Say it ain’t so – the iPhone 5 is not that fast

TechCrunch did a side-by-side speed test video of the new iPhone 5 compared to the iPhone 4s. (see copyright notice below)

Guess what? The speed difference on the supposedly faster iPhone 5 is almost non-existent. Facebook loads less than one second faster and a game about 2 seconds faster.

Is that important in life – I doubt it.  

We are being brain washed into spending our money for gadgets that are only marginally improved over the gadgets we already own.

If you need a phone because yours is broken, get a new one. Buying a new phone just because Apple has a new model is a waste of money and keeps you poor.

In the meantime, most of us have unpaid credit card bills and almost no savings in the bank for that rainy day when another recession hits and we lose our jobs. Or we get sick and can’t work.

Most people are less than one paycheck away from financial disaster but we all have iPhones or Android phones of some sort. We have monthly costs of $80 or more to pay for the luxury.

As soon as Steve Jobs Tim Cook of Apple tell us to line up and get the latest tiny incremental improvement and feature creep in our iPhones, we run to the store or computer to order one.

The new definition of a have-not existence is waiting until mid-October for the iPhone 5 because we were late in the lineup. The status satisfaction hit is short-lived since by then there will be another hot phone that beats the iPhone 5. For the people who lust after Apple phones, Apple will ship a new phone 12 months from now that will make you feel dis-satisfied all over again.

Starting at a tiny screen to check our Facebook status will not bring happiness or even immediate gratification.

Smartphone financial stress

Smart phone bills are a source of financial stress with families paying between $290 and $450 monthly for family plans.

“It’s a story all too familiar to many parents,” reports the Boston Globe. “When Eren Celozzi signed up for a Verizon Wireless family plan, the monthly bill for three phones was supposed to be $199. But some months, her teenage daughters just can’t stop chatting, and the bill goes as high as $290.”

That’s more than a car payment for many families. $290 per month is about $5,800 in pre-tax income. $450 is $9,000 in pre-tax income.

Last year my smartphone bill was over $1,300 and I don’t use the phone much. That represents over $2,000 in pre-tax earnings.

Peer pressure and gadget marketing are wasting our financial resources, so that Facebook starts 1 second faster while we are sitting in a restaurant ignoring each other.

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