ON FIXING AN IPHONE (GUEST CONTRIBUTION)
This post was contributed to ROYGBYTE.com by my dear friend Liam. A
few weeks back we spent an afternoon together fixing his old iPhone,
which had begun to show symptoms of a dying battery (stanky smell,
expanded enclosure). Instead of throwing the phone away, Liam was
adament that it should be repaired ("should" as in: there is a duty to
repair the device, and there is the possibility of doing
so). Initially, Liam brought it to a phone repair store. Oddly, the
clerk told Liam the phone was not worth saving (this we both found
ironic coming from a phone repair guy). But Liam, being the thoughtful
lad he is, decided to buy a battery and do the replacement himself. So
we got together in the garage and set out to perform the first step of
the repair: removing the battery. Liam sent a lovely reflection on the
experience which is included below along with three pictures from the
afternoon.
IMG The clean room
On fixing my iPhone
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I have an old dinning table, a simple thing really, four legs and a
flat surface. The table belonged to my Mother who went through a mid
century modern phase. The table is a lovely thing in its detailing
chamfered legs, crisp scandi inspired lines and of course boatloads of
memories.
Despite the clear reverence I have for the table it has been through a
lot with at least two major fixes. The first being by my father and I
after inappropriate storage of the table lead to water damage (still
visible today). The second because of the hard use that comes with the
life of a college student always on the move.
The table now sits in my kitchen acting as sort of island. I have
plans for a third future refurbishment to finally bring the table back
to the condition it might have enjoyed when my mother first purchased
it some fifty years ago in the 1970s
Most recently the table was used to re-assemble an iPhone that
suffered a battery malfunction. This was a repair I started with
Scarlett in her garage and finished with my old table and a $39 ifixit
kit. This iPhone is from 2017. It is only 6 years old yet it is
obsolete. I had held no nostalgia for it yet it stores all of my
memories, neatly organized chronologically.
I don’t understand how it works, like I do the table. I wonder if it
is understanding or if the reader will let me use ‘tactility’ that
lets us build nostalgia, reverence and true memory in association with
objects.
The phone itself is mass-produced not unlike the table yet at a
different scale. Not in the tens of thousands but rather in the
millions. The interface easily integrates into my being; cyborg
operation instructions on table refinishing beamed into my kitchen, my
brain.
Yet this tool to many is a consumable thing to be throw away. A device
designed to last the length of a cellular contract. It is not
something to be repaired or loved. But we should--we should demand
that these material objects have some sort of longevity. Nothing lasts
forever but things should last a lifetime.
IMG Disassembled iPhone with screws (incorrectly) labelled
I guess we should understand our tools, or at least be allowed to have
others understand our tools and repair them for us. Finally maybe it’s
the message this time and not the medium: that software can never have
that tactile feedback unless you understand it and can augment it much
like I have repaired my mothers table.
/Liam/
Errata
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I feel it is worth mentioning that we cooked a delicious lunch
together in preparation for the repair: sizzled tofu with sushi rice,
veg, and spicy mayo.
/Scarlett/
IMG Tofu bowl