I am not the kind of guy who takes
change in stride. I remain at my gym of seven years – which I only
joined because my previous gym closed it doors – that I am not
happy with because I don't want to go through the process of joining
another or getting comfortable with new machines. I haunt the same
watering holes when I am at home because I don't want to make the
effort to break in new bartenders. As much as possible, I reside in
my comfort zone.
I tell you all of that to provide a
baseline for my determination to stay the course, remain in my rut,
or whatever other term you choose to describe my stubbornness in
clinging to what I know rather than embracing the unknown. I simply
don't like to sail into uncharted waters. Hell, I owned my house in
Greenville for six months before I finally mustered up the moxie to
leave my home in South Florida and the friends I made during my
25-year tenure there to relocate to a place where I knew no one. I
didn't have a Florida house to sell and I wasn't working a
nine-to-five job that I couldn't leave. Nope, I simply didn't want to
endure the change.
Imagine the garment-wrenching,
hair-pulling experience it has been for me to caste off my iPhone 6S
for an Android-based LG V20 smartphone. Why would I do such a thing?
I was pissed off at Apple. I know, Apple to Google: frying pan to
fire. It wasn't a rational decision. It was one made in the throes of
passion.
I arrived in Phoenix a couple of weeks
ago with the plan to pick up a press-fleet car at the airport and
then drive to my buddy's in Tucson. A Volkswagen Atlas awaited me
when I landed. I had convinced myself that I had double checked with
VW's fleet vendor there that the Atlas had a navigation system. Later
research into exchanged e-mails revealed that, in fact, I hadn't made
that determination after all. Because I was operating under the
belief it had a navi unit, I didn't bother to print out directions
from Mapquest or make any other provision for finding my way from the
off-site parking lot in Phoenix to my buddy's house in Tucson.
Why not just use the maps app on my
iPhone, you are probably thinking. That's the question my buddy
texted me after I discovered the no-navi issue and texted him I had
no clue where I was going. All I knew was that I needed to head east
on I-10. Of course, I had no idea how to get to I-10 or how to get
from I-10 to his house. Does anyone, including my Tucson buddy,
actually believe I wouldn't have thought of the maps app on my
iPhone? Yes, I am a Luddite to some degree, but c'mon, I do know
about the maps app.
The issue is that my Google Maps app
hadn't functioned properly for more than a year. If you have an
iPhone, you are well aware that at least two or three times a month,
Apple duns you about the newest update. It's like you owe them money.
After getting an update message for the fifth or sixth time, I would
finally break down and accept it. Somewhere in those updates, the
maps app ceased functioning properly. It could locate me and provide
a directions list to where I wanted to go, but it couldn't announce
step-by-step directions. Once I began to move, it had no clue where I
was.
Because most of the vehicles I drive
have navigation units, I viewed the lack of a working maps app on my
phone as more of an annoyance than anything else. The Phoenix
experience, though, was the proverbial camel's back-breaking straw.
Upon looking into the maps-app issue more closely with a little
Internet search, mine was a common problem among owners of older
iPhones. Another underhanded way to motivate those of us with
outdated iPhones to pony up a grand for the latest iPhone version?
Maybe. I don't know, but I was mad as hell and wasn't going to take
it any more.
My Tucson buddy has an LG V30
Android-based phone with which he is quite happy. I did a little
research and determined an LG V20 would serve my purposes nicely. I
found brand-new ones on ebay for $235. I ordered one my second day in
Tucson. It arrived on Wednesday and I've been struggling with it ever
since.
Once upon a time, I considered Walmart
the great retail Satan. I often proffered that the street address of
every Walmart should contain the number 666. It wielded its buying
power like a club, making demands on manufacturers and artists. To
this day, getting me inside a Walmart is a major accomplishment. In
truth, when held up to the blinding light of a Google or Apple,
Walmart is small potatoes in terms of influencing society. At least
Walmart, to the best of my knowledge, never mined my data. Pretty
much forced to deal with these two tech giants every day, I'm not a
fan of either. I certainly don't view one as more virtuous than the
other. They are out of control.
In any event, I am struggling with
learning my new phone and the Android way of doing things. There
seems no easy, free method for transferring all my iPhone date to my
V20. I did manage to migrate my contacts list; although it didn't
make the transfer unmolested. In the past as I moved from iPhone to
iPhone, I would just take both phones to the AT&T store and they
would transfer everything as part of their service. This time, not so
much. In fact, other than trying to sell me device insurance, the
AT&T rep who “helped” me barely took an interest. All she did
was transfer the Sim card from my iPhone to the V20. Having
accomplished that, she turned the phone to face me and said, “There
you go.” She did tell me how to access the appropriate app to
transfer the contacts on my own. Otherwise, I have been on my own.
Now I am reevaluating my relationship
with AT&T. Remember when telephones were simple? Yep, those were
the days. Oh, and the first day my new V20 was activated, I received
an update notice. Here we go again.
