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Something I learned the hard way: it's a bad time if you are a Google Fi customer and your Android phone with an eSim becomes inoperable while traveling :)

by dogmatism4 days ago|

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just in general, it's difficult if your phone with an esim dies/lost/stolen (ie no access) to move the esim over. It's especially annoying if it just died, because instead of just popping the sim over you end up in a maze with the carrier (unless you are lucky enough to other lines on the account you have access to)

by washadjeffmad3 days ago|

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Went through the same last month. I had to both buy a new phone and still have my old one repaired to be able to authenticate to set up the new one.

I was a CyanogenMod user before switching to Pixel, and that experience was a monumental shove towards moving to Graphene.

by keymasta4 days ago|

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Pretty similar to how my life feels right now.

by ticulatedspline4 days ago|

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As an old curmudgeon I recoil at any service I can't interact with sans-phone. I hardly use mine for anything.

Just be glad your phone number is tied to your account, if you lose the number itself you are royally screwed, and basically anyone who gets your old number owns all your accounts now.

by kxrm4 days ago|

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Same, it is kind of strange. Back in 2005 I was one of the first to carry the full internet on my phone and now I am leading the charge to avoid having to carry the internet in my pocket.

If your product or service requires a phone, I just don't do business with you. I know I sound archaic recommending this, but we (as a society) need to push back on your phone being the key to your life.

My phone is no more special than my laptop, however this requires an incredible amount of inconvenience for most people along with the constant social pressure to carry a cellphone. As you can imagine, I do not have many friends these days.

by ipaddr14 hours ago|

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I never understood why people would bring their phones in public. From getting stolen, lost or broken to the tracking and border accessing your social media accounts, personal photos and bank information it makes very little sense when no one actual calls anyone anymore.

by jurgenburgen4 days ago|

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It sounds like you solved the problem of losing access to society by losing access to society.

Have you considered having backups instead? Carry a physical credit card, make sure you have a backup phone uncharged at home ready for a swap?

by kxrm3 days ago|

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> It sounds like you solved the problem of losing access to society by losing access to society.

Perhaps, but frankly I have been more on the lookout for people like me. Natural filter for compatibility?

> Have you considered having backups instead? Carry a physical credit card, make sure you have a backup phone uncharged at home ready for a swap?

I mean, I carry a wallet. Most vendors and society still take cash or card. Where the real friction comes in is staying connected to a community. Everyone wants to keep social connections virtual for some odd reason. As a remote worker I definitely get the virtues of remote interaction, but sometimes meeting people in person has benefits. It does not have to be all-or-nothing and it feels like we are moving to an all-or-nothing digital way of life.

by memcg3 days ago|

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When I dropped my landline after more than 40 years, I transferred the number to a flip phone. This number is also used my family members as a backup phone number for 2FA and voice. Everyone has access to voice mail and can leave messages for others if a phone is lost, broken or stolen.

by foobarchu4 days ago|

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My wife recently had this happen to a work acquaintance. They are a recent immigrant who has only lived in New York since moving here, who was sent out to the Midwest where there is no public transportation and driving is mandatory, and is staying at a hotel. She lost her phone, and thus could not get anywhere or communicate with anyone, and couldn't pay for anything due to her phone being where all her money is stored (no physical credit cards or anything). Luckily, my wife was able to get her around and help her out until they eventually discovered it was in a lost and found. If she had been alone, I don't know what she would have done.

Imagine being on vacation and you lose your phone, or it breaks. You offloaded your payments to digital and have no cards or cash, you can't get in your hotel room because you used a digital key like hotels all want you to, maybe you brought a car but oops it's a Tesla and you're depending on your phone as the key because it's less stuff to carry!

by hexapus4 days ago|

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I recently switched to a Minimal Phone with an e-ink screen, and it sucks (which is the point, obviously). One of the things that sucks is NFC. The payment terminals constantly have a hard time grabbing it, and when they do, they often throw a bizaare "multiple cards detected" error, which is extra strange, since I only have one card stored.

I have a separate sleeve wallet, which I can attach to the back of the phone magnetically that contains my physical debit card + drivers license. If I lost the phone, there's probably about a 50/50 chance that I'd still have the wallet sleeve in my pocket, so I'd at least have my ID and a way to pay for things...but if I lost them both, I'd be pretty screwed.

Convenience is nice, but switching to a shitty phone made me realise I can live without a lot of convenient things, and it's safer not to keep all your eggs in one black rectangle.

by pid0x174 days ago|

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We need to better educate non-technical users about making multiple local backups of things like password managers, TOTP seeds, etc.

Yes, even writing the most important ones on a piece of paper and keeping it somewhere safe (like a safe in your house) is an option, as long as you have a low threat model, of course.

by lyfeninja3 days ago|

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I lost my phone, and slacks recovery model is essentially like this.