Monday, September 23, 2013

The Hardest Part

Did I miss something? I have Internet access and all, but maybe I've been so busy tracking the floods in my hometown. Or maybe I was clicking on the articles about the most recent shootings. I might have been preoccupied by our once and future war with Syria. That's why I didn't notice that there is a new iPhone. This is the seventh, I am told, time that Apple has visited a slightly updated version of their mobile communications device. There were people lined up outside stores across the country waiting. Again.
Didn't they know that they could order one to be delivered to their house?
I apologize in advance to any of those people who queued up who were actually homeless and just happened to be on the street because that is their home, but I'm not sure I get it. I would assume that those people who feel the need to purchase the newest piece of technology at the earliest possible moment are doing so because they embrace the idea of modern conveniences: labor-saving. Why then would someone give up hours or even days of their life to sit on a curb just across from Starbuck's and the Gap to be certain that they have the machine that would, in a perfect world, help them avoid such experiences? 
As it turns out, there were a few enterprising folks who used Al Gore's Internet to make money off this schism. Taskrabbit.com  had a campaign that offered to have someone stand in line for you, providing you paid their price. Whatever that price was. And the helpful folks at Taskrabbit helped themselves to a twenty percent service fee. Totally worth it.
Especially if you were able to make the following call:
"Dude, guess where I'm calling you from?"
"It's three in the morning."
"Yeah, I know. The guy I paid a hundred bucks to on Taskrabbit just dropped off my new iPhone."
"So?"
"I'm sitting in my living room, looking at all the cool new features."
"Good night."

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