I have heard people talk about the problems with their iPhones – a lot. I have even had a couple myself. I am not usually quick to dismiss them, but in a time when technology is advance as it is, and ultimately advancing as fast as it is, you ultimately have 2 options: 1. adapt or 2. fall behind. Both are viable options, I suppose. I just prefer the one over the other.
I have been one for technology since my parents bought our first home computer way back in the day. I mean WAY BACK! Even my maternal grandfather, Allen P. Adams, embraced technology long before the average home computer became a dream or hint of reality. He worked on computers that took up rooms the size of my house. Now I can say that the “computer” that fits in my back pocket every single day and for all points and purposes improves my life to some degree or another has WAY MORE COMPUTING POWER than those beasts of machines that my grandfather got to experience way back then.
Whatever the first experience, the point is that I chose the “adapt” option because it is fun. It is exciting. It is easier.
Well sometimes.
I was not a super early cell phone adopter and I was not quick to upgrade every single time a new phone came out. I do not understand that craziness, however, I do like new gadgets. This is especially true when they will make my life easier. Let me confess that I personally do NOT own an iPad, iPad Mini, or any other tablet device, a Kindle for reading, or any other book reader for that matter, or the like. I have a cell phone and a laptop computer. That is it. Okay, I do have a digital drawing tablet, but the version I have does NOT work unless it is connected to my computer. I like gadgets and fancy ones, but I have reason and even practice restraints.
That being said, however, once I went to my first iPhone which my husband bought for me as an early Christmas gift one year because my love flipped phone was dying. I was on my second version of that loved Motorola Razor flip phone. It was dying a slow death and it was more painful for my husband watch than me. He upgraded me. He had an iPhone 3Gs and he loved it. He upgraded me to an iPhone 4.
I was hesitant at first. I wanted to NOT like it. I really did. I tried to not like it. I did. I have to say, however, any resistance I had was futile. I fell in love with how easy it made my life. Not because it did anything spectacular for me, but it made it so I could do certain things on the go. Have my calendar in my pocket and actually set alarms to remind me? Heck yes! It reduced the number of times I forgot to pick up which child. It improved my life one little thing at a time. Forgot my camera at home? Not really, it was in my pocket. It was not my big fancy camera, but it would do. Catch the kids doing something really funny? No worry that the camcorder was at home. I was free to be the mom of crazy kids and let them be themselves where ever they were and whenever they were.
It could not get any more awesome than that.
Well it could.
Instead of upgrading or replacing phones because I had to (dead, broken pieces, etc) every 18 months or so, I could stretch that out to every 3 years or so. How awesome does it get? A good investment as far as I was concerned because it offered me a lot of benefits in one little device.
Is it perfect? No. I am not going to lie to anyone and say that it is a one size fits all device. It is not. You have to find what fits you and your lifestyle. I am realistic. For me and my Apple/Mac lifestyle it fit right in and we have been happy together ever since – so happy.
It is still not perfect. No relationship is perfect.
Last night…I swear my iPhone 5 decided it was going to stab me in the back. It is not funny. It was already giving me funky battery issues. It is old. Out of warranty. I had already had my brother, Jonathan Hellewell, price out replacement batteries for my phone and Andrew’s phone. It takes 2 weeks minimum to get the replacements. He fixes them so I just needed to let him know when and he would order them. I was not in a huge rush at the time because I was just keeping it well charged. I really noticed the problems during the temperature changes – hot to cold and back again. When I went to Chicago, that was when I really noticed it. It was crazy. I had just not followed up with him because it did not drain as fast with our warmer Texas temperatures.
Yesterday, he reminded me that there was a patch and made sure I did it. I usually hold out a little while to do them. I don’t know why, I just do…last night I did it as I was finishing up some things late. I plugged it in and started the update. I sat down in the recliner with a blanket and curled up to warm up and just wait. I just let it update with the phone itself. Usually I let it do it through the computer. I do not know why I did not do it that way this time. I just didn’t.
I dozed off a little bit…
The constant vibration on my leg where the phone was laying woke me back up…
Hmmm…
This is what I still have this morning. This is after SEVERAL attempts to UPDATE via iTunes itself. That is after SEVERAL attempts to go in via “recovery mode” to restart the process. Still I have a “bricked” phone they call it.
The really fun part is that I CANNOT even turn it off. I cannot force it to turn off. It is stuck in the infinite reboot loop from hell…
Now, I know why I had been waiting on these updates….so they can fix these problems…this is a common problem with some of these updates…
The only thing I can get my iPhone 5 to do is show me this lovely little white apple AND if I wait long enough with the right button push combinations/holds, I get the iTunes icon telling me to plug it into a computer. I follow the iconic directions on the screen and voila! I then have my computer and iTunes recognizing that an iPhone has been plugged in and it asks me to “update” or “restore.” Then we are stuck in the infinite loop of choice hell. A few updates later it was “updating” faster, but we are still doing the constant Apple logo rebooting sequence that just will not stop.
In fact, if it is plugged in, the logo does NOT turn off at all. It illuminated the room for me all night long. At least the rest of the night.
If it is not plugged in…
Well, if it is not plugged in, it still illuminates the screen constantly. I finally ended up seeing an all too familiar iconic instruction screen. I was way too happy to see it this time. Usually I am scrambling to find a cord to plug to charge with, right now I am just glad the Apple is not “mocking me” anymore. It only took a few minutes to completely drain the battery, by the way. Less than 30 minutes to be exact. That is a record pace I would say.
The best thing is that I am not entirely sure this is an “update” problem from what I was reading online. This could entirely be a hardware problem. It could be a number of problems. At any rate I am not a happy camper right now.
I have 1 more option to try before I give up on the phone entirely…I can try a “restore” on the device instead of an “update” and see if it will snap out of its “mini vacation.” Rotten apple? No, just a crab apple, maybe. Hopefully. I had hoped to avoid the “restore” option because the last backup I have was from December. I have an entire month of photos to recover. Of course the day it craps out is the day I opted to forgo the backup in iTunes. “Oh it never does this, it will be fine.” Lesson learned….
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