Devices come and go and become outdated and are left at the dump, or the bottom of a closet, or at the electronics recycling.
Except my iPad. It's had three lives so far and, thanks to Apple, keeps on going. It's an iPad2, the second generation, the one with the camera. I can surf the internet, use a bluetooth keyboard with it for word processing and spreadsheet stuff.
I read books, write music, put up sheet music for myself and students to read, make posters, keep books and basically everything I do on a desktop computer sans high-end image editing. I also prefer video editing and music editing on the desktop, but it can be done on an iPad as well.
The First Life
My first iPad2 lived for many years happily, and efficiently. When I first got it I could not bear to be parted from it so took it with me when I went shopping. It was in a grey Belkin leather case with a keyboard. I had it resting upright in the kid carrier in the shopping cart and because of its nondescript color, the fact that I was unused to having it, and that I'm slightly ADD, I managed to leave it in the cart when I carried my groceries outside.
Imagine my horror to realize, as soon as I got into my car, that I'd left my new $500 device in a shopping cart and I still hadn't put a password on it. I adrenaline-ran back into the store and was not discrete: I LEFT AN IPAD IN A GREY CASE IN A CART HAS ANYONE SEEN IT OR HAVE IT? I ran around the store like a demented weasel looking into carts and finally found a man with it in his hand just about to open it up. "THAT'S MINE!" and I snatched it back from him. He was naturally taken aback, "I was just going to open it and see who it belonged to so I could get it back to you." Yes, typical nice, laid-back Fairbanksian and I am pretty sure I freaked him out. I was freaked out, for sure! I thanked him and went home and never took my iPad shopping again!
A year or so later, when I owned a black car, I was loading things up to go to work. I carried out violin, guitar, books, dogs, bag, and so on and had put the iPad on the hood of the car by the windshield wipers to toss in right before I left.
Guess what I forgot to do?
It was Spring, and traffic on my two-lane, winding, country road was quite brisk, from 50 to 65 mph. I drove blithely down, going about 55. As I rounded a corner I heard a sliding noise and saw my forgotten iPad, in its nondescript, blends in everywhere GREY case, fly off the hood of my car and land in the opposite lane. I found enough road to pull off, put it in park, left it running and tore down the road toward where my iPad was right in the path of an oncoming car! Before I could get there I saw the tires go over it and flip it up in the air! My heart sank, I figured it was crushed glass and metal by now. However I'm always the optimist and as another car approached I waved my arms like a crazy person and started pointing at the iPad and screaming and miming driving around it all while running. Whether by care or accident, the second car didn't run over it and I dashed out into the lane and retrieved what I was sure would be a sad, crunchy item.
I took it back to my car. The dogs were concerned. I appreciated that. I took a breath and tried to stop shaking. I opened the case.
It was unbroken.
The keyboard had lost a few keys, but the iPad turned on and worked! The case wasn't in great shape. But the iPad was fine!
I called Belkin later and told them what had happened and thought they'd see a grand marketing opportunity when they heard it. The Belkin lady was uninspired. I thought if I told them how their case had saved my iPad that they'd be happy to use the story for advertising and send me a new case. Instead, I was laconically advised that since the case getting run over was my fault, they didn't want to send me a new one. Customer service with a yawn.
Meanwhile, over the course of about six months, the iPad began to have problems. I'd touch the screen and it didn't feel me. Turns out the metal back began to curve from being run over, so it was rather like a bowl with a glass top on it.
At the local Apple dealership they did something amazing. They took my bendy iPad and sold me a refurbished iPad that was the same configuration...for half the price of the original. We are talking three years or so out, and totally out of warranty, and totally MY FAULT. What other company does this? Seriously, how cool is that?
The Second Life
Until the end of this June, this new, refurbished iPad2 was doing just great, doing all the stuff I needed it to do. Until it didn't. Until it started dropping out of programs constantly. I could still use it to Facetime teach children out in village schools, but most of my other apps were constantly crashing. I cleared cache, I did everything. It was becoming unusable.
While on a trip to Albuquerque, I took advantage of the Apple Store there, and went to the Genius Bar. The gal there worked with it for over an hour and a half, and it just wouldn't reformat, restore, or basically do anything right. Hardware diagnostics showed a bad battery. She said you can't just replace the battery very easily, so she'd get me a new/refurbished iPad2 for the cost of a battery, $99. I agreed, happily. Unfortunately they were fresh out of iPad2s at the store, (I thought it was amazing they'd even have one at all) so she wrote up a repair order for me to call Apple when I got home, so that I could have them send me one up in Alaska.
When I got home from my trip I called Apple, and was told it was only going to be $79 dollars. There were many logistics to be taken into account to get my old iPad back to them quickly, and to get another refurbished iPad back to me. At some point in the conversation, my customer service guy decided that he was going to expedite this, and not charge me anything at all. No shipping, no repair, no money at all.
That's right: Apple would pay for it all and send me a new iPad for free. Why? Because that's the way they roll!
Not ONCE did anyone tell me I needed to buy a new model.
The Third Life
So it took some finagling to get the UPS and Fed Ex connections working, but yesterday I got my new iPad2. My fellow at Apple stayed in contact with me the whole week it took (over a 4th of July weekend!) to get my iPad back to Apple and one out to me.
All I can say is Apple totally ROCKS customer service! Either that, or I have some kind of fairy computer godmother working for me, because this is so freaking awesome! My new iPad is working just great and I'm so relieved to have it back. Apple rules!
PS: My iPad is, and has been for some time, in a bright purple leather Belkin case with Star Wars stickers all over it. It's never fading into the background ever again!
