When I checked my e-mail yesterday morning, I had a message from Verizon Wireless that an update for my Blackberry Storm was available, which was supposed to be the latest and greatest thing since sliced bread.
So, being the trusting soul I am, I plugged my phone into my computer, logged onto the Verizon website, and clicked the update button. The process took a few minutes, and then I got a message telling me the download was complete. Quick and easy, right?
Well, yes, except for the fact that the upload wiped out my entire contacts list. The photos I had stored on the phone are still there, even a couple of songs I transferred over from my computer a while back. But every telephone number I had is gone.
Yeah, I know, I could have backed up my information to my computer, but I never thought of it. So I’ll be spending some time digging out business cards and entering all of those numbers all over again. What fun.
There are many features I like about the Blackberry, but after using it for the last few months I have come to realize that my smart phone is smarter than I am by a long shot! I’m sure my seven year old granddaughter Hailey could probably make it do wonderful things, but I get a headache trying to figure what all the buttons are for.
It has been interesting to read all of the e-mails and comments from readers of yesterday’s blog Considering Our Options, about RV extended warranties. Some people feel that an extended warranty is a good investment, and just as many, if not more, seem to think they are not worth the money. I also heard from some folks who did buy extended warranties on their RVs, only to find that the companies issuing the warranties either did not honor needed repairs, or were very slow in paying. Like so much in the RV industry, there seem to be so many snakes selling extended warranties that you have to be very, very careful who you do business with.
I have had some comments from longtime readers who took me to task for buying a factory built motorhome because I have always said that “all RVs are junk and I’d never own anything but a bus conversion.” I don’t know when I supposedly said that, and in looking back over several years of past blogs and issues of the Gypsy Journal, I don’t find any such comment.
Yes, I have said many times that the quality of most factory built RVs is pretty sad, and I have said that a lot of junk has been foisted off on RV buyers by a lot of companies. However I have also said many times, in print and in the seminars I present at RV rallies, that there were four companies whose rigs I would be comfortable owning. Those companies are Heartland, Tiffin, Newmar, and Winnebago. When we started looking for a rig to replace our MCI bus conversion, they were on our very short list.
I love our old bus, and I will always be a fan of bus conversions. For cargo carrying capacity, safety in the event of a crash, longevity, and overall ruggedness, there has never been a stick and staple motorhome built that can compare. When we moved from the bus to our Winnebago, we traded down in those respects. No question about it.
However, our needs have changed. As our granddaughters have gotten older, the bus has become very crowded when they came to visit. We really wanted a coach with a slide. We also do not see ourselves doing nearly as much dry camping as we have in the past, so the huge holding tanks, battery bank, and solar panels on the bus are no longer a necessity.
Yes, we had many wonderful years in our bus, and it carried us many miles in comfort and safety. Just as it will whomever owns it next. And though we have moved on, we’ll always look when we hear an old Detroit diesel roar to life. Once a bus nut, always a bus nut.
Thought For The Day – It’s frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Your changing “RV requirements” struck a cord with me. I have seen it with some of my hobbies that our interests change. One needs to get it finished right away before our interests move on to something else.
Gene
I love the thought for the day. Isn’t it the truth!!!! Now that I have some experience and actually could help some folks especially the young not make some of the mistakes I made and I watched others make, no one is asking any questions. Such is the way one generation looks at another.
Nick, Verizon has “Backup Assistant” you can download from/for your phone. You must have established an account online first, which you can if you have a Verizon phone. The app is free and the cost per month is FREE if you set up this account for FREE. Set it to backup at night or whenever you are not likely to be on your phone. Ours both backup late at night. Also, you can add/edit/delete your contacts online plus you can print them out. When my phone died a year ago, the Verizon employees told me this and told me how to do it so I would never lose my phone numbers again. It must be done for EACH phone, however, if you have more than one Verizon phone.
Nick,
I got the same message from Verizon about the upgrade for my BlackberryStorm. I downloaded the update to my computer (32megabytes), plugged in my Storm and did the upgrade without any problem. It took about 30 minutes to complete. I also did Jaimie’s Storm, and it worked as well.
It certainly took more than a “few minutes” as you stated, in fact I was worried about the state of charge of the battery. But since the phone was connected via the USB cable, it charges thru that.
No contact information or any other setting on the Storm’s was lost, the update did a restore at the end of the upgrade.
C’est la vie.
George
I sure am glad our lives morf, as do our needs and wants and toys. Otherwise we sure would be stale and static.
HI Nick, if you have Microsoft Outlook, the Blackberry Storm will sync with your Outlook address book and that way if you ever loose your Blackberry data, you can just reload it from Outlook.
I have a heartland landmark i got it used by takeing over the payments with 3 years to go i dont know how full timeing in it would work out. it has been needing a lot of thangs done in the year i have had it its a 2005 all and all i thank we all love our homes to some and toys to us who still are working on liveing the dream. anyway rvs are like a house you hafe to make them in to what you like and need them to do so is one better than the next? thay all need the shop at some point
Not real sure about this, but I think that if you still have your previous phone with the sims card you could take them both to the Verizon store and they could transfer the data and you would only have to program any new numbers since you changed phones.
Unfortunately, Vickie, I didn’t lose my info while changing phones. I updated the software on my present phone and lost the data in the process.
Did you call the Verizon help desk? Not much is actually lost on computers anymore … and your phone is actually a computer. Text files such as names and numbers take up very little space. Did the software warn you to backup? If not, the data is probably still there.