So my iPhone didn't exactly die. It just ran out of power.
Apparently dropping it didn't help because it blew up some stuff in the iPhone. I know, I know. It's just a phone. But I was distraught. After all I use the iPhone for almost everything but a phone. I use it to learn Japanese and Spanish on my walk. I use it to take dozens of photos. I upload stuff to Facebook via the iPhone. All my recipes—yeah you got it—on the iPhone. And my reminders—ooh the list goes on. So anyway I posted on Facebook about my, um, problem and got at least a dozen responses.
And one of them was from Shaun Robert Connell (thanks, Shaun—ooh, nice name) who came up with this punch line “First World Problems”. It was too good a line to get buried in Facebook. So I decide to immortalise it a bit 
There you have it. The full story.
Am I still distraught? No, because I followed up and hounded the repair shop until it was fixed. I picked up the iPhone at 7:30pm last night. Yes, about an hour and thirty minutes after they were supposed to close for the day.
And we all live happily ever after. Till the next iPhone incident ‘ruins my life' 
Do you have an iPhone story? Or just a comment on how crazy I was? Let's hear it in the comments below.
My sister calls those “fancy problems”.
Your sister doesn’t own an iPhone, I guess.
You mean your “iLife” is ruined.
iLife is a Mac group, remember? iLife = Keynote, Pages etc. So no, my iLife is just fine
Mommy’s life is ruined. Baby’s first words: “iPhone! waa! waa!”
Backing up the iPhone now?
Or invest in a new, ‘standby’, replacement!
;-))))
Noel
Oh, it’s always backed up. That I had no worries about
When I first got my iphone 4 about a year ago I was terrified of dropping it. In the past year, I’ve probably dropped it 40 or so times, from various heights onto various surfaces at various angles. Ive had a few different cases on it during the year, and all have done an admirable job protecting it. The only effect Ive noticed is that sometimes it takes a couple pushes on the home button to get the phone to respond. Overall I can’t complain!
But if it were to stop working when I dropped it? That would be a different story! Love the “First World Problems” thing.
40 times. What are you trying to do? Break some record?
Heh, heh!
OMG – yesterday blackberrys everywhere went down. I knew by 9:00 a.m. there was a problem because I had received no emails! Not happening. I was, however, conflicted. I was actually in my home office to work that day so I could get emails and respond to social media until it came back 5-6 hours later. However, had I been out for the day – well – can you say postal? Silly but true. Thanks for sharing.
I guess my iPhone was just trying to sympathise with the Blackberry
Hi Sean,
If you have Blackberry (like me!) you don’t even have to drop it – Blackberry are quite good at messing it up for you!
Mind you – three-four days without email can be a certain type of bliss…:)
Ken
Ah, but I hardly use it for email. I use it more for the Apps. As you know, there’s an app for ‘everything’
How to make your iPhone into a Blackberry: put it into Airplane mode.
I see Blackberry isn’t making you happy, Reed
I’m having a rough day simply because the scroll wheel on my mouse isn’t working properly. I don’t have a smart phone at this time, but I know how people rely on them.
I was totally freaked when my hard drive crashed 6 months ago. No data loss, but I couldn’t use the machine for days as I got a new harddrive, reinstalled everything and got it back to normal.
Oh I’m pretty paranoid about backing up. I have four separate backups in four separate locations. Technically you could smash my hard disk at about 15 minutes notice
I’ll be over in 14 minutes with my hammer 8=)
It is still frustrating to put in a new HD and get everything reloaded. It took a day of research to determine that it wasn’t just a corrupted file. Then I had to go out and buy a new disk, set it up and get the OS to recognize it properly…
At least I didn’t have to use backups since the other drive was still readable, it just wouldn’t boot due to a bad sector and windows 2 disk checking programs kept arguing back and forth rather than getting past it.
This is a Mac or pc?
Well maybe they’re in mourning for Steve Jobs
Seriously, last week my battery level was at zero and when I connected it to my ipad instead of charging, the apple logo just kind of hung there.
Took me an hour and lots of searches of Google to figure out how to fix it and of course it was something relatively banal I had forgotten to do.
Yup I become non-functional until the phone is charged and working.
I’m sure Steve wouldn’t approve
He’d want your phone to work.
First World Problems indeed. A couple of weeks ago I was bounding across the street in a desperate attempt to stop a parking attendant from writing a ticket on my illegally parked car (don’t ask). My iPhone, aka my trusted assistant, flew out of it’s holster into the street where I watched horrified as a car rolled over it with both tires. Interestingly enough there was NO physical damage to the device but it would not turn on no matter what I tried. I don’t know if it was the fall (one of many) or the car. The good news, I was able to get it replaced in less than 24 hours. Whew. Glad that even though the reliance on these devices has increased the ability to get them repaired/replaced has pretty much kept up.
Nice ending to that story
I don’t have an iPhone but I have an Android that I do everything with. Several weeks ago I was at a park for an outdoor concert, along with about 20,00 other people. I went to see my son play stand up bass. About halfway home, I noticed my phone was missing. It was late at night, so I went home and looked on my computer.
I had installed something called Lookout on my phone a week or so before. I was able to look with Google maps to see map (not much detail) then switch to satellite image. I was able to see it was in the campsite where I had spent several hours. The next morning I went out to the park and there was my android. Right where the picture said it was.
Now all we have to do is teach these smart phones to call home and tell us where they are.
Lucky you. Nice story.
I lost my phone a while back and did not replace it immediately because I wanted to really search around for what I wanted. (I realise that once an iPhone user, possibly always an iPhone user, so this is a mute point! I didn’t have an iPhone then). But, the point is, that while I had no mobile device my work adjusted, my friends adjusted, my children adjusted, and before long it was three months later. We all got along just fine and I really enjoyed not having one – even though I am a constant notetaking, list writing, photo and information junky.
When I finally bought the phone I knew I wanted, it was because I was passing, and it was there – almost retail therapy. And since then, yes, I do use it, and yes, I do have apps, and a set of comfy noise-reducing headphones, but actually what I found slightly disgusted about the use of mobile devices still remains; the constant down looking, reaching for, slidey sliding, tap tappingness of the general population on mobile devices, and the likes of your recent blog on the topic of being without one.
If your phone is not urgent for use as a phone, how does not having a digital replica of real first-world activity for a day or two, or even a week, truely affect you? It truely affected the person who you ‘hounded’ to stay at work late to fix it, and by being this obsessed until 7.30pm in the evening, it truely affected your being at home engaging with children, partners, or friends (or maybe even your desktop if needs must be).
By not allowing yourself to use other tools such as a library, a pencil and a note pad, or to walk without listening to anything but your mind and your breathing, for just a day or two while your phone was repaired, Sean, is actually a bit of a worry, isn’t it?
Yes it is. A big worry. I was like an expectant parent
!! What you are saying is that you allow your iPhone to demand the level of emotional attention that your child demands. Yup, you have it bad.
Sean, there’s a stat that many people would rather give up well….”intimacy”…let’s say, than part with their smartphone.
That’s plain weird.
I’ve seen a few disparaging comments about Blackberrys here, and wholeheartedly agree. I’ve had a Tour for the past two years and am ecstatic to be trading it in for an iPhone 4s tomorrow.
I barely knew that their network was down—the thing sucks so bad I couldn’t detect a difference. And I’ve never dropped it or even put a scratch on it. I tried to download a simple QR code reading app today, and after about half an hour going around in circles, gave up. So I asked my son to download the app on his iPhone. Done in 20 seconds.
So Sean, I haven’t yet experienced the feeling you have about your phone. But soon, I hope to. Although, I’ll never use it to the extent that some people do. Two things I’m excited about: Siri voice recognition and the new built-in camera.
At the same time I relate to what Tina is saying. When your attention’s always somewhere else, it diminishes your life.
You’ll love the iPhone. No two ways about it.
Hmmm I should use FaceTime better.
Watch for Save the World Day, All I phones will be shut off for 24 Hrs.GET READY
First World Problems indeed. A couple of weeks ago I was bounding across the street in a desperate attempt to stop a parking attendant from writing a ticket on my illegally parked car (don’t ask). My iPhone, aka my trusted assistant, flew out of it’s holster into the street where I watched horrified as a car rolled over it with both tires. Interestingly enough there was NO physical damage to the device but it would not turn on no matter what I tried. I don’t know if it was the fall (one of many) or the car. The good news, I was able to get it replaced in less than 24 hours. Whew. Glad that even though the reliance on these devices has increased the ability to get them repaired/replaced has pretty much kept up.
+1
I have a iPhony
I mean an Android phone, I’ll probably get an iPhone next time around. The iPhone has a more stable software running on it but I love the customizationability <-new word] of android phones. I'm first getting an iPad though. Tablets are just the most amazing invention. You can do things with an iPad that you can't do with an iPhone: for example dropping it using both hands!! They are heavier and therefore reach terminal velocity faster when dropped vertically. And you can have 9 inch long cracks in the screen, which is impossible on the iPhone.
The HTC Desire-Z I have now has been great to drop too! The extracting keyboard gives extended possibilities to do damage. But lucky I don't drop it that often, only twice… eh… in under a minute.
Luckily with all the things I'm learning from you, Sean, here at Psychotactics, I will be able to make a lot more money with my business allowing me drop my phone and tablet as often as I like!
So thank you Sean for all your great insights that help me enjoy the luxury of first world problems.