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

Apple Logo Black

Apple Just Made Its Second-Biggest Acquisition Ever After Beats

Thursday January 29, 2026 10:07 am PST by
Apple today confirmed to Reuters that it has acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup that is working on artificial intelligence technology for audio. Apple paid close to $2 billion for Q.ai, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone and audio brand Beats in 2014. Q.ai has...
Aston Martin CarPlay Ultra Screen

Apple's CarPlay Ultra to Expand to These Vehicle Brands Later This Year

Sunday February 1, 2026 10:08 am PST by
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly nine months later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon. In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. At the time,...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

Apple Changes How You Order a Mac

Saturday January 31, 2026 10:51 am PST by
Apple recently updated its online store with a new ordering process for Macs, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. There used to be a handful of standard configurations available for each Mac, but now you must configure a Mac entirely from scratch on a feature-by-feature basis. In other words, ordering a new Mac now works much like ordering an...
imac video apple feature

Apple Unveils First New Products of 2026

Monday January 26, 2026 1:55 pm PST by
Apple today introduced its first two physical products of 2026: a second-generation AirTag and the Black Unity Connection Braided Solo Loop for the Apple Watch. Read our coverage of each announcement to learn more:Apple Unveils New AirTag With Longer Range, Louder Speaker, and More Apple Introduces New Black Unity Apple Watch BandBoth the new AirTag and the Black Unity Connection Braided...
apple unsold web store

Retail Accessories Apple Won't Sell You Now Available via New Site

Friday January 30, 2026 8:46 am PST by
A newly surfaced resale operation is seemingly offering Apple Store–exclusive display accessories to the public for the first time, potentially giving consumers access to Apple-designed hardware that the company has historically kept confined to its retail environments. Apple designs a range of premium MagSafe charging stands, display trays, and hardware systems exclusively for displays in ...