Tag: iPhone

If you replace the screen of your iPhone 11 with one of a third party, Apple will nag you about it

If you ever want to replace the screen of your iPhone 11, 11 Pro, or 11 Pro Max, Apple won’t stop nagging you about it.

For the first four days, a notification asking you to verify that you have a genuine Apple display will show. After those days have passed, the message will be moved to the Settings app for fifteen days. After that, the warning will become less intrusive, only appearing in the About section in Settings.

Don’t think that you can buy a parts only iPhone 11 which still has a genuine Apple screen and swap the screen from that either. Apple has special tools which pair the new display to the iPhone to verify it was repaired by them or an authorised repair service so you’ll still get that same message even if you or an unauthorised repair service use an Apple screen.

A similar thing happened last year with the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR which made third party battery replacements a lot harder than before. Even if the battery you or an unauthorised repair service installed was a genuine Apple one, it all came down to whether or not Apple or an authorised repair service installed the battery. Otherwise, you’d still be locked out of accessing battery health features. I’m not sure whether this is present on the 11 series phones as well.

An iPhone 11 screen replacement from Apple without an AppleCare+ plan costs £196, whilst screen replacements for the iPhone 11 Pro is £282, and an official Pro Max screen replacement costs £326. If you have an AppleCare+ plan, you get a replacement for £25, although it does add a significant amount of money onto the price tag for your iPhone to buy AppleCare+ along with it.

However, if you’re lucky enough to still be on iOS 13.0 and not 13.1 or newer on your iPhone 11, you’re unaffected by the genuine screen issue since this feature appears to only be present on 13.1 and newer. So, if you want to futureproof your iPhone 11 or have dropped pevious phone and cracked their screens before and are worried about doing the same with your 11, install the tvOS beta profile to block updates from reaching your iPhone. That way if you want to replace your screen or have an unauthorised repair service to do it, you can and you won’t get nagged about it and you also won’t get nagged to update iOS. But avoiding iOS updates does come with its disadvantages: no more security or bug fixes, app support to get worse over time, and also missing out on all the features newer iOS versions include.

What do you think about Apple’s attitude towards third-party repairs? Leave your opinion in the comments.

-Chas 😎

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Apple no longer signing iOS versions other than 13.1.2 and 13.1, preventing downgrades

If you’ve heard of how much of a buggy mess iOS 13 is at the moment to the point where Apple have already released 3 minor updates for it after its release, you may have been planning to downgrade to iOS 12.4.1. But now you can’t.

Apple have stopped signing all iOS versions for iOS 13 capable iPhones except iOS 13.1 and 13.1.2. Why they stopped signing iOS 13.1.1 and kept signing 13.1 is unknown.

Also, for the devices that are now stuck on iOS 12.x versions of iOS because Apple deemed that they are incapable of running iOS 13, iOS 12.4.1 has gone unsigned for them too meaning that only the exclusive iOS 12.4.2 remains signed for those devices.

This means that no signed iOS versions that are publicly jailbreakable can be downgraded to anymore. However, with the checkm8 BootROM exploit compatible with all iPhones from the 4S to the X, that shouldn’t last long.

What iOS version are you currently using on your iPhone and how are you getting on with it? Tell me in the comments section!

-Chas 😎

Most used phones in my collection

I have many phones in my collection, as well as iPods and tablets, although I am still looking to expand my tablet collection (Nexus 7 and iPad 1st gen are tablets of which I am planning to buy at some point). This blog post, however, is about the phones (and one iPod) of which I use the most often. Please note that my Galaxy S9 does not count since it is not a backup/collection phone at the moment and is currently still my daily driver, not to mention that I am writing this blog post using DeX on it so I’d say it’d be quite hard to get pictures of anyway.

iPhone 4S

This iPhone 4S has since been downgraded to iOS 8.4.1 using the iOS 6 OTA method since I purchased it on iOS 9.3.5. Most of the time I have to resort to downloading old, previously compatible versions of apps such as Pages, WordPress, and Opera Mini, but some apps still support iOS 8 even on their current version. iOS 8 runs fairly well on the 4S, but not as good as iOS 6 did. I managed to buy this iPhone for £25 although it did originally have charging issues which were fixed by the shop for free when I brought it back in.

iPhone 6S

I was given this iPhone 6S for free and it had a shattered screen and at the time it ran iOS 11.0.1, but Touch ID did not work and even if it did, considering how unstable iOS 11.x was, I would probably have upgraded anyway.  Upgrading to iOS 12.2 (latest iOS at the time, I think) fixed Touch ID. I tried replacing the screen myself but a cable connecting the screen to the board snapped and in the end I got it professionally repaired and decided that if I wanted to start repairing phones, I should start out on less complicated ones, such as the iPhone 4 and old Samsung phones. I have not attempted repairing another phone yet but at some point I will but it definitely won’t be anything post-4S or post-S4. When iOS 13 was released as a public beta, I downloaded it but later switched to the developer beta instead and am currently on 13.1, dev beta 4.

iPod Nano 7th generation

I bought this iPod Nano 7th generation for £75 from a local second hand gaming shop.  I use it mainly for listening to FM radio, as well as listening to music and downloaded videos on the go.

Galaxy J3 (2016)

I was given this phone for free and the first thing I did was install LineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1.2 Nougat) on it. It now runs fast but it does have a couple of scratches on the screen and doesn’t vibrate when someone calls or I get a notification. Whether this is a universal J3 (2016) issue, an individual hardware issue, or an issue with the ROM I’m using I don’t know. But this made me realise that this is an unreliable backup phone and my backup SIM card goes to… my 6S.

Upcoming devices for my collection

I do plan on expanding my collection in the future. Who knows what good offers on phones I will find. My tablet collection is also lacking with only one tablet in it at the moment, two if you count my daily tablet driver.

  • ASUS Nexus 7
  • iPad 1st generation
  • Galaxy S II
  • Galaxy A3 (2015)
  • iPhone 3G
  • iPhone 3GS

My plans for the Nexus 7 is to test it on all of its available Android versions to see how slower/faster it gets as it is updated. For the iPad 1st generation, I plan on installing an old version of OneNote on it as well as Apple productivity apps and using it as a notepad and portable but fairly large productivity device. For the Galaxy S II, I plan on debloating it to make it look like stock Android 4.0 rather than TouchWiz. For the A3, I honestly don’t know what my plans are for that yet but I have heard of some good custom ROMs for it. For the iPhone 3G, I plan on downgrading it to iOS 2.x, getting a box for it, and putting it on display as a collector’s item. As for the 3GS, a downgrade to iOS 4.1 seems likely and then I’ll test out some old apps and games.

What devices do YOU own and what do you use them for? What phones, tablets, and iPods do you plan on adding to your collection in the future and why? Leave your answers down below in the comments.

Hope you enjoyed this post!

-Chas