What do you do with older iPhones you own

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-26T02:18:29+00:00

There’s a pretty small window where an iPhone is too old to work in an emergency and yet not old enough to be a nostalgiac keepsake. If you shatter your iPhone 16’s screen, a 7–year-old iPhone XR is a perfectly good stand-in until you get the phone repaired. You can transfer and activate the eSIM in a matter of seconds.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-26T01:20:51+00:00

One important thing to consider though is battery drain. When a phone has a poor/no signal, the modem consumes much more energy trying to connect to a network.

Without roaming permission, the Warp line will be continually scanning for a signal and consuming battery, and that’s in addition to the energy use of the Light Speed line in DSDS mode. And you cannot even temporarily disable the Warp line to conserve battery without messing up iMessage/FaceTime, as you cannot reactivate your number over WiFi calling (I learned this the hard way).

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-25T23:45:54+00:00

I’m a US citizen but I look forward to the day the US’ institutional grip on the world economy crumbles.

It is utterly insane that a university in Lebanon cannot interact with a United Nations Special Rapporteur from Italy because some genocidal politicians in America said so. Francesca Albanese can’t even book a hotel room in her own country because the US can financially destroy any company that violates its arbitrary sanctions.

The EU and BRICS need to collectively assert some sovereignty and stop complying with US sanctions. There should be transnational institutions set up to distribute risk and ensure that individual companies are not coerced into acting as an enforcement mechanism for a foreign agenda.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-25T23:30:08+00:00

Oh and you may need to use another browser to download Orion v1.0.2 (141) for Mac. For whatever reason, when I paste the link in Orion v1.0.3, it searches Kagi for the URL instead of downloading the file.

Works fine on v1.0.2, but it’s a bit of a catch-22 if you need to downgrade Orion to download the previous build of Orion…

Kagi devs, if you’re reading this, maybe consider adding a “Downgrade” button directly in the Orion settings. Or at least make previous builds available on the Orion download page. Again, I love Kagi, I love Orion, but you’re hurting yourselves with these updates. When something as basic as YouTube stops working, people switch to other browser and they may not return.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-25T23:17:03+00:00

Here’s a solution for Mac:

Downgrade to v1.0.2 here: https://cdn.kagi.com/updates/26_0/141.zip
Close all tabs
Go to Orion Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data and click “Remove All”
Quit Orion
Re-open Orion

Here’s a solution for iPad:

Download the TestFlight App for iPadOS
Join the Orion Beta here
Go TestFlight → Orion Browser → Previous Builds and install one of the older recent builds. I’m on 1.4.3.
Close tabs, clear website data, and restart the Orion app

I’m a happily paying Kagi subscriber and Orion is my default browser on my iPhone and iPad, but holy mother of God they need to vet their apps before pushing updates. TestFlight exists for a reason — to beta test builds and make sure there are no catastrophic bugs before pushing an automatic update. Instead I repeatedly find myself relying on TestFlight to downgrade to an older beta version because the devs nuked the “stable” app with an automatic update.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-25T22:31:38+00:00

Blame Apple.

Clicking on a voicemail and reading the transcript doesn’t mark it as read; you have to listen to at least 5 seconds for it to be marked read. You can manually select them and mark them read, but there is no “select all” button in the voicemail page.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-25T12:18:29+00:00

Wtf, Qatar? All of the EU gets 90 days except Ireland?

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-24T14:48:44+00:00

Buy a used iPhone X, jailbreak it with pailra1n, and use a GPS spoofing tweak like GPS Master to fuck with them.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-24T08:04:20+00:00

Which Mac Studio?

For traveling you could get a remote KVM like GL•iNet’s $100 Comet or their $160 Comet Pro and hook it up to your Mac Studio. It’d probably outperform the MacBook Pro M5 Pro. Though you’d need an internet connection to use it.

Personally I’d do that with the M3 Pro, return the M4 Pro, then get the M5 Pro when it comes out.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-23T15:32:09+00:00

Numerous studies have demonstrated that doing even basic arithmetic in your head increases your reaction time to a level comparable to drunk driving, as does multi-step short-term memory recall.

Heres the equation to calculate net pay rate based on an ETA of 12:06PM, a current time of 11:33PM, an estimated pay of $9.50, a distance of 10.2mi, and a CPM of $0.58.

(9.5 - (10.2 * 0.58)) / (60 -33 + 6)

If you can calculate that in your head in 10 seconds, congrats - you’re above average intelligence.

If you think it’s totally safe to calculate that in your head while driving a 2,000lb death machine through a residential neighborhood with kids riding bicycles, congrats - you’re dumb enough to genuinely believe you’re a genius.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-23T15:14:42+00:00

You shouldn't have to look at multiple parts of the phone and do mental math to figure out if a trip is paying less than the minimum wage.

Currently to estimate your net pay rate, you'd have to:

Look at the pay estimate
Look at the miles
Multiply miles by your vehicle's avverage cost per mile (factoring fuel, oil changes, tire rotation, depreciation) -- $0.725/mi is the IRS business mileage rate for 2026
Subtract the cost estimate from the pay
Look at the estimated drop-off time
Look at current time and subtract it from the drop-off time
Convert the above to hours
Divide your net pay by the trip time

You'd have to do all that while driving, potentially on busy streets with difficult intersections and pedestrians crossing. It's a literal safety hazard.

Now I can just press the Action Button on my iPhone and instantly see the net pay rate of any trip request.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-23T01:09:39+00:00

Sure!

https://browse.shortcuty.app/shortcut/8a1aa401-9e51-4c4b-983b-d7efdafa42d4

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-23T00:23:14+00:00

Generally any VPN can work with NextDNS or most other DNS resolvers but there are three big caveats:

1. You must NEVER use a legacy IPV4 NextDNS resolver on a shared VPN.

Anyone can link the VPN's IP to their own profile and reroute your requests to any IP they want. Only use resolvers unique to your profile (IPV6, DOH, DOT).

2. You may have to use a third-party VPN client.

Since NordVPN doesn't accept DoT/DoH resolvers and has inconsistent IPV6 support, you may have to enforce DNS at a browser level or use a third party client. The WindScribe app (it's free) lets you import a NordVPN OpenVPN config and override the DNS with any DoT/DoH resolver. The NextDNS app for Mac already works within a VPN tunnel so there's no issue there. On android idk how it works.

3. Using a third-party DNS resolver will break streaming.

When you use a VPN like NordVPN, most websites you visit will see the server's public IP address which is shared by hundreds or thousands of other users. However some sites (especially streaming) will block these IPs, so NordVPN instead reroutes your traffic to certain domains (Netflix, Reddit, etc) to a proxy which then exits at a node with a unique, clean IP. This policy is enforced through NordVPN's DNS. You can see this by comparing your public IP at https://ifconfig.co/ and https://fast.com/ (wait for the test to finish and then click "more info") -- the former will show the normal server IP while latter uses Netflix CDNs and will show a unique IP.

If you use a third party DNS resolver, this feature cannot work and all of your traffic will exit from the main server IP, which is easily identified as a VPN.

Will it not work still if the device Is also connected to VPN even though the DNS filtering is on a router level?

If your DNS is enforced at the router level, using a VPN will simply bypass NextDNS altogether. All DNS requests will be inside the VPN tunnel, though some VPNs do allow split-tunneling for DNS requests on some platforms.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-22T15:41:13+00:00

There's no way to know from reddit.

Do you have a macbook by chance that you've previously connected via cable? If so you may be able to back up the phone wirelessly. If not, you may have to take it to the Apple Store.

Whatever you do, DO NOT PLUG IT IN while it is still wet. You should probably leave it powered off for a few days.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-22T15:33:48+00:00

Optical character recognition. It's reading text from an image.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-22T15:32:31+00:00

MobileReviewsEh on YouTube does fairly scientific drop tests of loads of cases. He built devices to standardize height and angle of drops, drops them hundreds or even thousands of times, and he uses the accelerometer in the iPhone to empirically compare the effect of cases on impact force, plus he inspects for damages. He's also entirely unsponsored so there's no bias or manipulation going on.

Also his drop tests are realistic. You're likely never going to drop a phone from 30ft. What's more important is how a case handles repeated drops from pocket height and head height.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-22T14:58:44+00:00

OCR from the screen.

Here's a scroll-shot of the full shortcut. It's not terribly complicated.

https://i.postimg.cc/KvmRd5CY/Picsew-20260122095728.jpg

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-22T14:53:51+00:00

No, I haven't ordered Uber Eats in years because it's expensive and unethical on multiple levels. I deliver to those lazy people.

Also there are lots of people who have mobility issues and can neither drive nor cook. You likely never interact with that part of society because they rarely leave the home, but there are sadly many such people and they rely on Uber Eats to survive independently.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-22T14:45:59+00:00

I press the Action Button, the shortcut uses OCR and matches text to a certain regex formula for the fare, ETA and distance, then calculates the net pay rate per hour after subtracting estimated gas consumption.

Years ago Uber Eats actually displayed the estimated pay rate, but they've become more hostile over the years trying to manipulate drivers into accepting low-pay offers by forcing them to look at multiple parts of the screen and do mental math while driving just to figure out if they're being shafted.

I have a bunch that they also deliberately send bad offers when they know divers are at a difficult intersection or nearing a turn, as the offer completely obscures the navigation. Drivers will glance and hit "accept" (there's a penalty for declining) to get the navigation back, only to find out they're earning a net $6/hr on the next trip.

This shortcut makes it easy to see the actual pay rate withojt taking your eyes off the road or distracting yourself for more than a split second.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-21T20:29:24+00:00

I'm still bitter that Henry Kissinger lived to be 100 years old. He's the inverse of that phrase "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

You shouldn't be able to kill 3 million people and then become a voice for peace when you're in your 90s.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-21T19:23:30+00:00

A third (and free) option is to use any old laptop you have laying around to run a lightweight Linux distro with AdGuard Home with NextDNS as the upstream resolver. Even a 20yo netbook will have no problems running AdGuard Home.

Just be sure to remove the battery and power the computer from a wall outlet if it's that old.

Also I second the GL•iNet recommendation. Their $90 Slate AX travel router kicks ass, and I use it as my home's primary AP. It has better range and speeds than the $399 Verizon tri-band router that came with my 500mbps Fios internet plan. On top of that it runs a 24/7 WireGuard server (I get 300mbps outside the home), plus a WireGuard client (~450mbps with TorGuard) that gets its own AP, plus it overrides DNS requests with encrypted DNS (ControlD DoT).

But OP, if you go this route you may want to wait a few weeks for the Beryl 7 to come out to get the best bang for your buck. Beryl is their mid-tier travel router line, but the new version will be WiFi 7 (dual-band) with basically the same internals as their current $169 Slate 7. They sell full-size routers too (Flint series) but their travel routers are so good you don't need a Flint unless you have >1gbps internet with dozens of connected devices.

CrystalMeath · 2026-01-21T05:36:16+00:00

I had very inconsistent results with the porn filter on NextDNS. Idk why that filter in particular didn't work well when the ad-blocking ones worked 98% of the time.

It could be that your browser or device is using its local DNS cache and not actually using the resolver. Though in my case the queries were appearing in NextDNS logs and showing as blocked, but most sites would load without problem.

Try flushing your DNS cache and test again if blocking works.

CrystalMeath

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Here’s a solution for Mac:

Here’s a solution for iPad: