Lunch time. I take off my embroidered toy store apron, clock out in the POS, and scamper off to Whole Foods for a quick lunch of vegetarian lentil and spinach soup and a ciabatta roll.

Eating my soup, browsing the internet on EDGE, listening to some sweet, sweet Matt the Electrician. I click into a text box on Facebook and start typing. The music cuts off, and I return to the home screen.

I think theres something wrong with my iPhone, the "best iPod ever made."

I restart the music, and begin typing again. Safari quits! I repeat this little dance a few more times until I finally give up on the internet and just listen to music and people-watch until my lunch break is over. How un-technological of me. Its 2007! There should be internet on my iPod.. err iPhone!In sitting down to write this, I plugged the supplied headphones into the iPhone, turn it on, and it immediately slows down a bit. I turn on The Beastie Boys and the music player part of the phone stutters. The iPhone also gets pretty warm if you play the music for more than about 30 minutes.

So far, Im thoroughly unimpressed with the iPhone as a music player.

At home, I turned off WiFi, and I got it to crash again and again by listening to music and trying to type in a text box. Awesome: I can re-create the problem! Time to head to the genius bar to get it fixed once and for all.

Life would be so much easier if I went to the Houston Galleria Apple Store, but I abhor it. Instead of being a store in the mall, it is the mall: rich teenaged boys with their pants sagging halfway down their butt, people uninterested in technology hogging the MacPro with 30 display to check their Facebook or Myspace pages, people turning up the display iPod speakers all the way up because that wretched rap music just wasnt quite loud enough to begin with. So, I usually drive down to First Colony Mall. It takes about a half hour, but the experience is so much more enjoyable there.

I sit at the genius bar and wait for them to call my name. While waiting I got a very helpful suggestion from Vlady, the manager and all-around best Apple-guy ever:

"Dont use EDGE! What, are you in Abilene?"

Problem solved! I can sleep again! Hooray!

The genius and I looked at it -- we couldnt get it to crash again. I sat at the bar and furiously fiddled with it, desperately tried to make it hang up, or at least slow down. It was frustrating and embarrassing. He said he put a note in the system for if I have to come in with this problem again, and that I should go home and restore the phone. Fun.

On my way out, I waited in line to pay for a 3.5mm cable small enough to fit in the iPhone, the clerk whipped out his iPhone and scratched it with a customers keys to demonstrate the magical unscratchability of the screen. A little part of me died inside until I saw how utterly perfect the screen looked. I guess I can just throw the phone into the rest of my bag along with my keys and nail clippers.

And for anyone else that has to restore their iPhone: back up any pictures you take with it before you restore. I forgot to and theyre gone. I had a picture of the delicious soup I ate! Nooo!

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

iphone 16 display

iPhone 17's Scratch Resistant Anti-Reflective Display Coating Canceled

Monday April 28, 2025 12:48 pm PDT by
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors. Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Reaches Key Milestone Ahead of Mass Production

Monday April 28, 2025 8:44 am PDT by
Apple has completed Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) for at least one iPhone 17 model, according to a paywalled preview of an upcoming DigiTimes report. iPhone 17 Air mockup based on rumored design The EVT stage involves Apple testing iPhone 17 prototypes to ensure the hardware works as expected. There are still DVT (Design Validation Test) and PVT (Production Validation Test) stages to...
iphone 17 air iphone 16 pro

iPhone 17 Air USB-C Port May Have This Unusual Design Quirk

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years. iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack) At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Blue

20th Anniversary iPhone Likely to Be Made in China Due to 'Extraordinarily Complex' Design

Monday April 28, 2025 4:29 am PDT by
Apple will likely manufacture its 20th anniversary iPhone models in China, despite broader efforts to shift production to India, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In 2027, Apple is planning a "major shake-up" for the iPhone lineup to mark two decades since the original model launched. Gurman's previous reporting indicates the company will introduce a foldable iPhone alongside a "bold"...
apple watch ultra yellow

What's Next for the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3

Friday April 25, 2025 2:44 pm PDT by
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too. 2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3 Apple didn't update the...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 13 New Features

Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iPhone 17 Pro on Desk Feature

All iPhone 17 Models Again Rumored to Feature 12GB of RAM

Tuesday April 29, 2025 3:36 am PDT by
All upcoming iPhone 17 models will come equipped with 12GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence, according to the Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station. The claim from the Chinese leaker, who has sources within Apple's supply chain, comes a few days after industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max will all be equipped with 12GB of RAM. ...