My phone broke
Kinda. Here’s the story.
The company I worked for was a registered iPhone Enterprise Developer. They wanted me to look into developing iPhone software to be deployed to sales pukes spread across the country. They were cheap, and I already had an iPhone, so they said to just put the beta stuff on my personal phone instead of buying me one specifically for dev purposes.
- March 17: Apple announces 3.0 beta 1
- March 18: Apple’s site is finally available for me to download 3.0 beta 1 from. I did, and I installed it on my phone.
- March 19: I got laid off.
- March 20: I checked developer.apple.com, and my former employer had removed my developer’s access to 3.0, effectively barring me from any future betas before the final release.
- April 12 (today): Fired up my phone after waking up to see the “connect me to iTunes or only make emergency calls” screen.
Plugged the phone into iTunes, and it told me that my phone’s software had expired and that I’d need a newer version to continue to use it. ‘Cept I don’t have access to download 3.0 beta 2. I could torrent it, but it probably wouldn’t activate with iTunes. So, now I’m stuck with a $400 brick.
I called Apple’s iPhone support number. After talking with a script-reader, she transferred me to a “Product Specialist”. I gave him my sob story, and he authorized a warranty replacement. Yay? I would have preferred access to beta 2, but oh well. Bye-bye copy/paste and notes syncing, wide-screen email and texting, and the bugs that cause half the apps I’ve bought to not work. He told me to just go to a local Apple Store and they’d take care of the replacement. Ok, cool. That was this morning. Well, today is Zombie Jesus day, which means ALL THE APPLE STORES ARE CLOSED!!
Kudos to Apple support. I’ve had issues with Apple products before, but their support staff always makes it right. Any problem I’ve had they’ve been able to fix. Apple and Nintendo are two great companies when it comes to supporting their loyal customers.
For today, I’m stuck with Melinda’s old Sony W580i and none of my phone numbers cause she can’t find the sync cable. I feel naked. (I’m not – I’m fully clothed at the moment.) I don’t have my calendar, no email, no games. How will I survive the next 20 hours?
Oh yeah, I’ll be packing my shit into boxes. So: surviving, painfully, and exhaustingly.
Of course this has to happen within a week of us moving to the other end of the country.
