Month: November 2017

iPhone X Review

OK, so I’m not the first person to offer a review of the iPhone X and I doubt that I’ll be the last!

I believe I’m becoming a bit jaded: I received my “X” on Friday, the first day it shipped. I did NOT set it up (or even open the box) until Saturday. Yawn.

Out-of-the-box set-up was crazy simple. The device seemed to anticipate EACH step from getting facial recognition set to restoring apps from my old “7+” … except … (and this is B-I-G!) Once set-up was complete, the “X” seemed operational. Note: I said “seemed” … It was NOT until the following Monday, after dropping my wife off at the commuter train (BART, for those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area), and driving home that I realized the “X” didn’t “bing” my wife’s usual message that she was “on board and rolling.”

Hmmm…???

When I arrived home, I checked the phone. The Message app indicated “awaiting authorization” (?!) SO did the Phone app ?!

Apparently, I had been carrying around a “brick”. The final step in the set-up was contacting the carrier (in this instance Sprint) and telling them to authorize the device.

Would have been nice to read that I must contact the carrier to authorize the device somewhere in the set-up instructions (I don’t remember reading any set-up instructions!)

I’m still adjusting to the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between the “X” and the “7+”. So far, so good. The facial recognition is excellent! Swipping up in lieu of the double press on the Home button to “Close” apps is taking a while to adjust to and switching among apps is easy and fast!

I’ll use it more and add to this brief review at a later date.

Isn’t it a GREAT time to be alive?!!

November Update #1

Holy Smokes! Is it REALLY November, already?! Time to begin defrosting the turkey and planning the menu… speaking about planning: it’s time to start planning how to compare my OLD iPhone 7+ to my NEW iPhone X (pronounced “10”). Yep! Received it last Friday. Set it up last Saturday and didn’t realize until this morning, that I’ve been carrying around a brick! Despite the overall ease with which it successfully restored from my backup, it did NOT activate nor did it notify me that I needed to activate it?!

Odd. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t activated because I did nothing that utilized that phone capability. It was sending and receiving emails and I had no reason to call or text anyone, so I ASSUMED it was fully operational. Don’t ever assume!

Lesson here to be learned: that device we generally call a “smartphone” is NOT a “phone, per se. I’ve read that the average user rarely used the device as a phone! We test, email, share photos, get directions, and “do” many activities BUT NOT MAKE PHONE CALLS!

Let’s call it a smart device from today forward, shall we?!

Trivia bit: it has been published (regrettably, I can’t locate the article, so you’ll need to take my word for it!) that the equivalent of our smart device would have cost a minimum of $3.5 million dollars 20 years ago! Another post (goo.gl/7uEams) estimates the collection of components and apps at more than $32 million dollars (today’s value). Whew!

What a great time to be alive!! Enjoy technology! Have fun with it!