With my MacBook in the shop this week I’ve used my iPhone exclusively for all things digital. That includes paying bills, refilling a prescription; purchasing tickets to a concert and typing posts such as this one.
“This is one of those times when an iPad might get you most of what you need,” my significant other told me. Overall the phone is fine. Still, I’m struck by the tasks that seemingly ought to be mobile yet for whatever reason require a workaround.
For example, at Ticketfly, an online merchant that sells what the first part of its name suggests, my attempt to purchase one ticket to a show this September ended in what the site termed a server error. Ticketfly suggested a phone call to complete my order.
Walgreens asked me if I would like to purchase a membership in a program for discounts on drugs. Intrigued, I clicked on a PDF file of a brochure that described the program. But the site failed to deliver the file despite my trying at least three times to open it.
I also tried to pay my Visa bill at Bank of America. The bank issued me a new card recently. That required me to connect the card anew to my bank account. But the site could not direct me to the page where you enter your banking details. I later completed the setup from a desktop Mac at the library.