My new Iphone
… is very similar to my old Iphone
It’s been a couple of years, and as frequently happens in that time span I started to get the ‘itch.’ That inner tech angel is tapping me on the shoulder— “Probably time to upgrade — the X has been out for a bit, and they have mostly like worked out the bleeding edge bugs. The battery life on this current phone is starting to suck. That new portrait function looks so cool!”
So what’s a guy to do? Yesterday I killed two birds with one stone. Renewed my carrier plan, and got a good deal trading in my 7 for Xs. Twelve hours in I can say that the new phone is pretty cool and oh so familiar. All my stuff is there and works picked up right where it left off. Sure a few passwords needed to entering and some data had to be delivered from its cloud hiding place, but overall the experience of switching devices is downright comfortable and makes an IT guy nervous for sure. I remember migrating users from one machine to another back in the day, and it was a process fraught with danger and usually resulted in the end user freaking out — “WHERE is the START BUTTON? or What do you mean there is no floppy drive on this computer? Where did my icons go? My files are missing!” All this after you took a screenshot of their old system and tried to rearrange everything just so — settle in for some orientation sessions.
Even learning the ‘new’ features of face recognition and the loss of that ‘belly button’ to get you out of trouble and back to the home screen didn’t take more than a swipe here and a swipe there. Logging on to this device doesn’t even feel like logging on — it just works! I had to get a few family members to pick it up and prove to myself that it indeed is checking to see who’s got my iPhone in their hand. As expected, the device is responsive, and the display is remarkable. I haven’t taken a portrait yet — but I plan to soon!
Here’s the rub — Isn’t upgrading supposed to be an occasion? Shouldn’t the latest innovations wow you? I used to think that should be the case. Upgrading and spending the bucks was matched by the gnashing of teeth and struggling to big “ah-ha! I figured that out now” moments. If you moved from Windows XP to Windows 10 in all one, go you more than likely are still enjoying an experience similar to this. But with my Apple upgrades in the past few years and the one that is but twelve hours fresh — not so much. They are incremental, subtle and for the most part, don’t want to interrupt your day except with the occasional nudge to take the 8 step tour. That is what tech update should be.
Some people genuinely enjoy the hunt to figure out how to use that new thing. I was one of those folks, but I have moved past that. I have things to do, and I want the latest tech to help me do it more efficiently. Do I feel ‘ripped off’ if my new device isn’t that much different from the old one? Nope — I expect it to do its thing with efficiency. I will come looking for new features when they are needed. I am pleasantly surprised by the performance gains in the course of utilizing my familiar tools. At this stage in my walk with tech I don’t need to start over learning a new OS or such from scratch or trying to figure out how this input device is going to work now. The marketing folks at Apple have tapped into that, and I drink the kool-aid. I know this device won’t be my ‘last iPhone’ and that one day yesterday’s journey will repeat itself. I am cool with that, and I expect the next iOS or macOS update to be similar — a subtle change forward and one that allows me to enjoy the fruits of faster hardware and lets me get on with the business of the day. Technology is an extension of what I do; I don’t need it to stop me in my tracks.
