Techno-Moron

When my grandmother would come to visit us in New Jersey from Washington D.C., where she lived, I still remember the difficulty she had using the phone that sat on the table next to my mother’s bed.  She had a very hard time because the phone was not hanging on the wall.  As a child it seemed very odd to me that she had such a hard time with such a simple tool: the phone.  Now my grandsons, the youngest just two and a half, can pick up my daughter’s ipad, or her iphone, and  are off and running, clicking on the correct apps to pull up a game, or a book, or a story, and I still struggle with new apps, though I certainly have learned a lot since setting up my website, writing this blog, and making sure it shows up on both Facebook and Twitter.  On Saturday my daughter had a suggestion for me.  We are driving to Bend, Oregon in a few days to visit, and I asked her to give me directions from the highway to her house, which I don’t remember.  She told me that the ‘maps’ feature on the iphone had an update, easy to install, so a voice would direct me to turn left, turn right, instead of my having to hold my little phone in my lap and keep glancing down at the map I had generated when my phone and I were approaching a necessary turn in said map for an unfamiliar place.  What a great tool I thought. All I had to do, according to her, was plug my iphone into my computer, I would be connected to to itunes automatically, and then directions to update would follow.  The first instruction, before ‘beginning’ the upload, was to transfer data from my phone into the icloud, or someplace else I had no idea how to get to.  I didn’t want to play with it for hours so I called Apple tech support. What followed was an hour phone call, where the tech had me try various things, until, supposedly, the maps app was upgraded and would give me directions verbally.  I decided to try it out by taking a walk.  I started with ‘current location’ and then typed in the address of my local coop, went outside and got into my car.  When I reached the first turn, my phone remained mute.  I was furious. Simple she had said right?  When I returned from my little shopping venture, I called Apple again.  The new tech spent quite a bit of time as well, finally put me on hold and then came back to inform me that the iphone 4, my model, couldn’t be updated to include the voice direction feature!  First question: why didn’t the first tech know that?!?  I don’t mean to dis apple techs, who are usually marvelous, patient and willing to go the distance to get something to work; but by now I had spent over two hours trying to do this ‘simple’ task. Finally the second tech suggested I upload the google maps app, which did give verbal commands.  He took me through that process, we started with ‘current location’, typed in the same address as ‘go to’ place, and suddenly my phone was telling me to turn right on Kuhn Street and I wasn’t even in my car yet!  Why the iphone map app wouldn’t do this, I have no idea.  I don’t even know what version of the iphone my daughter has, but will ask her today or tomorrow, although I think her phone is older than mine.  Since it took two techs, whose job it is to help with this sort of problem, over two hours to try to get this update to work, and neither one succeeded, maybe I’m not such a moron. And when someone else tells me about a new tech option, I won’t be so quick to rush to try it out.  Final thought: by the time I sat down to write this blog I certainly had more compassion for my grandmother!