Sometimes it can’t connect to the server (which is a completely stupid necessity).

That’s where it does the voice processing. The only processing it does on-device is the wake word and taking commands. Actually figuring out what you mean is done in The Cloud. Doing that on-device would not only make the devices significantly more expensive, but they would also rapidly become outdated.

The rest of your complaints are valid and I’ve experienced them all myself to boot.

Mounting or unmounting a filesystem won’t make a difference for drive longevity.

If you want to keep your backups secure, you want to keep them offline, so if you get ransomware it doesn’t encrypt your backup too. (Or if you just mistype a command and target the wrong device, folder, etc.)

But drive motor starts and stops are when the most failures occur. So the ultimate question isn’t how to make a drive last longer, it’s how you plan to handle it when the failure inevitably occurs.

Usually the first thing I put on a new phone is a case.

A lot of those people need to get a hobby. Arguing over definitions in someone else’s projects doesn’t count as a hobby.

That can also happen if the cable is worn out. They’re designed to wear faster than the port, since that’s much harder to replace.

I assume you mean flashlight and not a flame.

Yeah. For persistence and cross-device stuff, it makes more sense for it to be stored server-side. Either by the app author, or maybe Google could offer a few kB free for each app, like how Chrome provides a bit of storage for extension settings.

I’m not sure if there’s some special calling feature to reach a previously associated provider, but when I’ve been in that situation I just borrowed my roommate’s phone.

Yes, it is possible. You use whatever the provider’s method is to download an eSIM to that device. Usually it’s logging into their app or calling their support to register the IMEI or whatever.

In the store if you’re getting the phone from a store, or somewhere with wifi (home, a friend’s, a cafe) if you’ve gotten it some other way.

If you don’t have any of those, you probably live way out in the jungle, and I’d be surprised if you had service even if you got the eSIM. But in the edge case that you somehow got home delivery postal service in the jungle, you’d probably be able to survive just fine without it until your next trip into town.

In the extreme edge case that you are in the jungle, get service, and your need is critical, I would have an activated backup phone tested periodically and ready to go.

Depends on the phone. The newest ones let you use multiple ones simultaneously, one for calls/texts and one for data, for example. Slightly older ones only let you use one at a time, but they let you activate and deactivate multiple downloaded eSIMs.

Your provider won’t issue a new eSIM?

No, they issue it virtually. Then you download it via their app or via regular cell network provisioning.

Yes.

That doesn’t have anything to do with what we’re talking about.

The newest few generations of phones support multiple SIMs.

You call support and have them issue a new one.

The app should resend reminders until it’s completed. This doesn’t seem like a big issue.

Try the tunnels in Boston some time. They have highway exits in the tunnels. And my favorite part is after that there’s a fork with not much distance to figure out which one sends you the right direction on the interstate. Also the only signage is painted on the road, which has cars on it.

My last few phones have been Pixels and the only issue was my Pixel 6 having a greenish screen, but I was able to fix that with an app that altered the color temperature I think.

But a few updates later I hadn’t reenabled that app and the green was gone anyway. Google fixed it in a software update.