Moral Time

Trial sees health checks in local barbers.

Non-traditional medicine is making waves for upending an unnecessarily expensive industry, one that can feel like a case of  “the treatment is worse than the disease”. High costs of treatment and insurmountable prescription costs, coupled with hours of missed time off of work for something even as minor as the common cold, speak to a system that is broken beyond repair.

Change is coming, though, and while some might raise an eyebrow or two at the effectiveness and the risks, it’s largely proving to be beneficial. One advancement, the legality on a state by state basis of allowing doctors to charge a “subscription rate” for primary care, means doctors are able to provide quality care while patients pay far less than they would for health insurance coverage.

The way we seek medical advice is rapidly changing.

Dr on demand

Another new innovation is the “doctor on demand” apps that allow patients to be seen via VoIP or other connectivity-based apps. While the patient still pays a traditional, minimal co-pay cost (typically in the neighborhood of $30-$40US) whether they have health coverage or not, the waiting period is spent at home rather than the petri dish of a doctor’s waiting room. Also, some reports have shown that patients are more likely to seek medical help when their symptoms are still manageable instead of waiting until they cannot go without professional care.

But one of the most promising potential medical innovations is less a new piece of technology and more a new way of viewing patient monitoring, and it comes from a study conducted in downtown Los Angeles. The goal of the project was to determine whether or not patients could reach a lower, healthier blood pressure level through better awareness and encouragement from professionals in places they were already frequenting: barbershops.

Hair cut and health check

The study focused on African-American men and put medical screening equipment in their local barbershops. One group of the study’s participants also saw a pharmacist regularly, sometimes even in the barbershop, who was able to adjust their blood pressure medication as needed. The screening equipment, while technical, wasn’t so intrusive that patients–or rather, barbershop customers–had any qualms about having their readings checked by the trained barber.

Big gains

The results of the study, published this month, saw significant improvement in both the group that saw the pharmacist routinely and the group that only monitored their blood pressure readings during visits to the barbershop. The group that met with a pharmacist on occasion did see an overall higher level of improvement over the group that only stayed on top of their blood pressure levels.

Despite being still unofficial the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 keeps leading our popularity charts as global markets eagerly wait its announcement.

The Xioami Mi A1 takes second for the third week in a row, while below it the Galaxy J7 Pro has beaten the Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) for third place.

Yet another phone that’s yet to be announced but is already among the 10 most popular is the Galaxy S9 – the upcoming flagship jumping straight to fifth spot.

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus rose to sixth, pushing the Oppo F5 down a spot compared to last week.

Samsung Galaxy A8+ (2018) sits in eight, ahead of the Xiaomi Redmi 5A and the Galaxy S8.

The Samsung Galaxy Note8 didn’t make the chart and neither did the Huawei Honor 9 Lite.

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For those unfamiliar with the Yalp Store, it’s an open source third-party app store that mainly scrapes the Google Play Store for downloads, while avoiding the use of any Google Play Services. It can allow you to install Play Store apps on your phone without needing to log into a Google account on your phone. As a byproduct of how Yalp works, it’s also made downloading the likes of Nvidia Shield games on any device possible while remaining entirely legal. While the Yalp Store is a great app, it lacks a pretty interface because the developer wants it to run on any device from Android 2.x up meaning that it cannot implement Material Design. That’s where “Galaxy” by XDA Senior Member WryOrean comes in—it’s a fork of Sergey Yeriomin’s Yalp Store which aims to bring a Material Design interface to the app.

Note that the Yalp Store and all of its forks are in a grey area in terms of how they are viewed by Google and that there is always a risk of your account being terminated when using third party software to access Google’s APIs.

We haven’t heard of that ever happening yet, though, so there’s no need to panic until it actually starts to happen.

Galaxy follows Material Design guidelines and as a result, better resembles the Google Play Store.

For those who want to avoid the Google Play Store, you can find Galaxy on XDA Labs or on our Android Apps & Games forums below. It’s really only useful in a scenario where you’ve de-Googleified your device, either with the likes of MicroG or flashing certain custom ROMs like this LineageOS fork.

The Yalp Store provides its own credentials to download apps with, but you can choose to use your own Google account if you desire. Regardless, it will automatically update your apps just like the Google Play Store and it even provides file sizes, download counts, and app ratings.

Developer: Mr. Dragon

Price: Free

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Check out the Galaxy app on our forums

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Getting a major OS update is almost like buying a new phone – you get a host of new features, (hopefully) faster software and occasionally a complete overhaul of the UI. It’s actually better than a new phone, it’s free!

Yep, phones never had the PC model where a new version of the OS is something you buy. That’s good on the surface, but there’s a flip side. You can update a 10-year old PC to Windows 10 without waiting on its manufacturer. You probably shouldn’t, but you can.

With phones, you pay nothing for updates and sometimes you get your money’s worth. That’s not true for all brands, of course. Google, for example, commits to deliver major Android updates to the Pixel 2 phones for 3 years (longer for just security updates). Sony just announced it would support its flagships for two years.

That’s fine, but the cost of the update is built into the cost of the phone – we shouldn’t have to tell you how expensive the Pixels are and Sony’s more affordable phones don’t get the firm 2 year commitment.

The upgrade potential of a phone is something we always consider – it expands the useful life of a phone. We might not recommend a phone by a brand with a spotty upgrade history, for example.

So, how long do you expect makers to support their phones (all phones, not just flagships)? Obviously “forever” is impractical, but 1 year may be too little.

Apple just announced that they’ve sold less iPhones but made more revenue. In this episode of the Sunday debate we discuss if phones are getting too expensive?

Paul: “No – they’re no different to any other category”

Rookie mistake, we’ve all made them, mine was once asking my wife “How much did those cost?” while she was showing off her new shoes! After I spat out my breakfast upon hearing the response – I then proceeded to ask if they did anything else for that price – hover shoes perhaps, walk up walls or constructed from some amazing new material ensuring they’d be the last pair of shoes she’d ever need!

Firstly, phones are no different to numerous other product categories that we buy into, at one end of the spectrum there is a price bracket that transcends the sum of the bill of materials and becomes more to individuals. I use this analogy to reaffirm the point that now more than ever people buy phones to also make a statement about themselves and price be damned. This is the supply and demand element. iPhone X was Apple’s top selling iPhone every week since it shipped – people buy it and it will continue to sell it.

It’s very easy to focus only on the cost of flagship devices, and if ALL phones were at flagship prices then I’d be on the other side of this argument. But there are phones for all our needs and budgets.

If I take Apple as a case in point, over the years as it launches new models the company reduces the price of its previous flagships and supplement these with additional entry level models (iPhone SE and previously the 5c). As such, it now has a range of iPhones that range from the $349 iPhone SE through to the $999 iPhone X. Not much different than Samsung, where you can start even lower with a $150 Samsung Galaxy J3 before it tops off with the $950 Galaxy Note8.

Now before you head off to the comments section, yes – I know an entry level phone may not be of any use to you at all. This is simply the starting point where we will then see what we’re going to use our phone for and what’s important to us and layer on the features in line with those priorities and the subsequent cost implications.

Steve Jobs justifying/spinning the original iPhone launch price

I remember when Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone, he justified the price of the new iPhone by stating currently the populace carried a smartphone and an iPod and then stating what this combo didn’t do that the new iPhone would do. And by the way, today’s iPhone SE is cheaper than the original iPhone.

When you buy your shiny new phone you’re also paying for the huge amount of time and money that goes into Research & Development (R&D) that goes into those devices. Samsung & Apple alone spend circa $10 billion in R&D in order to bring you the latest innovations in the mobile space.

These innovations ultimately cascade down to other more cost effective models within a manufactures range. In some circumstances, as new technology and manufacturing processes are created, these then become available to other manufactures to adopt – benefiting the industry and ultimately consumers too.

Without this R&D investment we could all end up with phones like those used by Matt Damon in his recent movie Downsizing.

Without the revenues to re-invest in R&D we could all end up using phones like these

Your hard earned money are also invested in manufacturers’ post sales support teams and processes.

This is best exemplified by Samsung’s and Apple’s responses to their battery related issues in the last year or so. Their ability to act and absorb the subsequent costs was, quite frankly, bang in line with what us as consumers required. While another manufacturer may have been able to drop battery replacements to $29, could it have sustained this and how long would it have been before they went out of business?

One departing thought, still think phones are too expensive?

Peter: “Yes, we are being ripped off”

Phones have gotten too expensive, not just in terms of unit price but also in how much you spend a year. Here’s the thing – carriers and makers are pushing you to upgrade faster.

Not so long ago, contracts were 24 months long, which determined many people’s upgrade schedule. Now you get 18 month fast upgrade programs. If you calculate the total cost of ownership, you’ll see those are a bad deal.

It’s not just carriers pushing you to upgrade faster, though, makers are partly to blame as well. You can hardly repair a phone these days with screens bonded to the glass and batteries sealed away behind proprietary screws and copious amounts of glue.

Plus, most makers (Apple is a notable exception) push out two flagships a year. You have to accept the fact that you’ll never have the “latest and greatest” device for longer than 6 months. And once you accept that, waiting a year or two to get “flagship” features on a mid-ranger is not hard to contemplate.

There’s another angle – the cost of a phone isn’t written on its price tag. Instead, you can buy an expensive phone now, sell it down the line (while it still holds its value) and jump on a new one. You get more value than through a carriers fast upgrade program (or a trade-in program), but it’s definitely more hassle.

And I don’t like hassle. Instead, I keep my phones for years. By the time I’m in the market for a new phone, it’s not worth it to sell the old one. But with a bit of smart shopping, I can get a phone that lasts me a long time.

I had an Xperia ray (I wanted a tiny phone), the XDA community kept it alive forever. I got a Galaxy S4 LTE-A on the cheap after the S5 was announced, it had almost the same chipset and screen. Now I have a OnePlus 3T, it was a great deal for a metal-clad phone with an AMOLED screen (after the S4, I’m not going back to LCD, but its plasticy body aged poorly).

That’s my strategy – I don’t pay much for phones to begin with and I make sure I can squeeze out every drop of value. I look for the features I want, ignore the ones I don’t need and check the OS upgrade situation (official and otherwise).

A while back, we walked down memory lane to revisit storage milestones on mobile phones. That article focused only on the stand-out devices, today we’re going to take a broader look.

We will look at the base storage for all phones added to our database since 2005. We’re only be counting phones with 4GB or more as anything less is basically the same from our current point of view.

Last time, we highlighted the Nokia N91, which was the first phone to deliver 8GB of storage (with a micro HDD). However its base version had only 4GB – that’s the metric we’re tracking today, the minimum storage a phone comes with.

Large storage on mobiles didn’t take off until 2010 when it was a fairly even split between 4GB, 8GB and 16GB. No surprise here, it was mostly flagships that boasted large internal memory as flash was still expensive.

Then you see 4GB peak in 2014 (we were surprised that it was this recent). We have a second chart, which shows the proportion of phones with and without a card slot. Around 2013/2014 was also when the card slot hit peak popularity.

Makers expected you to provide most of the storage you use, but then things shifted. Once they realized people will pony up $100 more for extra storage, the microSD slot became surprisingly rare among flagship phones. Still, as you can see 90% of phones today still have expandable storage.

Anyway, in 2015 phones with 8GB of storage had their day in the sun and promptly lost the top spot to 16GB handsets the following year. Again, this is the base storage not counting pricier options.

2017 is complicated – it’s almost a three-way tie between 16GB, 32GB and 64GB as the minimum storage built into phone (the difference is within 10 models). You probably still need a memory card on the low end, but many people can fit their storage needs within 64GB.

The 16GB segment has been shrinking ever since 2016 and we think this trend will continue. Meanwhile, the 64GB phones have become more numerous – that’s a trend we’d like to see continue.

PS. You can’t really see it in the chart, but there are actually phones that come with 256GB as base storage – but they are premium halo phones like the Huawei Mate Porsche Design, low-volume, high-price phones that are mostly for bragging rights.