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| The original iPhone, June 29, 2007 |
I have been an iPhone fanatic since I walked into MacWorld at the Moscone Center in San Francisco in January of 2007. Rumors had swirled for months that Apple was going to offer a cell phone and what it would look like. How it would work was completely up in the air. Just about every guess was wrong.
The most plausible versions showed something like the by then popular iPod with a dial, a small face probably not a flip phone, a form factor popular at the time. In fact I had a Motorola Razr, a phone that I sincerely hated. Other than Rim, this was the cat's meow. To me it was the cat's claws. If I wanted to do something new with it I had to find a teenager to do it for me.
I walked in to MacWorld just as Jobs was finishing his keynote speech. In the foyer we were greeted by a 30 foot tall image of the now dubbed iPhone. It was nothing like what anyone had predicted. It was much like the current offering but then, in January of 2007, like nothing that was being made anywhere. There was one on display in a revolving bubble just like the Hope Diamond at The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
People were explaining all that it could do for unlike most phones it was a phone, could surf the net, take photos and email them, and the list went on and on. I was not the only one that thought that they were smoking too much of something in Silicon Valley.
The next day we heard David Pogue speak at the O'Reilly book booth and what he said resonates even today. He said, "This is the definitive device of the 21st Century. This phone changes everything." He was right, it did and with Android competitors has changed the way we interact around the world.
I was excited the day I got my iPhone X. This was my 6th iPhone and by then I knew what to do, or so I thought. It arrived on November 7th and I immediately plugged it into my computer having already backed everything up from my iPhone 7+ that I really loved. It had traveled to Hong Kong four times, Canada once and even on several trips to New Mexico. I printed books from its photos and I remained stunned at their clarity. Finally, I stopped taking a camera and relied on my phone.
Yet I quickly discovered they were different. VERY different. Gone was the home button. You just touched the face, anywhere, and it would look at you and usually open. If that didn't work you punched in your "code." Then the familiar home screen appeared over the entire face. Touching an icon launched the App like before but to close something you have to pull up from the bottom and all the Apps opened showed, To close them you hold the center of whatever App was there and a small red circle with a "-" in it meant that you could close that App. I didn't learn about this until weeks later.
Immediately by plugging the X into the computer the 7+ was disabled. As the installation process continued things did not go as I thought they would. It didn't load what had been on he 7+. So I backed it up again and sometimes the phone would work but more often it didn't. It seemed to refuse to install anything that had been on the other phone and by 5 pm I packed everything up and headed to the Apple store.
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| Trapped in hell! |
When they asked what the problem was, I showed them the two phones and said the X wouldn't work and neither would the 7+. I was giving it back and I needed to get the 7+ to work as I had no phone.
For once I immediately had a tech from the Genius Bar and we spent nearly two hours trying to get it to work. Finally, having to get an iCloud account, the phone started accepting material off the older phone downloaded to their MacBook and I had a dial tone.
I completed the installation at home but it took four weeks and numerous back ups to get what had been on the older phone on the new one. That was not acceptable.
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| Night shot of bridge in Tianjin, China |
Then I went to China and the phone part wouldn't work and Internet connections were pretty useless as in China there is no Gmail, no Facebook, no Twitter, no just about anything of what we are used to using in the West. As a camera though it was world class. I just received the book I created from Apple filled with photos taken with that phone and I know my Nikon DSLR wouldn't have done better.
However, the phone began to act odd about a month after I got home. It wouldn't ring and I would only notice calls from the App. It had terrible connections to the Internet then would settle down. Finally it started to cut out when I was talking. I could hear them but they couldn't hear me.
I was on the internet talking to someone at Apple several times while struggling to make a HomePod work and it cut us off. The tech called back and asked what happened. I didn't know. She put in the first tech repair order but I didn't realize it was at the Best Buy store ... a week later as there were no appointments at the Apple store for weeks. On the appointed day I showed up at the Apple store that was closed and it was then I realized I should have gone to Best Buy. When I went there I was told the tech was sick but they had called everyone with an appointment. I looked at him and said, "No, they didn't."
Waiting a few days to calm down I again made an appointment and the phone cut off as I was talking to someone at Best Buy. I had explained the problem and she was wise enough to tell me the time and date and sent an email. I could hear her but she couldn't hear me. I arrived and the tech looked at it, did some diagnostic tests but couldn't find anything wrong. When he used it to check several other things, he looked at me, then the screen and said, "It shouldn't be this slow. There is something wrong." He advised me to try to restore the phone. If there was still a problem just walk in as he couldn't find an appointment time either.
I came home and tried to do what the tech recommended ... a full restore of the operating system and about halfway into this the phone came up with an error 9 and completely shut down. The iMac said there was no phone connected to it and the phone would not turn on. I was stunned. I now couldn't communicate with anyone. And since I had no other phone was unable to contact anyone other than on the Internet on my iMac, something I couldn't put in my pocket.
The next morning I headed out to the El Paseo Apple Store arriving at about 9:15 am for their 10 am opening. As I crossed the street to park behind the Apple Store there were two people in line. By the time I parked and got to the front of the store the line had grown to 10. Oh my.
I was given an appointment in two hours so poked around Palm Desert finally arriving at the appointed time. About 15 minutes after my appointment time I finally had my "genius" who somehow got the phone to finally turn on. He too ran diagnostics saying everything checked out. I said everything was not ok. I couldn't turn it on now for two days. He did a complete restore of iOS 11.3 and I left when we started restoring from my iCloud account. He said it would finish when I got home and had wi-fi. He was right, it did but the information was from last November so I had to start from my computer back up. It took two weeks to restore what had been on the phone. It finally had everything last Friday.
Monday, after Easter I got four phone calls. Each one of them cut out after a minute or two. Some called me back as they knew I had been having trouble. I could hear them but they could not hear me.
That evening I went back online this time using text chat since the phone would cut any calls off. After a series of tests the tech finally said that I could get a new phone (he saw all the complaints made over the phone) but I had to pay $29 and put the new phone on my charge card. They would credit it back when they received the old phone. That would take several days. I was livid. After paying $1,000 for a phone that clearly didn't work I had to pay more money to exchange it? Well, very reluctantly he said I could go to the store. There were no appointments available; just walk in.
One of the things Apple does is give you a print out of your text chat so I printed that out and the next morning headed over to the Apple store. I had to wait awhile but within a couple of hours I had a new phone though they were clearly not happy with me or my insistence. However, they also had a long list of calls and visits with complaints so they gave me a new phone. The phone had caused me more problems in 4 months that the 10 years and 5 previous phones combined. You can diagnose all you want but the reality is sometimes very different. Just like Toyota could never find the problem that caused their cars to accelerate. However, they did and people died.
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| So ... we shall see on number 2 |
I started the download process at the store and it finished here. Then I plugged it into the computer, picked out what I wanted to install and guess what ... it did it all.
I have used the phone and so far everything works fine. All my songs, books, movies and everything else is there just it had been on the iPhone 7+. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping this is the end of that saga. Parts work but clearly from the many updates things didn't. I feel the iPhone X was ambitious but it clearly was not ready for prime time. Some say theirs work fine but a good friend here, a geek and SalesForce employee, is not happy with his either. We both got ours in November of last year and maybe, quietly, Apple has made adjustments after they started production. I am hoping the next version is better as I am still not sold on mine.
Since I have a package plan with Spectrum, you know - phone-Internet-cable, I got a landline phone and plugged that in as well. It came with 3 handsets so I have them sprinkled around the condo with one on the nightstand. As I have learned, cell phones are wonderful but ... in a crunch and you're older, and need help immediately, nothing beats a landline.
Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed!
Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!
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