macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Cautionary Tale – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Cautionary Tale

So, yeah. I am a little hard on parts. We just boxed up my CCTV to go into the shop and now I have cracked the screen on my iPad. ? Never a dull moment.

OK. My tablet just capitalized never a dull moment. Huh? Turns out it was a 1950 movie. Not sure why the tablet would ‘think’ I meant or even knew that reference but machine intelligence is different. I seem to add to my fund of useless knowledge quite regularly that way. Tablet making weird and esoteric connections. [Lin/Linda: I think it’s a conspiracy against ME…gives me more weird links to find! BTW, there was a 1968 movie of the same name.]

So, back on track, I dropped my mini and there is a nice crack in the screen. I was all ready to take it to the iPad ‘doctor’ and have it repaired but financially that may not be a plan. According to Lifewire that would’ve been a case of the cure being worse than the disease.

The Lifewire post on iPad screen breaks assured me my iPad would probably continue to work with a cracked screen. They say it will work not only with the nice, clean, linear crack my mini has but even when the screen is shattered! Of course, having spider web cracks on your screen would not help seeing what is there and we have these things, at least in part, to help with seeing! That could be a problem.

According to the post, it would cost $199 to get my screen repaired. I just paid $220 for the next better mini iPad brand new. Mine is now a year and a half old. You can see where the numbers are leading: repairing a screen is probably just not defensible from a financial viewpoint.

So, what are the options? Again according to the post, if your device is still under warranty, you might be able to squeak by with a service charge of $49. Apple Care does cover accidental damage so if you are ‘hard on parts’ like I am, you can get it fixed with minimal financial pain.

If it is not a bad break and everything still works, just living with the crack may be your best option. The article suggests getting a protective case. Exactly what I intend to do. An example of another old adage: closing the barn door after the horse runs away!

I have Otter cases for both my phone and the big iPad that Blindness and Visual Services bought for me. I am pretty happy with them. At least those devices have not broken yet!

I just ordered a neon green and a berry purple mini iPad case from the marketplace for the known Universe, Amazon, of course. $10 apiece on sale. I have Prime so it is free shipping.

I also ordered UV filters for both of the devices. (I actually have my technophobic husband using a mini!) Remember blue light is ‘bad’ for your retinas and electronic devices are primo sources of blue light.

Just read an article saying Baby Boomers are not as aware of UV damage and not taking as many precautions as younger folks. I was going to write a page on it, but I pretty much covered it there in two lines, so don’t hold your breath waiting for the page!?

So once more I am the ‘star’ of a cautionary tale. Protect your devices. Repair costs are reported to be just plain nasty. Cases are cheaper.

Written April 16th, 2017

Next: Behind the Wheel: Part 1

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