New operating-system

The other night (Friday, September 20th, 2013), just before turning in, I fired up my iPhone to add some items to a grocery-list.
I keep my grocery-lists in my iPhone, so unlike Granny checking things off a paper list, I cruise the aisles at the supermarket, iPhone in hand, zapping items off my list as I get ‘em. —Pea soup: ZAP! Shredded-wheat: ZAP! Frozen soy-beans (edamame): ZAP!
But what I saw was not my usual iPhone fire-up.
Instead I got some message about updating my operating-system to iOS7.
“Oh dread,” I thought to myself. I can’t just add to my grocery list. I gotta figure out a new operating-system.
And it looked fairly extensive: 578 megs. (My first computer had a 40-meg hard-drive.)
I’m not a techno-maven. I’ve done fairly well figuring out my iPhone. It ain’t this laptop — to me it has limitations. But I’ve advanced to more than just using it as a phone.
“Oh well.” I thought. I’ve let my computer update itself, so let ‘er rip.
I didn’t use to, but a friend got me into it. She showed me I was being paranoid.
So I fingered the “download and install” button.
Thus began a long process.
A screen came up with a thin channel about two pixels wide. It displayed the width of the screen.
A black fill-in started marching slowly through the channel.
“Must be the download,” I thought. I put the phone down and headed for bed.
At the rate it was going, it might take all night.
No idea where the download was coming from, cellular network or my wi-fi. My phone has my wi-fi memorized.
I looked at my phone later as I turned out lights.
ZAP! A black fill-in roared across the screen.
“Must be the install,” I thought to myself.
Then my phone went blank.
I pressed the fire-up button, just like in the past.


George Follmer’s Trans-Am Mustang at Bridgehampton Race-track (my cellphone wallpaper). (Photo by BobbaLew.)

There was my wallpaper, that picture I took years ago of George Follmer in a Trans-Am Mustang racecar.
My phone wanted a password, apparently the password I set up minutes ago. With iOS7 my phone is password-protected. It wasn’t before. It won’t work without the password.
Okay, engage guile-and-cunning.
I tried my password, and suddenly my prior app display fell into place.
It was different, more glitzy, with slightly different icons.
But it was pretty much the same as before — and worked pretty much the same as before.
iOS7 seemed to be mainly an appearance upgrade.
I fingered my “notes” app, and updated my grocery-list.
The upgrade delayed my getting to bed about 15 minutes. I guess that’s the new definition of “saving time.”