I keep my iPhone in my front jeans pocket, with the headphone port pointed up. It's hard to believe that I'm putting too much strain connector. But then again, why the hell does this keep happening? Is there something I'm not thinking of? It's definitely the headphones, I've tried them in different devices.

Tight jeans, small pocket, are you sitting with the phone in your pocket and headphones plugged in? That could totally tweak them. I'd suggest taking the phone out of your pocket when sitting.

If you are already doing that, I dunno.

or the hotness of the Scola is melting something ....

Do you even use anything to clean the cable? Is it an internal short or does the cable show physical wear at the point of failure?

You could switch to these? No headphone jack to worry about! (I'm on my second pair, the first lasted over two years.)

or the hotness of the Scola is melting something ....

Yeah I'm loving Bluetooth earbuds these days.

I just ordered a pair of the Anker magnetic Bluetooth earbuds after the super cheap $12 ones I got a while ago cracked open. The Anker have stellar reviews. My wife loves hers. But remembering to charge is a drag.

[link]

Does anyone one have any thoughts on this phone as a replacement for an iPhone 5c? I don't really use the iTunes connection- I want to have my email, a kindle app, a Netflix app, and to go to Facebook and here. My screen is destroyed, and I don't want to pat too much money.

Sophia, that seems like a high price for a phone from three generations ago and listed in "fair" condition.

Google found this review for me: [link]

$109.99 is cheap, but definitely not a great deal for the S4 mini.

If you can swing $199 you can get a brand new Moto G G3 from this page: [link] (It's $179 base price, but the $20 upgrade gets you twice the storage AND twice the RAM, making it more future-proof). And you can customize it to your own color scheme, shipped directly to you by the company. Unlocked, so it will work on any GSM carrier (including AT&T which it looks like you have based on that link).

It is a larger phone than the s4 mini (and the 5c), but not as large as many phones these days. And being new, it will actually get a warranty. Which is a plus! Here's the Moto G gizmodo review from its release in August (the g3 is the same phone, rebranded): [link] (Oh, it's also waterproof! Which was enough to make me almost buy it, though I ended up going up a level to the more expensive/fancier Moto X in the end.)

I don't really love Samsung's phones, especially for new-to-Android people. Too much feature-fluff, not the simplest interface. I would suggest you look for Nexus phones or Motorola phones if you want to explore the used market for a $100 phone.

Here's a used version of the same Moto G I'm recommending: [link]

Here's several used versions of the older fist generation Moto X. My brother still uses one of these and loves it, though like that S4 they are definitely older phones now, showing their age. In this era of planned obsolescence, I can only solidly recommend new phones sadly. [link]

I like my Moto 3G, and it's a better phone than my far-more-expensive Google Nexus 4 was.