Adobe Firefly image by author of a phone falling from the sky
The sky is falling!
Sorry, no, it’s iPhone sales that have dipped into “Sell off your Apple Stock!” territory. Well, for some folks, anyway, and the stock price dropped from around $196 to $181 in a week. I didn’t sell any of mine.
Mark Gurman said this in his free newsletter: “Apple Inc. has finally acknowledged a hard reality: The US smartphone market is mired in a slump.”
Poor Apple, on the verge of bankruptcy again. People need to help them by buying new phones!
I did my part last year by buying an iPhone 14 Pro. However, I don’t expect to buy another phone for at least five years. Why would I? It’s a great phone and I almost exclusively only use it for CarPlay when I’m driving, plus maybe a few pictures of things around the house. One of these days I want to use it to take some better pictures of my coin collection, but that would involve pulling them out of the safe deposit box and I have a feeling that may never happen. The bank is over four miles away!
Phones, particularly iPhones, have become pretty darn good and they don’t change all that much year to year. Yes, the 14 got emergency satellite, but what could be coming that would make me and a few hundred million other folks trade up? I bet there are a lot of people at Apple worrying their overpaid little heads about that!
No need to fret, Apple, the iPod Retouch is your answer. Make a new iPod Touch line with all the features of a phone but no cell service! Make cheap ones and Pro ones, just like you do now, but leave out the cellular chip.
Crazy idea, right? Apple discontinued the iPod Touch a few years back because nobody wanted it anymore — well, some somebodies did, but not enough.
Funny, though, those suckers are on eBay for over $300. Just sayin’.
I hardly ever use my phone as a cell phone. I’ve heard that a lot of younger people never use their phones that way: it’s all What’s-a-thingy and Signally or whatever the latest internet talkie-talkie app is. Most oldies like me couldn’t imagine not calling the pharmacy to renew a prescription, but I do it online. And my wife always asks, “What did they say?”
Why call anyway? Very few businesses answer their phones, and if they do, you go to voicemail hell. It’s far easier and faster to use whatever internet method they offer. And the ones that don’t offer anything? Get off your horse, Gramps, we have Uber now!
How hard would it be for Verizon, T-Mobile, et al. to tie the internet to voice? THEY DO IT NOW! That’s the Wi-Fi calling option on your iPhone or Android thingy. Your call goes through those internet pipe things but still gets to the old phone lines. Amazing, huh?
Apple shouldn’t be wasting money paying royalties for cellular modem chips and paying engineers to develop their own. Convince one cellular company to buy in to these no modem iPhones and the world would follow.
Cellular modems would be like your appendix: maybe it was useful once, but it’s a waste of money now.
Oh, oh, danger Will Robinson! What about emergencies! Duh, skip back a few paragraphs; have you already forgotten about satellites?
Of course Verizon, the T-boy, and everyone else make a lot of money from cell services, so there would be resistance, but think about it: isn’t this inevitable? Don’t cell modems feel a bit vestigial?
A Telegram From Mark Twain to My Great-Grandfather We have some written history and some oral history. Do they tell the same story? Anthony Lawrence (Pcunix) Photo by author — one of my most favorite books One of my cousins is very interested in genealogy. He has a lot of fun with it, perhaps because he often visits or has extensive phone contact with cousins he finds through his research. I’m not disinterested in my ancestors and living relatives. Still, I also realize that we are all cousins; for every famous person we might find a close connection with, dozens of rapscallions and worse are just as closely related. I also tend to question family lore. For example, my paternal great grandfather was an artist of some minor renown. The history passed down to me has him involved with many things, including: From Wikitree https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lawrence-5332 .. an interior designer for the White House under McKinley, the Toronto Parliament Building, the Boston Public Li...
A Major League Ballplayer Who Quoted Shakespeare at the Umpire And who happened to be my mother’s uncle Anthony Lawrence (Pcunix) HISTORY My mother’s uncle wrote this book Lloyd Garrison “Chick” Davies was an unusual baseball player . He only played four widely separated seasons in the major leagues and four more in the minors, but he did distinguish himself playing for the New York Giants in the 1926 World Series, leading the National League with 6 saves and 29 games finished. He also happened to be my great-uncle . See below for an update that explains that he did not play in the 1926 World Series but did play against Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Oh, and he wrote a book about pitching . I vaguely remember seeing a copy of it when his sister, my grandmother, lived with us after her husband died. I wasn’t interested then in pitching or great-uncles I had never met; I wish now that I had been. My quest I recently bought a well-worn copy of ...
My Great-Grandfather’s Toy Cannon I’m not sure that “toy” is the right word, however, that is the word my father and his mother used. Anthony Lawrence (Pcunix) History The “toy” cannon The picture above is a Lawrence family heirloom. I’m not sure that “toy” is the right word, however, that is the word my father and his mother used. I know that it was a gift to Herbert Myron Lawrence, my father’s grandfather. My father gave it to me and I, in turn, have given it to my oldest daughter. HML engraving I do not know how old Herbert was when he received this. He was born in 1851 and died in 1937, which does not identify the time frame of the gift. However, my father did say it was a gift, not something he bought for himself. That could be a misunderstanding. The cannon is engraved with HML initials. One reference I found asserts: In fact, toy cannons date back to the American Civil War and before, and not only were they popular toys for children, they were remarkably danger...
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