Tech Support

Trapped in the Technology Tar Pit

Does this sort of thing happen to you?

The bus was late.

Over an hour. The car radio battery died while we waited, and the only fix is to disconnect the car battery and reconnect again.

The car radio fails too when the auto body shop works on my car. They blame Best Buy, citing improper installation. Best Buy blames the shop’s computer. Sigh. The radio gets fixed, again.

But wait!

Now my phone won’t sync to the radio via blue tooth. Which means no hands-free calling, which means no calls in the car. And car time is useful time for calls.

I will go to Best Buy to straighten this all out.

But wait!

There is nothing wrong with my 4S. But I just upgraded it to iOS 8, and eventually the operating system will outpace the hardware. I could let the operating system fall behind, but then app updates could cause conflicts.

When the iPhone 6 came out, Rich bought it immediately. I got his iPhone 5 hand-me-down.

I will migrate my phone number and apps over to the free iPhone 5 hand-me-down and straighten this all out.

But wait!

I better get that done before asking Best Buy for help syncing my phone to the car radio. Otherwise I might have the same problem again with the new phone.

I will go to AT&T and straighten this all out. They do the migration service for free.

But wait!

I’m halfway to the store and the darn thing is dead. I charged it, and it sat on my desk not being used. How long… I don’t know! But here it is dead.

I will go home to charge it up and straighten this all out.

But wait!

The 4S uses the 30-pin cable connector. The 5 uses the Lightening connector. Where is that darn Lightening connector?

I will find the connector and straighten this all out…

And that’s what I call a Technology Tar Pit!

Technology Tar Pit: when the effort to keep up with baseline technology consumes more time and energy than is reasonable, leaving you overwhelmed and grumpy.

2 Comments

  1. Doug

    11/23/2014 at 5:33 pm

    Or you could just not use Apple… let’s examine your case.
    1. Fix car radio (easy)
    2. Have a normal cellphone with hands free kit (easy and lasts 10 years)
    Result: No problems and saves hundreds of dollars in non buying Apple crap.

    1. Samantha

      11/23/2014 at 7:08 pm

      Hi Doug, thanks for writing in! What would be an example of a normal cellphone with hands free kit? Not sure what you mean here. I do like having a smartphone, be it Apple or not – I’ve gotten to like some of the extra functionality. Although the extras come with extra work and expense, like keeping hardware / software reasonably aligned. This post was not so much complaining but lamenting… I think with tech there will always be these moments of grumpiness 😐

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