So, a certain idjit left his iPhone Xs in his pocket when he put his jeans in the washing machine a couple days ago. I immediately put it in a Ziploc with some rice, scheduled the first available Genius Bar appointment, and let the genius take it out of the bag this morning. She was not at all optimistic, especially after she pointed out clearly-visible condensation on the inside of the front-facing camera. She said no Apple employee nor any AASP would open it due to the safety hazard, but plugged it in for several minutes. The phone got hot but never turned on. Seems it’s not merely mostly dead, but dead dead.
It’s a shame … it was a great phone, in perfect condition, battery healthy … I hoped to keep it at least for a couple more years until the iPhone 16. Alas, ’twas not to be.
I left the store with a new 13 mini, including AppleCare+ with theft and loss. There was a bit of an annoyance in having to update iOS before restoring, since I have Advanced Data Protection turned on — but only an annoyance. Once it finally finished, all seems good. The phone is pretty much as I expected … a compromise, to be sure, but a good one. I would have loved to have gone for the 14 Pro Max, but money is short. The 13 mini will do me well until the 16 PM (when I should be able to afford it).
Not having a phone for the two days wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, since I’ve been using my Ultra more and more as my primary phone-like device. For the most part, I was just fine … but there were a few things that weren’t so fine.
First and foremost, I had no SMS access, period, full stop — not on the watch, not in Messages on the Mac, no way, no how. Apparently, you need an iPhone to relay SMS. The phone doesn’t need to be anywhere physically near the other devices, but it needs to be able to receive SMS in real time and to talk to Apple services to relay them. I suspect I might have missed hearing from a couple friends.
And since SMS is used for 2FA for so many things … it was quite annoying. I was able to work around it, such as by receiving emails or phone calls, but … quite annoying. Usually, authentication is right on my wrist.
There are also a few Apple Watch apps that rely on the phone. The one that I most missed was the one that controls my hearing aids. Fortunately, I only need mild correction, so it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.
I also missed having a camera as well as being able to read in bed on something smaller than the iPad Pro. I was lucky; there wasn’t anything super-important I wanted to take pictures of, and I didn’t wind up (for example) sitting in a doctor’s lobby for an interminably long time without anything to read.
I did wind up in a car dealer’s lobby for some time with my MacBook Air, and was glad they had WiFi; I hadn’t realized until then how much I take for granted using a phone as a mobile hotspot.
And, curiously enough, the Ultra really does limit itself to slow charging without the phone. Makes no sense why that should be, but there it is. Again, fortunately, even though it did seem like the battery drained itself a bit faster without the phone nearby, it only took a bit longer than it took to shower (rather than less) to get over 80%, so this was only a curiosity rather than anything important.
So … in short, the Apple Watch makes for a great emergency backup to a phone. But not having a phone at all is definitely a diminished experience over simply leaving the phone behind or buried in a backpack.
Cheers,
b&
It’s a shame … it was a great phone, in perfect condition, battery healthy … I hoped to keep it at least for a couple more years until the iPhone 16. Alas, ’twas not to be.
I left the store with a new 13 mini, including AppleCare+ with theft and loss. There was a bit of an annoyance in having to update iOS before restoring, since I have Advanced Data Protection turned on — but only an annoyance. Once it finally finished, all seems good. The phone is pretty much as I expected … a compromise, to be sure, but a good one. I would have loved to have gone for the 14 Pro Max, but money is short. The 13 mini will do me well until the 16 PM (when I should be able to afford it).
Not having a phone for the two days wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, since I’ve been using my Ultra more and more as my primary phone-like device. For the most part, I was just fine … but there were a few things that weren’t so fine.
First and foremost, I had no SMS access, period, full stop — not on the watch, not in Messages on the Mac, no way, no how. Apparently, you need an iPhone to relay SMS. The phone doesn’t need to be anywhere physically near the other devices, but it needs to be able to receive SMS in real time and to talk to Apple services to relay them. I suspect I might have missed hearing from a couple friends.
And since SMS is used for 2FA for so many things … it was quite annoying. I was able to work around it, such as by receiving emails or phone calls, but … quite annoying. Usually, authentication is right on my wrist.
There are also a few Apple Watch apps that rely on the phone. The one that I most missed was the one that controls my hearing aids. Fortunately, I only need mild correction, so it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.
I also missed having a camera as well as being able to read in bed on something smaller than the iPad Pro. I was lucky; there wasn’t anything super-important I wanted to take pictures of, and I didn’t wind up (for example) sitting in a doctor’s lobby for an interminably long time without anything to read.
I did wind up in a car dealer’s lobby for some time with my MacBook Air, and was glad they had WiFi; I hadn’t realized until then how much I take for granted using a phone as a mobile hotspot.
And, curiously enough, the Ultra really does limit itself to slow charging without the phone. Makes no sense why that should be, but there it is. Again, fortunately, even though it did seem like the battery drained itself a bit faster without the phone nearby, it only took a bit longer than it took to shower (rather than less) to get over 80%, so this was only a curiosity rather than anything important.
So … in short, the Apple Watch makes for a great emergency backup to a phone. But not having a phone at all is definitely a diminished experience over simply leaving the phone behind or buried in a backpack.
Cheers,
b&