Azimuth

Stayed away from Airpods.  Went with this:
https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/headphones/conversation_enhancing_headphones/hearphones.html
 

Random update post: iPhone X and AirPods...my digital life is complete.

Somewhat late to the party but finally got me a pair of AirPods last night. It’s like perfection ².

Now...back to Netflix and The Expanse.

On a different note, I came across an intriguing bug today.

While in traffic, bumper to bumper, my phone was on the car charger and with a one-handed operation, I accidentally triggered a screenshot. The UI and Face ID were totally disabled.

The only way to gain control again was to trigger a shutdown (power + volume down)...and then cancel.

So, after 2 months, I’ve picked up a problem and I’m not sure how to solve it.
 
I know there are a lot of knowledge folks on here, especially with regards to radios, cellular stations, cell phones and the relationship between them.
 
To be clear, I’m not sure if the problem is hardware, an iOS bug (I’m on 11.2.6) or my carrier.
 
The nature of the problem is this: I’m on the baby carrier in South Africa and they have a roaming agreement with the second largest carrier. About 2 weeks ago, my phone stopped roaming back to the “home” network and I have to flip the Airplane Mode switch to force it to go back to the home network.
 
I’ve never had this problem before with my carrier nor previous iPhones. The only thing that has changed is the X - although this wasn’t an issue during the first month (unless I failed to notice the pattern because I didn’t run out of data whilst roaming).
 
I’ve reset my network settings followed by all settings when that didn’t work. The only thing I haven’t done is wipe my phone and set it up as a new phone...doubtful if that will work but I’ll do it to rule out all possibilities.
 
What do you guys think?
 

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen a carrier update in a very long time. I think since the iPhone 4s days.

Back then, one would go into the Settings > About menu to trigger a carrier update.

Is there another way to force this that I’m not aware of? Get a new SIM card perhaps?

So, after 2 months, I’ve picked up a problem and I’m not sure how to solve it.

I know there are a lot of knowledge folks on here, especially with regards to radios, cellular stations, cell phones and the relationship between them.

To be clear, I’m not sure if the problem is hardware, an iOS bug (I’m on 11.2.6) or my carrier.

The nature of the problem is this: I’m on the baby carrier in South Africa and they have a roaming agreement with the second largest carrier. About 2 weeks ago, my phone stopped roaming back to the “home” network and I have to flip the Airplane Mode switch to force it to go back to the home network.

I’ve never had this problem before with my carrier nor previous iPhones. The only thing that has changed is the X - although this wasn’t an issue during the first month (unless I failed to notice the pattern because I didn’t run out of data whilst roaming).

I’ve reset my network settings followed by all settings when that didn’t work. The only thing I haven’t done is wipe my phone and set it up as a new phone...doubtful if that will work but I’ll do it to rule out all possibilities.

What do you guys think?

I personally love every aspect of the X. Face ID. The Notch. The stainless steel band. The new swipe gestures. The amazing camera.

It is blazing fast coming from a 6s. The battery performance also has a nice performance bump. (I wouldn’t expect less of 2 batteries!)

I’ve been on iPhone since the 4s and I’ve had virtually every model since, bar the 7.

This is my favourite iPhone to date and the best phone I’ve ever owned. (I’ve also owned Samsung Galaxy phones and HTC’s)

I’m not as critical of carrier performance as the folks on S4GRU are. I’ve got zero complaints.

If I had to be super critical...it’s quite heavy. The 6s is light as a feather next to it. Funny how a just a few grams makes such a difference. With all that’s crammed into it, plus the material composition, it’s to be expected.

On Xmas day my 6S died a sudden death while sitting by the Xmas tree and taking photos!

 

The local repair centre took all of 5 minutes to assess and then sent that assessment to Apple. I got a $445 written quote for a replacement (not much details) which I rejected.

In a *very* pleasing turn of events, my “old” 6s 64GB was repaired today for $100. It turns out that the power management IC was at fault. Further investigation seems to suggest this is a $12 - $15 part but a lot of skill is required so I’m happy with the price. This also included a new battery.

I’ve been using my 6s today and can’t stop smiling.

You will enjoy the X.  One thing I would suggest, get a fully enclosed case.  The screen is very easy to scratch.  Just received this case yesterday:
 
https://www.lifeproof.com/en-us/iphone-x/fre-for-iphone-x/lpfr-apl-iphn17.html
 
 

The authorised distributor in South Africa...

They masquerade themselves as iStore but aren’t the real thing.

I would have happily paid $299...

Formal note of my exit of this thread and joining the X thread.

On Xmas day my 6S died a sudden death while sitting by the Xmas tree and taking photos!

The local repair centre took all of 5 minutes to assess and then sent that assessment to Apple. I got a $445 written quote for a replacement (not much details) which I rejected.

One month out of extended warranty and this happens...thanks Apple.

Upside...the X.

P.S. Happy New Year, everyone!

Was this slow for you? It's almost immediate on my phone, and the low-res version is almost always perfectly acceptable - I can barely tell the difference once the full-res photo downloads. (In a second or two)

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google photos, facebook

As for Google Photos, I tried it and loved it...until I found that all metadata was lost.

Dropbox? Box? Tried either of those?

 

Sent from my LG G5

I like Dropbox but it's expensive. I only have 10GB total storage space (free account).

I'll check out Box, thanks.

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Hmm, looks like I will be trying phototransferapp.com this weekend.

Photo Transfer App - Easy backup of photos+videos by Bitwise Software SL

https://appsto.re/za/SQ8Wv.i

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Well let's see what the others say. If I do find a lekker (South African for "cool") solution on my own, I'll post it here.

This is the first time since my switch to iPhone and Apple that I've been stumped.

Granted I've not put a lot of effort into finding a solution because I've also been hamstrung by not having a laptop for 2.5 years. That changed a week ago.

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So I've run into a wall with my 6S 64GB and get pop-ups ten times a day telling me that I'm out of storage. I'll clean up a bit but soon I'm back to being out of space.

Part of the reason may be because I choose to keep original photos on my iPhone instead of "optimized" copies - where the original is on iCloud and my iPhone downloads a light-weight copy. The issue with this is that I found that data access was too frequent/heavy and I'd always be waiting for a photo to download (so not a fan).

Now as far as I'm concerned, there is a complete lack of backup options outside of iCloud and a MacBook. I'd like to be able to access and view photos not on my iPhone just as easily when backed up. This *includes* keeping the metadata intact.

Buying a MacBook just to backup photos isn't viable; an Apple Time Capsule isn't designed for iPhone/iPad; iTunes does a complete backup that cannot be accessed short of a restore.

What other options are there? This is a seemingly simple thing that is evading me and I must be missing obvious solutions out there?

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Ugh. A day like this kills me. My no-roaming strategy has been debunked.

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Hi @mirskyc. Yes, MTN in South Africa.

To be honest, this particular deal is the only reason that a lot of people would go with MTN.

Look at Telkom and Cell C as well. Both of these carriers are the underdogs and offer far better deals.

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Got this result over the weekend which I was quite impressed with:

If it's a software issue then I'll have to patiently wait. I certainly don't want to exchange the device again if it's of no real use to do so. (Still have iCare until November 2017)

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For the first time since I switched to Apple from Samsung, I am without an iPad. I traded it up for my son's Mini.

It kinda fell into complete disuse. Between a phone, tablet and a laptop, it's a lot of duplication.

What I do plan to do, however, is get an iPhone Plus next time.

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I appreciate your posts regarding wireless in your neck of the woods. Thank you for the updates. As for $17/month for that much usage, no, I have never heard anything like that anywhere.

 

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So regarding the deal, a lot of people felt like they were selling their souls. This carrier does not offer good customer service and their billing system is a train wreck.

You can already see my account sitting at $48, instead of $17, in the screenshot above. I've queried it and the replies are less than intelligible. I haven't been charged yet, though...

There were fears of throttling as well but, by all accounts, the 50GB data is full speed.

This deal has repeated four times now since Black Friday - yes, retailers are now jumping on the bandwagon (and I won't complain) I've signed up my mom, sister and-brother-in-law too!

I think 2016 was the first time we got anything big for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

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In the last 3 months, one of our bigger carriers surprised the market with a never-seen-before mobile data offering. Well, it was more than data: it was 100 "off-net" minutes, 10,000 "on-net" minutes, 100 SMS, 2GB data, 30GB promo once-off data and 50GB bonus data.

That's 52GB of data every month for 24 months.

Well, the market exploded. Most people couldn't care less about the minutes and just wanted the data. With a cheap handset I personally got this for the equivalent of $17 a month! I also sold the handset for $75 which further sweetened the whole deal.

Have you guys ever had such deals in the U.S?

P.S. Using an exchange rate of R13.41 to 1 USD for this thread.

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I've done a couple more of these repairs recently. Below is the worst one I've seen to date.

Before:

After:

Any opportunity to play with heat-shrink tubing LOL. I love using it in satellite projects too (what you guys call "cable").

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Taken a while to find time to experiment. What I did was force my phone to roam permanently on the stronger sister network so no more low signal reports. Also no roaming back and forth.

I managed 10 hours all in all, 4 of which were actual usage.

Do you guys think this is acceptable or do I still have a possible issue on my hands?

It just seems unlikely that swapping out my phone *again* would yield different results.

I went back and reviewed my old posts and can see how bad things were before. I forgot about the old phone switching off at 20%.

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Hey,

 

From the screen shots you posted, I see three different signals, TelKom LTE, TelKom 3G and MTN-SA 3G. A couple of questions since I do not know the carriers in South Africa.

 

1. Are you roaming if you are on one of the carriers? Roaming has an affect on my battery since it is looking for native service.

 

2. How much time are you on 3G versus LTE? If I am on 3G with Sprint, my phone battery depletes much more quickly than on LTE.

Your observations are correct. My primary network is Telkom but I also roam to MTN.

Telkom LTE signal at my workplace is almost nonexistent so I get 3G for most of the day. I'll get 3 bars at best.

If move away from my window desk, things get interesting with my phone fighting to stay on Telkom 3G but eventually relenting to roam on MTN.

Once I leave work, I have mostly full Telkom LTE.

Also, are you in low-signal areas too while at work? Your battery will die relatively quickly if you're in a low-signal area, along with if you are roaming, like Steve said.

 

-Anthony

That's an affirmative. However, it has improved since last year for whatever reason. I don't get any "low signal" stats when using the Battery menu.

Edit: just checked and a few apps are showing low signal.

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