Totally Up to Date

That little red dot on your iPhone, or the irritating popups your laptop gives you; our technology seems to constantly badger us for updates. Why bother though? Everything is working fine, you don’t need new emojis or yet another widget for your home screen. The truth however, and I’m at risk here of truly sounding like an IT guy, is that updates are important and offer much more than simply shiny new features. Should we simply submit to the long periods of time our devices render themselves useless while applying updates? What’d happen if we just skipped them?

Back in the early days of computing, programmers had to be careful with what they released to the public as there was no easy way, before widespread internet access, to fix any mistakes they may have made in their code. Even once we started being able to download software updates online, applying them in yesteryears was a very manual and technical affair. A far cry from our devices actively looking out for new features and fixes, and notifying us automatically. As someone who’s technology career started long enough ago to remember the old methods, I can tell you it’s night and day from a convenience standpoint.

Why bother though? Well, there’s lots of reasons actually. Chief among which is, boringly, security. We store an awful lot of personal data on our phones and computers, and it’s important to keep that safe from prying eyes. To protect these devices from emerging vulnerabilities and exploits, manufacturers release regular updates and patches to prevent these threats from affecting their users. After all, nobody wants to be known as the least-secure option. Keeping on top of these updates is critical in reducing the risk of falling victim to attacks from nefarious sources.

On a lighter note, updates also contain things like new features, additional compatibility and performance gains. Just recently, the manufacturer of my photography camera released an update adding native cloud support, which genuinely benefits my workflow. Without updates or if I’d have skipped it, I’d be missing out on a hugely useful new feature. Sure, you might not care that the new version of Apple’s iOS allows you to insert a tiny picture of a goose into your conversations, but better compatibility with your new car’s AirPlay infotainment system makes updating worthwhile. Seeing as modern devices, or certainly the ones I interact with, often allow you to schedule taking updates (and subsequently a lengthy reboot) outside of your normal usage hours, there’s little excuse not to.

Power users or those with special use cases for their technology might be a group who’s more cautious with updating things. There are times when newer software will prevent continued use of an older device or accessory, for example. For most of us though it’s always a good idea to be up to be making sure we’re up to date. Most updates will include, in more detail than the average user will care about, notes detailing what’s changing which you can read prior to hitting “Install.” Device vulnerabilities will never truly disappear, but we greatly lessen our exposure to them by listening to and acting upon the irritating messages which implore us to update.