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Last month was her birthday, but this technically wasn't a birthday present. THAT was a copy of the DVD box set of Good Omens, which officially released November 5. The reason for the new phone is that Verizon, in their infinite wisdom, is shutting off their 3G network next month. Found out from the university security guards that they got new flip phones because of it.
The phone in question is a refurbished iPhone 6S. Yes, about 4 years old. It's also the last year with a headphone jack. Sorry, we're luddites and don't care for BT headphones: we want a jack. But we do need Bluetooth in other ways, quite specifically, connecting the phone to her new car! I found this one on Ebay, it's got 128 gig of memory, and with a case, a two year warranty, and with tax and free shipping it was just slightly north of $200!
There are advantages in recycling old tech if you don't need bells and whistles!
The phone arrived late this morning, before she got up. I unboxed it, did some initial setup, and plugged it in to charge. The battery was at about 50%, but she's pretty negligent about keeping it charged. I'm of the school that phones should be fully charged in case of emergencies, which don't happen because my phone is normally fully charged! Surely were I to not have mine charged, something horrible would happen. :-) Later I backed up her old phone to her laptop and then restored it to the new one. And conveniently, the case also arrived today! It wasn't scheduled until Tuesday, so some lovely serendipity. I had a standard plain case for it to protect it and keep it non-slippery, which would have been adequate until the good Book Book case arrived, but it all came together quite nicely.
I couldn't completely configure the phone because her iPhone 4S didn't have a SIM chip, she'd have to go down to Alamogordo to the Verizon store and get them to finish activating it. But she had a phone conference at 2:30, so she'd have to do it solo. And it all went swimmingly! Activation was a success, she texted and called me, then took the dogs for a bike run around the movie theater. Then after I got off work we met at the local Italian restaurant.
And that's when she told me of the problem with Bluetooth.
Not only couldn't she get it to pair with the car, when she plugged it in, the audio quality was horrible. The podcast she was listening to skipped back and forth, not a good thing. I then tried to sync it with my hearing aides: no joy. So clearly something is afoot. (she hadn't found that audiobooks are now hidden in the Apple Book app)
Fortunately Ebay has some pretty solid policies in place for situations like this. I just finished sending a message to the seller, described the problem, and requested a replacement with us keeping this one, so we don't have to convert back to her old one, then back to a different new one. Apparently they have a system in place where the seller can send us a replacement, we keep the current one, and I consented that I have to send the old one back in 21 days or they'll bill me for it.
I think that's an eminently fair system. And as long as everything with the replacement goes smooth, I'm not going to ding the seller in reviewing them.
Myself, I'm on an iPhone 6, I'm waiting until next year and might get the new SE2 when it comes available as the 6 doesn't work with the Watch 5. The Apple Watch 4 introduced a fall detector, and with my osteopenia (pre- or first stage osteoporosis), I think it might be a wise thing to have as I'll be turning 60 in a couple of years(!). The fall detector, if it senses that you've fallen, will try to alert the wearer and ask them if they need help or to cancel the alert. If they don't cancel it, it'll send an alert to a pre-programmed list along with GPS location. And I found out that the Watch 4 and 5 can actually detect bike spills and car accidents, and after what we and our friend experienced in September and October, I like the idea of something else having my back in case I'm in a serious accident.
The phone in question is a refurbished iPhone 6S. Yes, about 4 years old. It's also the last year with a headphone jack. Sorry, we're luddites and don't care for BT headphones: we want a jack. But we do need Bluetooth in other ways, quite specifically, connecting the phone to her new car! I found this one on Ebay, it's got 128 gig of memory, and with a case, a two year warranty, and with tax and free shipping it was just slightly north of $200!
There are advantages in recycling old tech if you don't need bells and whistles!
The phone arrived late this morning, before she got up. I unboxed it, did some initial setup, and plugged it in to charge. The battery was at about 50%, but she's pretty negligent about keeping it charged. I'm of the school that phones should be fully charged in case of emergencies, which don't happen because my phone is normally fully charged! Surely were I to not have mine charged, something horrible would happen. :-) Later I backed up her old phone to her laptop and then restored it to the new one. And conveniently, the case also arrived today! It wasn't scheduled until Tuesday, so some lovely serendipity. I had a standard plain case for it to protect it and keep it non-slippery, which would have been adequate until the good Book Book case arrived, but it all came together quite nicely.
I couldn't completely configure the phone because her iPhone 4S didn't have a SIM chip, she'd have to go down to Alamogordo to the Verizon store and get them to finish activating it. But she had a phone conference at 2:30, so she'd have to do it solo. And it all went swimmingly! Activation was a success, she texted and called me, then took the dogs for a bike run around the movie theater. Then after I got off work we met at the local Italian restaurant.
And that's when she told me of the problem with Bluetooth.
Not only couldn't she get it to pair with the car, when she plugged it in, the audio quality was horrible. The podcast she was listening to skipped back and forth, not a good thing. I then tried to sync it with my hearing aides: no joy. So clearly something is afoot. (she hadn't found that audiobooks are now hidden in the Apple Book app)
Fortunately Ebay has some pretty solid policies in place for situations like this. I just finished sending a message to the seller, described the problem, and requested a replacement with us keeping this one, so we don't have to convert back to her old one, then back to a different new one. Apparently they have a system in place where the seller can send us a replacement, we keep the current one, and I consented that I have to send the old one back in 21 days or they'll bill me for it.
I think that's an eminently fair system. And as long as everything with the replacement goes smooth, I'm not going to ding the seller in reviewing them.
Myself, I'm on an iPhone 6, I'm waiting until next year and might get the new SE2 when it comes available as the 6 doesn't work with the Watch 5. The Apple Watch 4 introduced a fall detector, and with my osteopenia (pre- or first stage osteoporosis), I think it might be a wise thing to have as I'll be turning 60 in a couple of years(!). The fall detector, if it senses that you've fallen, will try to alert the wearer and ask them if they need help or to cancel the alert. If they don't cancel it, it'll send an alert to a pre-programmed list along with GPS location. And I found out that the Watch 4 and 5 can actually detect bike spills and car accidents, and after what we and our friend experienced in September and October, I like the idea of something else having my back in case I'm in a serious accident.
