Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Why I Didn't Post Yesterday. (I Blame Apple)...

I was getting ready to post about our great weekend event (Writer's Digest University: Editors' Intensive held at our office here in the Nati). Step one: email myself the nice photos I'd taken with my iPhone so I could use a few of them in my post. I picked a photo. I chose the email-this-photo-option. I chose my address. I hit send. That satisfying swishy noise happened. Then nothing. I tried to send photos to a co-worker, my work address, my Hotmail--swish, swish, swish; nothing, nothing, nothing.

I got on the Apple website. I couldn't find anything helpful. I called. The guy sent me a link. Still nothing helpful. I called again when I got home. The second guy told me to download the latest version of iTunes and sync and update me phone. He also said he would call me back in 15 minutes and walk me through it. (The iPhone is my first Apple product and I was nervous about messing something up.) I sat by the phone for two hours waiting. (High school flash backs, anyone?) He never called.

So I called back. The third guy was really nice and helpful and patient. He told me what to do, answered a number of my totally unrelated questions, and allowed me to share my feeling about how scary the Apple store is. All seemed well. I loaded in 712 songs from my husband's iTunes, then I took a test photo of my Kleenex box and emailed to myself. It worked! Hurrah.

It was 11:15. After hours on a tech support emotional roller coaster (I'm frustrated, I'm happy, I'm frustrated, I'm happy), I went to bed.

This morning I again tried to send myself the photos and again it's not working. I am, however, still madly in love with my iPhone--but I want this photo emailing thing to work. I don't want to go to the genius bar. The whole genius bar concept annoys me. The apple store in December is extra busy and extra scary.

Anyway, we had a great event over the weekend. We had hours and hours of really good questions on Saturday from a room packed full of writers followed by a productive Sunday of manuscript critiquing. (If only you could see the photos!) We got tons of positive feedback from the attendees and I can't imagine that we won't be holding similar events in 2009. (Stay tuned.) Plus I got lots more facebook friends, some new followers on twitter, and I didn't have to go Chirstmas shopping. (Or anywhere near the Apple store.)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love my iPhone too, but I know what you mean about the genius bar -- it is so intimidating. I don't know if it's because the white sterile room is like a doctor's office or what, but I avoid it as much as possible.

I'm glad you got your pics working!

Gay said...

The genius bar is so cool... you have it all wrong. Cute boys (well, so what if they are young enough to be my sons?) who provide helpful information and never roll their eyes at me like my husband does and who replace my phone (or iPod) for free when it is wonky (that's happened twice) even with just one month left to go on the iPod warranty, and I always leave with my problem solved.

Can't imagine why you're having trouble, though. My iPhone has always been so easy.

All the genius bars I visit are in the back of the store--no white sterile rooms, but out in the noisy open and surrounded by reassuring hustle and bustle and busy shoppers, and even though the place is busy, YOU have an appointment and get to go to the front of the line because YOU are SPECIAL. It's cool, provided you can find a parking space within five miles of the mall.

I guess it depends on how you look at it...

P.S. It was the best conference ever last weekend. Thanks.

Michelle said...

Good to know you'll be having more events next year. That will be a great excuse to multitask future Cincinnati family visits!

Kris said...

The problem's obvious. More than likely I was in one of the pictures you took, and I broke your iPhone. Sorry about that!

Thanks again for your role in the Editor's Intensive. I got a lot out of it.

Vodka Mom said...

yeah, I'm jealous. Not about the iPhone debacle, but the missed opportunity.

Lisa Yee said...

Hi Alice,

As someone who loves Apple even though Apple does not love her, I share your pain.

Have you tried going into your email settings and changing your SMTP outgoing mail server to: cwmx.com ?

Lisa

Ryan Ashley Scott said...

Glad to hear there will be more events to come! Last weekend was very informative. Thank you!