My iPhone 4S started misbehaving about a month ago. It was difficult to unlock the phone, because the slider kept snapping back to the left side of the screen before completing the motion. I was also finding it hard to type ‘I’ reliably, and cycle through emails. Initially I thought maybe there was something wrong with the conductivity in my fingers. It couldn’t possibly be the phone, right?
I finally realized that there was a commonality beyond my fingers – they shared the same longitude on the screen.
Beneath the glass is a grid of horizontal and vertical receptors that tell the phone where your fingers are touching the screen. You can see the grid with your eyes if you hold the phone at the right angle under a nice light. One of the lengths in that grid on my phone was busted. The most recent iOS update added the camera button permanently to the unlock screen, so the slider had been reduced to a size that didn’t require it to pass across this section of the screen, but it still presented a number of other problems in addition to the letters along the dead zone.
Probably the biggest complaint I have about living in this area is a lack of services. Most of the time that’s a good thing, but when I need an Apple store, not so much. We went down to Boston this past weekend to celebrate the 5th birthday of our niece and I took full advantage of civil life. Wouldn’t you know that the moment I bellied up to the bar the phone was working perfectly for the first time since I started noticing the problem. It’s like bringing your car in for repair and it suddenly stops squealing like a pig for the service man. I had been standing outside in the relative cold for about 10 minutes waiting for the store to open and the phone felt cold in my hand, so I suggested that we break for a minute while I loaded up the most processor-intensive application to warm the phone up, and it suddenly started corroborating my story.
After taking a quick and inconspicuous glance at the head and tail end of the phone to make sure I hadn’t run it through the washing machine, he pulled a brand new phone out of a drawer and handed it over. Eaze peaze. I appreciate that Apple stood by their product and replaced what was clearly a defective unit without any protest whatsoever. We’re even for the phone I broke and replaced at cost a few years ago.
6 responses to “warranteed”
I’m glad you were able to get a new iPhone so easily. They swapped out an old ipod that I had that was probably 5 years old (and had a broken wheel and a clearly pried-open case by the rube who tried to fix it) for a brand new 8 gb nano, all because of some rumor about the battery starting fires. What a company!
Me too! It really made me sort of question whether or not I might make my next computer a Mac. Except the part where Windows is still a better environment for me personally, and not just because I’m set in my ways. But it did make me happy enough to consider it.
Same here. If I had the extra scratch I’d definitely get an iPad for on couch internet.
Geez, I have been sort of desiring one lately. Whenever someone asks me if I’m interested in them I shake my head vigorously, and it’s because I have no real use for one. For me, my phone is already that device… plus a phone. And my laptop is pretty dang portable, and cheaper, and far more useful. But iPads are cool.
We bought one for our office recently, so we can test our sites on various platforms. There was the 30 minutes of excitement while I configured it, then it went in my desk drawer and it hasn’t come out since except to compare how far superior the new iPad screen is.
I am beginning to suspect that would have been a better purchase for my mom than a netbook, but only in the sense that she can’t seem to figure out how to really use the thing. You won’t get me to agree that the iPad is ready to replace real computers yet.
Your comment about a couch computer amuses me. Like, the idea that watching TV is no longer entertaining enough? I’m feeling it too. When my PC is loading a game or something I find myself reaching for my phone to fill that 15 second gap. I was standing at a urinal the other day and I pulled my phone out of my pocket to browse the web. So sad, so ADD.
Ha! I agree, I feel the same way. I think I’ll always need a “real” computer for doing the big work, but th ease and quick start of an ipad would make it great around the house. I don’t have a smartphone, so that probably would also fill some of my imagined need.
Yeah, if you had a smartphone you may feel less inclined to get an iPad. But the smartphone does come with a fairly hefty monthly bill whereas the iPad is one-and-done (assuming you don’t do the data plan).
It’s funny to watch people struggle to justify and define the place for these devices in their lives. And everyone seems to be after that one killer device, but it might not exist for a long time. I’ve read several articles trying to make a case for the iPad as that device. It’s not, and maybe that’s fine. We all need different things, but I guess the nice thing is there’s something for almost everyone these days.