Many companies are promoting the use of smart phones as tools to be used when disaster strikes. The idea is that you can store parts of your plan on the phone or use the browser to access your plan in the cloud. You can even access your notification system from your phone and get your people into action while you’re still stuck in traffic.
Unfortunately, I discovered that while my trusted iPhone has powers much greater than its diminutive stature would suggest, it has an Achilles Heel called iTunes. You see, my family was on vacation in the wilderness called Yellowstone National Park this past week. We only had access to cellular when we were at selected tourist areas, and only had access to Wi-Fi in the hotel. The evening that we arrived, my wife’s iPhone 4 showed the screen to the right. Yes, something went seriously wrong and it wanted its mommie. Unfortunately, I was carrying two iPads and two iPhones, but no laptop. When we got to our hotel, I used my iPad to search for solutions and the only answer was that when an iPhone wants to be connected to iTunes, it wants to be connected to iTunes and there is no workaround. I had a USB cable and asked just about everyone I saw in the park if I could use their computer to resurrect my phone, but no one was willing – and I can’t say that I blame them. Would you let a stranger connect their phone to your computer? I used my iPhone to make an appointment at the closest Genius bar which was in Salt Lake City and my wife and I used the handheld ham radios that I had in our suitcase as backups (yes, once a DR planner, always a DR planner).
So four days later, we arrived back in Salt Lake City and headed to the Apple Store where Summer helped me out. Since this was the third time in six months that this iPhone needed to be connected to iTunes before it would work, she suggested that I should have the phone replaced for $149, even though it was only 2 months out of AppleCare. I figured that $149 was a pretty good deal so I did the deed, she swapped out my phone and I was on my way.
But this post is about why your iPhone could make your disaster worse, so let me wrap it by asking you how many times your Motorola, Nokia, Pantech or other basic cellular phone needed to be connected to a computer before you could use it to make phone calls. I thought so. So now I am going to buy a basic cellphone and carry it with me at all times so that if my iPhone pulls this stunt again, at least I’ll have a phone that I can use to make calls – assuming that the cellular infrastructure is available and my battery is charged.
Do you have any horror stories about your phone not being able to work like a phone when you needed it most?
