See, this is why I didn’t get a Jesusphone.

Not because of this, so much: “The South China Morning Post reports a Shanghai mom is locked out of her iPhone for the next 47 years after her 2-year-old son repeatedly entered the wrong passcode.” No, it’s much more because of this: “A technician at an Apple Store in Shanghai told Lu she had two options: do a factory reset on her iPhone and lose all her files or wait the 47 years until she can use it again.” Real computers give you more options.

…What?  You don’t have a ‘mobile phone.’ You have a Tech Level 8/9 Complexity 2 Tiny computer that people sometimes use to make voice calls. Where GURPS made its mistake was assuming that people would insist on holographic projection user interfaces; turns out we’re all a lot more willing to just squint and peer close than everybody anticipated.

7 thoughts on “See, this is why I didn’t get a Jesusphone.”

  1. Practical joke isn’t the right term; let’s go with malicious mischief. As in, this gives terrible ideas to those who find themselves accidentally (or not so accidentally) in possession of an unattended apple product belonging to someone they…dislike.

  2. 47 years? Obviously the lockout system is deranged.

    Not mentioned third option: pay those guys that claim they can break the lock on an iPhone.

  3. Oh–forgot to say: as people do more and more with cell phones, you can see how the use of them as a phone qua phone is declining; most reviews barely mention call quality any more.

  4. My kids did that to my wife, although they didn’t manage 47 years.
    You can reset your password IF you have the latest version patch of the OS (you know, the one that intentionally reduces your processing speed and battery life if you’re not using the most recent phone) installed on your phone, AND you’ve backed it up in your computer since the latest patch.
    Otherwise, you’re screwed, and hoping for the cloud to save you.

  5. Gonna be super blunt and unsympathetic: If you don’t back up your phone, you deserve whatever happens to your phone. All these sorts of things mean that if you get locked out, you lose whatever happened since your last back up. And if you back up regularly, it means next to nothing, other than an annoying trip to the Apple Store.

Comments are closed.