It is not really honest to add the electricity used by wifi routers and cell towers as part of a criticism of iPhones or any other specific model of phone, because the towers and wifi weren't built specifically for them and would still be there even if there were no iPhones. You're not creating that burden for yourself or for anyone else by buying a phone.
I was in a second hand Mac store the other day and picked up a couple of these solar phone chargers. They were in the dollar bin, got em both for 2 bucks. So, I could if I wanted, run my iPhone off nothing but sunlight if I want/need to.
How do those things work? I've been eyeballing several variations for awhile, the ones I have been considering are the portable battery pack that has a solar charger widget and various connector plugs for on the go battery juice when your stuff is in need of a kick. If it was something I could set in the sun for a bit and charge the pack for free, awesome. My feeling is that I will end up charging the bricks from the wall and carrying them with me instead. Also there's concern about leaving my electronics in the direct sunlight for any length of time, and the longer you make the cables the more loss you'll have when transferring power, so that's a quandary in and of itself.
The unit has an internal battery pack that can be charged from the wall or charged standalone in sunlight. Once the unit's battery is charged you can plug in your phone and it will transfer the charge to the phone.
And bringing back a dead thread is...... the iPhone5s. Yes friends, another iPhone has been gifted me and I have chosen to activate it, as the specs on it seem to promise better performance than my cheap droid phone. For the uninitiated, I usually do not purchase my phones, they are handed off to me by other people who are upgrading and looking to toss their current handset, or gifted to me (this time from Mom <3). The handset has iOS 9.01 on it and it's begging to be upgraded to 9.02. Based on my last iPhone upgrade experience, and considering the phone is working without the update, I have downloaded and will be hanging onto the update for now. Standard loadout applies, PvZ, NFS, CoC, some tunes, no videos (because getting them on there is a pain in the bleeping arse), and I have to admit the camera takes really clean snaps. To it's credit, this one only took about four hours and some minor arm twisting to activate and put into motion. The last one took weeks (no that's not an exaggeration). Good Times
why does it take you so long to activate? i can pull an iphone out of the box and have it loaded and ready to go in like 15 minutes.
Well when someone has used the phone previously, AT&T will not re-use the existing sim card, and I don't usually keep them handy, so that required a trip to the AT&T store. Everytime I have received an iPhone, it has required me to download and execute an iOS update prior to allowing me to flush and reset the phone. While this would normally be a non-issue, with the 4S I had endless problems obtaining the update in the first place, and then the phone was sketchy and ended up bricking itself. This new one went rather smoothly, but I still had to run to the AT&T store to obtain a Sim card for it, and then update it, and then load it out. So I guess a better way to describe it is time from obtaining it until actually putting it into service . Once I've jumped through the hoops, the actual activation process was a breeze. I'm actually quite happy with the 5S. So far it seems to perform much better where getting a signal was usually an issue. Now it seems not to be so much. I've never been a fan of iTunes but I have other devices for media. And the camera is pretty impressive, taking very nice photos that are crisp and clean, with good night vision.
I am getting ready to retire my Note 2. I will wait for the Note 6 to come out, I think, and hope it isn't moving in the same direction of the other Galaxy phones that don't have replaceable batteries and that lock down the kernel. The Note 5 is stupid. The only advantage over the Note 4 is more RAM and slightly faster processor speed. Then there is a list of disadvantages a mile long. So, if the 6 is also getting the iphone makeover like the other Galaxies, I will just get a 4 for super cheap and abandon the Note line. I really love my Note too... I hate iphones for having such a bad influence on good phones! >:K
I agree, the non-replaceable battery is a real pain in the ass. You can order replacement batteries for the iPhones, and I have a toolkit for tearing them down (my brother has broken a few screens, which are amazingly simply to replace), but it's not exactly a get stoned and have a good time project. By installing batteries in such a way as to negate user replacement, they ensure the phone has a limited service cycle, and that the majority of users will be forced to upgrade to the next generation, if for no other reason than to fix the issue of a failing battery. (That's why they offer trade ins, so they can send the old ones in, replace the batteries, polish them up and sell them as refurbished Go-Phones and such, or ship them to third world countries that are still behind the tech curve by half a decade). I find that by the time the device has run through a battery, it's time to replace the device. The exception being laptops, and more and more it's looking like that's becoming an obsolete issue as well. For devices that use USB charging, external battery packs are cheap and plentiful, so I carry a handful for emergency power but if you had a device that you couldn't get a battery for and powered over USB that's an option. I have a nanorouter I use on pen tests and it will run off of a 4k Lion brick for about three days. So it's ideal for strapping to the back of the nanorouter and slipping it into a ceiling tile, open vent, behind a book on a shelf, etc. (I do not endorse using anything I post for evildoing..... it's all on you ). I lost track of what in the hell I was typing about, so I'l just stop typing now.
Once again reviving a fun thread.... it's the iPhone 6s 128GB in Rose gold. The price was right at free, another totally badass hand me down from mom. Super nice handset, the setup was quick and clean, no bulky iOS downloads required. I have yet to load it out. It needs armor. I feel uncomfortable carrying around a 900 handset without armor. @.@
Impressive device. It's fast, responsive, clean and has vibrant colors. In addition, you have to have respect for Apple and their handling of the FBI. http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/ Fuckin aye Tim. Good times
At first, I thought it was precious how incredibly naive the feds must be if they think they can build a back door into one of the most popular modern computer devices-- hence one of the biggest targets-- and no one but them would figure out how to take advantage of it. Then I was purely outraged by their utter arrogance as my brain begin to follow the logic thread. And finally, sadness. These are the fucking morons that are protecting us against foreign computer threats? We are sooooo fucked, and we don't even know it yet. All my computers probably have both the Chinese and Russian back doors installed, which the feds didn't think to look for since there is apparently honor amongst hackers to not look for or use other people's doors. I don't even have to touch the implications against our constitutional rights in order to feel a full range of emotions about this.
