New Phone

I have a new phone. And I have mixed feelings about it. Apparently I'm still able to make a phone call - which is the main point. And I'm able to do about a thousand other things it never occurred to me were even possible, much less desirable. I've been intimidated by the iPhone. When Maggy said, "I'm glad you chose a smart phone," I answered, "It didn't look that smart." It looks like a phone with a keyboard and pictures. But I fear it's still considerably smarter than I.

Remember my year long non-adventure with the iPod? I've had a Verizon phone for about 10 years. Verizon has the "new every two" concept where they let you have a free or discounted new phone every two years. That's definitely more for their benefit than for mine. I imagine the technology on every phone I choose is outdated long before I learn how to use it. I'm about eight months past the date when I was eligible for a new phone and Verizon's reminders have been getting more frequent and - um - encouraging. Now it's like, "Upgrade the damn phone NOW. Please."

Yesterday, when the phone was brand new, I read the "Read First Poster" and the 64 page "Tips, hints and shortcuts" book. Neither can be called an instruction manual by any stretch of the imagination. But on the "Welcome" page, it says: For more details, refer to the Owner's Manual that came on the Getting Started CD with your wireless device. Today I figured out which disk has the manual on it. Okay. I'm all about paperless. the PDF manual has 102 full size pages instead of the sixty-four 4"x 4" pages of the Tips booklet. The first ten pages are disclaimers and safety warnings.

• SAFETY PRECAUTIONS FOR DIRECT SUNLIGHT
• PREVENTION OF HEARING LOSS
• SAFETY PRECAUTIONS FOR RF EXPOSURE [I know what RF is from months of talking to people about cell phone towers]
• INTERFERENCE WITH MEDICAL EQUIPMENT FUNCTIONS
• NONIONIZING RADIATION [I really don't know what nonionizing radiation is]

The warning get a little less dire - which I can tell 'cause they're not all caps.

• Avoid hot areas
• Avoid wet areas
• Avoid using your device after a dramatic change in temperature
• Avoid applying excessive pressure to the device ... remove the device from your pants’ pocket before sitting down [Excuse me? Excessive pressure!?]
• Do Not Use the PC Functions of Your Device While Driving or Walking [or chewing gum]

Okay. I'm bored enough with the warnings to stop paying attention to any of them.

I'd go on to page 11 but I'm way beyond what I allotted on my schedule for this task.

And, like the manual, this post has too many words, too few pictures.

How Many Dial-up Hours Does It Take to Download iTunes?

A year or so ago I wrote about wishing I could download Sound and Spirit programs. I got a little MP3 player and managed to put a few songs on it. But the Sound and Spirit programs are in a format that I never did figure out how to download - even with helpful advice from readers.

So, I got an iPod Nano for Christmas. Remember Christmas? Eight months ago? The friend who gave it to me populated it with a few Sound and Spirit shows and some audiobooks which I've enjoyed. But I wanted... more.

iPod comes with this pathetic little 16 iPod Nano size page, line-drawing pamphlet which passes for instructions. It starts right out, "Download iTunes." Last week I guiltily spend $20 on OReilly's Missing Manual. Simon writes for OReilly. So, I'm thinking it will help. But I feel guilty 'cause I know children figure this out without the $20 help. Maybe if I just applied myself...

The Missing Manual made the iPod sound like so much fun and Saturday was rainy so I confronted the problem head on and visited the iPod website. I followed the Missing Manual suggestion and unchecked the boxes that offered me updates. In the interest of time, I skipped the fine print about hardware and software requirements where, I now know, the eighth bullet point is:

• A broadband Internet connection to use the iTunes Store

Optimist that I am, I just clicked "Download Now." The little download screen popped up telling me that the download time was unknown but it was working at a whopping 2kps. Fifteen or twenty minutes later, I lost the dialup connection. Oh, well. I started over. An hour later, as it reached 7MB I realized I might be in trouble and started browsing around the iTunes site to figure out more about what I was getting into. Sure enough. It said the download is 72MB. Hmm...

At about 16MB I was disconnected again. Well, I've download things before that, when interrupted, start up where they left off. So I tried again. No such luck. It started over at 0 and chugged along at about 2kps. I didn't want to do anything else online that might slow the download. So I went pessimistically to bed.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up to find it still running. Not that I was surprised by how long it was taking, just surprised that I hadn't lost the connection. Better yet, it said it was at 68MB! I watched for an hour as it reached 72MB, then 73. Even 73.8 before, alas, it was disconnected. Sigh. There are many pleasures of country living. Apparently iPod isn't going to be one of them.