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We Blindly Tick 'Accept' - But At What Cost?

Every time I plug it in, my iJobs insists I upgrade its operating system. It requires about 1GB of download to install. After weeks of nagging pop-ups I finally decided to let it run - despite the fact my iJobs has been performing 'normally' up to this point. How easily we forget the countless times in the past when we've 'upgraded' only to discover that we've unleashed system clash hell on our increasingly confused hardware, only to bitterly regret the decision, again and again. But we always hope that this upgrade will solve all our problems - like my iJobs not picking up a mobile or wifi signal perhaps - and delight us with something new and amazing. Make it a better telephone would be top of my wishlist Mr JobsV2.0 if you're reading this.

So I finally give in and click 'OK'. I need to leave it running overnight since our internet bandwidth into the house only permits the occasional lonely passing byte to squeeze down the phone line every now and again. So imagine my unbridled joy to be greeted by my iJobs saying 'upgrade complete'. I was on version 5. I'm now basking in the glories of 6.0. Not everything went well, however. Inevitably it was all too much for my BillSoft PC. It's constant fight with iJobs crashed the new and even less friendly version of iTunes I had previously 'upgraded' (whose 'new' Store, by the way, is still the most chaotic online searching experience you could possibly invent - read this).

So what's new about V6.0 and the 1GB of data I patiently waited for? Nothing. Absolutely nothing I can see except for two things. A useless app has appeared which will apparently contain American Airlines boarding passes (+ Delta or Lufthansa - all other airlines already have their own apps), or discount vouchers - which I always forget and therefore never bother with (will they ever persuade me to shop somewhere I hadn't already decided to use?).

So what else does V6.0 contain that iJobs so desperately wanted me to tick the 'I accept' box? Nothing, it would seem other than offering me the option of reading hundreds of pages of minute text written by legions of lawyers who are paid obscene amounts to make the agreement not only as impenetrable as possible, but also as much in iJobs flavour as it can possibly be without actually promising them my soul.... although I must admit I didn't read every word (has anyone? Ever?), so maybe that was also included.


Footnote. Having written the above, iJobs have issued version 6.1 after only a few days of waiting for that 1 GB of 6.0 to download. A couple of days later (after my iphone refused to update the iOS to 6.1 anyway for a reason related to "software on my phone that needs to be transferred to itunes first"... How you twats? If itunes doesn't do it automatically, there's no way to force it to happen!), I get a text from Vodafone warning me NOT to upgrade!! Now I know you'll be amazed that Vodafone managed to actually arrange for a signal to deliver a text to my phone, so perhaps it's not a surprise that it arrived several days after it should have. The text stated that iOS 6.1 fucks with iPhone 4S 3G phone signals. Clearly this is of no interest to me since my iPhone can't get one at the best of times, but it sort of proves my point that upgrading software is almost always a very bad idea.
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