I came late to the iPhone, and to Apple more generally.  For 20 years I have had a succession of trouble-free mobile phones from Motorola, Samsung and other  providers.  I have always been very happy using Microsoft products (I realise that some readers may be splitting blood by now).  But increasingly people looked at me askance for not having a smart phone, and thus not being able to download e-mails, or to enter the world of 'apps.'  In December 2010 I finally joined in and exchanged my Samsung for an iPhone.

I last made a call on the evening of Wednesday 23 March.  The following morning my phone showed 'no service' although intermittently I could get wi-fi connection to the internet.  It is now five days later and I have visited two Orange shops and one Apple Store. I have spoken in person to three assistants, and on the telephone to 8.  I have handed in my old (actually only 4 months old) phone at the Apple Store and been given a new one - which still doesn't work.  I have spent much of a Sunday updating the version of iTunes on my home desktop and installing the same version on my laptop (because I am now told that I am running such an old version of Windows - Windows 2000 - on my home desktop that my phone won't connect to it). I have updated the software in my new phone - because it was older than the software in the phone that I handed in when I was told by both Orange and Apple that it had a fault. 

All the people I have spoken to have been very polite and very concerned - but they all have different views on what is wrong. Tomorrow I am supposed to receive a new SIM, couriered to me. I have little faith that this will make any difference.

Even if it does it now appears that I cannot connect my new phone to my old desktop such that I cannot download the backup contacts list (around 200 contacts) that are left there: I had the presence of mind to type most of these into a spreadsheet on Saturday evening, 'just in case', but I will now have to input them manually to the new phone - if it ever works.  And I understand that I can't download to my laptop a duplicate version of any apps I've already downloaded to my desktop - which are now inaccessible because the new phone won't connect to iTunes on it.

A month or so ago I wrote about the way in which technology has become dominant over the way we do things.  I realise now how much I had already changed my work practices after getting an iPhone - reading e-mails when I should have been doing something else, paying attention to the wrong things.   As the days go by I may find that it is very liberating not having a mobile phone for the first time in 20 years; that I will be able to tell people to send me less e-mail because I only look at it when I'm at my desk.  I've already lost a weekend to this whole escapade - and inevitably my strong advice to anyone thinking of getting an iPhone would be 'DON'T'. 

So, call me on my landline if you need to speak to me.  Or contribute to my pile of e-mails which I shall tackle once a day.  Or even drop the pace further and send me a note through the post.

I've selected my blogging days for April, using a random date generator. I'm having a week's leave early on so there will only be 4 blogs next month - all towards the end: Monday 18th, Tuesday 19th, Tuesday 26th, and Thursday 28th.

A PS to this: On Sunday 17th April I finally finished manually inputting all my contacts (over 250) into the new phone - with its new SIM - that I eventually got out of all this.  The new SIM worked, and showed that that was what was needed all along - not a new phone.  But the connection problem with my desktop hasn't gone away. I now synch the phone with my laptop - and moving apps across to that via 'home sharing' has not been simple: several have taken several attempts to move over.  Anyway, thanks for the sympathy that a number of you have expressed!