Nine things about iPhone X

• That nifty new thing where you hold the old phone next to the new one to initiate the transfer to the new phone is great, except no one tells you that Bluetooth must be turned on in order for it to work. This is kind of essential, no? I generally keep Blutooth off to help extend battery life. A little bit of instructions in the box can go a long way.

• I also had a more substantial wrinkle in the transition. Just before turning in for the night, I noticed that none of my photos had transferred to the new phone. With a little googling, I found that this is a pretty common occurrence when the phone is set up while not plugged into an electrical outlet. I plugged up the phone and, voila, photos.

• Face ID feels alternately revolutionary and like a step back. When I'm in the sweet spot for the sensors, it works flawlessly … well, unless I have my sunshades on, in which case it never works. When it's sitting on my desk at work off to the side, I can't unlock it through face ID without picking it up and looking at it; I've resigned myself to typing in the passcode instead. There are situations such as that in which the functionality of touch ID was more convenient. Wouldn't it be nice to have both forms of security, allowing us to use whichever is more convenient in the moment? Bottom line, Face ID doesn't always "just work," like Apple is supposed to do. If it wasn't for this, I wouldn't care much at all that the home button is gone, because swiping up to go home and exit apps feels perfectly natural and intuitive.

• I hate the inability to have the battery percentage show at the top of the home screen ... a casualty of the "notch." The same is true of the alarm indicator which used to reside up there at the top. These feel like removed functionality (and yes, I know both of these now reside in the control center).

• Especially with the price tag taken into account, I wish it had a more distinctive look. The glossy black back of the space gray is nice, but, at a glance, the phone is almost indistinguishable from the iPhone 6 I had previously.

• This is my first iPhone without the headphone jack, and that situation is a pain in the butt. I'm constantly having to pause and drag out "the dongle" to hook up my headphones (I'm not interested in the little Bluetooth ones, thanks very much).

• HOW TO FORCE QUIT / POWER OFF IPHONE X: This is another one of those essentials that Apple doesn't include in the package, and I've already had to hunt it down once when my phone became unresponsive and would not turn off in the usual way. Press volume up; then press volume down; then hold down the right side button. "They say" you may have to hold down the right side button for as much as 10 seconds, but it worked pretty instantly for me.

• Along those lines, the combination of presses of the three side buttons for certain functions does not feel intuitive, and I'm still learning them.

• Yes, it's a really good phone … not as much of a step up as it should be, given the price tag and its anniversary edition status, but still really good. If you're hedging, I'd wait for the next one, which surely will smooth out some of the quirks.

I want to believe The X-Files can be good again

Is it possible the dreadful new era of The X-Files turned a corner with Wednesday night's "Plus One" episode? We're now nine episodes into the return of one of my all-time favorite shows (consider my avatar at right), and this was the first time I mostly enjoyed the results. I think part of the reason for the success of this one is it felt like a deliberate attempt to be a standalone episode from the old X-Files. Consider the description:

"A spate of deaths in which victims are plagued by their own doppelgangers leads Mulder and Scully to a pair of twins playing a dangerous game."

You could go back in time and tuck this into one of season two's long stretches of standalone episodes and no one would be the wiser.

Season 10 pretty much earned a pass for the novelty of having our old heroes back in the game; it was a joy to see them, even if the stories stunk. And boy, did they — the mythology episodes, most egregiously, seemed to openly crap on the mythology of the first nine seasons, leaving us to wonder why we bothered. 

Based on some decent buzz, I was hoping for more from season 11, but it started off with two massive bombs, perhaps worse than any in season 10, and I was considering bailing out on the show altogether. The only thing I had liked before "Plus One" was the opening soliloquy of the season 11 premiere; having The Smoking Man bloviate about his legacy was an excellent touch.

Gillian Anderson has said she's done with the show now, and she may have the right idea. The disappointing storylines have got me thinking about all these shows that are coming back and whether trying to recapture the magic is a futile exercise. But I am nothing if not a nostalgia whore, and I'll likely be among those of a certain age who will come back for more.

UPDATE // After a dreadful start, season 11 made a turnaround, and I quite liked it. The comical fighting-everyday-technology episode was a classic, and I even liked the mythology ending. More, please.