Back on the grid

Barb and I gave each other iPhones for Christmas. This probably rates higher than the garage door openers we gave each other a number of years ago, but in my defense, we really needed garage door openers.

I wrote with some pride a while back that we were slowly getting off the grid; our cell phones had dwindled down to Pay-As-You-Go plans and I griped because I couldn't get any lower level (cheaper) service. But I slipped up and got Barb a Palm for Christmas several years ago. She loved the Palm. She depended on the Palm. And when the Palm finally played out there was great trauma and angst about replacing it. After a lot of deliberation, and a lot of trepidation, we got her an iTouch. Great choice, only she kept having to retrieve it from me so much she finally insisted that I get my own. I did and we were a happy couple.

For a while. Then it became obvious that our old phones weren't going to last much longer - they would hold a battery charge about 12 hours or two phone calls - whichever came first. In fact, when we went to the AT&T store the guy took one look at our old phones and said, "Wow, I haven't seen one of these in forever!" Okay, we get the point.

So, now we have new, out-of-the-box iPhones, and if we want all of our existing stuff from the iTouches transferred over to our iPhones we just sync them in iTunes, right? iNot! Let me just say that we got the phones last Tuesday and we finished cleaning up all the apps and profiles on Christmas Day. Oh, wait. We still have to call the Bible software company to find out what happened to the versions previously bought and paid for. I give iTunes sync a big F minus!!

Then there is the matter of documentation. If you have an Apple product you know that Apple doesn't believe in documentation. Saves them a ton of money. So Barb picked up an "iPhone for Dummies" type book, and I confess I took the Apple approach and said, "We don't need no stinkin' book." Which was fine until I slipped up and showed her a neat short-cut and had to confess that after she went to bed I read her book. Her helpful, interesting book.

There. Is that a sufficient apology?

So now we are down to one device apiece for all our phone and mobile Internet needs. Right? Then why does our docking area look like this?

Oh, yeah, I remember. It has to do with that F minus for getting all the stuff synced up. Maybe someday soon.