analyst and consultant, estimates that Americans are paying $7 billion to $8 billion more per year on their phone bills thanks to higher-priced phones.) Switching to an unlimited 5G data plan.)
We, and the companies that make technology, must acknowledge that not every new technology changes our lives – at least not in the way that makes a compelling science fiction movie.
How would you feel about new forms of artificial intelligence that mimic human writing if the killer usage is automatically generating a billion versions of Instagram ads?
What if the big deal about computers in vehicles turns out to be not cars that drive themselves but driver-assistance technologies that help you brake in an emergency or parallel park?
5G was an incremental technological improvement that companies were trying to tell us was a revolutionary leap. It was not.
Greetings! I’m answering your questions about the technology in your life this afternoon Eastern Time. Ask me a question or follow along with the conversation here,
As I mentioned, some people have found that their phone’s battery drains faster when the device is connected to a 5G network.
If you have a 5G-enabled phone and service and are having trouble with battery life, Consider turning off 5G. Your phone will connect to a 4G connection instead.
I’m only giving instructions here for the iPhone 12 and newer models. (Turning off 5G may not be an option on your Android phone.) Please note that these instructions may be slightly different on your iPhone.
Go to iPhone Settings app → Cellular → Cellular Data option → Voice & Data. Or in the Settings app, you may need to look for an option labeled Mobile data or Primary SIM.
You can see three options:
- 5G Auto: Your iPhone will automatically connect to 5G networks when it’s a faster, better connection and 4G when it’s not.
- 5G on: This forces your iPhone to connect to a 5G network when one is available. Your battery may drain more quickly.
- LTE: Your iPhone will only use 4G service even when 5G is available.
For most people it’s smart to stick with 5G Auto most of the time and let your iPhone choose whether to use the 5G network.
But if you’re particularly unhappy with your battery life, try the LTE option and see if it makes a difference.
Source: www.washingtonpost.com
