iPhone Madness!

Sometime on Saturday, my iTunes started issuing an error message: "Your computer is no longer authorized to blah, blah, something about your iPhone, yada, yada, you pretty much suck at life and need to reauthorize your computer." So, I'd try doing that, but would just get an endless loop of these messages. Then sometime on Sunday, I tried de-authorizing the account and that was, well, pretty stupid, because all of the apps on my phone stopped working. 

There's nothing like having some small electronic device ruin your day. You never realize how much you use something like the apps on your iPhone until you can't use one. It's like showing up to work and the internet is down. It's not that your life revolves around the internet, but you start to suddenly realize that you use it way more than you ever dreamed of. And it's not like your job relies on the internet, but you just use it so much, that you feel like you are rendered useless. 

I feel pretty useless right now. 

So far, I've been on the phone with Apple Technical Support for an hour and a half. I've done everything they've asked (authorize, deauthorize, sign in, sign out of iTunes about 12 times) and to no avail. I'm actually on my second technical support guy. The first one lasted most of that time, but then I guess he called in the 'big guns' and now Dave is handling my call. I've been on hold most of that time and what I'm picturing is a guy sitting in a cubicle thumbing through a three inch thick binder looking for every possible topic and trouble-shooting guide to figure out what's going on. 

Now that we've disconnected our home phone (to save on the money we are now giving Apple/AT&T through the purchase and plans for two iPhones), I'm doing all of this on my iPhone, which means the minutes I'm using to be on hold with these guys is going to end up really costing me. Wait! I have tons of rollover minutes... Shwew! That should help. But still, I feel a little violated knowing that I'm paying for this whole transaction. I mean, the "on-hold" music isn't that great and most of the time it sounds like you are driving through a thunderstorm while listening to AM radio. And it's that funky "Apple music" you hear on the commercials that's supposed to make you think that they are totally cooler than you, so if you wanted to try to catch up with them a little you'd buy that music and listen to it.

Sort of like (or very much like) Starbuck's. Let's be honest here, I've bought into the craze, the hype, and the advertising is definitely working.