Celebrities really are just like us, especially when it comes to technology.
Captain America star Chris Evans said the quiet parts out loud (opens in new tab) this week as he lamented why his seven-year-old iPhone 6S didn't just keep working.
Instead of singing the praises of his powerful, new iPhone 13 Pro, Evans, who is starring in the new Netflix film The Gray Man, told Collider that his new phone is too heavy and that he missed the home button.
Never has a movie star been more relatable. He is saying all the things my wife and friends have said to me as I inform them it's probably time to upgrade their current device. And, though no one would call Evan's a tech expert, he does raise some interesting and hard truths about current smartphone trends.
Is the iPhone 13 Pro heavier than the iPhone 6S? At 7.19 ounces, the former is 2.15 ounces heavier than the latter. Considering that the iPhone 13 Pro looks nothing like the 6S – it has a bigger screen, battery, more and larger cameras – this is all understandable.
I was somewhat tickled by Evan's description of the strain his new iPhone puts on his pinky…his superhero pinky. I know. Evans is not Captain America. He's just an actor, but if you've seen the behind-the-scenes footage (opens in new tab) of that iconic one-armed helicopter-grabbing scene from Captain America: Civil War, then you know he's no weakling either. In the interview, his Gray Man co-star Ana de Armas complains about a mark her iPhone leaves on her smartphone-supporting supporting pinky.
Why did Evans give up his beloved iPhone 6S (opens in new tab) if he didn't want the extra weight, seemed uninteresting in the new features he could get from an iPhone 13 Pro (those cameras!), and is still pining over the lost home button? Maybe it was because the thing barely held a charge or…
Maybe we can blame iOS 16.
Even though Apple's next mobile operating system is months away from full release, it's already in public beta and there is one very important bit of Chris Evans-related news regarding the update: iOS 16 will not support the iPhone 6S. In fact, the rather spiffy update won't support any iPhone older than an iPhone 8.
This means that, aside from the iPhone 8, 8Plus, and the now classic style iPhone SE, Apple will cease supporting most iPhones in the iPhone 6s design. This is Apple taking its first really big step away from the home button Evans loved. Even though we have a new iPhone SE (2022 edition), the writing is on the wall. There probably won't be another one in this design or with a physical home button.
Evan's wish: “I want something from before to work until it doesn’t work anymore,” is a common one and seems a fair ask on the face of it. Certainly other product categories – everything from cars, to vacuums, and mattresses – work that way. A car from 1930 has just as much of a chance of running today as it did a century ago if the motor still running and you can afford the gas. No one is redesigning bed frames so your old mattress won't fit.
Can super-serum your way out of change
Technology is different, though. Its history of obsoleting old products and even entire categories is as long as it is painful. There is never a guarantee that the product you love this year will be supported by third-party software, adapters, or even the company that made it next year. Time and technology march on and they expect you to march in lockstep with them.
Yet, here's someone who can clearly afford yearly gadget updates, and yet he held onto his aging iPhone 6S for more than half a dozen years. It worked for him. He clearly loved it, and can't stop morning its loss.
Chris Evans isn't wrong. Maybe it's time technology is supported for as long as it could reasonably work. So what if the iPhone 6s can't support the latest OS. If it's still functioning-ish, then that should be enough.
To be fair, Apple doesn't remotely shut down old iPhones when they no longer support the current OS, but over time, they increasingly feel like an ostracized relative, finding themselves shut out of more and more activities, until, as with the classic iPhone 3GS, they can't even access the Internet.
Evans might've had another year or so with his iPhone 6s, though I'm sure he needed a new battery – if he could still get it. The climax of his gadget hero film, though, was always pre-ordained: Someone would eventually snap their fingers and that iPhone 6S and his beloved home button would be gone.
Image Credit: Composite Shutterstock and Ryan Li (Captain America | The shot of Captain America in Hong Kong. … | Flickr)
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