iCracked Phone

Over a week ago I dropped my iPhone on its back. It went kersplat and the glass on its back cracked. Coincidentally, last month a new vending machine from Foxpaw was installed at the grocery store. Foxpaw is a service that repairs consumer electronics like my broken iPhone. It is designed operate unattended, but as part of its rollout, there has been a sales representative by it most days. I spoke to one and my repair would only cost $30. Nominally there is a four-hour turnaround, but in practice I think that it operates more like the cleaners, in by eight and out by five. I think that one day this week I’ll drop off my iPhone on the way into work and pick it up on the way home. It should be as good as new.

There is one wrinkle, well actually more than one. Apple is rolling out its new iPhone 6 tomorrow. I’m for sure going to get one for Anne. She is the only one of the four of us that is still using an iPhone 3GS and Apple is threatening to drop support on it soon. It would be better to wait a bit though, wait and see what the reviews on it are like. There are also rumors of several versions of the six due out. Deciding which one to buy should take some thought too. And if Anne gets a new iPhone should I or shouldn’t I get one too?

Complicating this decision is the news of latest hack of celebrity nude photos, à la Jennifer Lawrence. All indications are that hackers found a security flaw in iCloud and penetrated Apple’s vaunted security apparatus. One of Apple’s main attractions is its supposed invulnerability. This attribute has been a key factor in my mind for offsetting its higher cost. My final gripe relates to another problem that occurred with my iPhone last week. I think that while I was syncing it in iTunes, all of my contacts disappeared. I fixed this by reloading an old image from the laptop. The desktop’s image was already messed up. Ok, enough Apple bashing for one post, let’s see what is announced tomorrow.