In the UK we at least still have most of the residual EU consumer protection law in place, so a lot of this kind of stuff that’s common in the US would be illegal here. That said, companies still manage to innovate new ways to screw the consumer all the time.
I know everything I’ve spent on video games/gaming hardware since 2016, and all the books I’ve read in the last couple of years.
I’m the kind of nerd who tracks this kind of thing, so here is a list of the number of months between purchasing each phone I’ve owned, from newest to oldest:
5, 44, 47, 28, 23, 18, 46, 40
The first number is 5 months from my latest phone purchase to the present day. I’m not looking to replace this device any time soon. The previous two phones I owned lasted a decent amount of time, nearly 4 years each. Before that I was buying cheaper second hand phones that didn’t last as long. And if you go way back, the final two devices are pre-smartphone era where phones were simpler with less to go wrong and less need to upgrade.
When I saw the trailer to Shutter Island, a film about a detective trying to solve a murder at a mysterious and secluded mental institution, I immediately guessed that the twist was going to be that the detective was actually a patient the whole time. This made me decide that I didn’t need to watch it and I never looked up a plot summary so I’ve no idea if I’m right.