Jennifer Connolly, of Wanaka, reflects on the trials of iPhone ownership.
I am the recent owner of an iPhone. Admittedly it is a ''refurbished'' iPhone. I am not entirely sure of what this means but I think it means it was once owned by someone else.
Hopefully, not my own offspring's whose iPhone slipped from a pile of clothing, out of my hands, down two flights of stairs, and shattered on the tiles below.
That phone went to the insurance company with little chance of anyone redoing anything with it.
I think the refurbishment idea came because the giver wasn't sure I would take to it because of acknowledged ''serious technological impairment'' on my part.
Also it was also considerably cheaper than a new one, I understand.
Anyway, I nearly always like anything recycled, reused or even upcycled and I like that I can now take pictures, email and Google and sort of keep up with the younger generation.
There are probably more pros than cons in having an iPhone and not having to carry out morse code when texting is big plus.
However, there is a down side. Whereas my previous 5-year-old ''hand me down'' phone needed charging only once a week, this new, energy hungry machine seems to need charging every day.
It also beats me why the Apple family, with all its clever, state-of-the-art design skills and numerous offspring of its own, doesn't design and produce a ''one size fits all'' charger for its own products.
It seems like it should be the most simple of the design skills required. Although I'm told this company is better than most and I just have the misfortune of owning two small items which are not charger compatible.
(A note also on left-behind chargers. When people come and go from home base, how is it that chargers almost never seem to come and go with them? Consequently chargers are there when others are here and vice versa. I figure New Zealand Post must have quite a business in transporting left-behind chargers back and forth from one end of the country to the other.)
While a refurbished phone was considerably cheaper for the giver it was considerably more expensive for me, the recipient.
This was because, when last in Dunedin and waiting in a very nice George St bag shop to have my old zippered - or, in this case, no longer zippered - sausage bag repaired, I got distracted and my eyes wandered to other items the shop had to offer.
While waiting patiently to be served, half-in and half-out of a reducing line, I spotted a very nice bag. The thing was this one, when opened, just happened to have an internal pouch, probably just meant for an iPhone and another pouch, probably just meant for an iPad - both of which I now owned.
Well, if the truth be told, I owned only half an iPad, so it would fit easily.
Then there were also the less essential little compartments for pens, lipsticks and the like - not so necessary but nice to have. So, about to be at the front of the line, I suddenly decided I really did need a new, do-everything, take-everywhere bag and yes, that one was perfect..
As for the ''fix'' to the old, slightly tatty, sausage bag ... l had to wait a week or so for that to be returned and pay $12 in repairs for a new zip.
I did ask, however, student offspring if she could possibly collect ''vintage'' sausage bag from the shop on my behalf so I didn't need to re-enter any more bag shops in the foreseeable future.
When I received her phone call saying the shop couldn't locate the bag in question I advised that they should be looking under the ''repairs'' category. Strangely, she didn't seem to have considered that possibility.
