Screw it, get her an o2 Apple iPhone...

Problems, problems, problems in the MacLeod Senior household.

I bought my mum an iPhone. An unlocked one from America.

Apple have made it a right bitch if you’ve got the wrong version of iTunes and the wrong version of the firmware and the wrong version of the….. [ insert other nonsense here ].

It really is a total bind unlocking these things.

Anyway. Got it unlocked. I presented it to mum, swiftly placing her old Motorola V3x away in a drawer as I did.

I had pre-synched her Apple laptop with the Motorola, so the 11 phone numbers she uses (me, my brothers, my dad, a few other relatives) were stored nicely in Apple’s Address Book waiting to be synched. Her iTunes music that she’d been buying now and again via her laptop was all ready too.

“I got you one of these, Mum,” I explained, thrusting the iPhone toward her.

Her eyes lit up. It’s rare to find any other cellular device that would engender a similar amount of excitement and ready acceptance. She was absolutely delighted with it. I gave her a 20 second overview (“this button is home, this button switches the screen off, just tap anything else, right?”) and had to fly off to a meeting.

Within minutes — MINUTES — I kid ye not — she was whacking me text messages. She had a go at T9 with the Motorola and before, with her old Nokia, but she just didn’t get it. With the iPhone she was connected. She loved it. So did I. I liked the fact she was able to send me emails. Forward me pictures. Send me text messages and easily call my brothers.

I was astonished to find she’d been listening to her music on it. Without prompting. Without me saying ‘Look mum! Look! You can do music on it…’. She’d found the function and got it without any assistance.

Pure geniuses, Apple. Pure geniuses.

Read that and weep, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, LG… To create a device that is so usable, so right, so acceptable first-time, … it’s nothing short of a MONUMENTAL achievement. One that I hope the other protagonists in the mobile hardware field step up to emulate shortly.

The problem?

Someone, we’re not sure who, stuck mum’s iPhone in the cradle. And they hit the ‘sure, upgrade me’ button, as one is wont to do with any Apple stuff. (This, despite me turning off the automatic firmware update function in iTunes). Woosh. The iPhone was wiped and back to factory default.

Arse.

Unmitigated arse.

Mum’s had to go back to her antiquated Motorola.

And do you know what? I’ve given in.

“Right,” I exclaimed to my brother over my Sprint handset yesterday, “Get her an o2 iPhone, swap her to o2?”

Mum is a Vodafone customer you see. Although, swapping her to an o2 number isn’t an issue. Not at all, actually. She only uses her phone to call the family and we can all easily change our address books.

And there you have it. I give in. Whatever, Mr Jobs. Whatever… I know you had to make it annoying because of your carrier relationships. I know. But……. gahhh.

Incidentally, I read with mild interest that the 2-iPhone-per-person limit has been increased to 5… good news or bad news for Apple?

Mum’s new iPhone should be live and operational by tomorrow morning…