Personal experience on emotional reaction to tech gadgets

Yesterday I dropped my iPhone4. Nothing terribly unusual about that. I’ve done it before.


But this time… it would not turn on.

No cracks or new dents…but no power either. I tried all the rebooting strategies I could find. Nothing worked.

I had an emotional reaction to this beyond “shit I broke my phone”.

I could not check email or the weather, or FB updates.  I could play Scramble with friends! I could not listen to music. I faced a drive home without my audiobook, relegated to the backwaters of XM radio or worse… broadcast FM!

I could not check anything. I could not even tell the time!

It was like a best friend and constant companion had just fallen into a coma, his fate unknown until I could get to the “doctor”, the Apple Store.

I made an appointment for 2:50 and left work early to get there. I had to send out emails to let people know they could not contact me on my phone.  My data was backed up in the cloud so I was okay there. I was still under AppleCare so there was a good chance they’d just give me a new iPhone4. Worst case scenario was it’s time to upgrade. I’m in the upgrade window at AT&T but really want to wait for the 5, don’t want to blow my upgrade on a 4S now.  

I get in the car and I’m running late. I also discover I can’t get out of Columbus on 71N easily… everything is ripped to hell as they put in “fly over ramps” on the 670/71 interchange. 

Then I notice that my phone was doing something. I had out of habit dropped it into the charger. And it was coming back to life! It took awhile but it booted up!!!  

The feeling of relief that washed over me when I saw my little buddy was alive and kicking was ….. interesting, nay, FASCINATING.  
 
Some apps acted like it was the first time they’d run.  And for some reason “traffic” refused to let go of the GPS so I disabled it.  But otherwise it’s working great!

Good news since I blew right past my Genius Bar appointment sitting in traffic trying to get out of downtown Cowtown.

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