I got caught in a terrific rainstorm just now and my iPhone 4 got all wet in the pocket of my windbreaker. When I took it out the flash was stuck on - as in, the light on the back is continually shining, like a distress signal.
At first the screen worked normally, but insisted on being shut off (the "slide to shut down" thing appeared unbidden). This happened a couple of times. I left it for a while to dry, but the light kept shining.
For a while the phone became unresponsive - holding down the little button on the top right shoulder didn't do anything. Then, as I was on the train back to New Cross Gate, the screen turned on again - first as a very narrow vertical bar, grey in colour. Then it opened up into a lush blue pattern of vertical stripes, otherworldly and beautiful. I turned it over and the flash light was starting to pulse and fade, like the spirit was leaving the body. I flicked the "silent mode" switch on the left shoulder and saw that the phone was still able to vibrate in response - I did this a couple of times, as though using a defibrillator.
As I got home it suddenly made a text message sound, but the screen was still just a blue pattern, getting darker. It's sitting next to me now, the light still burning brightly in its final moments. I wonder what it is thinking about? Its life must be flashing before its eyes - its 14-year-old mother back in Shenzhen, its adolescence in San Francisco, where it was designed. Losing its eyesight through a scratched lens, and being replaced by a newer model. Shipped off to London for retirement, a period of quarantine before being unlocked by AT&T, and then a couple of years of faithful service before dying in a flat in New Cross.
Obviously this is a massive ball ache, but I feel like it's getting a dignified death.
Haha, my mobile company (of course Virgin: picked up a pay as you go in 2000 in Virgin Megastore, been with them ever since) has finally allowed iPhones. On Thursday a new, bouncing baby iPhone will be delivered by stork. I can't help but feel I've rushed into this, and what I needed was to continue with my emergency old Nokia. I'm not ready to be an iPhone parent.
ReplyDeleteP.S. That account of electronic failure was surprisingly moving.
ReplyDeleteGiven that I've never really liked this phone (I preferred the old iPhone 3G), I was surprised how moved I felt.
ReplyDeleteNot really sure what to do now - there's no getting around it, smartphones are very useful things to have and iPhones are the best of the bunch. Apple are annoying, you have to be wise to their tricks, but yeah I think I'm just going to have to suck it up and pay my Apple tax.
Re: iPhone parents, my midwife mum is virulently against parents using iPhones in front of their kids, she reckons it will fuck them up and give them all kinds of attachment issues. That commandment about never checking your phone in front of people goes double for your kids! Although I guess your kids are what, 12 and 10 by now? They'll be fine.