This weekend's positive Apple Store experience

We hear a lot in the tech press and on personal blogs about bad experiences with Apple’s support of it’s products, so I thought I would offer a positive experience my family had this past weekend.

A couple of days ago, our teenager’s iPhone 7—my old iPhone, and more on that another time—started losing its cellular connection. We could restart the phone, and after a couple of restarts, it would come back up for a few hours before disappearing again. It worked fine on Wi-Fi. When it became apparent that no amount of restarting and resetting networks was going to fix the issue, I made a Genius Bar appointment at one of the DFW metroplex Apple Stores, Willow Bend in Plano. I arrived on time for the appointment, and was seen within about three minutes of my arrival by the technician.

I explained to her all the troubleshooting steps we had taken. She ran diagnostics on the phone, then checked the model and serial numbers. This is when she informed me that Apple had become aware of an issue with this particular model of the iPhone 7 a couple of months ago. She shared there was a specific batch from a specific factory that suffered from the cellular modem failing.

Our iPhone 7 is still covered under AppleCare through May. The way she talked about it, however, led me to believe this would be a free repair even if it was not. A $319 repair Apple was eating the cost of for a new logic board, plus labor. When I had the opportunity to ask, I verified this was indeed the case. No matter when one bought the iPhone 7, if it was within this particular batch from that particular factory, you could get a new logic board installed, gratis. The only hitch is that it gets send to one of the repair depots, it’s not done in store.

So we were given a loaner iPhone 7. The SIM card was swapped from ours to the loaner, we started an iCloud backup there in the store on Apple’s wifi, and that was it. I will get emails about the repair status, plus a call when our iPhone 7 arrives back in the store and is available for pickup. All in all, we were in the Apple Store 45 minutes, and over half of that was spent waiting on the iCloud backup restoration. Kudos to Apple for a job well done in this particular situation.

Feb 12, 2019

So long, and thanks for all the GIFs

If you’re still following along on here and paying attention to my little ol’ Tumblog, you’ll note it’s been a few months since I’ve posted. Lots of reasons for that, but here are the two main ones:

Bandwidth. I only have so much time to devote to social networks. And despite my best attempts to treat Tumblr as just another blog host, it is a social network of a kind. And I’d rather devote my time to Twitter and Facebook, where the majority of my online friends are congregated.
Owning your own space and content. My biggest complaint about Tumblr, especially right now, is that I don’t really own the content I’ve posted here. When they went to version 2.0 of the API, Tumblr killed the few backup/export tools there were for the service. There isn’t a convenient, easy way to get my stuff out of here and move it some place else.

I’ve decided to relaunch my original blog at retrophisch.com, in 2018, for long-form stuff. Short posts will live at Micro.blog, and be cross-posted to Twitter and Facebook. I’m not posting directly to Instagram any more, either. My online photos will live either on my Micro.blog site, or Flickr, where I have been a paying Pro member for many years.

If we are serious about our online identities, we need a place where we have control of our content. A place either built on open web standards, like Micro.blog, or one with easy means of exporting our content for use elsewhere. For me, Tumblr is no longer that place.

I’m not deleting my account or turning this blog invisible. It shall remain up, so long as Tumblr lives, encapsulating my time spent here for the past six years. The custom domain of retrophis.ch I have been using here is going to be repurposed for my Micro.blog site. Take care, Tumblrs!

Dec 24, 2017

Happy Gabriel Allon Day, everyone!

[gallery]

Happy Gabriel Allon Day, everyone! on Flickr.

Jul 12, 2017

iPhone home screen, 4 July 2017

[gallery]

iPhone home screen, 4 July 2017 on Flickr.

Jul 4, 2017

New Rise Against album

[gallery]

Happy new Rise Against album day, everyone!

Jun 9, 2017

[gallery]

iPhone home screen, 5 June 2017

Jun 5, 2017

[gallery]

artverso:

Travis Charest - Darth Vader

Jun 2, 2017

[gallery]

I’ve had a new slab of glass and black plastic for just over a week now. While this wasn’t a planned purchase, I can’t say I’ve been unhappy with it. on Flickr.

May 19, 2017

[gallery]

iPhone home screen, Cinco de Mayo 2017 edition on Flickr.

May 5, 2017

Changes are afoot

If you follow this blog, you notice it doesn’t see a lot of updates of late. I have likely posted my last here at Tumblr.

If you reach this blog through the retrophis.ch domain, that is changing very soon, and this blog will revert to the Tumblr default of retrophisch.tumblr.com. Please update your bookmarks accordingly.

Why? Because I’ve come across a better use of the retrophis.ch domain, and that’s coming soon.

Apr 26, 2017

[gallery]

iPhone home screen, 3 January 2017 on Flickr.