On a whim, I tried to reanimate my 2016 iPhone SE. Oh, and also for serious web testing, of course! Last time I checked, the Lightning port was erratic and I needed to firmly press the connector at an angle. Not anymore! I pulled out some nasty dust bunnies from the port and it’s charging again.
Or is it?

Ugh, that screen still makes me extremely uncomfortable. (The image on the screen, not so much the shattered glass.) Back when this was my main and only phone, I never knew if it was actually charging a not. There’s a version of that screen with and without a lightning cable at the bottom, and I was never sure if I had shoved in the lightning plug at the right angle. Reddit to the rescue! More specifically (and aptly), /r/CrappyDesign:

After some minutes of charging it woke up again, and this website’s still looking good even on a 320×568 pixel display. In landscape mode, too!

Bonus: It has a less embarassing screen time report than my main phone… :)

Even better: Since the touch sensor still works (and still recognizes my thumb), I can finally pay for my groceries with my thumb again instead of my face! No more twisting my head weirdly towards the phone at the counter!
Update: Well, that didn’t work. The olde SE wouldn’t pick up the NFC (?) signal when it was paying time. Good thing it does not look sketchy at all to try paying with an aged, shattered phone and then pulling out a second, different phone! :) Later I found out that while Apple Pay should still work, my banking app to re-verify the credit card on the phone requires at least iOS 16 now. That’s a bummer, especially since the 1st-gen iPhone SE is still receiving iOS updates from Apple, nine years after its release (currently on 15.8.3)…