So sad. It appears that the home button on my 1st gen iPhone has gone bad. I took it to an Apple Store, but the Genius said they couldn’t crack it open and fix it; I’d have to buy a new phone. I guess I could ship it to some 3rd party repair shop, but that’s kinda sketchy, and who knows, expensive.
I Googled the home button issue, and a lot of the stories seem to mention corrosion near the home button and its contact with ribbon cable… er, something like that. I think this rust and corrosion thing could be the deal and it seems to be when my problems started. I have never dropped my phone and have been extremely careful with it, but I did get careless with the temperature and humidity.
I left my iPhone in my car during some chilling temperatures, but nothing too cold for the acceptable storage temp mentioned in the iPhone owner’s manual. I’d say it got around 25ºF and was in the cold for 2 hours-ish. Maybe I operated it too early, before proper warming time.
Anyways, I was inside a skatepark, skating a skatingboard, for skating’s sake. I was sweaty – okay I get sweaty while eating steak and steak soup with a side of steak, but, yeah. So I returned to my cold car with sweat steaming off my hot, naked, writhing hair. I grabbed my iPhone and shoved it into my damp, jeans pocket and drove off.
So I think the sweaty, humid air condensed on the iPhone, through any cracks, and on the electronics inside, thus rusting the aforementionedheretofore parts around the Home button. :(
Sad Panda
I only hope that Apple announces and releases a new, suped up iPhone in the next month or so, because this problem seems to get worse, requiring me to really mash down on the Home button and making the handy feature of double-clicking the asleep iPhone to immediately access the iPod controls (love that feature). Fingers crossed.
Although… I will admit that blowing air into the seam of the Home button does seem to alter the amount of pressure I need to use to get it to work, briefly. So maybe the dust build-up theory is possible, but I don’t recall a gradual degradation of the Home button death in my case.
I bought Rolando for the iPhone last week and have been really getting into it. I think the first 3 or 4 levels didn’t excite me too much, but after that point it grows on you and its character shines through.
Make sure you play over a cushiony surface because you’ll be twisting and turning you iPhone/iPod touch all over the place! Or, just don’t play while eating a bucket of fried chicken. But you can’t control yourself now can you? You fat fuck.
Thanks for reading, skinny!
Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig…
Nice. I just noticed that the iTunes Store now has The Simpsons Movie (itunes link) available for rental. I think that’s a pretty nice get, and should entice people to give the service a try. I’m not too concerned that it’s not for sale, only rental. I don’t see the point of buying movies very much. Sure, you may have some ultra favs that you use to define you as a person to the outside world, but even then, how often do you watch Jackass: The Movie?
I’m quite pleased with online rentals, especially since I live in a tiny studio apartment and my 23” iMac is my HD television set, so consequently, I don’t need an TV to view things on my “television”. I still have to try out the service myself, but I think it should be okay for me… me a childless consumer not subjected to the night-time whims of a fussy shorty.
Daring Fireball and David Pogue have simultaneously complained about the 24 hour limit upon initial playing rule. They both have recounted tales of, after a busy, parent-ful day, starting a movie at 8:00 PM and falling asleep an hour later (pussies) – so now they have to continue their movie the next night before the 24 hour period expires (possibly meaning to continue the movie at 7:00 PM if you have an hour left, but that conflicts with the ‘putting the kids down’ schedule so the movie disappears unfinished). I laugh. But I digress… as I sit in my lonely, lifeless apartment.
Daring Fireball has noted that this time limit is more of a sacrifice given up to the cable provider gods than anything else, impressed upon Apple by the movie studios who wish not to upset said cable provider gods (gosh, could Time Warner, Comcast and other providers be anymore of a downer for our party?). BUT as I alluded to earlier, this service is excellent (just pay as you go, and choose on a whim, unlike Netflix) for me and my god.
Ooooh Couchyus, The Provider! Giver of Life! Taker of naps!
And Macworld will begin! Whore-ray!
Macbook Air? iTunes movie rentals? iPhone SDK preview? Apple TV updates? Ubiquitous wi-fi? The Romans bursting into Moscone and crucifying our one true lord and saviour? Mac mini speed bumped?
I’m pretty sure that my iPhone’s cell signal is periodically knocking out my USB, and thus my USB keyboard and mouse.
I don’t have the “required” USB 2.0 and I thought the problem was connecting my iPhone to the computer without USB 2.0 because I would get problems like the aforementioned. But now, I just had the keyboard go out again and the docked iPhone isn’t even connected to the computer! Ghosts! However, I was checking and downloading email to the iPhone while it was docked in the unhooked USB dock (the dock seems to act like an antennae booster so that’s why) and still lost communication with my keyboard.
This could just be the USB in my computer dying, but I haven’t had these troubles before, nor while the iPhone is sitting inactive. The constant in this problem seems to always be the iPhone either accessing EDGE or being connected with my G4 iMac. I guess they really meant it when they said “requires USB 2.0.” But USB should be backwards compatible, so I’m really guessing it’s the cell signal wrecking havoc. Maybe USB 2.0 isn’t susceptible to this glitch. But since I’m living on the fringes of society without USB 2.0, and Apple says it’s required, I guess I’m outta luck for calling tech support.
Get a computer with USB 2.0. Thank you for calling Apple tech support.
[UPDATE] Meh, I think it’s not exactly the cell signal, because I’ve come home to find the keyboard knocked out, while my iPhone was with me. Oh well, a good theory anyhow.
Steve Jobs pitching the “modicum” idea for iMovie ’08
Wow! I just watched video of the Apple Event (Quicktime Link ) from earlier today and couldn’t help but notice that a good idea came to fruition in iMovie ’08. Hmm, where did that come from?
Of course it’s just coincidence, and tons of people probably thought videos deserved the same thing. I’m telling ya, though, I should be working at Cupertino! Sure, I arrive late for work, take long lunch breaks and push my work off onto others, but shit, having a good idea once per decade has gotta put one in the executive lounge, right!?
Left.
(See what I did there? You thought I’d go in one direction, but I totally went in the opposite direction. That’s what good executives do.)
Image from lawgeek’s Flickr account and the EFF
Yep, got an iPhone. Yep, AT&T is the WORST thing ever. I got the phone on the second day, and waited until July 3rd to finally get unlocked and activated! I had a run around with AT&T operators and 1-800 numbers that would probably rank up there with the worst stories.
Way back on day 2 of waiting, I asked for the number to the complaint department. Complaining was my second priority and just getting my damned service going was the first. But you know what? I haven’t gotten around to complaining yet (although I mean to). The iPhone just… just… distracted me. The night I was driving home from a friend’s house and noticed the AT&T service going, I had to pull over and, EDGE be damned, try out Safari, Google Maps, etc. Yes, I’m one of those disgusting people who can be entranced by a device. Look away, I’m hideous. The iPhone is not.
