The aforementioned elderly Samsung has sprung back into life following the failure of my refurbished iPhone 4s. The latter is on its way to a repairer, I hope. I might have expected two years from the new phone, but all I got was 30 days.

This is what happens when you get too pleased about tech. It lets you down, not unlike people, though generally in a more spectacular way. The pulsing white Apple logo was symptomatic of a deeper problem - the anaemic heart of a digitalized love-toy. This phone was never really attached to my hand in the manner that is often pilloried in cartoons and commentary, but it beat, nevertheless, beneath the plastic flip-cover that protected it. And it offered up its pallid heart in response to critical failure.

Don't get into bed with tech.