I haven’t been able to order a new iPhone.
It’s a simple thing, I want a completely unlocked phone right from the start. I don’t want to have to monkey around with unlocking a phone from a carrier or any of the other bullshit contractual obligations that are included in the fine print of a purchase.
T-Mobile, you really need to train your reps in Costco better… Based on my interaction with a blue hair guy? girl? Amorphous fat ass? I’m seriously reconsidering our working relationship.
No, your representative wasn’t rude or whatever. He/she/it/they/them, was simply not listening. I’ve been noticing that more and more with your representatives across the board, since T-Mobile and Sprint merged.
It’s always questionable which corporate culture will survive when two companies merge. This is especially true if one corporation is diseased and shitty as Sprint was, and the other corporation is relatively healthy.
I think from here on out, I’ll be betting on the shitty corporation infecting the healthy corporation and taking all the services to the lowest, laziest, common denominator.
The only benefit I received at the T-Mobile Kiosk was that I got to see the new iPhone in person. It’s nice.
I wasn’t going to go through the machinations necessary to order one on the T-Mobile account, then trade in my current phone, then pay off the T-Mobile Payment plan purchase early, then go to T-Mobile to unlock the phone. That’s just a load of annoyance that I don’t want to deal with.
I was tempted…
I’m glad I waited. There have been some interesting articles about the new iPhone Pros getting nice and toasty while in use. 107°F by one article’s account. There have been reports of the phones being blemished or outright damaged right out of the box.
How disappointing would that be? Your brand new hotness, right out of the box, with a nasty gouge in it as you peel the protective plastic off.
I’ve also seen at least one photo of an iPhone Pro Max that looked like not only did the back glass of the phone shatter easily but the new titanium frame looked like it had cracked too.
Titanium is strong, light and useful for a lot of things, but I seem to recall that it’s kind of crystalline when you see the raw metal. I also seem to recall that if you don’t make it just right, it’s prone to cracking. I’m wondering if that’s not part of what we’re seeing in some of the reports about the phones glass, (front or back) shattering.
In the announcement event, there was some mention of alloying the titanium frame with aluminum structural components within the phone, presumably as a heat sink. Titanium can be alloyed with a number of other metals, but again, that has to be done carefully.
I wonder if this is another situation where China’s sloppy quality control has created a disaster. Or maybe manufacturing at the scale Apple is attempting is just not yet reliable. Maybe it’s a little from column A, and a little from column B.
Perhaps, I’ll just wait until the iPhone 16 and hope they make it in a color I like.
There’s also been some chatter about Apple’s replacement for leather. Folks are finding that a week or so of use presents them with staining indicative of fabrics, instead of the durability of leather. I’m thinking that my future phone cases will either be silicone from Apple, or I’ll be buying leather from another vendor. Most likely silicone…
Before you get your panties in a twist over my consideration of leather, let me present the following use cases.
I’m using a Franklin leather binder that I’ve had since 2008. It’s in very good shape and I have no intention of replacing it anytime in the near future. I have two TUMI leather briefcases. The smaller one is the one I use most often. That case is 4 -5 years old, the larger one is 15 years old. TUMI will repair a briefcase at a reasonable cost and send it back to you.
So if you talk about sustainability. How is using leather unsustainable? Sure, if you replace leather items every year, then that’s a problem. But if you buy leather, take care of it, and don’t find a need to buy the item over and over I’d bet the sustainability equation tips in favor of leather.
How much energy does it take to make these new fiber cases? How often will consumers replace them and why? Are these new fiber products biodegradable, and how long does that take?
Honestly, if Apple would stop changing the phone shapes every year so that last years case doesn’t fit this years phone, perhaps sustainability would go up and pollution would go down in amounts equal to their switch from using leather goods.
I haven’t purchased one of Apple’s leather cases since the iPhone 5. I found that their leather case wasn’t grippy enough and I dropped the phone twice, then went third party silicone with nice grippy knurls on either side. No more dropping my phone.
Since I replace my phone every 3-4 years, after the iPhone 5 debacle it’s never seemed reasonable to invest in leather unless, like the MagSafe wallet, it could be used on other iPhones.
Sustainability and being climate responsible isn’t just about companies. It’s also about asking questions of yourself.
Questions such as:
Do I need a new phone?
Do I need a new leather jacket, phone case, or brief case? The leather jacket bit is funny, because with vintage all the rage people buy “Vintage” looking stuff but don’t have the patience to make it “vintage” by wearing it year after year.
I guess the question really boils down to “Do I Need xyz” or “Do I Want xyz”.
It’s okay to want, but feeling like you need to buy the newest, latest, flashiest every year might be part of the problem.
I’d like a new iPhone because there has been enough change that a new phone is a pretty substantial upgrade to what I have. But… do I need it this year? Not really. My old phone works just fine, (the battery is showing signs of its age,) but I can go another year and avoid what may be an Apple screw up in the iPhone 15 Pro.
Maybe that’s exactly what I’ll do. I’ll keep reading the articles to see what’s happening.