BACK UP & LOOK OUT!

This post is not in tune to my usual focus but I thought you may find it interesting none the less. Do you have your parent’s and children’s phone numbers memorized? How about your best friend’s, your boss, or current clients? Imagine the feeling of reaching for your ever-trusted cell phone, the great keeper of all communication… and it being empty!!! This weekend that image became my reality. I am (still) the proud owner of an Apple iPhone and this weekend I received a “wake up call” that I will not soon forget. Friday marked the release of the new 3G iPhone, and Apple’s latest update, 2.0 for existing iPhone users. And what a great update it was, adding real-time GPS navigation, updated email and contact software, many new ingenious applications to add to the 1000’s already available, the grass was green on our side of the fence this weekend. Almost. As I went to bed Saturday night I connected my phone to my Mac excited to sync 2.0. Unfortunately the weekend’s excitement went to sleep with me, and apparently forgot to wake up Sunday morning. I however, woke up, went to my computer and was greeted with a strange yet vaguely familiar screen on my phone. “Oh yes” I remembered, it was the same screen that appeared when I first took my phone out of the package! “Oh Sh*t!” Sometime between going to bed and waking up Apple’s entire network crashed due to the over whelming activity from new iPhone users and current owners uploading the new software. Whoever had their phone syncing during the crash was exposed to all sorts of horrible surprises upon their return. All my contact info, phone numbers, emails, addresses… gone! My calendar events, note pad, photos… gone, my stomach, on the floor between my feet. After picking up my phone, and my stomach, I headed straight to the Apple store in Keystone at the Crossing. I was greeted by a mob of people carrying towers and phones in their hands; apparently I wasn’t the only victim. After getting a service technician I was told about the network crash and that my phone had been “locked”. They politely took my phone, “unlocked” it and told me once I was home, to re-sync with itunes and everything would be restored. Hardly. My music, video, and podcasts all reappeared after a 4-hour re-sync. But my phones data was nowhere to be found. The next three days were spent on hold for the most part… “Due to the high volume of calls we are receiving you may want to try your call later” said the computerized prompt from Apple’s customer care line. I opted to wait, and wait I did. Once I got through, the rep was pleasant, calm, friendly, and spoke clear English! Trivial as this may seem, considering the situation I was in, it was very comforting. The kind voice talked me through a few restore processes and at the end I was told that there was nothing I could do to restore the lost data unless I had it stored somewhere else. “Well….” I said, “I have my calendar backed up to iCal, my emails stored in Gmail, and my phone numbers stored in… uh, my phone.” Apparently it is a wise idea to store your phone numbers somewhere other than just your phone. What a tuff lesson this is going to be, tracking down old phone bills, making phone calls to random numbers, digging through 100’s of business cards, etc, etc, etc. But as my network partner put it best… “At least this will be a great way to get in touch with my fellow networkers and clients! Thanks Amy, for shining a little light on my cloudy day! As I am not alone in this endeavor, if you happen to get one of these odd “who I am speaking with?” phone calls over the next few days… be kind!