Tech Romance

Posted on by Thor

While on a long road trip my iPhone would not take a charge. I was using Google Maps to go to a location deep in the Florida back roads, an hour and a half from where I am renting a home.

The red warning blinked on, saying “low battery. I had no idea if my phone would have enough battery to get me to my destination before blinking out and becoming a useless brick. I had an iPad but it was useless since it needed a Wi-Fi connection to show the maps. If the phone died, I would have no maps, and would not be able to call my friend for directions. I have grown so dependent on the pleasant voice of my female navigator. I stopped in a Dollar General parking lot and quickly wrote out the remaining series of directions on the back of a sketch. Sure enough the phone shut down after driving a few more blocks. My pencil notes got me to where I needed to go.

I conducted a virtual art class from what felt like a peaceful country cabin on my iPad. The trip back would involve even more twists and turns but more pencil notes got me home. Actually before going home, I stopped at the Apple Store in Millennia Mall. The place was packed. Clearly everyone’s charging ports had failed at the same time. I sat at the Genius Bar and a tech quickly helped me out. He took the phone out back to find whatever had clogged the port. I had spent hours trying to clear the port myself the night before with a toothpick, but every attempt failed. I kept plugging the phone in, hoping it might miraculously decide to charge.

While I waited for the tech to come back out with my phone, I sketched. It felt good to have this low tech option to record the moment. Pencils never run out of charge and they never crash. The tech brought the iPhone back out and plugged it in. I kept sketching while the phone charged. Thankfully there was no cost for clearing the port.

Back out in the parking lot, I plugged the phone back into the car charger. I turned on Google Maps and set a course. The first thing the pleasant and familiar female voice said was, “Head North to Conroy Road.” Sigh… She understands my every navigation need. She had me at “head”.

Foxconn

Posted on by admin

Protests erupted at Foxconn the huge iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhenvgzhou China.Police in hazmat suits clubbed the factory workers protesting.

Last month, the factory was locked down due to rising COVID cases. Some workers scaled the fences to break out and go home. Former workers estimate that thousands have fled the factory campus. The company then recruited new workers with the promise of generous bonuses.

Rumors circulated that new recruits were being asked to share dormitories with workers who were Covid-positive. When new workers arrived they were told they would not get the bonuses promised until they had worked at the much lower pay for several weeks. One protestor via a live stream said, “They changed the contract so that we could not get the subsidy as they had promised. They quarantine us but don’t provide food.”

Foxconn has established closed loop operations at the plant, keeping it isolated from the wider city of Zhengzhou. Workers are not supposed to leave. The Zhengzhou plant employs more than 200,000 people. It is not known how many are infected with COVID. “It’s now evident that closed-loop production in Foxconn only helps in preventing COVID from spreading to the city, but does nothing (if not make it even worse) for the workers in the factory,” Aiden Chau of China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based advocacy group, said in an email.

Foxconn has apologized for a “technical error” in its payment systems, a day after its iPhone factory in China was rocked by angry protests. The iPhone factory apologized for the violence against employees. One new employee was paid 8,000 yuan ($1,120) and was set to receive another 2,000 yuan ($280).

China has recorded its highest number of daily Covid cases since the pandemic began,

 

Getting a Sim Card in Sydney was a nightmare.

Posted on by Thor

Terry wanted to keep her phone connected to the internet while we traveled in Australia. This would allow us to use the GPS on her iPhone to keep from getting lost. To avoid roaming charges she had to purchase a Sim Card in Sydney so that her phone could be hooked up to the local network. The Optus store was maybe a quarter mile walk from our hotel in downtown Sydney. The store is under staffed and while she was getting her phone set up, several people walked in and then left in a huff because they weren’t getting helped. Perhaps an hour later, we left and she was hooked up.

The next day, we decided to return to replace the Sim in my phone. We figured it helps to be able to text or call each other especially since I’m often doing a sketch.  On this day Brad decided he needed to see my passport. No one had asked Terry for her passport. It seems like the sales clerks invent loop holes on the fly. Apparently Terry shouldn’t have been sold her Sim without a passport. I wasn’t about to walk back to the hotel just to satisfy this sales clerk. I suspect he gets pleasure from infuriating costumers. He’s been at this dead end job for years and his only power comes from infuriating people who need help. As it turned out Terry still had a plethora of question and she kept Brad occupied long enough to do this quick sketch. When people specifically go out of their way to waist my time, I can get my anger and frustrations to channel their way into a sketch.  I took all of Brad’s business cards and distributed them at tourist destinations all over Sydney with “Don’t use Optus” scribbled on the back. It was my one public service while I was there. My advice, if you travel to Australia, don’t use Optus. Terry told me that the phone bill was astronomical as well, so the fight to get a Sim didn’t result in savings. I kept my phone on airplane mode for the month and just checked a few e-mails using hotel internet connections at night. Being free of the hive can be a blessing. Perhaps Brad did me a favor.

iPhone Class

Posted on by Thor

Terry recently bought herself an iPhone and she is in love. She uses it constantly. She asked me if I would like to sketch as she took a class on how to use the iPhone at the Millenia Mall Apple Store. We entered the Mall early and there was no one around, which is in itself kind of spooky. The Apple Store was open with a sign blocking the entrance explaining that a class was in session. Crowded around the table were eight middle aged people and the teacher was a young twenty something with spiked hair. Any time someone would ask a question he would respond “That is a very good question…” then he would explain how to use the technology in a Disneyesque way. Some questions were more generational than technological. For instance a woman asked “Well why do I have to text someone if I can just pick up the phone and call them?” The instructor had to explain that his generation had grown up with texting and it is less intrusive in that he could ignore a text document for a while and answer when he had time. If you ignored someone on the phone, that would be rude.
At a party at the Kerouac House, everyone in the living room area except myself pulled out their iPhones all at the same time and were doing who knows what with them. They slid their fingers over the polished screens and giggled to themselves. I tried to fit in by pretending to use one. No one noticed. I am beginning to suspect that iPhones are much like the invading pods (iPods) in the movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” if you do not have an iPhone, a friend will try and convince you to get one. If you fall asleep in the same room an an iPhone it takes over your body and leaves you an empty shell yearning to stare at the ever changing screen, ignoring life as it passes you by. I found it interesting that in the Apple store there were booklets on how to live an iLife. What is that all about? I pay close attention to where Terry leaves her iPhone at night, I don’t want to fall asleep unless I know it is in another room.