a saga.
I decided to bite the bullet and get an iPhone. I realize that I just got a new cellphone not too long ago, but the siren’s song of the iPhone was just too irresistable. Especially after Kyle got one.
Yes lord, I was coveting my neighbor’s property.
So I got one last night and was superpsyched to hook it up and get it going. I dashed home after dinner with Kyle, got out my computer, unwrapped my new beauty, and plugged it in.
It didn’t work.
For some reason my Macintosh computer was not recognizing my iPhone. No prompt to register the phone. No icon in iTunes. No NOTHING.
So I called the 1-800 help line for new iPhone people. After several minutes of trying to diagnose the issue, it was determined that my iBook didn’t have a recent enough operating system. OS X 10.3.9 wasn’t good enough– I needed the new Tiger OS X 10.4.10 or better.
But seeing as how my iBook is like 3 years old and has almost no memory left, there was no way to load this new operating system onto it. Plus it was going to cost about 150 bucks for the software.
WELL. Since I just got a small amount of money back from my house sale, and because I was going to get a new computer in a few months anyway, I pushed up the timetable and purchased a new iMac today. It IS rather beautiful and will do just about everything that I want- with loads of memory to spare!
My iPhone registered in like 5 minutes flat with the damn thing. Woo Hoo! But my new baby needed some iTunes music on it so I could use it like an iPod. Ok- so it was time to transfer my iTunes library from my old computer. I hooked it together with the firewire cable, did the special boot up procedure and…
Didn’t work.
Mother FUCKER.
The new iMac is not mounting a disk image of the old computer when linked, so I can’t copy any data over. I tried different cables, different configurations, rebooting, etc. I even spent an hour on the phone with OH-SO-HELPFUL tech support in Mumbai- or wherever the fuck he was. He suggested downloading a utility from mac that was 1 Gig large.
It took over 2 hours to download… and it didn’t work.
Needless to say, I’m so wicked pissed right now that I can’t sit still. I now have an appointment at the “genius bar” tomorrow at the local Apple store to see if I can resolve this. Of course this necessitates carting both of my computers to the place.
Wow. Excitement plus.
This is VERY nearly enough to put me off Apple products– mac computers specifically. But then I remember that Vista is an absolute abortion.
Mangina Monologues 
Congrats on both. I bought a new iMac about 2 weeks ago and love it although my experience was like yours in setup. Read about it here:
http://y-oh-y.blogspot.com/2007/09/murphys-law-dont-smile-so-quick-pardner.html
See, it pays to read my blog EVERY DAY. I might have saved you a lot of time and frustration! 😉
Huh. When I got my new MacBook a month or so ago I had no trouble whisking everything over from the old iMac. I’ve used that Firewire disk mode many times. But of course there is always going to be some percentage of failures.
Having spent part of the night dealing with my dad’s windows machine getting hosed by – get this – an HP printer installation disk, let me just suggest that one issue with an old machine shouldn’t put you off of Apple products. (The OS/iPhone thing is annoying, but I have to point out that if you look at the product info, it’s quite clear about the OS requirement…)
iPhone…OS X 10.3.9…Tiger OS X 10.4.10 or better…iTunes…different cables, different configurations, rebooting, etc…downloading a utility from mac that was 1 Gig large.
I have no idea what any of this means, so I will just go into archives and look at the pics of your ass. Could you please include said pics next time for tech challenged losers like myself?
Thank you and have a nice day.
Oh CB, I hope everything gets sorted out with your new iPhone and iMac.
I just got my iPhone about two weeks ago and I freaking love it. Believe me – it is worth the hassle. And please don’t be put off by Mac products. I have a Mac and my better half has a Dell. I guarantee that there is more cursing from his side of the office than mine.
Microsoft is the devil!
You can use it to take pics of you and “Jim” at the wedding!
Have you confirmed for the blessed day yet or did you tell “Jim” and his little dog Toto that you have “other plans?”
Stop talking about y’alls big beautiful Macs! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! I have to use my housemate’s/the boston public lie-berry’s/work’s crappy PC’s until mine arrives next week.
However, I’m all for the geeky gadgets – so congrats. I can’t wait to get my camcorder hooked up to my new iMac and start working on my videos!
My MacBook retrieved everything off of my old iMac with no problem, however I had a friend who ran into similar problems when transferring his files from his old PowerBook to his new MacBook. Good luck, it can be done. Congrats on the iPhone, I have zero desire for one, but everyone I know who has one loves it.
Have fun with your new Apple products. I bought an iMac a few months ago, so now I’m stuck with an “old” one. Apple releases new products too frequently. I’ve given up on trying to have the latest and greatest, especially when it comes to Mac stuff. Although I’d like to replace my 17″ Powerbook, I know that shortly after biting the bullet, Apple will release something smaller and better.