Dear Steve,
After so many years together, you still can surprise me. Usually your surprises are good. For example today your email about the new iPhone.
You know that I have been waiting for an edition of the iPhone that felt right to m
e. And
Steve Jobs
now there it is,
and at a reasonable price. Just when my current cell phone has been bugging me to the point of distraction, you save the day. I can pay $99 for the 3G iPhone, or $199 for the newer version, with 16 gb of memory. This means only one electronic instrument to drag around and more important still, it means GPS.
I’m always getting lost, as you well know. I hate driving new places, because I need to keep consulting the map and directions, which means pulling over or putting everybody’s wellbeing in peril. My old anxiety disorder, 98% under control these days, comes blazing to the forefront and I arrive whereever I’m going drenched in… well, you get the picture, and it isn’t pretty.
But you have handed me a solution. Or so I thought.
I realize I am not your only long-term relationship. I know you went through a commitment ceremony with AT&T some time ago, and that she takes a lot of your time and attention. That’s fine, really. I’m not the jealous type. Alpha-male that you are, you need to spread yourself around; biology — nay, the entire universe demands it of you. But when you let AT&T come between us, something has gone very wrong.
You said $99 or $199, but it turns out, once I’ve dug my way through the reservation form, that AT&T has put down her foot and won’t let you give me what you’ve promised. Because, you see, I already have an AT&T phone. Not an iPhone, just a crappy old phone that needs replacing. AT&T doesn’t care about that. She’s all about the control and power and money. According to her, I have to pay $399 if I want the iPhone you wrote to say I could have for $199.
Imagine the crushing disappointment. Imagine the sense of betrayal. When I went back to your original email, I saw that you had in fact mentioned this not-so-little fact, but at the very, very bottom in very,very small print of such a light color that it was impossible to read until I copied it to a text document. Only then did the truth come out.
You knew what AT&T was up to, and you allowed it. You enabled it.
I am so very disappointed in you. After so many years, to resort to such chicanery, just to please that demanding bitch, AT&T.
Shame on you.
You've stumbled across my official website and landed on the front page of my weblog.
Good for you! (You were much nicer than I would have been.) I would love an iPhone too, but I won’t go with AT&T. Not for anything. So I struggle along with my iPod Touch and my LG phone with my Verizon account and it’s okay.
Looks like you’ve been jobbed by Jobs. Sorry, I couldn’t resist! I don’t like the idea that there is a solo contract with one provider, and I think I’m too cheap to pay the monthly service fees, so my little ipod nano will have to do for music while my low-tech but cheap phone serves for talk.
Oh, if I could only be so witty and eloquent when I am completely pissed off! Ditto to every word!
When they put the Kindle App on the Iphone I “had to have it.” My old phone was on AT&T but out of contract. The AT&T store sold me the 8G phone for $199. Last week after the announcement of the new prices I went back and they gave me a $100 credit, so I ended up with a $99 Iphone. (I was within 30 days.) I love the phone and the Kindle App and the access to the Internet from my phone.