Just like Rob, I’ve been doing some thinking about how often I’ll take my iPhone out and idly flick and tap through my apps and Home screens. Especially with TouchID, it has become effortless to take my iPhone out of my pocket and just check it — without really knowing what I’m checking it for.

It’s happening often enough that it is hampering my ability to focus, and I think part of this has to do with the number of icons I’m seeing on my Home screen. There are times when I’ll exit Safari to do something else, but once I’ve gotten to the Home screen, I’ll already have forgotten what that was, because a red badge will catch my eye. Something new on Instagram or Slack is waiting for me, and I have to know what it is.

So I’m taking this change in year as a chance to shake things up.

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The headphone jack on my iPhone 6S Plus stopped working recently. I can’t really tell how long ago it broke because I listen to Bluetooth audio most of the time, but I noticed that plugging speakers directly into the 3.5mm jack did absolutely nothing. Audio would still play out of my iPhone’s speakers, and the volume display didn’t change to show “Headphones” instead of the word “Volume” (which is what’s shown when using iPhone speakers). I’m outside of my initial year of coverage, but the 6S Plus is the very first iPhone for which I decided to purchase AppleCare.

The package cost me an extra $169 when I bought the iPhone, but it extended my warranty for another year, and also provided cheaper replacements in case of accidental damage. I wasn’t able to book an appointment with Apple in advance, so I just took my chances and walked into the Apple Store at the Eaton Centre on a Saturday afternoon. Their initial estimates was a 70-minute wait, but I ended up getting to a specialist in just 20 minutes.

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