Since July, I’ve adopted a much more “outdoor” lifestyle. Frequent, often long, bicycle rides, and more recently, uphill hiking. In this rather flat country, that means going up one of the few suitable slopes repeatedly, but we make do with what we have.
One thing that has been brought to my attention in a rather forceful way, is how much smartphones and water don’t mix. My extensive waterproofing measures turned out to be not quite extensive enough.
The underlying phone mechanism seems to be fine, but the touchscreen - it was completely unusable. A major struggle even to put the passcode in. Hit a number repeatedly, nothing happens. Then all of a sudden the number deploys three or four times. Unusable.
Leaving it out under the ceiling fan, and also putting it in a pan of rice, did seem to help. The phone slowly became usable, albeit with difficulty. I began to hope it would make a full recovery.
That hope is gone. The new symptom now is, uncommanded action by the touchscreen. It’s going off and doing things without being asked, like a 737 MAX. It made a call to Malaysia yesterday. Sent email with garbled content. Made a Zoom conference call. Volume spontaneously up and down. Threatening to make emergency calls (I think I stopped it in time, at least no police or ambulance have arrived). Etc.
Apparently, even keeping the phone in standby, so the passcode is needed, does not stop it from doing some things on its own. Someone sent me a WhatsApp message, and it promptly and autonomously called back.
Waiting for a “new” refurbished phone today, same make and model, so I don’t need new cases, bicycle mounts, etc. When it arrives, I’ll switch over the SIM card and all the settings, then try to get the old one repaired. If successful, I’ll have one for every day use, and another for the bicycle. I can get a $10 a month plan (and our dollars are smaller than US$) that should be adequate for bicycle use.
I already have another smartphone with SIM cards from China and the UK.
So a product no one had a few years ago, I may soon have three.