The problem with iPhones . . .

As an Apple aficionado, this title may strike you as odd. Perhaps I should explain more . . .

In my current tech support role, I am the Apple guru, so iPhone deployment is delegated to me. Normally, this is not a problem. Today, however, there are four iPhones sitting in my cube waiting to go to their respective owners. Each of these phones is activated and has the work email account setup on it. As it takes a 3rd party app to change the mail alert sound, I am hearing the same tone over and over and over again. To further complicate matters, my two partners in crime (in the cubes opposite me) also have iPhones, and one has a Mac. As such, when an email comes into the tech support box, there are alerts going off everywhere. Sometimes this makes things easier, as I know when a ticket is coming in and don't look to my personal email for some magical piece of communication. When we are all in a meeting, however, with three Macs, two iPads, and four iPhones between us - there may as well be a fire alarm going off.

Back to the issue at hand - while composing this post, at least three of the phones waiting to be deployed have received new messages. When hearing that sound, I tend to look to my phone to see what might be coming in. I sit in a confused haze trying to figure out why I have a mail alert and no new mail, until I realize the ridiculous number of iPhones in my vicinity. Oh wait - a message came in that was actually for me! I could only tell because the tone was closer to me and clearer. And since starting that sentence, three more have come in on the other phones. And so - if you call me or email me and I don't answer, it's not that I'm actively ignoring you, it's that I'm banging my head against my desk trying to make all the bells stop ringing.