Posts Tagged ‘iphone’
No phone battery lasts forever. The battery in my iPhone demanded servicing with this ominous message:
I made an appointment online to have my phone serviced at Apple Store Orchard. I was in at the appointment time of 11.30am and got the device back just 40 minutes later.
This was better than authorised repair places like QCD and other operators like Atomware. Both those places took roughly 2 hours to do the same.
I had assumed that the popularity of the main Apple Store would slow things down. It actually had the fastest turnaround. Furthermore, the Apple service representatives are quick, knowledgeable, and friendly. This is in contrast to places like Atomware where messages go unanswered, expressions are dour, and they demand to know your passcode.
A small outfit should be nimble and change quickly to fill a niche or challenge an incumbent. Normally a large and official entity moves slowly and is mired by policies and bureaucracy. But this time the latter had the right policy — focusing on the customer.
iPhone battery replacement
Posted on: January 18, 2018
I was one of many owners affected by the iPhone slowdown due to drained batteries. I wondered how to get a new battery with the minimum of fuss.
I could have visited a reputable phone repair shop and the battery alone would cost about SGD65. The price was accurate as of Nov 2017 and I know this because I replaced my son’s iPhone battery then.
However, Apple now offers a SGD38 battery replacement. I took advantage of this official but cheaper option and I share my experience below.
I made an appointment online using my iCloud credentials. The batteries are limited so the appointments are critical to avoid disappointment. Once online, I got to select the date, time, and battery service provider. Note:
- As there was a high demand for replacement batteries, I was only able to fix an appointment a week later.
- The appointment calendar only spans a week. If there are no slots left that week, you will have to try the next day for another day’s slots to open up.
- It is probably best to select a battery service provider closest to your home or work place. This will cut down on travel time and cost.
After I booked the appointment online, I received an onscreen and email confirmation. Both contained the Case ID number.
To prepare my phone for servicing, I had to:
- Deactivate Find My iPhone.
- Sign out of iCloud services completely.
- Reset the iPhone completely (Settings -> General -> Reset All Settings).
- Remove any and all non-out-of-the-box Apple add-ons, e.g., phone case.
Addendum: Remove the phone’s SIM card before you hand it over. I did not have to do this as the phone I serviced was a spare one and did not have its own SIM card.
I brought the iPhone to the service provider at the appointment time. My provider had a self-service queue system which required me to type in the last six digits of my Case ID number.
I had a morning appointment on a week day, so there were very few people about. I waited for about a minute and was called to the counter.
The service representative did a diagnosis of the phone to confirm the almost dead battery. I did this previously with the help of this app (the iPhone’s battery had dropped to 17% of its original charging capacity).
There was the usual form filling on an iPad, and in the case of my provider, the unusual signing of the form three times — one for personal information, one for the service, and one for terms and conditions.
The diagnosis and administrative work took just under 15 minutes.
The official battery replacement time was two hours. I left my contact number to be notified when the phone was ready for collection.
I received email notification that my phone was ready for collection about 1h 15min after I left the service centre. Strangely enough, the SMS notification arrived almost 15 minutes after the email.
I returned to the service centre, collected the phone, and made payment of SGD38 with my credit card. There was no extra service fee for my out-of-warranty iPhone because of Apple’s provision.
According to the terms and conditions, I have 90 days to see if the new battery works properly. So far so good.
One final recommendation: Do not make a fuss with a service representative if you do not do your homework. One older gent at the service centre raised his voice. He was at another counter before me and still there after I left. No amount of shouting and complaining is going to make repair faster.
The process getting my iPhone battery replaced was quite painless because I did my homework: Make an appointment online and prepare the phone. I also said good day and thank you.
#shotoniphone
Posted on: July 19, 2016
I have an ice cube’s chance in hell to have my photos selected by Apple for its Shot on iPhone series.
I have zero chance if I put in zero effort. So here is my shot.
I have embedded a Flickr album of a selection of photos I have taken with my iPhone 6. The album is also viewable directly in Flickr and in my Instagram feed.
Travel bugs
Posted on: April 25, 2016
Something happens practically every time I return home from an overseas trip: My iPhone does not work exactly the same way it did before the trip.
The problems are varied, as are the solutions.
![Travelling The World For A While by Sprengben [why not get a friend], on Flickr](https://farm9.static.flickr.com/8150/7497500748_5f37df32aa.jpg "Travelling The World For A While by Sprengben [why not get a friend], on Flickr")
A few years ago, I recall that some WhatsApps contacts could message me while others could not. At that time I foolishly updated the WhatsApp app with my foreign SIM number while overseas. When I returned, I put my original number back, but some contacts in remained in limbo.
Now I try to make sure that I use my phone only to activate a foreign prepaid SIM and pop the SIM into a travel router as soon as I can. Foreign telcos often send profile updates to the phone to make sure it works with their system, but this can have unintended consequences.
After my most recent trip last week, I found that my phone did not forward Messages (Apple’s text messages and normal SMS) to my laptop, desktop, and iPad like before.
I found out that I had to toggle Messages to each device off in my phone settings and then reactivate them one by one. This meant getting activation codes from my other devices all over again.
I also discovered that Handoff did not work between my phone and laptop or desktop. This was unusual because my iPad, which travelled with me, did not suffer the same travel bug.
After a bit of investigating, I discovered that my Bluetooth connection did not automatically reactivate after Flight Mode on my phone while it did on my iPad.
People like to say that you learn a lot when you travel. This used to be true mainly because of the new experience, culture, food, language, etc. that travel brings. We should add to that lot lessons from troubleshooting.
Why jailbreak?
Posted on: February 9, 2013
The day the iOS 6 jailbreak was available from evad3rs, I successfully jailbroke an iPhone 4, iPad 2 (3G), and an iPad mini.
The iPad mini, which was already on version 6 of the OS, provided the best jailbreak experience. The process took just a few minutes.
The iPhone and iPad were still in version 5 and had to be wiped, updated, reinstated, and then jailbroken. But all is good now.
The only bug I have noticed is that text shortcuts (e.g., for “omw” to become “on my way”) do not work on the iPhone even though they work on the iPads.
Why do I opt to jailbreak? I explained briefly here https://ashleytan.wordpress.com/jailbreak-apps/ but I thought I should elaborate.
I take ownership of my devices and what I do with them. That means customizing them to make them do what I want them to do.
- I want my default browser to be Chrome and my go-to map to be Google Maps.
- I want to be able to tether my phone any way I want in any country I travel to because I have bought the bandwidth and the data plan.
- I want to be able to toggle between multiple Apple store accounts. (I have more than one account because a few apps are not available in Singapore!)
- If there is something irritating or lacking in iOS, I want to remove that irritation or add some functionality.
I do not jailbreak to get paid apps for free. I want my device to work conveniently, efficiently, and effectively, so I jailbreak it.
The practice of jailbreaking got me thinking about how there is similar trend in education.
I think more people will want to “jailbreak” education because schools and universities are not responding fast enough. They want to customize their experiences and they want what works for them.
Learners might accept an initially one-size solution, but they will want to tweak it or transform it to their needs. If schools and universities are not prepared to help learners do this, there are stakeholders will find jailbreak solutions.
Answering without answering
Posted on: December 2, 2012
A colleague of mine held up her iPhone and pointed to another colleague’s phone (a Samsung) and asked me which phone I thought was better.
I think she expected me to side with her because I brought my iPad mini to the meeting.
But I replied that whether something was better depended on factors like preference and context of use.
I also added that whether something was better depended on where one wanted to be on the evolutionary timeline. You could interpret that as support for Apple, Samsung, both, or neither.
Sometimes teaching is not about giving an answer. It is about letting learners make up their own minds. It is also about pointing out what they miss if they do not change their minds.
Secure your iOS device
Posted on: November 13, 2011
Recently, a blogger shared what he thought were the top five security settings for iOS. I think there should be at least two more.
You should deactivate the ability to change accounts and the untoggle the change location settings.
Once you have entered all email and iCloud account information, you should prevent the settings from being deleted or changed. Likewise, to prevent Find My iPhone from being deactivated, you should lock down location settings.
You start by tapping on Settings -> General -> Restrictions. I am making use of the new WordPress photo carousel feature to illustrate the other steps.
iOS device as a visualizer?
Posted on: August 3, 2011
Who would’ve thunk it? Here is someone who thought of a way to use an iPad2 as a document camera (visualizer).
I guess that the iPad2, iPod Touch and iPhone could serve as a visualizer in a pinch. But why?
Perhaps because you don’t already have a visualizer. Or you might do this to sell the idea mobile devices to tech-resistant teachers.
Or you might just change the pedagogy around to let students take centre-stage and show off their work.
So sure, it’s low brow use of the technology. But it could be a small step in the right direction…
Lean back, lean forward
Posted on: June 15, 2011
This RWW article I led me to a distinction between the iPad and iPhone that I have not thought of before.
The developers of Flipboard will extend their service from the iPad to the iPhone, but they will not simply replicate the experience. Different screen sizes aside, they have analyzed the use of the two mobile devices and labelled the iPad as a “lean back” device and the iPhone as a “lean forward” one.
In other words, Flipboard sees the iPad as an outside the work day device while the iPhone gets used the rest of the time. Leisure vs work. Flipboard has a good overall strategy.
Then I started to think about how iPads are beginning to be used in schools that have adopted them.
I think that iPads, whether owned by the students or provided by the schools, are the lean forward device. The student-owned phones are the lean back devices now.
The longer battery life and the larger screens make the iPads the go-to devices for learning. If it is not possible to go 1:1, a small group of learners can share an iPad. Most schools still do not allow their students to text or make calls, so their phones are used outside of class time.
The lean forward or back distinction might be important when planning how to integrate the devices into learning activities.
Wiimote plus iPhone equals?
Posted on: April 19, 2011
The invisible instrument according to Tim Soo in the video below.
Some might ask why something like this is necessary. In the grand scheme of things, it might not be. Not when you have instruments that already do what the Wiimote and iPhone do together.
But Soo’s effort is really about pushing the boundaries of what is normal or conventional. It’s about innovating and learning from the successes or failures that emerge. And then perhaps a new norm or convention results…
Another dot in the blogosphere? 