Anyone queuing up for the new Apple gadgets this morning?
Me neither.
I have this fine 2021 iPhone 13 Mini here, which I had to snap with the 2016 iPad Pro, since I no longer have any actual cameras in the vicinity.
The iPad is practically useless — I was pinching pennies when I bought it and went for the 32GB of storage, which is of course full to overflowing despite my ruthless purging of apps, data, pix, music, etc.
It still works, but to no particular purpose, like the U.S. House of Reprehensibles, and I don’t expect to ever buy another.
Remember, kids: You can never be too rich or too thin, or have too much storage and memory.
Speaking of things that don’t work as they should, no further intel from WordPress. WP was good enough to send me a note proposing that I upgrade to their Business plan to “unlock a set of amazing features,” among them “live chat support for on-demand help from our global team of Happiness Engineers.”
This, like a new iPad — and commenting on the blog without having to buy a postcard, slap a stamp on it, and hand it over to the U.S. Mail — is another non-starter.
Mad Blog Media 
Sandy has a new iPhone SE. It cost $200 after carrier discount. Works fine. I don’t have a cell phone since my 3G flip phone went obsolete. And I ain’t getting one.
Happiness engineers again! I suggest we call members of the U S house misery engineers.
Too bad Apple doesn’t make a stripped-down iPhone. I know it’s not their wheelhouse, but something basic and reliable that places/receives calls, takes pix, sends/receives texts and email, and has a web browser for when you’re killing time somewhere would be just the ticket for a lot of us.
Of course, the wiseguys say you get your price break if you wait a year until the new models come out and then snatch up an old one. Which is pretty much what I did when I bought the iPhone 13 Mini.
I think you just described the iPhone SE.
Agree! That’s exactly what I have ….. an iPhone SE ….. cost me $200. Does everything I use a cellphone for and takes pretty good pics too.
I had an A1662 SE before I switched to the 13 Mini, and it was basically a hodgepodge of the iPhones 5 and 6. Pretty basic, but you could still stuff it full of things nobody really needs.
Mostly I switched to the Mini for the better camera. I thought, “I could just buy a camera,” and then thought again. The Mini was just a skosh smaller than the newer SE, too, IIRC.
I even used mine as a phone today, for the first time since … uhh (checks recent calls) … Sept. 4. I use it as a camera every day.
Looks like anyone after a basic, smallish phone will want an SE. The latest and greatest version (generation 3, from 2022) now starts at $429, and once again Apple declines to make a new Mini.
Well they did have the iphone 3. A nice small little device that fit very well into a jersey pocket and took great photos. But they finally cut me off because the i3 couldn’t dance more than the 3G. Now I have something a little bigger but still small enough to stuff in a jersey pocket and it’s cheap enough that I don’t worry about it if I go all Elvis on it.
As for postal methods, ah the good old days. “It’s in the mail.”
I don’t need a phone that can run a CMIP6 global climate model while simultaneously doing a nuclear bomb implosion simulation. Just a phone. And affordable. This phone arms race would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic.
Imagine paying $1,600 for a phone. Something you can fumble whilst pulling up your drawers and drop right into the unflushed toilet.
There you go again painting pictures in my head I can never unsee. I think you need a good Apple purge. Put your iPhone in your pocket and tell herself to ebay anything else in the casa with an Apple logo on it for whatever she can get. Take the proceeds and pay the tax on a new Macbook Air and monitor. Problem solved.
That might be a tall order, even for an eBay whiz like Herself. A rough tally of my MacGear (which all still works) includes:
• 1999 Power Mac G4 tower (hosts the Mad Dog Media archives).
• 2005 PowerBook G4 (the 12-inch “Little Al” model).
• 2006 MacBook (low-end, black-plastic Intel edition).
• 2008 iPod Touch (demoted to kitchen timer/music player).
• 2012 MacBook Air (the 11-incher, perfect for travel but a shitty, non-Retina display).
• 2011 Mac Mini (hooked to the TV for anything the Apple TV HD can’t handle).
• 2014 MacBook Pro (two of these, one 15-inch, one 13-inch).
• 2015 Apple TV HD.
• 2015 iPod Nano (my traveling music player; used to be my step counter, too).
• 2016 iPad Pro (9.7-inch).
• 2016 iPhone SE (presently unused, sitting in a drawer).
• 2020 Apple Watch SE (replaced the 2015 iPod Nano and a really sucky Timex Metropolitan, which I returned).
• 2021 iPhone 13 Mini.
This is only my stuff, mind you. Herself has a few items too.
Just to stir the intellectual rigor pot and “look in the mirror” pot a bit.
The iPhone comments sound to me a bit like the bike technology race to the top in gadgetry (carbon, titanium, electric, no cables, etc.) and price, eh? Or the N+1 number of bikes one needs (versus wants) and has in one’s garage? Guitars? Etc.?? 🙂
I’ll wager the average cellphone user spends way more time on their cellphone than on riding a bike or bikes. Amirite? 🙂
O, for sure, JD. I get about 12 hours of exercise a week, mostly on the bike. I’ll bet there are people who spend twice that or more fiddling around with their phones, talking, texting, emailing, browsing, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, paying bills, etc.
We call these things “phones,” but the phone part is actually what they do least well. They’re pocket computers, with all the power and capability that implies.
If you can afford the best, and think you’ll use it, well … maybe you should get it. I can afford a decent phone, and that’s what I have, and it’s still more than I actually need.
You could say that about more than a few of my bikes, come to think of it. …
I’ll take that wager JD. Although I am not able to ride the amount that I would like to, I still spend ride more time riding versus the amount I spend on my cell phone. Specifically, I got a short 70 minute ride in today, and I used my cell phone once when I needed to take a couple of quick reference photos in my garage, probably for 2 minutes.
“Anybody want to trade a bike they have gathering dust for a fine smart cell phone?” Picture John Candy selling shower curtain rings in Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
I still have an IPhone 8 and it does more than I need.
Got cha, Khal. I have a iPhone 7+ and will until it dies.
Well, that was a mess! PO’G, your right about the comments being a bad trip. Can’t get rid of noone666. How did that happen anyway? BruceM
Bruce, I have no idee. The Wizards of WeirdPress seem to have bigger fish to fry. Or maybe their Palantír is on the fritz.
The only new Apple-y things we’re buying are western slope honeycrisps, which seem to be trickling at the farmer’s markets lately.