The other Thursday I was random-browsing with my XR and suddenly the screen went black, and started to heat up like crazy. The buttons were unresponsive so I quickly searched how to force reboot it on the macbook. I tried it but didn’t work. Maybe the timing? The power button was alarmingly hot already so I had to use a towel between my fingers and the phone for subsequent retries. But to no avail.
It seems the only option was to wait for the battery to dry up but felt uneasy with the high temperature it was reaching, so I sandwiched between ice packs to cool it down. After about 40 minutes in observation it stopped heating, so the battery ran out finally. Well, as the phone was in full charge, and the XR lasts about 2 days, go figure what was going on inside the damned thing.
After that I tried to recharge it, hoping it was just a rogue process and that the phone would come back to live, but no luck, it was totally bricked.
At least, it is still on Apple Care+, so I checked the Apple Support options: send by post mail or go to a support center. Mailing it takes about one week, but going directly should be quicker, or so I thought.
I could schedule the appointment for Monday, which means I would be spending a long weekend without my phone.
What I noticed then was somewhat unsettling. I had urges now and then to check on the now missing phone to see what is going on twitter and all the other apps. Wow that infinite scrolling stuff is actually sort of addictive as they say.
Luckily I had this forced opportunity to detox in my hands. I also felt alleviated from the strain on my thumbs caused by operating continually such phablet. Then I decided I will be cutting on the use of the iPhone when I get it back.
I enjoyed the weekend more than usual, I was more present in the now with my family, without shielding myself behind the little screen. When internet was required, the PC was more than adequate.
On Monday I went expecting to go back home after a while with a new device (no way they can repair a melted down iPhone at Kitamura Camera), but they were making me wait more than usual. The clerk told me she was trying to read some internal serial number for verification, but the tool was not able to read it (maybe because it’s all fried inside?). She was going to try it once more, and if it failed, they had to send it to Apple so they can verify the s/n. Alas, it failed after a few minutes like the previous tries.
Alright, they have to send it to the mothership, and it takes about 1 week to get it back. At least I could borrow an iPhone 8 in the meanwhile. In part because I would have to hand it back in a week, in part because of my resolution, I didn’t install any apps except from the (doubtfully) necessary ones for work.
Most of the time I just used the browser instead of the app. Using twitter on the browser was perfect for detox, because the experience is quite shitty compared to twitterrific or tweetbot.
The 8 was a refresh from the XR. I liked it was more manageable with one hand because of the smallish size and weight, and I actually didn’t miss the bigger screen. Also being able to unlock it with the fingerprint in current mask wearing times is a plus. I probably will be buying something closer to the SE than to the current oversized series.
I wouldn’t mind just keeping the 8, but a brand new XR is better than a borrowed 8, so there I went to pick it up after they notified me it arrived to the shop. When I held it in my hands I quite noticed the size difference. Feels huuuge. But after a while just got used to it again.
Back at home, I proceeded to restore the last backup. Ups, it was from last year. I was worried because there were only photos until then. But after a while, all the photos were present. They got synced from the mac! Neat.
I looked with disgust there were five pages of apps on the Home screen, and quite a few folders? with even more . So I proceeded to delete the ones that I don’t use, starting with the ones with the cloud icon. There were so many apps that after a while stopped, but to force me to continue to delete apps, I placed netflix at the last page, so I have to quite side scroll to reach it, making it an incentive to delete apps and reduce the number of pages. Now I have about two and half pages of apps on the Home screen, so it worked!
To conclude, I’d say I’m glad my phone melted down, because I became more conscious about its usage (now I don’t carry it at all times with me), and because I had a new one for free! ?
