Apple Downs and Ups

I've been an enthusiastic user of Apple products since the mid-80s, but this one drives me to despair. It's the umpteenth charger for my MacBooks developing a worn-through wire. If it's not at the magnetic plug end then it's right off the transformer or both. For a company that prides itself on quality this is quite a letdown.

But the vast majority of their products are well-designed and well-thought-out though sometimes becoming less evident in further development. Above is my first iPhone which I used for 16 years before finally buying another one due to too many people telling me I sounded very faint over the phone. But it still serves as my morning alarm and to play music (no bluetooth involved - good old-fashioned earbuds on a wire which can't get lost!). I've added padding to a (genuine) WW2 US Army first aid kit pouch to keep it safe. The start screen image is a sign seen on board a WW2 Royal Navy destroyer in Chatham dockyards.

This iPhone is the very first model that came out, obtained from a client/friend who'd brought it back from Florida before they were available over here and jailbroken by a technically-gifted colleague. My eldest reminded me that when I just had it, I took it out when I picked him up at a summer camp in the Ardennes - first all the other children surrounded us to look at it, and then all their parents did the same because nobody had seen one before. A decade and a half later, if one of my digital colleagues showed round newcomers at the agency they would tell them to ask me to show my phone - they would marvel at this technological relic still in use!