(Update 11-11-2023) I got the new iPhone 15. In the process of setting it up. So far fairly smooth, in terms of transferring the content over from my old iPhone 12. The only minor hiccup is the eSim (Wikipedia, Apple) on the new phone: I went inside the Mint Mobile app and did it. I was using the good old physical SIM (nano-SIM) on iPhone 12. I am aware of the eSIM, but I didn’t jump into it with the iPhone 12. Now iPhone 15 phased out the physical SIM completely: outside of China though. In China, the iPhone 15 sold there will still have physical SIM, from what I heard.
On Monday I am going to call the IT support at my company to get the Microsoft Authenticator and RSA SecurID work. Interestingly, the Google Authenticator allows me to export from old device, and import them into the new device – pretty slick.
(Update 11-10-2023) Now it seems the phone will arrive on Monday 11/13/2023 pm per Chase. This also means my 13-year-old will likely get her phone (meaning my current iPhone 12) on Tuesday. I asked her: does everybody (at LMS) have an iPhone? She said yes (maybe some exaggeration? I don’t know). She said she missed a few text messages 🙂 I told her I got my 1st cell phone when I was 29, a Nokia candy bar phone. It was the year 2000, it looks something like this, I think mine was bigger and not as sleek. I remember I bought it at the Best Buy store on St. Charles Rock Road, and with the Southwestern Bell wireless contract in the fall of 2000 after I started to work in St. Louis. Southwestern Bell Wireless is a part of AT&T after many mergers and acquisitions. This used to be their HQ here in STL.
My plan of iPhone migration as of now (I track it via a google doc)
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iPhone 15 coming Monday 11-13-2023
Got the case (Apple MegSafe, Amazon, some discount)- Continue to clean up current iPhone 12; also back up to the iCloud (later restored the new phone from iCloud backup)
- Make sure Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator and SecurID continue to work on the new phone
- Tested iPhone 15 out before giving the iPhone 12 to kid
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(Original) Thread on X here:
I was going to buy the iPhone 15 for a while: but my daughter’s iPhone XR accident accelerated it.
My iPhone history
2009: iPhone 3G in January 2009 (I gave it to my wife, for the most part, I started doing iPhone app dev at the time – “In July I signed up for the Apple iOS developer program, paid the $99 annual fee and became more seriously on iOS app development. I have thought about it and bought a Macbook and iPhone 3G back in Jan 2009…“). || Btw, today 11-10-2023 I came across this video on YT, I Spent $40,000 to Unbox a Sealed Original iPhone!, by famous YouTuber Marques Brownlee. This reminds me of all the things about the iPhone 3G including Jailbreak: maybe I should not sold it on eBay and should have kept it a collector item. Related note: the viewership and the revenue from Marques channel seem much bigger than I thought earlier, just by looking at how much he spent (bidding) for the unsealed original 2007 iPhone.
Those two (iPhone 3g and iPhone 4) are the only 2 contract phone I bought. By contract phone I mean we as consumer signed up a 2 year contract with the carrier, and we pay a monthly fee (usually not cheap) for the plan (both call/text and data).
I briefly had an iPhone 4s for work (2012 to early 2013).
2013: I bought an unlocked iPhone 5s after iPhone 4: Back To iPhone. Also this: How I Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone 5s And Transfer To H2O Wireless.
Between fall 2015 and early 2019, I had an iPhone 6 from work.
2019: for my own use, finally I bought an iPhone XR (link to eBay) in Oct 2019 (I returned the work iPhone 6 in early 2019) from Apple. This is the phone my 13-year-old broke this week. I sold iPhone 5s before that. Also note I used Amazon Fire Phone between 2015 and 2016.
2021 and 2023: in June 2021, I bought a purple iPhone 12 (eBay link) using Chase Ultimate Rewards (Chase Sapphire) in June 2021. This evening (11-03-2023) I just ordered a green iPhone 15. Interestingly, the points number is the same: both are 72,447 points. The only difference is last time I used points only, this time I didn’t have that many points so it’s a combination of points and cash (credit card). One minor tip is I probably should conserve the Chase Sapphire ultimate rewards points: I used it for “lightning to HDMI cable” and AirPods 3 redemptions recently. Probably should use other means for those.
If we count the iPhone 3G (which my wife used primarily and I used it for dev purpose), I personally have bought 5 iPhones. The first two iPhones have contract (both AT&T). And the last 3 are unlocked iPhones. For data plans, I used AT&T, H2O and now I am using MintMobile (recently bought by T-Mobile).
Photos
I backed up most of my photos from iPhone to iCloud, especially the recent ones. For the old ones, I backed them up to an old hard drive. And it’s slow to get to. Ideally, I like to clean up the photos (deleting duplicates, etc.) and continue using iCloud.
Another Android phone I used
Also Nexus One (Google)
I didn’t use them for long. Went back to the iPhone eventually, just like the Amazon Fire Phone.
PS: Marques Brownlee (famous YouTuber) has a good review on YouTube for iPhone 15.