Even a perfectly wonderful life—like mine, for example—has moments one would just as soon not re-live.
This afternoon I was in my hotel room in Los Angeles waiting for a call from Lisa Annenberg, who does the pre-show interviews for Craig Ferguson. (This is my ninth (!) appearance on the show, and Lisa and I always have a good time with the interviews, and then I go on and Craig and I wind up talking about something completely different. Which is fine.)
So we had it arranged that Lisa would call me on my iPhone, and she did, and three sentences in the connection cut out. And one of us called the other, and it happened again. And when I went to call her back, my phone wouldn’t work. At all.
So I called her on the hotel room land line, and all was well, and afterward the iPhone still wouldn’t work. The screen would brighten when I pressed the little circle, and would invite me to slide the thingy to unlock it, but it wouldn’t slide, and hence wouldn’t unlock, and would eventually just darken again, to match my mood. At one point—don’t ask me how—Siri came on to ask me how she could help me. “I can’t slide the screen to turn the phone on,” I said. And she said—by God, I am *not* making this up—she said, “Well, if you can’t, you can’t.”
Helpful.
Finally I picked up the landline and called my cell phone. And it rang, and I answered it, and now it works the way it’s supposed to, and the way it always worked in the past.
Whew.
—LB, who is manifestly TOFTS
That’s what you get for NOT having an Android phone! I still like your Keller books though!
Me too, LB, me too.
Hold down the round button and the power button simultaneously until you see the Apple logo . That will force a restart and all should be good.
Isn’t modern technology wonderful? I regularly heap imprecations on my iPhone. Thanks for sharing your experience–it’s nice to know I’m not alone.
The thing is, I *love* my iPhone. Except for fifteen or twenty minutes this afternoon, when I hated it.
That’s why I have Tracfone for my cell. $7 a month and I’m good to go. PS–I’m usually home and available to take calls on my land line. Tracfones only work in the U. S., too.
Big question: Did you appear appear on Craig’s show? If yes, vow to treat your iPhone better and call it a day.
I regularly ask Siri questions she can’t possibly answer appropriately just to hear what she’ll say. She was clearly programmed by some amusing people.
I feel your pain, LB. Amongst my nearest and dearest I am known as the Machine Murderer. I hate tech glitches. My response to one is to call someone, anyone, and scream, “Make it work!”
You do realize the iPhone was just showing you who is the boss. The machines are out to get us…
Does Craig tape a day early, or are taking the extra time to meet with Whoopi about a Spoons movie?
Today was a pre-interview, by, um, phone. We tape late tomorrow afternoon, and the show airs a few hours later.
THE thing about devices, electronic or otherwise, is that problems with them that go away on their own, usually return the same way.
ON another note – will you please, if possible, ask Craig or TLLSWCF persons to allow you to post all nine sessions on his show. I only know of about 5. Six with this next one. And I’d love to watch them all.
Somehow it just adds insult to injury when your phone not only doesn’t work, but has the nerve to sass you about it at the same time. “If you can’t, you can’t”, indeed.
Still, it’s hard to argue with the woman…
What would Matthew Scudder do?
I think the ghost of Ray Bradbury is playing a Halloween prank on you.
LB, my wife’s iPhone did the very same thing recently. This was a few days after she had upgraded to the latest iOS, which apparently has some problems.
She flipped out, naturally. I told her to reboot the phone. This is done by holding down that little button on the top of the phone (called the Sleep/Wake button) until it turns off, then pressing and holding the same button again to turn it back on. After this her iPhone worked as usual.
BTW, the geniuses at Apple have made sure that anyone who upgrades their iOS can NOT go back to a previous, known good, version. Lovely, eh what?
I’ve been an Apple fan for a long time (I’m writing this on my soon-to-be 13 year old Power Mac, which is still too darn good to throw out), but that sort of thing makes me furious.
Hello and please pardon my ignorance bur what is TOFTS?
(I am sure it is bound to be funny!!! 🙂 )
TOFTS = Too Old For This Substance
Thank you. 🙂
My cell phone does one thing and sometimes two things. My daughter’s iphone does everything except take out the garbage.
No. 1. I make calls on my cell; about 2 or three a month.
No. 2. I sometimes answer the phone when my wife calls. She’s the only one who has the number. That happened once last year.
I have an unlisted land line which maybe 15 people have the number to. If I get an unsolicited call, I’m not too nice.
I don’t text, and I don’t surf the net on my cell phone. Taking pictures is possible, but out of the question. And my cell phone is never on unless I leave the house, which is maybe 2-3 times a week. I have it basically to call AA if my car breaks down.
I have Net 10 as my carrier for the past five years. 15 bucks a month for 150 minutes, and the minutes carry over to the next month. I just looked at my phone. I have accumulated 8,332 minutes in the past five years.
It’s like having money in a bank account you can’t access.
Still, it makes me smile.
Joe, I was like that with my old phone. And, for a while, with my iPhone. Then, like a skin-popper who finds himself stepping up and tying off a vein, I left the house one day without my iPhone and went back for it.
Technology is great when it works. I often find myself shouting at my tablet as if its sentient and threaten to throw it out the window with the window still closed! As if that would make it behave! Numpty!
Iive in the middle of almost no where amongst the cornfields and dirt. I have no internet except for my phone and its my lifeline, I go into sheer panic when it malfunctions. I can’t e-mail, read the latest books, watch movies or keep up with my distant friends on social media. It amazes me that I’m so addicted.
If my phone talked to me like that, I’d give him a good smack.