Phones and Dog Teeth

/ Richard R. Barron / 3 Comments
Max the Chihuahua didn't always have grey hair. He is now 13, but remains my all-time favorite pet.
Max the Chihuahua didn’t always have grey hair. He is now 13, but remains my all-time favorite pet.

Yesterday morning, I took Max the Chihuahua to the vet to have his teeth cleaned. It’s an all-day procedure, so I left him and headed home.

The vet took out these four tiny incisors from Max the Chihuahua.
The vet took out these four tiny incisors from Max the Chihuahua.

In the afternoon on the way to pick him up, I tried to call up Siri on my iPhone 5 to ask Abby what she needed from the store. I found that the home button on the phone wasn’t working, and thought it might be a grain of grit in the case.

I picked up Max. They cleaned his healthy teeth, but removed four tiny incisors (front teeth), which is fairly common for older dogs. He was otherwise healthy for a grey-headed 13 year old Chihuahua.

When I got home I couldn’t get my phone to work at all, and once I pried off the case, I found the whole thing coming apart. I consulted our provider’s web site and found I was due for an upgrade, so today I went to the local store got the newest iPhone, the 7 Plus.

Last night the home button died on my iPhone 5, and today the whole thing basically came apart in my hand when I took it out of its case.
Last night the home button died on my iPhone 5, and today the whole thing basically came apart in my hand when I took it out of its case.

Here are the highs and lows of the situation:

  • I don’t love that phones are so big these days, but I understand that this feature increased their versatility.
  • Though my iPhone 5 was five years old, it wasn’t subject to abuse, and it should not, in my opinion, have disintegrated as it did.

    No phone is my phone until the wallpaper photo is Abby.
    No phone is my phone until the wallpaper photo is Abby.
  • I bought a phone with smaller storage. Many people stuff huge amounts of data on their phones, then end up losing it when the phone is crushed by an ostrich or drowned on a waterslide. They also don’t organize their data very well, and can never find it when they need it. I, on the other hand, download and archive everything, and keep only the bare necessities resident on the phone itself.
  • The vendor had all the colors available, and I chose silver, along with a transparent case, which I think matches my other Apple products well, and makes it easier to find in computer bags and travel bags.
  • I use the cloud effectively, and had no difficulty logging in, and didn’t lose any data, phone numbers, photos or apps.
  • The 7 Plus has a double-camera arrangement, which allows it to mimic the selective focus effect of large-aperture lenses, though only with a fair amount of software fussing and fumbling. It wasn’t why I got the phone, but I expect I’ll find an occasion or two when I will use it.

Abby has an iPhone 6S Plus, so we now both have fairly large phones that are fast, modern, and capable.

The iPhone 7 Plus features this double camera arrangement, which I briefly tested and found it worked as promised, but that it was probably an overrated selling point.
The iPhone 7 Plus features this double camera arrangement, which I briefly tested and found it worked as promised, but that it was probably an overrated selling point.
Apple calls their two-camera selective focus feature "depth effect." On the left is the untouched image, and on the right is the "depth effect" image.
Apple calls their two-camera selective focus feature “depth effect.” The phone saves both versions. On the left is the unretouched image, and on the right is the “depth effect” image.

3 Comments

  1. I, too, have a new iPhone, but only because of an unfortunate “water” accident. It’s still the 6, but they only had the 64G so here I am with all this storage. Transfer and activation were a dream, and they shipped the replacement in less than 24 hours. About the 7: does it really not have a headphone jack? ‘Cause that’s how we play YouTube songs through our car speakers.

Comments are closed.