The Idea Blog

For digital centuries Mac users have had to adapt technology solutions to work for them, creating work-arounds and choosing third-party applications to adapt some devices for our use. I had a Blackberry a year or two ago that had great difficulty syncing with my OS. It was so bad that (1) eventually I resigned myself to double-entry of phone numbers and other info on both the device and in my computer’s address book and calendar, and then (2) I just gave up altogether and went back to a “just a phone” device.

Then came the iPhone. Eureka! Syncs to my Apple address book, calendar and iTunes music, once and done, easy as pie, elegant and complete. Perfect. Even if the phone’s service isn’t as good as the Verizon who used to carry my signals, the pluses far outweigh this one minus.

Betty wanted an iPhone too. (Heck, 9 out of 10 dentists probably prefer iPhone.) “Should I or shouldn’t I?”, she asked me for more than a week. Finally, she did.

Betty’s a Windows OS user, though she winces when I mention it, not because she’s sorry she uses Windows, but rather because she doesn’t really know much about the “OS” part. So instead of Apple’s address, calendar and mail programs, she’s runs Outlook and other Microsoft applications. The iPhone reportedly syncs with those programs; it’s a choice one makes in the brief and efficient set-up menu when starting up the iPhone. Like my Blackberry, however, it’s not as easy, as efficient or as elegant.

“You know [so and so] has a Treo, and with just the push of a button it will…”, she says as she considers sending the iPhone back before opening the box.

“But it’s not an iPhone,” I say. She takes the clearwrap off the handsome package and hunkers down for set-up. I’ll let you know how it goes.