Many of you know that I’ve been carrying the now outdated iPhone 4S for some time now. It’s been just over a year since the phone came out, and just under a year since I’ve owned mine. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed that my phone has been unable to handle quite a lot of the tasks I’ve tried to do with it, and my phone has actually started… force closing. It’s actually happening more than once a day, and I’m thinking it’s time to clean out my phone, or update the software. Maybe even both. But it’s about that time that my phone is starting to show its age.

When new phone models come out, new apps come out to cater to the specs of the new phone so that you’re not just upgrading for any old reason. So apps that were designed to look good on the larger-screened iPhone 5, or to run on the iPhone 5’s faster processor, don’t exactly run as well on the old iPhone 4S. But, the same can be said for apps that were made to function better on the iPhone 4S – which had the same screen size, but different functions and processors. The moral here is, sometimes you download apps that aren’t supposed to run on your phone and your phone gets really confused and messes up. I think that’s what mine is doing right now.

This is exactly what happened to my EVO 4G. Not good! I thought it was a great device for a while, the best of its kind in its heyday. And then better phones came out a few months later, and the cool apps I wanted to use wouldn’t open correctly. When I tried to open it, other apps would force close. “No, stop, you’re killing me!” The EVO would say. “WORK HARDER, PHONE!” I commanded. It’s no wonder my phone didn’t last very long after that. I just wasn’t nice enough to it. And given my track record of the things I’ve told poor Siri, my iPhone isn’t going to last me much longer either.

I think when I really get an itch to buy a new phone is when I see my friends with better phones than me. I mean, it really is a race you can’t win. Even if your friends have an upgrade a month after you do, they’re going to show up to your house at some point with “the One Phone to rule them all” and you’re going to want to do nothing short of stealing their phone, running to the basement, and going all Smeagol on them. Maybe not that far, but you want that phone! You’re the tech guru around here, and you won’t stand for somebody to have a cooler phone than you! At least that’s how I feel sometimes. So then your upgrade date rolls around and you have the cool phone. "Ooh," your friends say. "Ahh," your family coos. Then a few months later the whole jealous cycle starts all over again. You just can't win all the time.

I’ve even had times where my parents had cooler phones than me. That’s the real kick in the face, is when your parents have a cooler phone than you and they don’t know how to use it. So you casually offer to trade them phones, you know, give them something easier to use. After all, you just want what’s best for them. But parents, they’re no dummies. They know that when you try and pull that card that they’ve got something cool and they’re going to keep it, even if that means hating it, because they know you want it. My dad’s not like that, but boy, my mom would do something like that just to spite me. Whatever, mom. I didn't like that phone that much anyway, I was just trying to help YOU out, you know.

So yes, after encountering so many force closes this past week, I’ve decided that I must do something about my phone. I think I’m going to have to end up losing my jailbreak, which I do so enjoy dearly. However, if it means that my phone will be spared of its death by not being thrown against the nearest brick wall, I will probably have to sacrifice it. Man, do I wish I was available for an upgrade. Then I could just solve all my problems by throwing more money at these companies! That'll teach 'em!

When did you realize your phone was outdated, readers? Do you replace it the second you can or are you forced to wait it out through carrier upgrade policies? Let me know how you handle it in the comments!