Depends how old the X-ray tech is. My mum's dentist missed an abscess a few years ago as the picture his X-ray machine took was tiny. They only spotted it using more modern kit that covered more of the jaw at the hospital.

About eight years ago, I bought a blender - mainly for mixing protein powders. One day, I dropped the jug and it cracked. I sought a replacement but never got round to buying it. Five years ago, I bought a replacement and it was much better and still works fine.

Whilst clearing some stuff out, I came across my original blender. The jug can be bought for £37. The blender at the time cost about £25-30 max. The replacement blender was around £50-60. So do I chuck away the original blender? Or do I spend more money than I originally did to get it working again?

Complete PITA to re-use items when they're this costly and it's cheaper to buy new!

Keep you never know if you are going to drop it again. If you decide to get rid of it, if it works then freecycle it or give it to a charity shop or sell it, rather than bin it.

The problem is that at the moment, it's just a motor. The blender jug is broken and hence the entire thing would be useless as a blender.

Freecycle /Charity?

If it's just a crack, can it be repaired with epoxy?

No. It's missing a small chunk of plastic. Can't be sealed.

As it is unusable, bin it. Take it to the tip where it can be recycled.

There's probably someone somewhere who's chucked theirs away because the motor's gone. Oh how I hate our consumer society!

I agree, my last phone was nearly ten years old. I wonder how long it will be that my iPhone will still be updatable?

3-4 years, but that's not it's lifespan. I'm still using a 1st gen iPad that Apple have 'dropped' quite happily. As long as there isn't something that you absolutely have to have that you can't run for whatever reason, why care about updates?

The lifespan of a phone is defined primarily by how long you'll put up with it, and secondly by when the battery fails.

You can still change the battery on a lot of phones. Though I must admit I'm a tad nervous about having just bought my first phone where I can't change the battery.

Well my old Sony Ericsson was replaced after 10 years. I might keep the iPhone till it dies.

He did say iPhone. Even then it is actually possible to change the battery, it's just not an easily 'user serviceable part'. There are peeps advertising in the tech mags that will do it or I think you can take it into an Apple shop and they'll charge you some 'not extortionate but not trivial' amount of money to do so.

I suspect it's actually possible to change the battery on pretty much any phone, with enough perseverance and care. Especially if we're talking permanent replacement rather than 'oh no my battery has run out and I need to make this phone call' kind of thing.

My Sony P910i had a replaceable battery but I never changed it. It is not necessary to be able to change the battery. For me that is an unnecessary option. The only reason most people take the battery out is to change the sim.