9 posts tagged “apple”

Alex and I had plans for the fourth for all of two hours. We were going to watch the fireworks at a friend's but that didn't pan out so I am guessing that we'll just have to spend the evening playing duel control Flight Control, and complaining about the noise of the fireworks.That is, as long as I am able to get my new iPhone on Friday.  Yes, I am finally succumbing to the lure of the 3G S. (The 'S' by the way stands for spiffing.) The choice was getting my highlights done or upgrading, and the thought of spending five days in Naples with Alex and not being able to play duel player Flight Control is just too much. What the heck would we do of an evening? So I'll just wear a hat whilst we are on vacation.

I have a fairly unhealthy relationship with my iPod. The geniuses at Apple make it really easy to listen to one song over and over again. At least with a Walkman you had to go to the trouble of rewinding and checking you were in the right place. But with an iPod you can repeat with ease until your ears bleed.  For the past ffew days I've been obsessively listening to Hunters & Collectors 'Throw Your Arms Around Me', however my preferred version of the song is by the Doug Antony All Stars.  Way back in the mists of time (the late 80s and early 90s) these guys were boss. They could loosely could be described as a rather salty cabaret act. The bulk of their show was comedic songs (one focused on the dangers of meeting a "girl" in a saliors' pub in the early hours of the morning when it is easy to over look that see has an adams apple) but they would always do a few straight songs that always had more resisence because they were few and far between.  In 2003 DAAS reformed for one night to perform 'Throw Your Arms Around Me', and I think Australia (and their fans) were very happy.

I never thought the day would come when I would be excited over Steve Jobs' key note address at MacWorld. But , every year as technology assimilates itself a little bit more into my life I get that little bit more excited about what Mister Jobs is going to announce. This year I have my fingers crossed for a light light MacBook.... 4 hours to go.

Dear Apple and AT&T,

I am not a happy camper. In fact I am an incredibly hacked off customer and I am awaiting some kind of acknowledgement about the state of affairs regarding this iPhone "activation" business.

My husband and I are big Apple supporters. And I mean BIG Apple supporters as our apartment is strewn with multiple Macs and iPods. It was a no brainer that we were going to get iPhones. After queueing for a mere 3 hours to buy our iPhones my husband went through a painless activation process - I guess that was the experience you were hoping that all your customer would have - but a mere 45 minutes later my own activation process ground to a halt and I have been stuck in iPhone limbo since Friday night (8:38pm to be exact).

I have had no cell phone or portable data access for TWO days. TWO days. Do you know what TWO days without a cell phone feels like? It feels like an eternity. TWO days without my BlackBerry feels like eternity with the labours of
Hercules tacked on.

Now it is late on Sunday afternoon and I have a very expensive desk accessory that refuses to activate itself even though AT&T tell me, or I should say my husband has been speaking to AT&T since I don't have a PHONE (with or without the "i" prefix), that their end of the operation is a-okay and that I am now in a queue waiting for iTunes to acknowledge that my iPhone is activated - or should that be on the cusp of activation since I am still stuck with the picture of Earth.

I am not particularly optimistic about my situation being resolved before bed, and that really takes the biscuit. Let me tell you why. My gut tells me that most people who purchased an iPhone this weekend did so for their personal use and will be syncing it to their home Macs rather than their work computers. If that is the case then they, like me, will leave for work tomorrow with their sad non-functioning iPhone plugged into their home Macs. They wont know if it has sprung to life till they get home.

I don't know whose to blame over activation limbo. I don't care. Apple knew how many iPhones they were going to make available on Friday and over the weekend. They could have rationed them so that  the system would not have been overwhelmed.

If there is one thing worse than not having an iPhone it is having a non-functioning iPhone for 48 hours and counting.

Kind regards,

Eiron

Hands up if you bought into the hype of iPhone Friday. (I am of course have both arms stretched to the sun and am bouncing up and down!)

We managed to secure two shiny new iPhones without having to queue over night. In fact we had the comfort of waiting in an air conditioned mall and only for 3 hrs (I only got there at quarter to six so I only had a 15 min wait)! Which is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Since I work in SoHo I have been buying my lunch from a place over the road from the Apple Store so I could check daily on the queue situation. Foolish people who started camping out on Wednesday. Do some research, find a nice AT&T not in Manhattan and you'll be sorted! I've had weeks of anaylsis from Alex about which store would be best one in a mini mall or Hoboken (as it turns out both were civilised options but the AC and lower profile of the mall local won out).

My Mum will be happy to know that once we purchased said iPhones we put them in Alex's stylish new messinger bag so that we wouldn't be mug on the way home. But before we could rush home I forced Alex into Macy's kitchen department to buy a large pot and a griddle for today's cooking extravaganca.

Once we got home we unboxed them and did the happy dance. It is if Apple have managed to cram Christmas into this small handheld device. Alex immediatley set about downloading the new iTunes and setting up his iPhone. Unfortunately, because I had left work without finishing everything I first had to log on to my work emails and make a few calls - YUK!!!!!! And add a few more items to our FreshDirect order. So whilst I was trying to be good and finish things I had to listen to Alex cooing over his new best friend.

By half eight I was done and started the process of activating my iPhone; since the whole process is done via iTunes it is painless BUT the it stalled at the AT&T activation part. Oh yes, they were quick enough to deactivate the sim card in my BlackBerry but 11 hours later and my iPhone is still not alive!!!!!!!

I am tasking Alex with bitch slapping AT&T whilst I get on with the cooking.

My brother, Cowboy Bob, once again neglected to remove his shovel from his pockets and washed it. I guess it is a good thing that he doesn't have one of the spanking new coloured shovels as that might run in the wash! 

Two momentous things happened last night and my life will never be the same again; I did a handstand and Alex set up my new iMac. The handstand occurred in yoga class and I was aided by two very nice Scandinavian women (one held my hips and the other helped me kick up). In all the years I have been practising I have been overly cautious about full on inversions, but I am going to try to push my stagnate practise forwards and start working on a supported forearm stand (hopefully there will be photographic evidence soon). Oh and my iMac is truly is a thing of beauty and how I love that I now have a 20" screen. Productivity will go through the roof I tell you. 

I am saving for a new computer and I have my eye on a desktop, an iMac.  I don't really move about enough to warrant upgrading to a fancy new wide screen laptop, and my mini-me is only two and a bit years old. But, what I really desire is a larger screen because 12" doesn't cut it and I am sure my grades will increase along side monitor size. I am fed up with being restricted to only looking at one application at a time, and long for the day when I can have my browser AND a word document open side by side.  My notes will be that much better than before, and I wont use the extra inches to have my browser and iTunes open next to one another. Given that my PowerBook is holding strong I should really just buy a monitor. But where's the fun in that and Alex is planning on upgrading later this year and I wont be left behind!!!

So all that I am left with is having to choose between the 17, 20 or 24 inch models. I went down to the Apple store in SoHo and tested out the different screens: 17" is still too small, 20" should be just right and 24" scared me. I felt like a digital Goldilocks flitting between Macs.