• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Check it out - Chat with our staff :)

olbriar said:
June of 2010 for me. It was an exciting time for smartphones and particularly for Android. AF was the perfect place to discuss and solve and drew members trying to get the most out of their devices.
Click to expand...
April 2010 here. It was a little Wild West in those days and I remember the insane Galaxy Nexus Pre-Release thread, with the rabid posts, whining, complaining and Steven banning Han Solo. Best part was meeting all of you. Those were the days.
 
I miss when tech was that interesting. I did collect a myriad of vintage tech from that year, so my home tops out around 2013 for the most part. Unfortunately due to VoLTE mandate crap I can't use the Nokia N95 or the Palm Pre. damnit. Maybe one day I can own a microcell and connect it to my internet phone service.

when was there a character named 'Steven' in Star Wars? I must have missed that whole scenario. I know Han Solo was uncerimoniously killed off in The Force Awakens, but admit to being confused with Star Wars today. When was 'baby yoda' a thing? he was old in Empire and died in Jedi last I recall. Yeah I'm old.

"when 900 years old you are, look good you will not!"

~Yoda
 
Not that it matters but I've been here since November 2009, the same time the original Motorola Droid was released. In fact, it was here that I learned about rooting and installing custom ROMS... and by mid-December, I'd rooted the Droid and installed Pete's Bugless Beast ROM. Ah, the good ol' days!
 
I was one of those fools who thought Motoblur was beautiful, but never got to use it. By the time I could snag one of the OG Droids with that wonderful sliding keyboard, which by the way I'd wish would come back, the carriers all decided to force upgrade people against their will by turning off 2G and 3G and yes I am still miffed about it and won't ever stop being miffed about it. Nobody asked them to do that, and it made more e-waste than it should have. Keeping old tech going will always be more green than encouraging more consumerism.
 
From a business perspective, which is what they're using, turning off old networks in favor of new networks makes sense. 2G and 3G connectivity uses different, archaic technology: so carriers had to maintain and repair a number of different networks. It made business sense, then, to shut down the old networks that had little to no traffic.

I still have two original Motorola droids (one with the bubble keyboard, one with the flat) and they work just fine on Wi-Fi. The problem is that most of today's apps are so advanced they won't run on it: especially considering its whopping 256 MB RAM and 512 MB storage.
 
The conspiracy theorist within me wants to believe they shut the networks down to force the holdouts with ancient 'insecure' outdated OS phones to upgrade against their will. If they were like companies used to be back in the day, they'd respond to consumer demand, and not deny service to anyone still paying their bill on time. Cutting the service to perfectly fine devices rendering phones inoperable because it's old is no different than your utility company cuting you off because your home is 100 years old and has knob-and-tube wiring, and is illegal in the latter sense aka denial of service to paying customer for a utility.

I would be ok if it were only one or two carriers instead of all of them. What happened to individuality here? everyone is more borg collective these days. Companies more and more corporate and above the law. Monopolies aren't even being treated like the criminals they are. Makes me sick. I want so badly to go back to where customer satisfaction was the primary motive. It worked for decades just fine.

besides, those older networks were great if you lived in rural areas, as they provided a backup to where 4g/LTE still cannot cover. Nobody asked for 5G speeds. Nobody.

I cannot do the one thing i do most on my phone with just wifi, text messaging. Which was one thing that sliding keyboard would have excelled at. The Nokia N95 doesn't have wifi, so it's a paperweight sadly.
 
The search has always been kind of hit or miss, but I did a search for just the word "nostalgia" from posts by you and it showed up along with 7 more of your posts.

Not sure why searching for the full title didn't work, guess sometimes less is more?
 
OK guys... what's going on?

Once again I am totally confused, (not an unusual state for me), as the forum now seems to be called, "Early Bird Club".

I have heard of the term, "Gaslighting", but never thought I would experience it on Android Forums! 🤔

Someone tell me that I haven't lost the plot, please.
 
Get Up Early GIF
 
It's a case of the ol' switcheroo. However, looking up the definition of switcheroo, it's an unexpected change. The name change has been discussed at length here on AF or should I say fec with a change date of near Thanksgiving. Abrupt, yes, switcheroo no.
Let's all hope the change is good and creates more traffic.
 
I've been considering a name change for a LONNNGGGG time and as @olbriar mentioned, it's been discussed in several threads. While the domain name change seems to have gone flawlessly (phew!), there is still a LOT unfinished and a TON to do. I know it will come as a surprise to many... I'm planning to have a Thread/Announcement prepared for (American) Thanksgiving on Thursday and send out an email sharing the update.

I've temporarily paused new memberships. Basically, if you were a member from this point prior, you're an OG Early Bird. I'm not in a rush to get new members. Especially considering the flood of spammy/AI threads/posts that I've seen on the site lately.

I wish I could have done things more cleanly and with advanced notice/warning, but over the course of many months I had some people flake on me and it screwed the timeline and expectations pretty badly. Doing my best to make this place a fun and dynamic place again.

Hopefully, if you're not liking or hating the changes, you'll stick around, keep an open mind, and things will grow on you. Regardless, thanks to everyone for their support!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom