iPhone adventures

I've been a Mac guy for many years now. Many. When the Mac ecosystem expanded to iPhones and iPads I came along. Not as an early adopter, but mid pack or so. Generally I've been pretty happy, though there have been some frustrating times.

Like the last week or so. Imagine my frustration levels to seriously contemplate what safety equipment was required for me and my real camera to video smashing the iPhone 6 with a big hammer many times. I have the hammer, and any number of surfaces to put the iPhone on. I have safety goggles, and can probably rig a face shield. What I didn't have was an obvious solution to protect the camera.

The problem starts with an unresponsive home button. I did all the stuff, restarting, and getting more drastic. Then the screens started going crazy. I'm typing out a text and the screen goes away. Try to get into mail and after touching the button, the screen pulses and goes back to the home screen. I did a bunch of research and found several probable causes, all of which need expensive repairs. More practically it indicates it's time to buy a new phone.

Most phones are stricken with gigantism, getting bigger and bigger. The iPhone 6 is too big and the shape makes it hard to hang onto. I've never really liked it. The iPhone 4 was the perfect size. Pity it's obsolete. There are days the rapid advance of software from not ready for prime time, to pretty damn good, to minor tweaks to continue the improvement, to bloat, makes me despair. (iMessenger echo and Evernote, I'm looking at you!)

But wait! Apple was smart enough to realize some of us want a smaller phone, with all the power and most of the bells and whistles. I ended up with one of the last 128 MB iPhone SE in the city. A few signatures, waiting a while as it talked to the home computer, and a bit of checking and domestication I've got a new phone. Yay me! A buddy has a small selection of cases I can look over, and if none of those work for me I might put out the word to see if anyone has an iPhone 5 case they don't need anymore. So I'm happy again.

Last night had some interesting clouds sculpted by the wind. I was out freezing my tail off in the wind, but the photos turned out quite well. The sunrise this morning was also nice, but it didn't translate into photos as well.