Own an iPhone SE or later & having battery issues? Or, maybe you want to get in on Apple’s iPhone battery replacement programme that, no questions asked, will give you a brand new battery for your iPhone for free — if you’ve got Apple Care — or, otherwise, for the relatively paltry sum of $35 Canadian ($29 U.S.), about half the regular price for battery replacement.
Apple is still offering $35 battery replacements for the iPhone SE, 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, and X. All of these devices are eligible for a discounted $35 battery following the processor slowdown scandal that Apple faced earlier this year.
After December 31, 2018, replacement iPhone batteries will return to their regular price. For most iPhones, replacement batteries will be priced at $65, with the exception of the iPhone X. Apple will charge $99 for an iPhone X battery replacement. How to Initiate a Battery Replacement
To initiate a battery replacement, use Apple’s battery support site. You can take your iPhone to an Apple retail store, an Apple Authorized Service Provider, or send it in for replacement at an Apple Repair Centre. In my case, after clicking on Start a Battery Replacement, I chose the Bring in for Repair option, signed in with my Apple ID, on the next screen put in my postal code and my mobile service provider, clicked Go, chose an Apple repair location (in my case, I chose Apple, Oakridge Centre), and chose a convenient time for me to bring in my iPhone for the battery replacement.
Upon arrival, I checked in at the Genius Bar, spoke with one of the Apple Care staff, who asked me a few questions before taking the phone away for repair — the process from beginning to end taking about an hour and a half. When I purchased my iPhone about 15 months ago, the salesperson suggested I take my iPhone into my nearest Apple Care Centre once a year for a thorough cleaning. The number one problem iPhone customers experience concern dirty and / or plugged ports — to preserve the life of your phone, and to ensure a continued good experience of your phone, an annual cleaning is a necessity, I was told. Best aspect of the cleaning — it’s absolutely free! When I was given my phone back, it was sparking clean.
All iPhones will eventually face battery degradation issues due to the nature of lithium ion batteries. While performance management software was initially limited to the iPhone 5 SE, 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and SE, Apple in iOS 12.1 added it to the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X to prevent future shutdowns should these devices suffer from failing batteries.
In the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X, performance management features introduced due to degraded batteries “may be less noticeable” because of their “more advanced hardware and software design.”
iPhones, including the XS, XS Max, and XR, will also eventually receive performance management software, until battery technology improves.
Final note: even If you’re not experiencing battery issues with your iPhone, it probably remains best to get your battery replaced before the programme ends, so you can avoid potential problems after December 31.
The holiday season is upon us. For VanRamblings that means spending time with friends and family (as I suspect is the case with most of us), and a level of busyness that is unusual for us — given that much of our life is given over to the creative endeavour of writing on VanRamblings, which entails a dozen hours or more each day sitting in front of our computer composing the posts that you read from time to time, on this blog of ours.
From April 20th on of this year — six months out from the 2018 Vancouver municipal election — there was a raison d’être for VanRamblings: to introduce you to the candidates we felt were worthy and deserving of your vote. To that end, we wrote as many as 2500 words each day about the 2018 Vancouver municipal election, the issues we felt were important for candidates to address, and who we felt best were most capable of creating the city we need, a fairer and more just city for all.
While it remains our intention to continue our coverage of Vancouver City Council, School Board and Park Board, we are not quite so obsessed with civic governance and all that occurs each day with the process of decision-making that will lead to creating a city for all of us. In Vancouver, we’ve elected our Mayor, Kennedy Stewart, and a pretty darn fine group of City Councillors, School Board trustees and Park Board Commissioners — we’re prepared to let them get on with the job sans the obsessive coverage that has come to define VanRamblings these past almost eight months.
Damara, our new 3-year-old kitty, soon to be our companion as we write each day.
Here’s our plan for VanRamblings, then, going forward, which, of course, is subject to change — we’re planning on writing about politics once or twice a week this month. We have a column on Janet Fraser, Chairperson of the Vancouver School Board, that we’re intending to write, with likely publication this upcoming week (for the record, we consider Dr. Fraser to be a transformative political figure, and believe we should all be grateful for the gift of her presence on Vancouver’s political scene). We’ve also got a column on Vancouver International Film Festival programmer Tom Charity’s Best of 2018, which it is our current intention to publish next Friday.
In fact, VanRamblings will publish a great many columns on film this month — because we love film, considering it to be the art of our age, and during the April through October period we forfeited our love of film in favour of covering the election — where the majority of candidates we endorsed were elected to office, as well as a few we failed to endorse, but should have.
As far as is possible, in addition to our once or twice a week political coverage, we’ll keep up our Arts Friday coverage — which will be given over to film for the foreseeable future, but within which we plan to expand our coverage into other facets of Vancouver’s arts scene. We’ll continue our Stories of a Life feature — no such posting this week, or last, but next week we promise — and our Music Sunday feature, which tomorrow oughta emerge as a sort of Story of a Life when, and if, it actually comes to fruition. Tuesdays and Thursdays may be fallow days, or given over to tech coverage — we have a column for Apple iPhone SE, 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, and X users we’ll publish this upcoming Tuesday.
In the new year, VanRamblings will finally write about our cancer journey — which “story” will begin 10 months prior to our official cancer diagnosis. We’ll introduce you to those who made a difference in our life, and who are — we believe — the reason we are here today, enabling you to read those words on the screen in front of you (there’ll be a great many political folks who will find their way into our reporting out, as our “life savers”).
Thank you for hanging in with us.
Going forward, it is our intention to remain relentlessly positive about pretty much darn near everyone and everything, while focusing on change for the better, and a better life for everyone in all aspects of our lives.
Buy Nothing Day is an international day of protest against consumerism.
Founded in September 1992 by Vancouver-based artist Ted Dave, and subsequently promoted annually by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz, the founders of Adbusters magazine, Buy Nothing Day was designed as a means to examine the issue of overconsumption.
Early on, a decision was taken to hold Buy Nothing Day on Black Friday, the Friday of the American Thanksgiving long weekend, one of the ten busiest shopping days across North America, the day that signals the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and the day when retailers across North America discount consumer goods by 50% or more.
Although Black Friday is not an official holiday, many American states designate Black Friday as a holiday for state government employees. For many non-retail employees and schools who will celebrate the Thanksgiving long weekend (Thanksgiving in the United States is a more important holiday down south than Christmas), since 1952 Black Friday has marked the beginning of a four-day Thanksgiving weekend — the net result: to both increase the number of potential shoppers and boost the economy.
If you’re like me, your social media feeds are likely rife with posts imploring you to not to buy anything this upcoming weekend, to boycott Black Friday, and not give in to consumerism. God knows we’re a society of waste, we focus far too much on acquisition of consumer goods over building community, and our landfills are laden high with perfectly well-functioning consumer items that have been discarded for no reason other than waste.
Still and all, if you’re a pauper like me, a senior living on a fixed income of under $20,000 annually, or if you’re a minimum wage worker just barely getting by, yet you’ve had your heart set on finally buying the much-talked, and indispensableInstant Pot (on sale all over town at around $65, rather than its usual price of $130), or if you’re looking to make your first foray into Smart Home technology — because, why should the Smart Home be just the preserve of the wealthy? — or if there’s a sweater or a jacket that you see discounted at 70% off that you’ve had your eye on, would it really be an offense against God and all that is right and proper to treat yourself to a consumer good that you have long desired and can now afford.
Not being a particular follower of fashion, and as much as we agree with the principle behind Buy Nothing Day, we also see that there’s a class issue involved. All well and good if you’re earning the average $65,000 median wage for those resident in Metro Vancouver, and whether you pay $129.99 (plus tax) for the Instant Pot, or the one-day Black Friday sale price of $64.99 (plus tax) makes no never mind to you, for seniors and others living on a fixed income, or for the working poor, the $72.80 (including sales tax) saving for the most popular Instant Pot model, the 6-quart Duo, or if you’ve got a large family, the $102.03 (including sales tax) saving on the 8-quart Instant Pot model, that’s a chunk of change in savings for those who’ve been waiting for the Instant Pot to go on sale — and the only day that happens is, you guessed it, Black Friday, in 2018 … on November 23rd.
Word to the wise: if you want that Instant Pot at the sale price, there are some conditions that have to be met. Whether it’s Canadian Tire, Best Buy, Walmart or Real Canadian Superstore, Instant Pots at the sale price are in short supply — retailers bring in only 100 Instant Pots to each store, which means that if you want one, you’re going to have to line up no later than 6am to get one, cuz let us assure you, there’ll be a great many folks waiting in line to purchase their new Instant Pot at a 50% or better saving.
The Breville Smart Oven Pro Convection Toaster Oven, on sale at Best Buy at $240 (a $134.39 saving, including tax), reliable, long lasting, great for seniors and singles, a virtual replacement for your oven & a kitchen appliance people swear by, including me.
Now, we’ve written at length about the Instant Pot, and why it has become an essential kitchen tool — we feel the same way about our Breville Smart Oven Pro Convection Toaster Oven — which, by the way, is on sale for $126 off (including tax) its regular price, at Best Buy, the best deal in town for the Breville, the virtues of which one customer extols here.
Do you remember how we were writing about the Smart Home above?
Well, the Google Home Mini is on saleBlack Friday, all over town for only $35, rather than at its regular $80 price — which makes for a pretty skookum $50.40 in savings (including tax), if your looking to tech enhance your life. Not bad. The Google Home Mini does all the same things the Google Home pictured in the ad above does, and much, much more (because more functionality is added each and every month by Google).
At $40 (last year, on sale), we bought a Google Home Mini during the holiday season — partly because we’re a tech-y guy, partly out of curiosity, and partly because it was on sale, and we are a parsimonious guy.
So, what do we use our Google Home Mini for?
To turn the lights off and on. When we’re away, using the Google Home app to turn up the thermostat while we’re on our way home, and to turn on the lights in our sensuous hovel just prior to opening the door to our home. We listen to BBC News, news from the American networks, CBC news and podcasts, and all of our other favourite podcasts, to check on the temperature and the weather forecast, as an alarm, and to listen to our favourite music or be introduced to new music.
In the holiday season, we use the Google Home Mini to automatically turn our balcony holiday light display on at 4pm, and off again at 8am. We use it as an aide when we’re cooking — and, if we were of a mind, to turn on our 4K TV to the Netflix, or the channel we want to watch or record.
Could we live without our Google Home Mini? Yes. Do we want to? No.
The Sharp 55″ 4K Smart TV, at $450, at the Real Canadian Superstore (also on sale at Visions Electronics, for $448) seems like a pretty sweet deal, if you’re in the market for a 4K Smart TV. Here’s an even-handed review.
Now, we’re not saying that you should purchase items that you don’t need — we’re a firm believer in the stripped down, simple life. Still and all, if you’ve got your heart set on something, and you either need it, or really, really want to have it, and you’ve saved up your sheckles to buy it (we don’t buy anything on credit ourselves), we’re saying “why deny yourself”?
This past Wednesday, Apple surprised many iPhone & iPad users when it released iOS 12 public beta late in the afternoon, a stable pre-release of their newest operating system, set for official release in mid-September.
Ordinarily, most folks wait for the official release of the latest iOS version, avoiding the notoriously unstable pre-release versions, while many Apple users don’t ever bother to update their operating system — which we would suggest is always a mistake, given that each new iOS release serves to enhance the experience of your phone and tablet, while keeping it safe from intruders and the malware that infects the ‘Net wherever you surf.
The bottom line: iOS beta 12 is phenomenally stable, dramatically enhances your phone’s performance — creating a much more seamless experience of your Apple product — while almost doubling the time available on your device’s battery — these factors alone offer every good reason to download iOS beta 12 now, rather than hold off til September.
Here’s a partial list of iOS 12’s new and indispensable features.
VanRamblings’ advice? Head to the Apple Beta Software Programme page on Apple’s website, sign up, and install the iOS 12 public beta. You’ll be glad you did.
But before you do, before clicking on the link above, for you newbies or scaredy-cats out there (of which I am usually one, so it’s alright, really) let’s walk through the process. When you click on the link above, you’ll be taken to an Apple website page that will ask you to Sign Up or Sign In.
VanRamblings is taking it for granted that you’re already using iTunes, so the sign in is the Apple ID you use for your iCloud or iTunes accounts — easy peasy, nice and easy, with absolutely nothing to worry about. Honest.
Once you’ve signed in, you’ll be taken to a page that looks like the one pictured above. Click on the middle iOs tab so that it’s highlighted in blue.
Scroll down a bit on the page, until you see the following …
Click on enroll your iOS device. Plug your iPhone or iPad into an open USB slot on your computer.
Click on beta.apple.com/profile. Go to your iPhone / iPad, open up Settings, scroll to General, then tap Software Update. You oughta see a “page” on your iPhone or iPad that looks like this …
Now, there may be some rigmarole involved, where Apple wants to confirm that you are who you say you are, which involves them sending you a 6-digit code to your phone or iPad that you’re going to have to type in online — but, really, it ain’t no big deal. Once the download process starts — it takes about 15 – 20 minutes — you’re well on your way to iOS 12 nirvana. After the download process is complete, you’ll be asked to Install the new iOS 12 operating system, which is of course what you want to do.
All and all, it’s a relatively painless process, and once iOS 12 is installed you oughta be thrilled with all the new functionality that will be available to you, the enhanced battery life, the speedier, more seamless experience, and the overall more salutary use that will now be available to you on your iPhone & iPad — which in addition to everything above, has rid the operating system of all the iOS 11 bugs, while dramatically enhancing the security of your iDevices so that hackers can’t break in — and neither can the authorities, cuz Apple has locked up your phone nice and tight to prevent intrusion into your online life when using your various iDevices.
