Archive for January, 2010

Recently we took a trip back to my Moms house to pick up a few things. Mom still wanted to look in every one of her dresser drawers (full of clothes most of which are too big for her). From one, she pulled out a small box which contained invitations to my parents 40th wedding anniversary and a bunch of other items. One of them was what looked like a film strip which contained three old studio photos taken of me when I was probably about two years old. They weren’t great, but it was fun to see me way back then. I took them to the local photo studio and had them printed to give to Mom. She loved them. I put copies of the three pictures in our photo album.

When I was at the photo studio, the clerk asked me if the ball I was holding was mine, or the photographers. I had no idea. I hadn’t really even payed much attention to the ball at all. When I looked closely at the picture I felt deja vu. I recently had a contractor remove our basement staircase and replace it with a new one. When he ripped the old set out, way back in a corner you could never see or easily reach, was the exact same ball that was in these pictures I found. What’s the odds?

We’re finding lots of goodies in the old house. Love letters my Dad wrote to my Mom, sent when he was overseas during World War II. A large roll of German Marks of various denominations. I scanned three of them and placed thumbnails of them here. If anyone knows if these are worth anything, let me know.

After numerous calls to Bell and Apple about my issue with “No Service”, many things were tried to resolve it. We restored to factory, installed a new sim card, and Apple even sent me a brand new iPhone. I was so frustrated with losing service while waiting for the iPhone that I reactivated my Blackberry and fully intended to sell the IP when the new one arrived. I had purchased the iCare warranty and phoned Apple to ask how to pass that on to the person who might buy my iPhone. They convinced me to give the new iPhone a shot before giving up on it. I agreed because I really do like the phone. But, the next day, “no service” came back to haunt me. So I called Bell. Bell told me the iPhone won’t reconnect to the network which I thought was stupid. I mean, who designs a phone that won’t look for the network when you come out of a building or dead zone. Bell FINALLY admitted there was an issue with THEIR new network and they were working on it.

I decided to call Apple to let them know that Bell’s new network was the culprit. When I spoke with a CSR, he wasn’t aware of the Bell issue, but asked me to try something. He asked about any case I might have had on the phone. I have a tendency to drop stuff all the time, so I had purchased a rubberized case from Future Shop. The Apple guy asked me if the case covered more than the display screen area. I told him it did, but there was a small hole cut in the rubber where the ear piece and “home” button were located. He informed me that what a lot of dealers don’t know is that there are 2 sensors in the top black area to the left of the ear piece. One has to do with screen brightness, but the other has to do with the antenna. He suggested I remove the case for a day and see what happened.

Even with Bell’s network issues, this helped with the problem, especially when I go into buildings. So, if you own an iPhone, be aware that this little unknown problem can really cause you problems.

So… what do I think of the iPhone now? Am I giving up the Blackberry? Yes and no. I am committed to the iPhone and will use it for my business, now that the issues have been resolved and its more dependable. But, like many other phones that I have purchased over the years, the Blackberry will go into my cell phone museum… just in case! The Blackberry Curve 8330 was a workhorse and I’ll keep it for a few years. I just wish Apple would let you install apps, other than theirs without jailbreaking the phone. There are some good ones out there which I’d like to have but can’t unless I void my warranty.