850 songs and thousands of pictures later ... I cannot live without my phone, my music, my camera, my lifeline to my friends. So when it sort of stopped working the other day, I immediately made an appointment at the Apple Store to get it fixed. I say sort of stopped working because the only thing not working is the sound. It doesn't ring or text or tweet alert. It doesn't play music except through earbuds. Weird, right?
My appointment was for 10:10. Just like any doctor's office my 10:10 appointment time was apparently meaningless as I had to wait for my "genius." I was all primed to be a little cranky. It's so like Apple to call their customer service area the "Genius Bar" and the people who help you the "geniuses." The the "receptionist" for the geniuses chatted with me about my problem for a bit and determined we should back up my phone before anything was done so we got started with that. Okay ... not so cranky now that someone was helping me.
Soon my genius, Nick, appeared and took inventory of my phone's symptoms. He was fairly confident we could fix it after the backing up finished. In the meantime, he had me delete as much stuff as I could. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to my technology. I'm also somewhat uninformed. Anyway, I got rid of a lot of messages, some not-so-great pictures, apps that I never use. Nick kept checking in with me as the backing up was taking a while. (Note to self: this should be done routinely.) We talked about music. He's in a metal band and writes and arranges their music. They play all over and, in fact, had a gig in Buffalo the next weekend. Not that they're making any money. Like most young musicians, it costs him money to perform anywhere.
He was so patient with my lack of knowledge and explained everything he was doing each step of the way. Not that I understood much of it. We started out by "restoring" my phone. Then Nick showed me how to get all my music back out of the "cloud." And he transferred all my "notes" (mostly concert notes so I didn't want to lose them) back from the "cloud." Then we tested for sound. Nothing. He did something else which I can't remember and peered into the orifices of my phone with the world's smallest flashlight. Everything checked out but still no sound.
More waiting for things to happen meant more chatting with my new friend. He's majoring in communications at a local college and hopes to have a job one day where he can help people. He's also working with a friend on a platform for people to share their ideas on the internet in positive ways. He'd like people to be able to upload videos that depict hope, that give hope. It's a lovely idea. Imagine concentrating on the hopeful for a change instead of the crass and bizarre.
So metalhead, poet, communicator, hopeful genius. What a captivating experience! He was fascinating to talk to and was so willing to try every trick he knew of to fix my phone. I was there about an hour and a half. It seemed to go by so quickly.
Ultimately, nothing worked. There is still no sound. It's not a software problem so no amount of tweakage is going to fix it. My next phone upgrade is only a month away so I can live without sound for a while (although music-less mornings are hard to get used to).
A lot of people would be frustrated at the news that something is unfixable. But I walked out of the Apple Store in a better mood than the one I had when I arrived. Nick is a genius--he managed to make my problem, albeit my first-world problem, a pleasant event. And a good reminder for the new year: keeping things real and positive will always make for a better experience and win extra points and new friends along the way.
He was so patient with my lack of knowledge and explained everything he was doing each step of the way. Not that I understood much of it. We started out by "restoring" my phone. Then Nick showed me how to get all my music back out of the "cloud." And he transferred all my "notes" (mostly concert notes so I didn't want to lose them) back from the "cloud." Then we tested for sound. Nothing. He did something else which I can't remember and peered into the orifices of my phone with the world's smallest flashlight. Everything checked out but still no sound.
More waiting for things to happen meant more chatting with my new friend. He's majoring in communications at a local college and hopes to have a job one day where he can help people. He's also working with a friend on a platform for people to share their ideas on the internet in positive ways. He'd like people to be able to upload videos that depict hope, that give hope. It's a lovely idea. Imagine concentrating on the hopeful for a change instead of the crass and bizarre.
So metalhead, poet, communicator, hopeful genius. What a captivating experience! He was fascinating to talk to and was so willing to try every trick he knew of to fix my phone. I was there about an hour and a half. It seemed to go by so quickly.
Ultimately, nothing worked. There is still no sound. It's not a software problem so no amount of tweakage is going to fix it. My next phone upgrade is only a month away so I can live without sound for a while (although music-less mornings are hard to get used to).
A lot of people would be frustrated at the news that something is unfixable. But I walked out of the Apple Store in a better mood than the one I had when I arrived. Nick is a genius--he managed to make my problem, albeit my first-world problem, a pleasant event. And a good reminder for the new year: keeping things real and positive will always make for a better experience and win extra points and new friends along the way.
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