Saturday 27 March 2010

Golden iPhone delicious

It dawned on me the other day that my mobile was ancient.

I think it was while my friends were busy tapping their phones and practically getting them to go to the bar and get the drinks. My phone, by contrast, is rather happy with itself if it manages to send a text. I also realised that while everyone else pays a tenner for unlimited everything, I was paying a whopping amount for not a lot. It was time to get a better deal.

A few wangles later, a stern call to my service provider, a hint that I was about to leave, and the next day an iPhone winged its golden way to me. I almost heard the reverent harp music as I opened the parcel. iPhone!

The packaging alone makes you feel swish. It’s just so seamless and stroke-able. I held the new phone aloft (iPhone!) and thought it was wonderful.

That was six hours ago.

I have since come to the conclusion that I perhaps should find a friendly pigeon for future correspondence, as I am hopeless at new shiny things. I spent ages saving all my contacts and pictures from my old sim to my old phone, and then inserted my new sim and saved them all over again. And did that work? Nope… new phone has no idea and doesn’t care who my contacts are, and wouldn’t give a toss if no-one ever phoned me ever again. New phone (iPhone!) wants me all to itself.

It also won’t let me transfer my pictures. My old phone is gamely trying to Bluetooth them to the new phone, but the new phone doesn’t want to know. It is in love with its own shiny self and doesn’t want anything of the old to sully it. Including me, I fear.

I had to update itunes to the latest version. Once it was done, itunes promptly forgot what audio CDs were and told me that its drivers were missing from the registry. Oh dear, I thought, this means trouble. I uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted, cursed, raged around the room, shut down, shut up, and ate an angry sandwich.

The only thing to do in that situation is to register on various techy forums and act like a complete girl (apologies to all girls out there who are amazing tech goddesses. I don’t mean you). I step up to the forum, pink bonnet in hand, and make my grovelling confession and plea for help. Thankfully it was answered, and I was pointed to a helpful link. Praise be! (iPhone!)

Helpful link, however, was a bit more hands-on then I had hoped. It involved fiddling with the Windows registry, deleting gears for drivers, and then reinstalling them. At every stage there was a red warning sentence in bold that said messing with the registry could seriously damage your computer's health. Needless to say I was wondering whether it would ever turn back on again, so it was all a bit heart-in-mouth as I did the final restart… and hooray, it worked! (iPhone!)

So, six hours later, I appear to be set up. Apart from there’s the little matter of not understanding the actual phone yet. And of course, I have no contacts left. But I can play with swishing things from one side of the screen to the other, which is surely the main point of a mobile.

*Hello? Friends? Heelllllloooooooooooooo....*

21 comments:

Eliza said...

I'm still in love with my iPhone, I've had it 6 months, I'm usually bored by then, but not this one :-)

Kit Courteney said...

Oh this was a joy to read!

I do hope your pink bonnet is still intact.

(Checked my mail this morning - will put something about my phone situ in my reply... needless to say I am jealous of your oh-behold-for-it's-an iPhone!)

Anonymous said...

Loved your post but it has made me want to hang onto my old brick for a while longer!

Talli Roland said...

An iPhone! I'm so jealous. I have a rubbishy old thing that's about to give up the ghost very soon.

Great post! Hope you're having a good weekend.

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Thanks so much for your visit and your sweet comment. I'm happy you led me here! I've had fun perusing your wonderful site... and am now a follower! Edward and I send our best!

Linda said...

Great post - loved the sound of the angry sandwhich!

Linda

Rose said...

they are very lovely, I still have an old phone and it's a dear but it's time has passed I think. Thing is I don't want to go through the days of being confused and annoying with my phone so I just keep carrying on with the old thing- and it's been very faithful. Still must get new phone.

Fran Hill said...

I was tempted to get one. You cured me.

Amy said...

Ooh an iphone. Every day I think about getting an iphone and have to talk myself out of it (still stuck in a long phone contract.) But oh I want one.

Carole said...

Omg i know how you feel. I've been avoiding new phones for hubby and me and today his got wet and he thinks it's trashed... UGG! I just spent 3 hrs on the phone setting up my banking online and at the end I'm still waiting ...second UGG!

Thanks for coming by so I could rant!
Love your blog!
haha

xxx

Jayne said...

Hi Eliza. It's probably the first phone I've had where I have showed it off excitedly to my mum with all the amazing things it can do, such as swish photos, pop bubble-wrap and pretend to be a light-sabre. Am still a bit fogged by actual 'phone' type things, but hey - a light-sabre!

Jayne said...

Thanks Kit! My pink bonnet comes out only in times of techy stress. The other thing that comes out is the Hat of Rage. I try not to reach for that one though. :)

Jayne said...

Hi Christine! There is something rather more solid and dependable about the old bricks. This iphone is lovely but I still feel a bit nervous to use it in public. At least no one covets old bricks!

Jayne said...

Hi Talli. The thing with rubbishy old phones is that you can chuck them in your bag and they almost always still work. I am so scared of something happening to the iphone that I am carrying it around in an old sock. No matter how updated my technology gets, I always manage to somehow bring it down to my level.

Jayne said...

Hi Pamela! Good to see you over here. Thank you so much for wandering over, and I am glad you like the blog. Give lovely Edward a head ruffle for me. :)

Jayne said...

Thanks Linda! Yes, there is the angry sandwich, angry salad, angry coffee... and the Tea of Calm. :)

Jayne said...

Hi Rose. Yes, I must admit to have completely forgotten how long it takes for me to get used to a new phone. There is so much jiggory pokery to happen before I am comfortable with even making calls! Still unsure of most stuff - but I found the volume the other day, so that was a relief. I probably should actually read a manual rathe than stabbing various buttons!

Jayne said...

Hi Fran. Bwhahaha. No, honestly they are good! Who needs to make calls and sync email when you can play with a virtual light-sabre? Exactly.

Jayne said...

Hi Amy. Just think, by the time you finish your phone contract, another bigger, better and more amazing phone will be out there just waiting for you!

Jayne said...

Hi Carole! Thank you so much for coming over, glad you like the blog! New phones are so painful, they nearly always conspire to making me feel like a muppet. And all the set up... still (she says, bravely) it will all be worth it. I think.

And feel free to rant away - anytime!

Amy said...

Thanks Jayne. Although I may have been so swept up with the idea of an iPhone that I might just possible be getting one. Almost worked out the contract bit. So maybe I will be a member of the iPhone club soon. I am so easily convinced to buy things.