When I launched this blog, I was taking photos and writing text with my trusty iPhone 6. Apple has brought out several newer models since the 6 was dish of the day but I was happy to go on using mine indefinitely. Then a couple of things happened that caused me to reflect. The first was when iOS 13 was issued and I realized that the iPhone 6 could not be updated but was stuck forever on iOS 12. While newer models embraced iOS 13 and further upgrades, the iPhone 6 was left in a backwater doomed to become gradually obsolete and vulnerable to untreated bugs and vulnerabilities.

The second thing, the clincher, though, was a couple of incidents of catastrophe loss of power. On both occasions, the iPhone was connected by cable to a power source and should have been showing maximum charge but, instead, displayed a message that it had been switched off because of low battery power. This meant that the poor thing could no longer be relied on as it might fail at a crucial moment. It was time for it to retire.

This, however, meant that I needed to replace it. With what, though? Regarding the availability of handset models, these days one is not short of choice. The market is awash with makes and models of smart phones. My decision was simplified by the fact that I had no thoughts of abandoning the iPhone family. I have been happy with the two iPhones that I have had up to now and so was determined to buy another iPhone model, but which one?

Of course, I could keep my present phone and have a new battery fitted. That would be cheaper than buying a new phone and allow me to going on using the 6 indefinitely. I rejected this solution, though, because of the end-of-upgrades problem mentioned above.

The latest iPhone, the 11, is a wonderful piece of work. The Pro version has Apple’s most advanced camera yet. Unfortunately, it carries a price tag to match its quality, a little too rich for my purse, I felt. An older model at a more affordable price seemed indicated.

A while back, Tigger was having difficulties with the limited memory space on her iPhone 6 and had solved the problem by upgrading to an iPhone 8. I decided to follow suit because an128 GB iPhone 8 hits your credit card at £529, less than half the price of the iPhone 11. Also, sharing the same model means that we can give one another tips on usage and help one another solve problems.

(The 256 GB iPhone 8 is no longer available unless you buy a refurbished one.)

The buying process was fun. I decided to go to Apple’s Covent Garden branch to buy the phone but thought it safer to phone first and ensure that they had some in stock. I spoke to a charming young man who assured me that they had plenty available and, further, that they would reserve one for me if I bought it there and then over the phone. I did so and received an order code which I should give to Apple staff on arrival.

The system worked perfectly. A young woman wearing an Apple tee shirt took my code, asked to see some ID and then went to fetch my new phone. In a few minutes the deal was done. Top marks for efficiency.

To tell the truth, I was not looking forward to the process of setting up the new phone. For one thing, I had applied two-factor authentication to my account and this can no longer be disabled. I wondered how this would work with setting up the new phone. Another concern was that in the past, when setting up a new phone from a backup, the standard Apple apps were installed but not third party apps. I made a list of all these, sure that I would have to download and reinstall them myself. I imagined the whole process taking me days.

It turned out that Apple was ahead of me in the game. The new phone asked whether I was transferring data from another iPhone and when I answered yes, it bade me bring the other near to it. It then produced a swirly image on its screen and told me to centre this in the field of the old phone’s camera. I did so and that was that. The new phone siphoned all the data and apps from the old phone onto itself, arranging them exactly as I had arranged them on the old phone. The only apps I couldn’t see were Find Phone and Find Friends. Happily Tigger was able to point out that these had now been replaced by a single app called Find My. With that in place, everything was in working order. The two phones looked like twins except that the iPhone 8 is a couple of millimetres taller than the iPhone 6, a hardly noticeable difference.

An iPhone is quite a small object and smooth to the point of being slippery. My iPhone 6 is dressed in a tight-fitting case with an anchor-point for a lanyard. When I go out, I put the phone in my handbag but slip the lanyard round my neck for extra security. That case does not fit the iPhone 8 so I have ordered a new one from Amazon. It should arrive in a couple of days. In the meantime, I will not be brandishing my new phone about but handling it with extreme care.

First impressions are that iOS 13 contains some significant differences from iOS 12. I am not saying whether one is better than the other, just that there is a learning curve in adapting to the new system. A lot of commands are not where I expect to find them and I need to hunt around for them. That is just a temporary problem, though, and the new OS will soon seem as familiar as the old.