Solving A Problem

When we took delivery of our brand new Chevrolet Equinox seven years ago, I was amazed that it contained this piece of new technology:  A USB port that allowed you to plug in your iPod or phone that would (a) keep that device fully charged, and  more importantly, (b) enable you to listen to music and podcasts that you had stored on your device through he car's audio system, a feature that has given me countless hours of pleasure over the years.  

Then, all of  sudden, about a month ago, this whole deal stopped working.  When I tried to play something from my phone, a message appeared on the screen that said "No Files Found".  Consultations with both my Chevy Service Department and the technicians at Apple produced the same conclusion:  Updates that kept getting pushed on to the phone's operating system eventually outstripped the technology in my now ancient seven year old car.

What to do?  I considered the following:

• Listen just to the phone directly, which produced a "tinny" sound in the car.  Not satisfactory.
• Listen to the phone using ear buds.  That would produce great sound, but not at all safe while driving.  Not a good option.
• Buy a new iPhone.  I'm sure that this is what Apple would recommend, but don't want to spend a couple of hundred bucks when I don't really need to do so.  Not a sane option.
• Buy a new car.  I'm sure that this is what Chevrolet would recommend, but spend thirty-plus grand when I have a perfectly good car?  A totally insane option.

After discussing this knotty little conundrum with my 21 year old nephew Nathan, I did the following.

Went to Target and bought this:

A portable Bluetooth speaker (which sounds GREAT, btw)  that fits right into the cup holder.  

Twenty bucks.  

Problem Solved!!!

From the "Nothing Is Easy Department"

Last week, Marilyn and I made the decision to upgrade our Motorola Android smart phones to Apple iPhones.  We knew from past experiences that making this transition would, at the very least, cause us to waste at least a couple of hours on the telephone with our carrier, Consumer Cellular.

We received our phones on Saturday, and here is what has transpired since then.....

• Five separate phone calls to Consumer Cellular.
• Two separate visits to the Apple store.
• One visit to Target, where a gent named Paul, at the McKnight Road store, FINALLY was able to rectify the problems that were occurring on Marilyn's new phone, and this was only after he, Paul from Target, made an additional call to Consumer Cellular.

To be fair, the switchover from Android to iPhone went very smoothly for my phone, but there were a number of problems with Marilyn's new phone, and I won't bore you by enumerating them.  However, all seems right with the world now, thanks to Paul from Target.

Progress.  Sometimes it ain't easy.

Marilyn's new phone.  

I went for the "Space Gray" color phone.