Do you own an iPhone 8? Is it borked? Like REALLY, unusably borked? Good news: There might be a free fix in the cards for you!

From The Verge:

Apple quietly announced the launch of a free repair program for the iPhone 8 this afternoon, revealing that a “very small percentage” of units need replacement logic boards due to a manufacturing defect. The logic board is essentially the main printed circuit board of a computing device, containing the CPU, device memory, and other integral components. Apple says its faulty logic boards may have been causing random restarts, screen freezes, and defective startup initiations that prevent the iPhone 8 from turning on properly.

Apparently, the only phone from Apple’s 2017 iteration of their handsets that are screwed is the iPhone 8. If you own a wonky iPhone X or iPhone 8 Plus, you’ll have to see if your handset’s woes can be cured under warranty or on your own dime.

So, if you bought your handset in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan or Macau, head on over to Apple’s repair page. By entering your iPhone’s serial number (look for it in the About section, under Settings/General Settings) you’ll be able to quickly discover if your pocket computer can be repaired on Apple’s dim or not.

If you're not covered by AppleCare or Apple's repair program, maybe hold off on buying a new handset for a few weeks. With Apple set to announce their new iPhones in a couple of weeks, you'll likely be able to get a screaming deal on a new iPhone 8 from your carrier before the end of the month. Read the rest

When I was in second grade, I got health insurance for the first time. I remember my parents—with looks on their faces somewhere between proud and relieved—telling me that it was now totally okay to fall out of a tree and break my arm. Frankly, that didn't sound like much fun, so I never took my parents up on the offer.

It's only years later, as an adult, that I really understand the significance of that event. I honestly have no idea how my parents paid for the regular preventative check-up appointments I remember going to. I have no idea how they paid for the time I smashed my finger between the hinges of a door and ended up in the hospital. The fact that those things happened, at a time when we had very, very little money and no insurance, gives me a little bit of a retroactive sense of budget vertigo. Did my parents lose sleep over this stuff? In all likelihood, yes. It's a wonder I was allowed to climb trees at all.

Since I was a kid, the costs of healthcare—and the cost of insurance—have increased dramatically. And that's widened the gap that people fall into, when they make too much for Medicaid, but can't afford insurance. When I was uninsured, my mother was a home daycare provider and my father was a bartender. Today, it's perfectly possible to have a Ph.D., have a decently paying professional job, and still have to make some terrifying budgetary decisions that leave you and your children without health insurance. Read the rest