ZOOP!
For the past couple months my iPhone wanted me to upgrade its operating-system to iO8.0.2.
I’ve always let it upgrade, but this time it wouldn’t.
A Smartphone, which my iPhone is, is a miniature computer, so it has an operating-system.
My iPhone is a “5;” I got it about a year-and-half ago as part of a cellphone upgrade to which I was entitled.
For Smart-phones I started with a Motorola Droid-X. It was okay, but it made unwanted “pocket-calls,” and liked to hang.
“Pocket-calls” are unwanted phonecalls made by having the Smartphone in your back pocket, where a bump or sitting could initiate a call.
The Droid-X also liked to make calls on its own while charging on my nightstand; that is, not in my pocket.
It also liked to freeze. The only way to unfreeze it was remove the battery.
My brother in northern DE has an iPhone, I think a “4.”
So do his wife and only son.
He suggested I switch “because the iPhone always works,” and doesn’t make pocket-calls.
So I switched, and that was after my wife died. She’d be amazed I’ve gotten so I can drive it.
Of course, I ain’t doin’ much; nowhere near what that iPhone could do.
But I have my grocery-lists on it, and keep my appointments in its calendar-app.
I also access my Internet weather-site while down in Altoona chasing trains. It can tell me if a deluge is coming.
I’ve also used it as a camera.
Since I got it, there have been at least two operating-system upgrades, maybe three.
One put a security log-in on it. Made sense. Although a friend was mad you had to log in before you could text.
Although with me it wasn’t that much an impediment, since I don’t text much.
A recent upgrade seemed buggy. Once my e-mail turned into a bog-slow mess (my iPhone also gets my e-mail, as did my Droid-X).
And often the touch-screen has froze, usually in my calendar app.
The other day I tried to call my niece’s husband, and it just hung. I never could call him, despite two or three attempts, but he called me, and I got that.
So I figured the new operating-system might fix those bugs, but I couldn’t install it.
I took my iPhone to an Apple guru, but he ended up the same as me.
I then took it to the ‘pyooter-store that set me up, but they couldn’t install it either.
“Fire up iTunes on your computer, and have your computer upgrade it,” they told me. “You’ll be told a system upgrade is available.
Doing it with your computer is way faster than Verizon’s cellphone-towers.” (My cellphone is Verizon.)
Well, I don’t know exactly what is going on, but my iPhone always wanted wi-fi to upgrade. That’s not Verizon’s cell-towers, that’s my wi-fi router.
So I fired up iTunes on this laptop, and plugged in my iPhone. An iPhone operating-system upgrade was available.
All kinds of mysterious and unknowable hoops were displayed about deactivating and restoring your iPhone.
Lost, as usual; I’m not a techie.
But apparently it upgraded.
Now I get to deal with the fallout.
My iPhone has “Siri” (“seer-eee”) and voice-recognition, which save time. And they’re pretty good, unlike my car (which is Microsoft).
They save time compared to fat-fingers on a tiny virtual keyboard.
“Do you wanna dictate?” That is, have Apple monitor whatever I said.
WHAAA.....?
“Cancel;” engage voice-recognition again.
Back to the same “dictate” screen.
For crying out loud, Apple; you’re not giving me a yes-or-no option.
Why in the world would I want Apple to monitor my voice-recognition?
Okay, what are they gonna get? “Broccoli, carrots, Alumni breakfast luncheon.”
Congratulations, Apple, you get junk like this for gumint minions to pore through. “Broccoli and carrots” indicate my terrorist inclinations.
Then the other afternoon I had to call my kennel to reserve dog-boarding. Usually it’s just a Siri command: “Call Ranchanna.”
But this time Siri was lost. “I don’t see ‘Ranch-era’ in your contacts; should I look it up on the Internet instead?”
I tried again: “Call Ranchanna.”
“I don’t see ‘Ranch-era’ in your contacts; should I look it up on the Internet instead?”
Guess I gotta call ‘em from my contact-list.
I fired up my contact-list.
“No contacts.”
Uh-ohhhh..... Looks like that system upgrade lunched my contact-list.
Now what?
I had to revert to the 1950s; look up “Ranchanna” in the white-pages, and call from that.
“Revolutionary and magical.”
How, pray tell, can I get my contact-list back?
Guess I gotta visit the Apple-store.
I remembered Verizon was saving my contacts to “Backup Assistant” in the sky.
I set that up long ago after my first contacts loss.
Now every time I add a contact, Verizon backs it up. It’s auto-magic.
So all I gotta do is download my contact-list from Verizon, and I’m back in business.
There were other reasons to visit the Apple-store. I wasn’t sure I had actually upgraded my phone, and there were other issues.
So I figured I’d visit the Apple-store today (Wednesday, December 10th, 2014).
But yesterday I was doing grocery-shopping in the vicinity of the ‘pyooter-store that sold me the phone.
I figured they got my contact-list from Verizon’s “Backup Assistant.”
Actually they used a machine to take my contact-list off my Droid-X and put it on my iPhone.
That is, they hadn’t used Backup-Assistant, but could.
So now I have my contact-list back.
“You’re saving me a trip to the Apple-store,” I commented.
“Oh, don’t do that! For service you gotta get an appointment, and what they really wanna do is sell you an iPhone-6.”
“I don’t want no iPhone-6 until I’m due for an upgrade,” I said.
So I’m glad I went to my ‘pyooter-store. I guess I’m back in the 21st century.
• The “Motorola Droid-X” operated on Google’s “Android” operating platform. It was made by Motorola.
• My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her dearly.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.
• “Siri” is a voice-recognition personal assistant programmed into the iPhone, an iPhone specialty. I can command it to do all kinds of things.
• A “virtual keyboard” is a keyboard displayed onto the screen. It operates by screen-touch much like a typewriter keyboard.
• The so-called “Alumni” are the union retirees (Local 282, the Rochester local of the nationwide Amalgamated Transit Union) of Regional Transit Service in Rochester, NY. (For 16&1/2 years [1977-1993] I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service [RTS], the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY.) The Alumni was a reaction to the fact Transit management retirees ran roughshod over union retirees — a continuation of the bad vibes at Transit: management versus union. Transit had a club for long-time employees, and I was in it. It was called the “15/25-year Club;” I guess at first the “25-year Club.” But they lowered the employment requirement, and renamed it “15/25-year Club.” The employment requirement was lowered even more; I joined at 10 years. My employ there ended in 1993 with my stroke; and the “Alumni” didn’t exist then. The Alumni is a special club — you have to join.
• “Revolutionary and magical” is what Apple CEO Steve Jobs (now deceased) called the iPhone when it debuted in 2007.
• An “other issue” is the “Find-my-phone” thingy has been turned off.
I’ve always let it upgrade, but this time it wouldn’t.
A Smartphone, which my iPhone is, is a miniature computer, so it has an operating-system.
My iPhone is a “5;” I got it about a year-and-half ago as part of a cellphone upgrade to which I was entitled.
For Smart-phones I started with a Motorola Droid-X. It was okay, but it made unwanted “pocket-calls,” and liked to hang.
“Pocket-calls” are unwanted phonecalls made by having the Smartphone in your back pocket, where a bump or sitting could initiate a call.
The Droid-X also liked to make calls on its own while charging on my nightstand; that is, not in my pocket.
It also liked to freeze. The only way to unfreeze it was remove the battery.
My brother in northern DE has an iPhone, I think a “4.”
So do his wife and only son.
He suggested I switch “because the iPhone always works,” and doesn’t make pocket-calls.
So I switched, and that was after my wife died. She’d be amazed I’ve gotten so I can drive it.
Of course, I ain’t doin’ much; nowhere near what that iPhone could do.
But I have my grocery-lists on it, and keep my appointments in its calendar-app.
I also access my Internet weather-site while down in Altoona chasing trains. It can tell me if a deluge is coming.
I’ve also used it as a camera.
Since I got it, there have been at least two operating-system upgrades, maybe three.
One put a security log-in on it. Made sense. Although a friend was mad you had to log in before you could text.
Although with me it wasn’t that much an impediment, since I don’t text much.
A recent upgrade seemed buggy. Once my e-mail turned into a bog-slow mess (my iPhone also gets my e-mail, as did my Droid-X).
And often the touch-screen has froze, usually in my calendar app.
The other day I tried to call my niece’s husband, and it just hung. I never could call him, despite two or three attempts, but he called me, and I got that.
So I figured the new operating-system might fix those bugs, but I couldn’t install it.
I took my iPhone to an Apple guru, but he ended up the same as me.
I then took it to the ‘pyooter-store that set me up, but they couldn’t install it either.
“Fire up iTunes on your computer, and have your computer upgrade it,” they told me. “You’ll be told a system upgrade is available.
Doing it with your computer is way faster than Verizon’s cellphone-towers.” (My cellphone is Verizon.)
Well, I don’t know exactly what is going on, but my iPhone always wanted wi-fi to upgrade. That’s not Verizon’s cell-towers, that’s my wi-fi router.
So I fired up iTunes on this laptop, and plugged in my iPhone. An iPhone operating-system upgrade was available.
All kinds of mysterious and unknowable hoops were displayed about deactivating and restoring your iPhone.
Lost, as usual; I’m not a techie.
But apparently it upgraded.
Now I get to deal with the fallout.
My iPhone has “Siri” (“seer-eee”) and voice-recognition, which save time. And they’re pretty good, unlike my car (which is Microsoft).
They save time compared to fat-fingers on a tiny virtual keyboard.
“Do you wanna dictate?” That is, have Apple monitor whatever I said.
WHAAA.....?
“Cancel;” engage voice-recognition again.
Back to the same “dictate” screen.
For crying out loud, Apple; you’re not giving me a yes-or-no option.
Why in the world would I want Apple to monitor my voice-recognition?
Okay, what are they gonna get? “Broccoli, carrots, Alumni breakfast luncheon.”
Congratulations, Apple, you get junk like this for gumint minions to pore through. “Broccoli and carrots” indicate my terrorist inclinations.
Then the other afternoon I had to call my kennel to reserve dog-boarding. Usually it’s just a Siri command: “Call Ranchanna.”
But this time Siri was lost. “I don’t see ‘Ranch-era’ in your contacts; should I look it up on the Internet instead?”
I tried again: “Call Ranchanna.”
“I don’t see ‘Ranch-era’ in your contacts; should I look it up on the Internet instead?”
Guess I gotta call ‘em from my contact-list.
I fired up my contact-list.
“No contacts.”
Uh-ohhhh..... Looks like that system upgrade lunched my contact-list.
Now what?
I had to revert to the 1950s; look up “Ranchanna” in the white-pages, and call from that.
“Revolutionary and magical.”
How, pray tell, can I get my contact-list back?
Guess I gotta visit the Apple-store.
I remembered Verizon was saving my contacts to “Backup Assistant” in the sky.
I set that up long ago after my first contacts loss.
Now every time I add a contact, Verizon backs it up. It’s auto-magic.
So all I gotta do is download my contact-list from Verizon, and I’m back in business.
There were other reasons to visit the Apple-store. I wasn’t sure I had actually upgraded my phone, and there were other issues.
So I figured I’d visit the Apple-store today (Wednesday, December 10th, 2014).
But yesterday I was doing grocery-shopping in the vicinity of the ‘pyooter-store that sold me the phone.
I figured they got my contact-list from Verizon’s “Backup Assistant.”
Actually they used a machine to take my contact-list off my Droid-X and put it on my iPhone.
That is, they hadn’t used Backup-Assistant, but could.
So now I have my contact-list back.
“You’re saving me a trip to the Apple-store,” I commented.
“Oh, don’t do that! For service you gotta get an appointment, and what they really wanna do is sell you an iPhone-6.”
“I don’t want no iPhone-6 until I’m due for an upgrade,” I said.
So I’m glad I went to my ‘pyooter-store. I guess I’m back in the 21st century.
• The “Motorola Droid-X” operated on Google’s “Android” operating platform. It was made by Motorola.
• My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her dearly.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.
• “Siri” is a voice-recognition personal assistant programmed into the iPhone, an iPhone specialty. I can command it to do all kinds of things.
• A “virtual keyboard” is a keyboard displayed onto the screen. It operates by screen-touch much like a typewriter keyboard.
• The so-called “Alumni” are the union retirees (Local 282, the Rochester local of the nationwide Amalgamated Transit Union) of Regional Transit Service in Rochester, NY. (For 16&1/2 years [1977-1993] I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service [RTS], the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY.) The Alumni was a reaction to the fact Transit management retirees ran roughshod over union retirees — a continuation of the bad vibes at Transit: management versus union. Transit had a club for long-time employees, and I was in it. It was called the “15/25-year Club;” I guess at first the “25-year Club.” But they lowered the employment requirement, and renamed it “15/25-year Club.” The employment requirement was lowered even more; I joined at 10 years. My employ there ended in 1993 with my stroke; and the “Alumni” didn’t exist then. The Alumni is a special club — you have to join.
• “Revolutionary and magical” is what Apple CEO Steve Jobs (now deceased) called the iPhone when it debuted in 2007.
• An “other issue” is the “Find-my-phone” thingy has been turned off.
posted by BobbaLew at 12:03 PM
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