Slight Detour: Old R Us iPhones, Please

So, what if we didn't want the new iPhone operating system?

Too bad, you've got it.

No taking it back either cuz if you don't agree to the agreement, you're not gonna see the new operating system and immediately learn that you were right: you don't want it.

And, if you want your passcode turned off so you don't have to type it in every time you use your phone, too bad!

Well, there IS one option on this aspect of the new operating system which sneaked into my iPhone overnight.

You can turn off the passcode, but if you ever forget it, you'll never ever get into your Apple ID account and, of course, into your phone.

In order to turn off your passcode, you have to provide the password for your Apple ID account.

And, if you're like me, you're scared to death that you might type something wrong in your phone and never be able to open it or any feature it offers ever again.

So, for the moment or until you go stark-raving mad every time you type in that passcode, you leave passcode requirements as is.

Once you agree to the agreement where you have no choice but to agree, you get into the phone where all backgrounds are now black.

Then, you remember one other time a year or so ago when a new operating system took over your phone while you were driving down the highway and how suddenly passwords were required to enter every password-required website.

You also remember that when you finally brought up this inconvenience to a member of the generation behind you, they thought you were nuts cuz you hadn't signed up for the apps.

So, the generational geniuses fixed that problem.

Since then, you've been putzing along happily without concerns for passwords.

Thankfully, the new operating system has not interfered with access to favorite websites.

~~~~~

Yes, I did get a new operating system overnight, and so far, beyond the passcode, I've performed one function this morning.

I went outside and took the picture of the wind shield up above.

When I went to edit the picture, all new icon styles appeared, including some which were not available before.

Editing went okay, albeit an adjustment for my old brain.

Then, I went to send the picture to my email account, as I always do for future use of phone photos.

An unfamiliar window popped up that said to swipe my finger over the keyboard for faster typing.

I swiped. Nothing happened.

I swiped again. Still nothing.

A moment of mental paralysis ensued.

How the heck am I gonna get this picture from my phone to my email account?

Fortunately, intuition prevailed.

I hit the "next" button, and rejoiced upon seeing the old familiar keyboard for "slow" typing.

Happily, the picture arrived unscathed into my email account.

Overnight approximately 60 other pictures also arrived in my email account.

I hadn't sent them, but my phone with its new operating system did.

I still can't figure out how my phone accumulates all those messages that need to be sent cuz I always send my messages and my pictures.

Guess they've all been sent, so I won't have to worry about that for a while.

Last week, while we were traveling through Ireland and a few miles through Northern Ireland, both of our phones quit giving us mapping information.

When Bill, who depends on the mapping gps lady wizard, suddenly noted that the mapping information quit working, I took his phone and tried to figure out why.

That's when I discovered that Bill has not backed up his iphone since I purchased it for him about two years ago. He still uses his passcode to get into his phone.

I asked him this morning if he'd ever gotten a new operating system without asking.

He didn't know.

BTW: we finally figured out the next day, after turning off both of our phones, that our trip through Northern Ireland probably screwed up our mapping and who knows what it did to our International phone plan?

Guess we'll find out when the bill comes.

Anyway, after this morning's operating system shocker, I'm thinking that Apple must not have any old people working for them.

If they did, they would know just how traumatic it is for all of us old people who have iPhones which suddenly turn into monsters.

This morning I'm just thinking that the day will come--if it hasn't already--when I'm gonna want to go throw my iPhone in the lake cuz I can't figure out how to use it anymore.

As I wade through yet another operating system mine field of authoritarian surprises, even more options we don't understand and authoritarian draconian requirements, I propose to the folks at Apple to start working on a simpler phone for oldies.

Oldies probably don't need new operating systems.

Lord knows, God doesn't do that to humans!

Oldies just need a one-time phone that calls people and that has a few simple steps on how to get on Facebook and the news and Twitter and mapping and any other favorites.

Please take the Thoreau approach.

Start rolling out those Old R Us iPhones!

Simplify! Simplify!

Thank you.

Happy I Hate New IOS Operating System Day.

Enjoy the photos.

"A child looking at ruins grows younger

but cold
and wants to wake to a new name
I have been younger in October
than in all the months of spring
walnut and may leaves the color
of shoulders at the end of summer
a month that has been to the mountain
and become light there
the long grass lies pointing uphill
even in death for a reason
that none of us knows
and the wren laughs in the early shade now
come again shining glance in your good time
naked air late morning
my love is for lightness
of touch foot feather
the day is yet one more yellow leaf
and without turning I kiss the light
by an old well on the last of the month
gathering wild rose hips
in the sun."
- W. S. Merwin, The Love of October