30 days without an iPhone

Written by Harry Roberts on CSS Wizardry.

N.B. All code can now be licensed under the permissive MIT license. Read more about licensing CSS Wizardry code samples…

As of 6 February, 2010, I have been without my iPhone. It’s been
unbelievably difficult for me, as a web developer and geek, to
properly function without it. You do not realise how reliant
everyone is upon technology until you lose it. Unsurprisingly it is
really quite hard going from having the whole internet at your
call and fingertips, to going to a big, archaic pre-iPhone piece
of rubbish. If this experience taught me one thing though, I am
very dependent on technology, simply just to wile away the time;
even sat in bed, my iPhone was a major part of me seeing what
revelations the web had in store.

Do I need an iPhone?

Of course I don’t, but I do have one, and that’s what I’m used to. However, after a few days I kind of got used to, and almost enjoyed (almost) not being connected to the internet, the internet that I spend 8+ hours a day sat connected to.

The problem

Sure, the first few days were okay. And I had bought into a policy whereby the damaged item is replaced in 48 hours. I rang up and was told the it would in fact take 10-12 days. It took 30. Anyone who owns an iPhone surely knows that that just isn’t easy.

The insurers name? Read the opening paragraph again, closely ;) Shh…

Anyway, anyone following me on Twitter will know that this whole farce has really wound me up, with error after error on the insurers part. You will also know that I have refused to name them. This was for the sake of professionalism, while ever they were messing around, and I was keeping it amicable, they were 100% in the wrong, nothing could come back to me, nor could my actions influence theirs (i.e. me being rude making them even slower etc.). It didn’t really work to my advantage, but still, better that than be a rude shouty b*stard to them, eh?

N.B. All code can now be licensed under the permissive MIT license. Read more about licensing CSS Wizardry code samples…

By Harry Roberts

Harry Roberts is an independent consultant web performance engineer. He helps companies of all shapes and sizes find and fix site speed issues.