My Apple Genius Took Pity On Me
Right after I lectured my teenage son about his iPod not being a disposable item, lo and behold, the technology gods paid me back. The other day, just before a long car trip, I tried to turn mine on to see if it needed charging and – nada, zilch, zip. Naturally, I thought it was something I did but my kids assured me that nope, iPods just did that sometimes, and I would have to trek over to the Apple store in the mall for a consult. I vaguely remember them making appointments to bring various pieces of their technology in to be revived there, so I called the local number, was switched to the sub-Continent, and hung on for 22 minutes ‘til a polite young man halfway round the world made an appointment for me with an Apple Genius located 10 minutes from my home. Not an expert. Not an associate. Not a technician. But A Genius.
I hustled over to the mall to receive the sobering diagnosis: yup, my iPod was broken and couldn’t be fixed. The solution? Why, buying a new one of course. My Genius did some fancy math work to determine I wouldn’t have used up the capacity on my current model ‘til my son found lost cell phone #2 (i.e. never) and sold me an itsy bitsy Nano model plus the must-have hard carrying case.
I couldn’t even get my new iPod out of the box (I am not kidding here) so my Genius took pity on me and set the whole thing up, including cutting apart the heavy impenetrable plastic “clamshell” package it came in. So I concede: yes, they are Geniuses and deserving of the capital "G." That established, let me send a shout-out to the whole Genius orchard: please use your considerable collective brainpower to come up with products that last longer than a carton of blueberry yogurt in packaging that doesn't require a blowtorch to open. (Thanks in advance from this cranky consumer.)
