To Whom It May Concern

"Smart Phone"?

My phone has been causing me a lot of grief this past week or so since the "Ice Cream Sandwich" update (yes, goofy name for a software patch indeed).  Basically anytime I would open up an application like Skype or Google Maps, even from a full battery, the phone would up and instantly die, without even being able to do the 15%, 10% or 5% battery warnings. 

I ended up calling Verizon today, and the first guy I got was frustrating.  It is so obvious when someone doesn't even care about their job, so I pretty much immediately asked him to skip all the typical steps that he would normally go through and just pipe me over to technical support. After that, I got to talk to "Ken", and I have to say, he was awesome, to the tune of more than 2 hours of help on my phone.

We tried a variety of "fixes", none of which seemed to work, so he recommended a complete factory reboot for the phone.  We checked my google account, backed everything up, and then reset the phone, albeit with the basic Ice Cream update.  Then we went through the set-up and talked about a lot of the features I never even knew the phone had.  Of course then I had to start downloading my applications.  Apparently "Swype" keyboard is gone?  I had to use SlideIt instead, and I have to be honest, I think SlideIt is the better choice anyway.  I was having a lot of trouble with Swype, but being a typical guy I just dealt with it.  Through all of this Ken from Verizon was pretty awesome and patient. 

So, even tonite I'm still trying to figure things out with the phone, such as how to set up my music and photo applications so they are "open" on the screens as I flip through, like they used to be.  Oh and Ken told me that most people just up and order a new battery online for 50 dollars, even though the battery is a 10 dollar warranty item for most people who are still within their contract with Verizon. 

And, getting back to the original problem with the phone... it had 70% of its power and I unplugged it, and started playing Angry Birds (wow, talk about a time consuming download initially on 3G haha) and it seemed to be doing okay, then I opened up Google Maps and BOOM the phone instantly died.  Well, at that point we pretty much realized it had to be the battery, so I agreed to order a new battery through Verizon for $10.55.  I'm also eligible for an upgrade, apparently tomorrow... as funny as that sounds.  I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but doesn't it seem like these phones tend to die right when the wireless companies allow us to upgrade? :) 

Well, back to working on my phone.  Oh, it's an HTC Thunderbolt.  I failed to mention that before!

I'm glad Ken was patient, he was awesome!