I'm ready to give up on iPhones, and look for something more reliable.
A New York Times article today ("You Love Your iPhone...Literally") says people are so enamored of their iPhones that "Friends who have accidentally left home without (them) tell me they feel stressed-out, cut off and somehow un-whole. That sounds a lot like separation anxiety..." Or addiction.
Apparently, test subjects (ages 18-25) responded to the ringing of their iPhones with a "flurry of activation in the insular cortex of the brain, which is associated with feelings of love and compassion."
Hah! Fat chance of my developing that kind of attachment to you. When you ring, I can't get any more than four jingles out of you, which means I have to scramble to answer, or call back, and that gets expensive and stressful.
And your ringer button is set right where my thumb touches when I hold you (see photo), so I often accidentally mute your ring. Friends call, and I never know about it until I look at my Recents. After a while, they give up on trying to reach me.
Far too often, when I push the ON button to make a call, your screen stays black. The other day, it turned WHITE. This is after I treated you to a new battery, too.
Then yesterday the voice transmission stopped working when I was making a crucial call, and now I have to turn on the Speaker to hear the person I'm talking to. This means everyone in the room can hear both sides of our conversation.
Granted, you weren't brand new when you came to me, so maybe some of your issues are due to your previous relationship. But I thought (silly me) that an experienced phone could still be as good as right off the assembly line. After all, I'm no spring chicken myself. I knew from the beginning there was no hope of going online with you, because your wifi access was permanently out of service. I was willing to accept that shortcoming, as long as you lived up to all the other expectations Apple promised. But no....
So it's obvious we're never going to bond. Maybe a Droid or a Blackberry would treat me better.
9 comments:
Wow! Do I know the feeling. I do not have an iPhone. But my Windows-based phone (that I searched for almost a year -- to get just the right one) has some of the same problems. Like the automatic mute on the side of the telephone. Who thought that was a good idea?
Worst of all, though, when I reach for my telephone, I almost always touch the screen and hang up on whoever is calling. I was better off without one. Sorta.
I do like my iPhone better than my previous phone that wouldn't tell me if I had a missed call or text message, it expected me to carry it around with me at all times (I don't always have pockets.) The main problem I have with my iPhone is that if I am wearing my favorite earrings that I got in the USVI, they dangle and hit the on/off button on my phone and cut my calls off! Who would have thought an earring sensitive phone? I do love some of the Apps I have, like Google Earth (I love to see where other people are...) And Shopper Lite, keeps all my shopping lists in one place. And Key Ring, which keeps all my little store discount bar code tabs in my phone!!! I lost 27 pounds on my key chain with that one. The other day my boss gave me a holster for my phone!!! Now it just clips onto my waste band, no pockets needed. Maybe you need an updated version. I do agree that people are too attached to phones.
I would give anything to have my old DPC550 Motorola Analog Flip Phone back. I have an Iphone, but long for the large tactile buttons, the great analog sound and the ruggedness of that old huge phone.
Sadly, the manufactures will continue to make phones that get replaced every 2 years like or or not, and are made for the multitude of people who actually enjoy all the worthless time-consuming applications.....
My complaints are all about design flaws and a stingy battery I have to recharge every night or I can't take the phone with me in the morning (I do have a car charger, but I don't drive anywhere far enough to get a decent charge). I put it in sleep mode, but it still loses a lot of charge. And buttons in the wrong place. How often, really, does anybody use the Mute button? And it seems to me an awful lot of apps are just games, as though people didn't have anything better to do. And why does it have to be a mystery how to delete a name from your Contacts? (Actually I finally found that one, in Edit mode, all the way at the bottom. Made me feel so smart.) Since the Contacts are taken directly off my computer, many are just emails or people in the US that I wouldn't call with my Mexican phone. I have a lot of names to wade through to find what I'm looking for. Try doing that at a stoplight!
there's a solution to all these complaints-just get rid of the darn things! unless of course you don't have a house phone. i went years without a cell phone and now that we are in japan, i have decided to go without one-i am an oddity here. i don't miss it one bit. my biggest gripe about cells, etc. is that i hate it when i am with a friend and she pulls out her phone and starts talking or texting. why do some people feel the need to always be connected? i don't get it and i am happy to be cell-less in nagoya. i am also carless and getting a lot of badly needed exercise. i drove when we lived here last time so it's not a matter of not wanting to drive on the left side, it's just that there are so many bikers out here who don't watch where they're going. often times they're on their cell phones. i am afraid i would hit one and that would be devastating.
saludos,
teresa
that pup is precious and he is very lucky to have you take care of him. what is valley fever? don't think i've seen but maybe one cocker spaniel here. corgies (sp) seem to be the dog of choice and there are also a lot of toy poodles. they really love their dogs here! don't know anyone who has a cat but yesterday i saw someone walking a kitty on a leash. also saw another one on a leash at a flea market.
have a great week and God bless you for all you're doing to help those little critters. i think i'd have a house full of cats if pets were allowed here. a dog too of course ;-)
tu amiga,
teresa
hmmm... none of those problems exist on my iPhone, I think you are not judging them fairly with an old one that you knew was broken already(no wifi). I love mine, have lots of apps (almost all free or less than $2) and few games. We were looking at the stars tonight with Skymap, it shows you the names of whatever area you are looking at.
I"m the opposite of Theresa, I swore I'd never have a landline phone again. I don't want to talk to anyone's house, I want to talk to a particular person. I gave in but only because the phone came with the internet, and I never answer it.
I use the mute a lot too, when I'm in class or out with friends I put it on mute and can check who is calling discretely then call them back later.
I don't know, maybe I'm just such an apple fan that all of the functions seem obvious and natural to me. It could be that another smart phone would fit you better.
The 1st Mate is now awaiting the arrival of an almost brand new iPhone 4 that I bought for her on eBay, in the pre-release flurry of the iPhone 4S. (the phone she has now is old 3G model that I've repaired 5 or 6 times). Hopefully, the only whining now will be from the puppy (I call him Bob).
BTW, I upgraded my phone too : )
I came back to write some more as I felt like I'd been less than helpful and maybe a bit rough, as usual a dozen things were happening while I was writing the other comment.
I have a couple solutions. If you have the address book program (that syncs with your iphone) on your computer you can set up groups. I have Merida friends, Merida businesses, Mexico, US, etc. Once the numbers are in their groups on the computer, sync with the phone. Then you can change groups on the phone, only showing one group at a time. Leave it on your most often used group when you exit contacts and that will be the group you see first.
For the battery life, go into Settings and make sure that you have Bluetooth turned off (it's under General) when not using it. Also if you are not going to use wifi then turn that off too. Both of those use battery power all the time looking for signals. I'm not great with my battery, I tend to plug the phone in next to the bed at night and I should let it run down first.
I think you'll like the iPhone4, that's what I have. The camera is great although the flash does use the battery up. I rarely take my big camera with me anymore, I'm happy with snapshots from the iPhone.
I hope you enjoy your new iPhone.
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