On November 14th, 2007 I ordered a new iPhone. Within 24 hours I began checking online to see the shipment status. Each day my hopes of a speedy delivery were smoldered. On November 21st, I looked another time online to see that my iPhone was finally in transit but it was coming all the way from Shenzhen, China! Darn it! I wasn’t going to be able to show it off to my family on Thanksgiving Day. November 23, the day after Thanksgiving, my doorbell rang at 9am. As I took the box from the FedEx delivery man, I had to tell him, “This is an iPhone. I am so excited!” I put my kids in front of the TV (my babysitter sometimes J) so I could activate it.
3 days before receiving my iPhone, Apple sent me an email – Your iPhone is coming. Time to get ready. The email contained directions for activating the phone, checking out calling plans, and suggestions of how to prepare for the syncing of contacts, email, iTunes and calendars. I watched the 20 minute tutorial showing me all the cool functions the iPhone has. I was impressed with how simple everything seemed to be.
As my kids watched TV, I sat down and opened the email Apple sent me. I clicked on the link for activating my phone and I was up and running in less than 10 minutes. Everything didn’t only seem simple, it really was.
I couldn’t keep my hands off the phone for the first 3 or 4 days. I surfed the internet, checked email, listened to music, sent and received text messages, made conference calls while on speakerphone, watched YouTube, and looked up driving directions. I couldn’t believe how cool it was. I wanted to show it off to everyone.
While showing off the camera to my sister, it froze! I kept touching the screen and nothing would happen. Oh no! I tried turning it off. It wouldn’t turn off because the touch screen wouldn’t work to slide to power off. I held down the sleep button and it finally turned off. Restarting it seemed to make it work okay. Relief.
While driving to meet my husband for lunch, I tried to call him. Nothing. Again the touch screen was not responding. I held down the sleep button to turn it off again. Freezing numerous times in the first week. This was beginning to worry me. I called Apple after returning to my office and was given directions of how to reset the iPhone. I was also advised to turn the phone off at least once a week. Since doing as directed, my iPhone has not crashed again. Thank God! I wasn’t looking forward to giving it up to be repaired or having to exchange it with another iPhone. A call to Apple care did the trick.
Overall, I can say I love my iPhone. There are a few things I miss about my previous cell phone though. I was able to text numerous people at one time, take digital videos and I was able to record voice memos. iPhone does not (at this time) have those functions.
I just got a new car that has a 16 GB hard drive that will supposedly sync with my iPhone to play music but I have not found a way to do that yet. I can’t say if it’s an issue with the phone, the car or my understanding of how to sync the car and phone. I was hoping for a plug and play capability but it’s not working out right now. The car dealer promises to help me work it out.
For Christmas, I received the i-P23 portable speaker system for iPod. The Apple Store salesman promised it would work with my iPhone. When I put my iPhone in the speaker dock, a message appeared on my phone saying something about the speakers not being designed to work with iPhone. Another message came up asking me if I would like to put my phone in Airport mode. If yes, I would not be able to place or receive calls. The salesman mentioned that it was a good idea to answer yes when asked this question because the interference of an incoming call may blow out the speakers. I answered yes and music started pumping out of the speakers. Everything works and sounds great.
3rd party developers (Hackers) have designed applications such as a voice recorder for the iPhone but Apple does not recognize them and will void any warranty on a phone that has 3rd party content downloaded. I have sent Apple my wish for an update that will include a voice recorder and multiple recipient text capability. I have faith they will find a way to fulfill my wish.
Dana Tennyson
