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Been through at least half a dozen cordless landline phones over the past couple of decades (if it needs more than a new battery, may as well consign it to the landfill).
My 1 and 1/2-year-old iPhone up and died on me a week ago today. After a trip to the AT&T store, and after a couple of hours or more fiddling with it here, with it plugged into the back of my iMac and me talking with an Apple service kid somewhere in Utah over the landline while we tried this and tried that (to no avail, of course), and after arm-wrestling over the phone with some other Apple people the following day (whom I finally persuaded to replace the thing at no cost to me, even though it was 190-some days out of warranty, seeing how it was their software update that crashed the damn thing), and after waiting 'til Tuesday for the new phone to arrive (the FedEx driver came by while I was out, so a trip to FedEx's local base of operations was in order, as I expected to be away for at least part of the following day as well), and after another visit to the AT&T store, to make certain the new unit was activated properly, I once again had a working iPhone. Oh, and I had to send the old one back.
My WE 302 is 67 years old. Works fine.
However, even the most strident of Luddites would have to acknowledge that smartphones have quite practical real-world applications, even if it seems they are mostly used for amusement. The mapping and GPS features have all but eliminated the need to trust other people's driving directions (which were often about as clear as mud).
Took one of our mutts to the emergency vet last night. Poor little guy was trembling and was having trouble walking. Really put a scare into me and his Mom. The place about half a mile from here, which I thought was the all-night emergency veterinary clinic (it used to be, I'm pretty sure) was dark. So I asked my iPhone where I might find a nearby vet doing business during the 10 p.m. hour. A matter of seconds later I had my answer. It was about a mile thataway. So I had the address, and the GPS would have steered me right to it, had I needed that.
Cool (and reliable) as that WE 302 might be, it can't do any of that. I'm keeping it, for sure, and I expect it'll keep on working fine, long after several successive iterations of smartphones have come and gone. But unless you got a new one to replace it with, you'll get my smartphone from my cold, dead hands.
EDIT: By the way, little Otis is fine. He vomited in the car, and the vet saw no good reason to hold him there overnight.
My 1 and 1/2-year-old iPhone up and died on me a week ago today. After a trip to the AT&T store, and after a couple of hours or more fiddling with it here, with it plugged into the back of my iMac and me talking with an Apple service kid somewhere in Utah over the landline while we tried this and tried that (to no avail, of course), and after arm-wrestling over the phone with some other Apple people the following day (whom I finally persuaded to replace the thing at no cost to me, even though it was 190-some days out of warranty, seeing how it was their software update that crashed the damn thing), and after waiting 'til Tuesday for the new phone to arrive (the FedEx driver came by while I was out, so a trip to FedEx's local base of operations was in order, as I expected to be away for at least part of the following day as well), and after another visit to the AT&T store, to make certain the new unit was activated properly, I once again had a working iPhone. Oh, and I had to send the old one back.
My WE 302 is 67 years old. Works fine.
However, even the most strident of Luddites would have to acknowledge that smartphones have quite practical real-world applications, even if it seems they are mostly used for amusement. The mapping and GPS features have all but eliminated the need to trust other people's driving directions (which were often about as clear as mud).
Took one of our mutts to the emergency vet last night. Poor little guy was trembling and was having trouble walking. Really put a scare into me and his Mom. The place about half a mile from here, which I thought was the all-night emergency veterinary clinic (it used to be, I'm pretty sure) was dark. So I asked my iPhone where I might find a nearby vet doing business during the 10 p.m. hour. A matter of seconds later I had my answer. It was about a mile thataway. So I had the address, and the GPS would have steered me right to it, had I needed that.
Cool (and reliable) as that WE 302 might be, it can't do any of that. I'm keeping it, for sure, and I expect it'll keep on working fine, long after several successive iterations of smartphones have come and gone. But unless you got a new one to replace it with, you'll get my smartphone from my cold, dead hands.
EDIT: By the way, little Otis is fine. He vomited in the car, and the vet saw no good reason to hold him there overnight.
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