I know that it’s not Saturday, when Linda G. Hill posts her Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. But as you’ll read below, I wrote some stream of consciousness thoughts as I was waiting for a new battery to be installed in my iPhone. Here is what I wrote:
I’m sitting in my car outside of an cellphone repair store having the battery in my iPhone replaced. Remember the good old days when you could just open up the back of your cellphone, pull out the old battery and replace it with a brand new one? Well, those days are long gone. Now you need to go to a store that specializes in repairing cellphones just to replace a worn battery. They said it would take about an hour. Sheesh!
But I had no choice, really. The battery on my iPhone was dropping below a 20% charge by early afternoon each day. Given that I spend much of my waking time on my iPhone, that was unacceptable. So it was either spending more than a grand to buy a new iPhone or going to a shop that can install a new battery in an iPhone and having them replace the old battery with a new one for about 10% of the cost of a new iPhone. No brainer, right?
Right now I’m composing this post on an old iPod. Not an old iPhone or an old iPad, but an old iPod. Remember those? I’m offline because my iPod has no cellular capabilities and there’s no WiFi connection in this car or anywhere near where I’m sitting.
I really feel isolated. I can’t even call or text my wife to let her know that it will take an hour for them to crack open my iPhone, remove the old battery, and replace it with a new one! And I can’t access wordpress.com to draft this post because, again, no access to the internet. No newsfeed, no Google. Just me, sitting in my car tapping away at the virtual keypad on my ancient iPod!
The good news, though, is that I was able to pair my iPod via Bluetooth to my car’s sound system, so I can serenade myself with my vast collections of songs in iTunes on my iPod.
Only a half hour left. I hope you don’t mind helping me kill time until my new battery has been instaled and I can get my iPhone back with its brand new battery. I can’t wait.
On an entirely different note, today is Sadje’s birthday. She’s 61. So why don’t you stop by and wish her a happy birthday? I’m sure she’d appreciate it.
15 minutes left. You know what? I’m going to go inside and sit in the lobby of that repair shop. I bet they have WiFi there.
Post script
My iPhone was done, new battery installed, early. Yay. And it seems to be working fine. It’s 1:50 pm and I’ve still got 75% of battery life left.
But I did notice one thing that gives me pause. This notice keeps popping up on my iPhone’s screen:
Uh oh. Did I make a mistake?
This, That, and the Other 
I just watched a 17-minute video on how to replace the battery on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G which is what I have, and I think I will have that professionally done when my battery dies and it is a complex operation, not like my previous cell phones.
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I think most of today’s cellphones (or at least smartphones) require a professional to replace the batteries.
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Tale well told, thanks. I have to let professionals do any/everything.
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so glad you were able to get a new battery! What does the notice say? the one that keeps popping up?
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It says, “Unable to determine if your iPhone battery is a genuine Apple part. This could be because the part is non-genuine, not functioning as expected, or the installation is incomplete.”
I think the battery might not be a genuine Apple battery. And you know how Apple feels about that.
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I’d be inclined to find a way to report it to Apple… unless you got a special deal (and you don’t think a non-genuine will hurt the phone).
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Yep, I know exactly how Apple feels about that ha ha well I hope it doesn’t keep popping up every time you turn on the phone are use your phone ☮️💛💛
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I tried to get the back off my phone. No way. Internet guide? Still no way…..I long for the simple old days….
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I just spent another few hours trying to find out why the technician from spectrum/charter didn’t show up and why they have a phone number under my name that we disconnected at least 15 years ago and as far as I know, NO one is using and if they are, it ain’t us.
I think these people are going to drive me over that tipping point between sanity and madness. I can feel the tentacles of crazy reaching for my frontal lobes.
I hope your phone still works tomorrow.
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I hope so, too.
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Thanks Fandango for the shout out. This happens when the battery is replaced. Apple doesn’t accept parts made by other companies. Don’t worry it’ll work fine.
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Thanks, Sadje. I hope so. And I hope you had a great birthday!
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You’re welcome. It was a wonderful day. Thanks
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I think my phone may need a new battery as it seems to run out of charge in just a few hours. It’s not a very old phone. I got it a few months ago but it’s not an expensive phone. Probably has a cheap battery. So what to do new battery or new phone? Hope yours still works OK with the non standard part.
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Thanks. So far, so good.
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What’s done is done 😊
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I loved reading this.
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Thanks.
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I hope you did not get a partially installed battery… although I do know Apple is kind of picky about genuine Apple products only.
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