I recall with my 1st new work laptop, an IBM ThinkPad, as I was working from home in 2008, I would be somewhat concerned if the laptop fans goes off nonstop.
I didn’t mention it in the above article because it arrived and I started to using it fairly recently – in the last one or two months or so.
High CPU processed I observed – may not be a complete list – will add as I saw them
On Oct 13, 2015, I bought this Martian Watches Notifier Smartwatch – White from Amazon ($50). Note this is just a notification watch, and it can send the text message from phone to my watch. The reason I wanted it is because at that time, I was worried I could miss the text message over night during sleep, when I was doing on-call duty (a part of the job). Btw, I just noticed I talked about the experience of on-call and notifications here. So I mainly wear this watch before I went to bed. You may wonder I can just make the iPhone louder and that way it will be harder for me to miss the text messages in the night: the reason I didn’t want to do that is I don’t want to wake up my young kids and my wife. A vibration type of notification, or a nudge on my wrist is much better.
I used Fitbit for a while too (blog post 1,blog post 2), before eventually switching to Apple watch in Jan 2017. I vaguely recall I didn’t like the FitBit charger feel on my wrist. Apple Watch feels more natural. Interestingly enough, recently I sold a charging cable for FitBit on eBay. On the other hand, I recall FitBit has longer battery life and also can records sleep (Apple Watch could not do that in its early days, also the battery life was not ideal). Before Fitbit I used Jawbone UP band briefly (see my blog post here). My recollection is Jawbone UP band had some quality issue.
I am happy with Apple watch since then. Recently I bought the series 9, which is my 3rd Apple Watch. My 1st Apple Watch is Apple Watch Series 2 Nike version (42mm). That one had some issues and eventually I was able to go to the Apple store and receive a replacement (it was still under warranty, under a year). Note all the Apple Watch warranty is honored by Apple, even the Nike version (I bought it from Nike.com online store then).
My 2nd Apple Watch is series 5 and this time I got a smaller version which is 40 mm and it fits my wrist better.
For my new series 9 I intend to use its cellular feature so that I don’t need to carry the phone all the time. Recently I realized being parent is 24×7 on call duty too: especially when we talk about 14 year old. But it will take another 6 month or so for me to get a cellular plan for my watch because right now I am MintMobile, and they don’t support the Apple Watch Cellular yet. I plan to switch over to the Visible mobile after my current contract with MintMobile is up.
One thing I noticed is the series 9 got some new watch faces, including the UVI (UV indicator). This is probably useful metric. Also, I am using the grey color modular face for now, this may (or may not) save some battery. (Confirmed 06-03-24) from last week’s usage I would say that watch face, plus the new watch (battery) helped – the old series 5 needs to be charged every day, now series 9 can last at least 36 hours (likely more).
Btw, the price of the Apple Watch seems fluctuates, I just noticed this Midnight Aluminum Case with Midnight Sport Loop is cheaper than the product red I got (by about $70; product red was $399). But the product red version I got has more character 🙂
I just sold my series 5 on eBay for $85 (was $299 bought new at Walmart about 4 years ago), btw. Similar watch is selling at about $150 at Amazon Renewed Store (more on Amazon Renewed Store). This is a little like the Plato’s Closet used clothes store that my 14 year old recently got interested (or obsessed), in terms of concept and less guilty on consumerism (YT video 1, YT video 2).
I vaguely recall I sold my series 2 on eBay in year 2019 too.
FAQs
Why I switched to Apple Watch, or bought Apple Watch?
Besides it has a better watch band (a more natural fit on the wrist), I found out from my coworker at Mastercard, that using Apple Pay via watch is much easier than using the iPhone.
Do I take phone calls on Apple Watch?
Yes: I do. I recall I do that when I was holding my baby (Sophia), and when I was driving. Fun but relevant and I strongly recommend you don’t do it: on the days I worked for Mastercard, on some days and during the commute, I texted coworker on the Skype Business on the work iPhone.
How long does Apple Watch last?
Per CreativeBloq: There will always be exceptions, but on balance, based on the experience of our own reviewers and the comments we’ve seen from users online, I would say that an Apple Watch provide five to six years of good performance.
在2019年之前，我大概有二十年没有割草了。从1998年一月到1999年七月，我住在罗拉的美国大学生的兄弟会(Wikipedia fraternity; interestingly I joined the Delta Tau Delta fraternity (Epsilon Nu chapter) which is shown in the image when you do google search). 我在兄弟会的时候割过几次草。兄弟会有duty, 翻译成中文大概是值日值班的意思，我的任务里有不少是洗碗，偶尔也有割草。兄弟会是汽油的传统割草机：会有汽油的味道。印象最深的一次是大概是98年的夏天，兄弟会后面有较大的草地，我们一开始没有割草，后来发现有（不太友好的）邻居把我们举报了。马路对面的美国邻居是较友好的，我印像中他叫Bob May, 他告诉我们这个事。后来我们兄弟会有能力的美国小兄弟，去租了一个可以坐上去的割草机，把后面的草给割了。
Google search fraternity screenshot (partial)：这个正好是我的兄弟会 Delta Tau Delta Epsilon Nu
I started working in the US since Oct 2000. In a few years, hopefully I can retire from my current software dev job on my own terms (rather than let’s just say being replaced by AI :-). When I 1st started to working in the US, back in year 2000, I had an HP-UX workstation. Something like below.
HP-UX workstation, similar to what I used at the time, source (Reddit)
You probably wonder how was it in terms of the user experience. I would say not that great. Please note around at time late 1990s and early 2000s, Unix workstations were actually quite popular in many places, including the graduate school I went, formerly University of Missouri at Rolla (now Missouri S&T). The Windows NT just came to the scene in the school and work place at the time. It was new and cool, but not at the spot that it dominates.
Note the company gave developers older (slower) or newer (faster) workstations to developers usually by seniority. Because I was new I received an old and slower workstation. And once I decided remote logging into the more powerful build machine, which was the workstation was assigned for compile and build work for another team, btw, I wasn’t aware of the assignment part, and do some work there. A few days later, the build person on the other team knocked on my cubicle and complained about it. That was actually minor compared to another incident. At the time if we want to use Windows, we log into a shared Windows NT workstation via a client on the HP (or something like that), once my “significant other then” decided it was a good idea to check her Hotmail via the mechanism I mentioned above and she ran a virus exe file right there, that broke the shared Windows NT environment for our department. It’s called WinCenter, here is the doc I happened to bump into. It works on UNIX work stations. Note the page 2 of the doc: “WinCenter WS+ provides the following capabilities for HP, IBM, Silicon Graphics, and Sun workstations” – at the time we have all 4 UNIX flavors for our software – which creates some challenges, because sometimes the bug only show up in a particular platform/OS. Most dev used HP-UX and are familiar with it, and HP-UX does have a reputation for overly lenient on memory management.
The following Monday the operation manager for my department knocked on my cubicle – he was as cordial as he could, but I got the lesson.
Windows
The Windows was already invading the market shares of the good old Unix workstations in year 2000, when I started working for the CAD software company. One of my project leads (tech lead) got his windows desktop 1st. He was the only one has the Windows machine. In a few years (I would say 2 to 3 years), we all switched from mostly HP-UX gcc debugger (and a few Sun Solaris holdouts) to the new and cool Windows desktops with Visual Studio IDE. I even saw the CEO of Microsoft Steve Baller once, when he was in STL to promote Visual Studio. Below I found this Steve Ballmer’s Microsoft Windows 1.0 commercial to be fun. He was just like that.
I recall at one time we supported the Linux distributions as well as the Mac. Because the code was written in C for our CAD software, the main task here is compile and porting to the other platforms including automated integration tests. I did a bit of those tasks (compile, build and run the auto tests) on those platforms. Again the main development was done on Windows via Visual Studio at the time because that’s the most popular platform and it has the best dev tools too.
My 1st work laptop (sort of)and my Shanghai trips
Fast forward a few more years. I need to work remotely from China (our company just established an office in Shanghai). But this is also my personal trip as I need to see my families in China: working from Shanghai office will give me some time to explore, and also that was also the time I met my current wife.
Dell Latitude D420, illustration purpose
I recall in Sept 2006, my boss found me a used (a few years old) Dell Latitude business laptop which was retired device from a manager (and a former dev): and I used it doing coding work in SH office. I recall at the time the memory for the 32 bit Windows machine was 4GB, and I need to use up to 2GB for the program I am developing, and I was very careful about memory usage both inside my code and outside my code (mainly shutdown unnecessary programs). And you may already know, hardware itself isn’t the No. 1 determining factor of productivity – on that laptop, in Sept 2006, I fixed a bug in our software that’s also highlight of my dev career so far. With that fix, our German sales team could go to BMW and demo our software (otherwise we just could not go). That laptop also accompanied me in 2007 when I was in Shanghai for about 6 months (2 trips) when I was spending time with my girlfriend (my current wife). I wrote some blog posts when I was working in Shanghai in year 2007. I listed a few below.
When working from SH, sometimes I also used the Windows Remote Desktop logging into the desktop in my STL office/cubicle. It worked out fine too. I returned the laptop when I left the employer in Nov 2008.
Note around that time, probably from the year 2003 to 2008, Windows also became the dominant OS (platform) for our CAD software , and most UNIX workstations are going away, and at the same time, we support Mac, and two main Linux platforms (RedHat and SuSE Linux). Apple used our software for the designing of iPod (and likely iPhone and Mac, MacBook too). Of course they insist the design software runs on Mac 🙂
ThinkPad
Also in Nov, 2008, I started my new software consulting job at Autodesk, and I received a large screen IBM (or Lenovo? I don’t recall when exactly) ThinkPad for my job. I think it’s probably ThinkPad 500: Wiki and review). This one works fairly well, I used it for all kinds of work, including the AutoDesk Intent (Inventor) customize project, burning software CDs for customers. The reason I need to burn our software CD (mainly AutoDesk inventor, different languages), is because one particular customer asked for them and she is fairly demanding. I recall she threatened that our onsite consulting project may be in jeopardy if we don’t give her the CDs. It’s also interesting, my then more experience colleague commented privately: the customer thinks they own the software, they don’t – they are actually leasing it.
ThankPad 500, Illustration Purpose
Desktop days and my 1st touch of VDI
I worked on two contractor jobs after my Autodesk gig (which was a full time position). For the 1st contractor job (it was basically a contractor job for a large railroad company, and I used a Windows virtual machine – I cannot recall the exact vendor. But my project is fairly small, and it doesn’t need a lot of horse power.
My next contractor position was for a large moving company, and they gave me a desktop. That one is not quite powerful, and I used Eclipse (Java IDE), ant and some other IBM tools or software (DB2 and their J2EE stuff came to mind). I didn’t have laptop for work then. This has both plus and minus. Here is the plus, because we cannot move desktop, when we go home, we can no longer work – which is a good thing if we want a clear separation between work and home life. At the same time, the minus, because coding job is a brain work, not physical, if we have some ideas about the work, we can write it down, but we cannot try it out on the computer right away. Sometimes when the creative juirce is flowing in the brain, it’s better to let it flow 🙂
Other minus: on days when my car is broken down, I need to rent a car to go to the office and work (there is logistics work to rent/return the car, and so on). If I had the laptop, potentially I could work form home when I didn’t have a car. This is also the last time I had desktop for work. From then on, I exclusively had laptops (or VDI) for work, and basically I can work from home if needed (before laptop, it’s possible to work from home using Windows remote desktop from the home PC, but it’s not very efficient). Also before pandemic, in the most companies I worked, work from home is usually not the norm, it could be used as a last resort (e.g., snow days: I recall I did that once when I was a contractor for the railroad).
My two laptops days
In Jan 2012 I started doing iOS for my day job – I mainly Mac for iOS dev, and Windows for .Net web service dev. I also bought a MacBook Pro in year 2013 for my iOS contractor short term gig. Later in Nov 2013, I was back to java dev for Mercy, 1st on Windows, later on Mac. I had two laptops to return when I left Mercy for MasterCard in May/June 2015.
I bought the below MacBook Pro (the 1st retina series) in spring 2013, when I started as a contractor for EHI (now it’s Enterprise Mobility). I was an iOS contractor focusing on internal iPad app development: they gave me a Mac Mini in the office. I decided to get my own device so that I can have more flexibility. I used that device for almost 10 years including the briefly used it for my daughter’s virtual learning between March 2020 and May 2020. I sold it via eBay in year 2023 (I bought a MacBook Pro 16 inch Intel on Oct 31, 2020 – this is the main personal laptop I was using for last few years, including sometimes using for it work (more on that latter).
The 1st MacBook Pro I bought in year 2013, I sold this last year on eBay, having used it for almost 10 years
Mastercard was similar to Mercy: I had Windows laptop 1st for production support job; later I received a MacBook Pro for dev (they have a choice for devs to pick either Mac or Windows). It took me quite some time to setup the Java development environment on the MacBook in year 2018. A few months to be exact, but I was happy I finally made it work after spending “much of my spare time”.
In Jan 2019, I returned both laptops to MC due to layoff. Actually I returned my iPhone and MacBook on the spot – I returned the Windows Laptop via Fedex a few days later: because I left it at home that morning, when I drove to office for work (I was not expecting to be laid off that day). I only realized the possibility of layoff about 15 minutes before the meeting with my manager and HR person. My manager updated the meeting room a day before – I realized the meeting room which is near HR – was intentional: again I only realized it about 15 minutes before the layoff meeting.
Pandemic and work from home
In March 2019 I started working for Ascension Health. Again I had Windows laptop 1st, and later I received a MacBook Pro (in year 2020, later half). Due to my job nature at Ascension, I didn’t get to do much coding and in year 2021 I decided to switch jobs and get back to coding – which is what I am doing now, for the most part, to say the least. And guess what, for my current job, for the development work I got back to the VDI again. And to be honest, I was not too thrilled when I switched from the MacBook Pro to the VDI.
My initial Work from Home (WFH) setup during 2020 pandemic: I had a 13 inch MacBook Pro for work
Actually at Ascension I did some implementation using Horizon (VMWare) VDI for the new contractors too (guess the company ran out of money after handing out all the MacBook Pros 🙂 I recall the contractor VDI user, complained the Zoom or Google meet didn’t work well on VDI. I researched it’s a known issue and hard to work around or resolve.
I don't have exact numbers, but #Citrix#VDi experience has not been great so far. Maybe grass is greener on neighbors yard, maybe, but I don't know honestly. When I said #glitchy: I meant when I clicked on the mouse, the program did not respond. Somewhat like the #remotedesktop
A long twitter thread on #WFH setup including #VDI
Why companies chose VDI instead of laptops
Work from home (WFH) as a trend started from pandemic, and now WFH becomes mostly normal for IT and software professionals, at least a few days in a work week. With WFH, the laptop is naturally the 1st choice, but some companies decided to go with VDI. I think VDI has a few benefits:
1) Potentially lower overall cost and flexibility. The VDI is usually subscription or usage based. The employer usually needs to supply a thin client, or a lower cost laptop/desktop, plus external monitor(s). This is usually cheaper than a high-end laptop plus external monitor(s). Overall, the employer manages fewer hardware. The VDI instances are usually running in a datacenter and potentially can be managed by a partner (if not the company itself). I found this usage pattern or scenario works in the academics as well, as recently I asked University of Arkansas Walton Business School, for access to Teradata, and they provided the access via Horizon (VMWare) VDI access (which is similar to what I had or helped while at Ascension).
2) Centrally managed, and potentially better in terms of security and device management, this is evident in the deployment of many thin clients that mainly run Epic Software (EHR, electronic health record, or EMR, electronic medical record) in the hospital I have been to (Mercy, Shriners’ Hospital, BJC and so on).
There are downside of VDI too, as I mentioned some above. I recall in year 2021, when I 1st started to using VDI, at Panera Bread co., I lost connections quite easily partially due to the slow/not very stable WiFi connection at the Bread Co.
Moving from one machine to another
Do we want to move the trash over also? Or we move selectively? The right approach seems to be the latter 🙂 An old joke I recall from a friend: she said, they moved couple times, the boxes in the basement never got opened 🙂 In other words, those stuff are not used in her daily life.
Honestly I think it’s a great opportunity to clean up the house during moving. But at the same time, if someone is trying to keep things for a bit, in case he/she will need it down the road, I understand that too. In fact, I tried to save more than what I would eventually use – which is probably the case for most people. We overestimate what we would use in the future. That’s also one reason I got so much clutter at home. I need to get better at throwing away stuff.
My personal rules on company devices
This includes all the computing devices, from workstation, desktop, laptop, to VM and company phones. I think I did largely okay on this: in terms of personal info hygiene on those devices. Mainly I don’t store my personal information or kids pictures there. The only exception is iPhone (Mastercard), and I did use iCloud to backup my photos there. One horror story I heard from a former colleague at Ascension is the IT people wiped a retiring colleague’s BYOD (bring your own device) phone: all his grand kids pictures are gone. Btw, Ascension IT people nuked my work account in the morning of my last working day there – basically I had to ask my colleague send meeting invitation to my personal gmail if they need me, we were on the G-suite the Google suite for work 🙁
Anyone don’t put your super important, super personal stuff on the company devices.
PS: VDI choices from Citrix and Microsoft. I haven’t used them from personal capacity 🙂
PS 2: probably in year 2006, I was thinking: “I am a slave of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs”. Hopefully I can get an upgrade soon. Maybe a slave of Warren Buffett instead (I am a big fan of him, btw)?
My 1st gen AirPods lasted about 2 to 3 years. I used the 1st gen AirPods pro, https://t.co/8s7Aufjbzu, before giving it to my daughter recently. I've using my 3rd gen AirPods for a year now and liked it, https://t.co/EWTCjMB2qd
Another headset or headphone that I use is this one from Costco – Bose QuietComfort 45 SE Noise Cancelling Over-the-Ear Headphones, it’s selling for $170 now (much cheaper than what I paid for). For longer time wearing, I prefer the AIrPods 3. Bose does have some advantage though, for example, in cold weather, it could double as an ear muffs.
and I got to learn how to connect the water supply to the fridge’s water dispenser/ice maker. We bought the fridge from Costco. Our old one eventually gave up last week (between Thursday and Sunday). I recall I talked about it here (this “GE Refrigerator Ice Maker not working” section). And on Sunday when I was walking at the J indoor track, my wife called and said the fridge is broken. I came back home shortly and started shopping for a new fridge. The reason I decided to go with a new one because I know the old one has its age, and my wife really disliked it (she wanted a new one). Got to make the boss happy.
I did some research last time around when I was working on the ice maker. This is the one I came up with: it’s a Samsung. I initially ordered this one, but a few hours later I realized this one maybe too big for our door: the depth of 33.5 in is about the front door width. Later on I learned it’s possible to remove the door and put it back. But at that time (Sunday afternoon) I don’t want to take this risk, and we went with a smaller version of this: it has a depth of 24 inch which is much easier to get in. Other dimensions are okay from what I can see.
On Thursday the delivery people came, and the lead person quickly told me I need to do two things before he can hook up the water line. 1. Install Shutoff valve; 2. Disconnect the copper tube
DIY
I called a plumbing company right away: I have their number because they are the Costco delivery partner for our dishwasher in recent years. But their plumber is scheduled out to Dec 15. So I started googling and look at YouTube. This is the YouTube video I saw initially: How to install an inline water shut off valve on the back of your refrigerator
I did watch some others: I save them in my YT playlist “diy” and you can see all the videos by scrolling down. The part and the tool I bought are:
Husky Junior Tube Cutter: 1/8 yo 5/8 inch (the link may not be precise, check the outside package when you go to store). I bought both at Home Depot Overland MO store.
This evening, after much YT watching, and so on. I decided to take the plunge. I cut the copper tube 1st, then put in the valve. I noticed the small needle didn’t fit into the copper tube, and it seems it’s okay to leave it out too. Before doing all this obviously I shutoff the water main. After the installation of valve, and with valve shut. I turned the water main back on. Next step is disconnect the copper tube from old fridge, move in the new fridge, and connect the water lines. The connections are the same as the old fridge.
After that testing time: took a bit time for water to fill. Once water was ready, I filled and dumped about 3.7 Liters of water. Finally I was able to enjoy the fruits of my labor, that is the water coming from the new fridge. I turned on the ice maker too, tomorrow we may test out the new ice maker. I think this Samsung video explained this process well.
If your new refrigerator dispenses water and/or ice cubes, you will need to ensure additional space is available between the refrigerator and the wall for the water line. This reduces the risk of deterioration in existing lines Empty and unplug your old appliance. Built-in appliances must be uninstalled prior to delivery Verify there is a 3-prong grounded electrical outlet and water supply, with an accessible shut-off valve in close proximity to the install location; preferably within 3 ft. Ensure the proper fit in the designated space and the delivery path. Here is a video guide for measurements.
Our delivery team will:
Reverse new merchandise doors on site, if needed Connect new appliance to existing water line and check for leaks Place racks, trays, and door handles in recommended positions Plug unit in and set to a mid-range cold setting and level the refrigerator or freezer
I think this is true for my 13-year-old. Yesterday evening I gave my 2-year-old iPhone 12 to her after I migrated everything to my new iPhone 15. And she was happy to see the missed text messages (friend’s b-day party invitations), and the never-ending YT Shorts 🙂
Again I am thankful that she accidentally broke it so I can enjoy 15 a few months earlier. My original plan is to get it around Christmas. A tangible difference is the new phone has a new battery and it can last a bit longer 🙂
There are a lot of talks and a lot of worried parents on the endless scroll of TikTok and YT Shorts. Instagram and Snapchat. I think consume everything (or most everything) in moderation. Perhaps alcohol is something I should be more careful 🙂
This morning, after I did the Math Fact Scholars at my 9-year-old’s school, my phone started to play music, and it’s the “moments” in the iPhone photo app, featuring the families (kids) in the forest park over the years (goes back to 2016, or more). That’s also one reason I came back to my iPhone in year 2016. Btw, free career advice (or happiness advice): don’t switch smartphone when you start a new job 🙂 A side note: my 1st boss at the credit card co likes to use the word “career” for “career level”. Personally I felt I learned quite a bit while at the credit card co: one is to be myself (not to be someone else); another one is “career” is overrated. Personal health and family are much more important. I learned (or realized) that I was about to be laid off at about 15 minutes before my meeting with my 2nd boss and the HR people there: after I worked my tail off (or pull all the stops, take your pick) for them 🙁
Recently I hear something like this: engineers (and scientists) make things, artist (designers) sell things (think Steve Jobs and Job Ives, the designer of many things Apple over the years).
PS: think more about the “happiness” that was recently talked about by Lorna at the college application seminar. I think pleasant surprises (e.g., the moments in the iPhone photo app) or simple things (think the Amazon package box is a good example) are two sources. I do agree with what Lorna said: my 9-year-old won’t have long-term interest in toys such as the remote cars. She can play with it for a day or 2 before I can start thinking about selling it on eBay.
Accessories I bought for my new iPhone 15
Note: below are Amazon links, but I am not receiving any commissions from them 🙂
Apple EarPods Headphones with USB-C Plug, Wired Ear Buds with Built-in Remote to Control Music, Phone Calls, and Volume (same price at apple.com) – I know I know, some may question: why wired EarPods in todays’ post AirPods world? Good question. I think EarPods do have some advantages over AirPods: especially if we don’t need to run or jog, or walk around the room during a tele conference or a Zoom meeting. Plus it uses less battery from an iPhone (again it uses wire instead bluetooth), for that matter, sometimes the AirPods run out of battery too.
(Update 03-20-2024) The phone works great. But it seems I cannot get the Sim Lock to work. Also they only have 3 attempts: the 1st time I didn’t know what I was doing (I thought I was going to set it up), the 2nd time I followed the wrong advice from Google Gemini (the default code is not good). Now I am down to the last choice (before calling the carrier etc.). On the plus side, it seems the carrier app is decent from security point of view.
(Update 11-13-2023) Migrated most everything. The sticking point is the Microsoft Authenticator app (for work and school), and the RSA SecurID app (for work).
For Microsoft Office 365 etc., I found this link is important and useful. It will save the user some trouble and basically it will allow the use to self-serve (setup via the Mint Mobile app on the new device). The trick is to add the phone (text message) number to the account, before deleting the authenticator app on the old iPhone and on the myaccount.microsoft.com web page. Deleting it from the web page and re-add the authenticator app will prompt the user to scan the QR code and setup the authenticator on the new phone. Without adding the phone number, we will likely need the help from helpdesk (they will need to do a reset of the Microsoft account). I did this successfully for two accounts (out of 3), and I messed up another one and had to get help from the Helpdesk (basically they need to reset the account/MFA for me).
Btw, I realized there is AppleCare+ (insurance provided through Apple) for iPhone, and for that matter other Apple products too. It’s not too expensive. There are other insurance offered by insurance companies too.
AppleCare+ for iPhone
Also Mint Mobile has a plan for me 🙂 I think if one decides to buy, the Apple’s plan probably is better.
The insurance offer from Mint Mobile
I think I will probably pass on both for now: I am going to self insure my iPhone. In my past, I had two instances that I dropped iPhone into water or other liquids, and I was able to dry it out myself. For this episode (the XR screen break), it’s my 13 year old’s fault, and I still have to pay, the cost is about $200, because the phone in its working condition would be worth $200.
One thing to take note though, with the protection of iCloud, the iPhone thief cannot use the stolen iPhone directly (they could disassemble them and potentially use it for parts). Here is an example I am aware in which the victim likely got killed due to a robbery of iPhone (in year 2012).
“According to police, a man later identified as 18-year-old Keith Esters confessed to having targeted Megan after seeing her talking on her iPhone, for which she had replaced her Blackberry just a month earlier. In the process of the robbery, Esters shot her twice and killed her, police said.”
(Update 11-11-2023) I got the new iPhone 15. In the process of setting it up. So far fairly smooth, in terms of transferring the content over from my old iPhone 12. The only minor hiccup is the eSim (Wikipedia, Apple) on the new phone: I went inside the Mint Mobile app and did it. I was using the good old physical SIM (nano-SIM) on iPhone 12. I am aware of the eSIM, but I didn’t jump into it with the iPhone 12. Now iPhone 15 phased out the physical SIM completely: outside of China though. In China, the iPhone 15 sold there will still have physical SIM, from what I heard.
On Monday I am going to call the IT support at my company to get the Microsoft Authenticator and RSA SecurID work. Interestingly, the Google Authenticator allows me to export from old device, and import them into the new device – pretty slick.
(Update 11-10-2023) Now it seems the phone will arrive on Monday 11/13/2023 pm per Chase. This also means my 13-year-old will likely get her phone (meaning my current iPhone 12) on Tuesday. I asked her: does everybody (at LMS) have an iPhone? She said yes (maybe some exaggeration? I don’t know). She said she missed a few text messages 🙂 I told her I got my 1st cell phone when I was 29, a Nokia candy bar phone. It was the year 2000, it looks something like this, I think mine was bigger and not as sleek. I remember I bought it at the Best Buy store on St. Charles Rock Road, and with the Southwestern Bell wireless contract in the fall of 2000 after I started to work in St. Louis. Southwestern Bell Wireless is a part of AT&T after many mergers and acquisitions. This used to be their HQ here in STL.
My plan of iPhone migration as of now (I track it via a google doc)
======
iPhone 15 coming Monday 11-13-2023
Got the case (Apple MegSafe, Amazon, some discount)
Continue to clean up current iPhone 12; also back up to the iCloud (later restored the new phone from iCloud backup)
Make sure Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator and SecurID continue to work on the new phone
Tested iPhone 15 out before giving the iPhone 12 to kid
I was going to buy the iPhone 15 for a while: but my daughter’s iPhone XR accident accelerated it.
My iPhone history
2009: iPhone 3G in January 2009 (I gave it to my wife, for the most part, I started doing iPhone app dev at the time – “In July I signed up for the Apple iOS developer program, paid the $99 annual fee and became more seriously on iOS app development. I have thought about it and bought a Macbook and iPhone 3G back in Jan 2009…“). || Btw, today 11-10-2023 I came across this video on YT, I Spent $40,000 to Unbox a Sealed Original iPhone!, by famous YouTuber Marques Brownlee. This reminds me of all the things about the iPhone 3G including Jailbreak: maybe I should not sold it on eBay and should have kept it a collector item. Related note: the viewership and the revenue from Marques channel seem much bigger than I thought earlier, just by looking at how much he spent (bidding) for the unsealed original 2007 iPhone.
Those two (iPhone 3g and iPhone 4) are the only 2 contract phone I bought. By contract phone I mean we as consumer signed up a 2 year contract with the carrier, and we pay a monthly fee (usually not cheap) for the plan (both call/text and data).
I briefly had an iPhone 4s for work (2012 to early 2013).
Between fall 2015 and early 2019, I had an iPhone 6 from work.
2019: for my own use, finally I bought an iPhone XR (link to eBay) in Oct 2019 (I returned the work iPhone 6 in early 2019) from Apple. This is the phone my 13-year-old broke this week. I sold iPhone 5s before that. Also note I used Amazon Fire Phone between 2015 and 2016.
2021and 2023: in June 2021, I bought a purple iPhone 12 (eBay link) using Chase Ultimate Rewards (Chase Sapphire) in June 2021. This evening (11-03-2023) I just ordered a green iPhone 15. Interestingly, the points number is the same: both are 72,447 points. The only difference is last time I used points only, this time I didn’t have that many points so it’s a combination of points and cash (credit card). One minor tip is I probably should conserve the Chase Sapphire ultimate rewards points: I used it for “lightning to HDMI cable” and AirPods 3 redemptions recently. Probably should use other means for those.
If we count the iPhone 3G (which my wife used primarily and I used it for dev purpose), I personally have bought 5 iPhones. The first two iPhones have contract (both AT&T). And the last 3 are unlocked iPhones. For data plans, I used AT&T, H2O and now I am using MintMobile (recently bought by T-Mobile).
Photos
I backed up most of my photos from iPhone to iCloud, especially the recent ones. For the old ones, I backed them up to an old hard drive. And it’s slow to get to. Ideally, I like to clean up the photos (deleting duplicates, etc.) and continue using iCloud.
I thought about this for a while. The last time I planned to switch, was a few years ago, at our previous home (condo), for some reason the AT&T technician could not find a port for the broadband, per my wife (I was likely working at the credit card company at the time). And the technician gave up. I vaguely recall the reason for the switch was to reduce the monthly bill. Internet providers usually gave a good introductory price for one year, before jacking up the prices. And in the case of Charter, they jack up prices almost every year. Once I called them, and said I wanted to switch, and then they lowered the price by $10 a month. Basically switching providers or phone calls are two ways I know to lower the broadband bill.
I didn’t think of switching during the move – partially due to the unpleasant experience I had with $T (AT&T, T is their stock ticker symbol). Partially because Charter/Spectrum gave a good intro price for a year for new customers (here new as a new address, or a new account). I recall it took me some effort to figure out which cable to plug into my cable modem (the broadband modern for Charter), set up the Wifi router, and my IP phone (iTalkBB, refer to this old blog post here, time flies. Probably time to cancel iTalkBB now.) and I didn’t bother to switch to AT&T until very recently. I did recall about 2 summers ago, we had a power outage, and Charter Internet came back as soon as the power is back (both the cable modem and wifi router needed electricity). But the communication lines were damaged especially the AT&T cables, if my memory is correct, and it seems today during my AT&T install, another outside technician needs to come to the outside terminal and do some work – likely a fallout from 2 years ago. Again back to the topic.
Recently I had some intermittent issues with the Charter/Spectrum internet so I decided to switch. The intermittent/reliability issue is both from my observation and from informal surveys among friends (thank you friends 🙂
I placed the installation order last week, and a technician came today. I did some surveys before today. So I pointed out the outside and inside cables. Installation took a few hours. The setup is relatively straightforward, I mean the embedded Wifi router. It’s done via an app called Smart Home Manager. The technician is friendly and helpful too. In addition to pointing out the app, as well as showing me how to get to it, he told me to switch off Charter shortly to avoid a new monthly bill.
I did a speed testjust now, it seems Charter still has a faster download speed, but the upload speed is comparable. I will update this post as time goes on.
PS: I recall The Sound of dial-up Internet both in China and in the US. It’s a bit funny when I was applying for US graduate schools in the fall of 1996, I borrowed the email and computer access card from my friend in Fudan U. The professor in Rolla thought I was a graduate student in Fudan: which probably helped my application a bit as they are more prestigious than my graduate school 🙂 I still remember those days when I wrote emails on a terminal of a UNIX machine. Copy, paste, and save information or write information to a disk seems like a century ago, in today’s smartphone, and ubiquitous Internet world. Also, just came across this post back in 2014 when I had to do some magic or hack to make the iPad work with Wifi at home.
PS2: the monthly cost, was $80 per month for Charter, vs $50 a month for AT&T. AT&T has a slightly slower download speed, from the speed test. Also, some offers one may be able to use. Rakuten (eBates): I used it and I saw $112.50 cash in my account (this will cover the $99 installation cost, btw). Some Chase credit cards may offer cash back for AT&T fiber (I think they all broadband will likely work): I plan to use my Amazon Chase card as it has a $50 offer. Last but not least, I had a twitter poll for this.
Update 01-28-2024: I used offer from Amex Gold too. Also it seems Dosh App gave me cash back on the top of the Amex offer. Now we are talking about double dipping 🙂 Last but not least, I realized that I used the link at ebates (now rakuten) and I received $112.50 cash back from them as well (on 08-15-2023). So in summary, at least for now, the AT&T service (about $55 a month) is mostly free for me/my family at this time. I do expect to use fewer offer from now on. And I don’t plan to switch back to Charter soon as their service seems still spotty from time to time.
